Jennie Louise Blanchard Bethune was born on July 21, 1856, in Waterloo, NY, to a family of educators. Louise was taught at home until she was 11 when she attended school in Buffalo, NY. She later stated that a “caustic remark” made to her in high school directed her attention to the study of architecture, and “an investigation, which was begun in a spirit of playful self-defense, soon became an absorbing interest.”
Her independent nature and strength of character enabled her to overcome obstacles in achieving her goal of becoming an architect. After graduating from Buffalo High School in 1874, she spent two years preparing to attend the newly opened Cornell University architecture program. However, in 1876 she was offered a position as an apprentice at the office of Richard Waite, one of the most prominent architecture firms in Buffalo, which she accepted.
In October 1881, she opened her own practice. Former Richard Waite colleague Robert Bethune soon joined her, and they were married in December of that year. In 1891, William Fuchs, a longtime draftsman with the firm, became the third partner. Bethune & Bethune (and later Bethune, Bethune & Fuchs) were practicing during an auspicious time both for Buffalo. The city was rapidly growing because of the economic boom caused by the opening of the Erie Canal. The firm designed many types of buildings: institutional, commercial, industrial, hospitality, and residential, as required by their clients and the needs of the local market.
In 1885, Louise Bethune successfully applied for membership to the Western Association of Architects (WAA), becoming its first woman member. The following year, she organized the Buffalo Society of Architects (now AIA Buffalo/WNY) and served as vice president and treasurer of the Chapter. In 1888, Bethune was the first woman elected to the American Institute of Architects. When the WAA and the AIA merged in 1889, Bethune became the AIA’s first woman fellow.</p> <p>Bethune took a special interest in school design, probably because her parents were both teachers. Beginning in 1881, the Buffalo Public Schools District embarked upon an ambitious master plan under the direction of progressive Superintendent James Crooker. Bethune & Bethune Architects successfully competed and designed many of these projects.
Bethune made national news when she refused to submit an entry in 1891 for the design competition for the Women’s Building of the Columbia Exposition in Chicago. Such a commission was expected to catapult the career of its architect. Even so, Bethune refused to submit an entry because the winning fee of $1,000 was much lower than the commission fee for male architects of the other Exposition buildings, which was $10,000. In her view, “complete emancipation lies in ‘equal pay for equal service.’”
Bethune’s opportunity to create a nationally significant building came in the early 1900s with the commission for the Lafayette Hotel. Located in downtown Buffalo, the French Renaissance Revival hotel was praised as the best that science, art, and experience can offer for the traveling public. When it opened in 1904, it was considered one of the fifteen finest hotels in the country.
Louise was a founding Buffalo Women’s Wheel and Athletic Club member. She was the first woman to own a bicycle in Buffalo at the cost of $150 in 1891. Women’s rights advocate Susan B. Anthony stated that “Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance.”
Bethune was also a member of the Buffalo Genealogy Club, the Buffalo Historical Society, and the Daughters of the American Revolution. Louise Blanchard Bethune died on December 18, 1913 and is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery. Her obituary stated that she was particularly proud of her work at the Lafayette Hotel in Buffalo.