The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-02-25
SUCCESSFULARCH
IS A WOMAN WHO WEARS PRETTY
TEA GOWNS.


Day on ScaRold Painting Frescoes
her Wonderful Glasswork and the
Buildings She Has Designed.
NEW YORK, Feb 23.-Is architecture
practicable as profession for womenl
| If so is it desirable9
Miss Mary Tillinghast was the only
woman architect knew and put the ques-
ton to her straightway.
One IS constantly running upon surprises
| In the old studio building on Washington
square Push through a dingy doorway
and on sudden you are aware that some
body with keen sensitiveness to color has
been there before you There is something
about the window draperies, pale blue,
quantity looped and deepening to more
vivid tone; something about the dull brown
of the wall and door hangings, repeating
the blue in the frieze and Frightening when
one reaches the ceiling into splashes Of bur
| nished golden tan; something about the
rugs on the floor, the antique gilded mirrors,
the soft coal fire In the CRATE and even the
red silk umbrella hanging from the chan
deller and staining the gaslight TO rosy
| CLEAN; something which rests the eye. used
| nowadays to much laborious study of
"effec.S" with a sense of easy, natural color
| harmony.
| Presently curtain is brushed aside and
| somebody enters whom the French maid
| calls mile. Marie" You look up. A
slight little person in dark blue velvet
negl gee with Loose falls OF white lace in
front held iii place by knots of pale yellow
| ribbon: Dark hair, dark eyes, mobile
| face. You think of her standing eight con-
secutive hours on a scaffclding painting a
ceiling, climbing ladders to the tops of
! high buildings to superintend the workmen
! on the roof, dealing with contractors and
decorators, and you laugh. You can't help
| it. She laughs too.
Mary TillInghast is a young woman, but
she has had remarkable career. Origi-
nally the family was rlch and of high social
| standing. Then the father died. l think
he failed. The widow took her family of
young daughters into the country. Il here
was nothing for the girls but to bone
down." Mary, the eldest, had painted in
| Paris IN Corolus Duran's studio. Her tai
ent was so marked that she was taken into
partnership by John Lafarge. While she
was his associate the firm decorated the
| Union League Club and the Vanderbilt
houses. Vanderbilt paid Miss Tillinghast
200 for the hangngs she made for him,
for which she invented entirely new tapes
| try stitches and designs Five years ago
the firm Of Lafarge & Co. failed because
John Lafarge thought more of an art than
| Of Accommodating.
Miss Tillinghast went to Washington
where she did the famous decorations of
the d. p. Morgan house on Scott Circle,
| and the house of Bell the telephone man
| getting on financially much better alone.
| After year and half she went back TO
| Carolus Duran and studied hard in French
studios. After her return to this country
| her design for the Hutton memorial window
in Grace church was accepted in spite of
the fact that the committee delegated to
! contract for the work was very much op-
posed to a" arding 1t to woman. 1t was
accepted and carried out in American
stained glass in spite of Bishop Potters
declaration that an American window
| should enter the church only over his dead
| body. This pleasant little story of feminine
cleverness and patriotism put the young ar
| list among the chief exponentS OF the use Of
stained glsss-Lafarge, LathrOp and Tiffa-
ny-her window being pronounced the most
imposing work in native glass yet accom-
plished This was two Years ago. The
beautiful Louis Quinze room in the house of
| Cyrus Fields son, Edward, followed and
what has all this to do with architecture?
There is a well defined road nowadays
from decoratiOn-in any serious art sense
[ to decorative architecture and from that to
the constructive branch of the profession
This is the highway which Mary Tillinghast
| has followed.
"Just as many architects are becoming
| decorators,
| young person, 80 decorators tend to be-
come architects. If the house is designed
by man who has the finish put in without
regard to the decoration which is to come
af er, then the decorator, il the task is an
important one requiring ambitious art
| work, must tear out much at consderab BILE
| cost or do the rooms less well The best ar
chitects realize this and are beginning to
consult with decorators. and the
best decorators study at least inte-
rior architecture, and wish the effect of an
apartment in the large, the general design,
the woodwork, the plaster and the style OF
finish left in their hands. OF course one
can paint anywhere and on anything, but
that is very different from making a salts
factory ROOM"
"And you believe that women Wi
come into architecture through the door of
decorationp
Eyes, women who have a feeling for
broad work, who can look at things in the
large"
''And you believe that women can succeed
ia architeeture"
"At least in the architecture of the
| dwelling house. tine home. Aren't they
| telling us forever that woman's province is
the homes Why shouldn't she design it with
that special knowledge of hers Of the neces-
| stiles and the cOnveniences of the house
| which so few architects, even good ones,
ever approximate As to office buildings,
or long public buildings of any
sort, there the special knowledge be-
| longs now at least to men. | see no reason
| why some time woman who has learned
thoroughly the requirements should not
succeed even there
Miss Tillinghast, as intimated, has crossed
| without disaster the line dividing decora-
! tive from constructive architecture, and
several buildings plan ed by her have been
put up under her own supervision.
| do you not find obstacles of a practical
sort in the ways How caa a delicate woman
| like you deal with workmeEW
| last summer | had thirty mon at work
under my charge. The thing was perfectly
easy. Dffereut builders had labor troubles,
strikes in the houses they were busy on,
| but had none. | do not think woman Of
executive ability need fear tnat end of the
| business at all.
"Do you draw your own contracts"
"They are more satisfactory when l do
| draw them. / have sometimes had an as
sista1t, a man, draw them for me, but l
find that can make better specifications
myself. man tends to lump things. |
! look letter to the details. Details are
woman's strength and danger, all in one.
| We are apt 70 fritter ourselves away in
| them, but II a woman can grasp a whole
without losing her eye to parts she'll find it
very handy in contracts and house plans.n
| - . wit