Mary Ramsay Brown Channel (December 8, 1907 – January 21, 2006) was an American architect. She was the first woman licensed to practice architecture in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, although other female architects such as Ethel Furman had previously been active in the state. The daughter of William Ambrose Brown and Mary Ramsay Brown, Channel was a native of Portsmouth, Virginia. She received a bachelor's degree in mathematics at

Randolph-Macon Women's College Randolph College is a private liberal arts and sciences college in Lynchburg, Virginia. Founded in 1891 as Randolph-Macon Woman's College, it was renamed on July 1, 2007, when it became coeducational. The college offers 32 majors; 42 minors; ...

in 1929, and expressed a desire to study architecture at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

, as had her brother. As women were denied entry into the University's graduate programs, at the time, she applied instead to the

School of Architecture This is a list of architecture schools at colleges and universities around the world. An architecture school (also known as a school of architecture or college of architecture), is an institution specializing in architectural education. Africa ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

, from which she graduated in 1933. Second in her class, she won the Baird Prize Competition Medal, the first woman to receive the honor. Returning to Portsmouth, she took a position with the firm of Rudolph, Cooke, and Van Leeuwen in

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

; unsalaried for two years, she nevertheless gained a great deal of experience, working on a team that designed numerous civic buildings including the city's federal courthouse. In 1935 she was one of three out of a class of five to pass the licensing exam offered by the Virginia Examining Board, following which she opened a practice of her own in the city of her birth. In October 1941 she married businessman Warren Henry Channel. The birth of her first child led her to restrict her work to residential and ecclesiastical projects; even so she kept her license until 1990, and was developing architectural drawings until after she turned 80. Buildings designed by Channel were erected throughout southeastern Virginia, including in Greenbrier, Blackstone, and Portsmouth; she also designed additions and extensions to Portsmouth's St. John's Church and Abigarlos, among other structures. A collection of papers related to her career, including drawings and sketches for around 160 projects, was donated to the Special Collections Library at

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six re ...

in 2007, where it forms part of the collection of the

International Archive of Women in Architecture The International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA) was established in 1985 as a joint program of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies and the University Libraries at Virginia Tech. Purpose The purpose of the Archive is to docume ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Channel, Mary Brown 1907 births 2006 deaths American women architects 20th-century American architects People from Portsmouth, Virginia Architects from Virginia Randolph College alumni Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning alumni 20th-century American women 21st-century American women