Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-07-07

ONE of the wonders Of this goth century
Ois the way the most feminine OF
women undertake, without much prece-
dent to back them up, to do man s-size
| Job and then get away with ~ ~,
lust looking at Mrs. Il. 10. Holman, with
ber soft, white hair and her pretty blue
eyes and noting her modest. retiring man
ner, It seems almost Impossible 10 peheVe
that she was among the first women az
chitects Of America, and so far as avail
able records go to show, the only realy
successful practicing woman architect
Philadelphia has ever had.
Nor does II seem quite credible that 20
years ago a young woman could blaze the
trail Of a profession new to her sex anu
without any masculine aid whatsoever,
have to her credit the planning, single
handed, OF opera houses and theatres
pretentous residences OF prominent toik
and innumerable homes for more people
than 1t would have been possible to Keep
any account of.
IT'S true. nevertheless Two decades
ago, in a day when you could count the
women architects Of the world on the
fingers of your one hand, Mrs. Holman
entered the Office of an architect pre-
sumably to do clerical work. 1t wasn't
two weeks, however, before she felt that
II she tried very hard and kept her eyes
ana ears open very Wlut plAt Noe sNN'Ns
become an architect
HAD ARTISTIC ABILITY.
Pretty soon II was felt around that office
that the new clerk had an artistic eye LOT
designing and IL wasn't long before the
entire staff got into the habit of asking
her advice about plans. consulting her
about specifications and sometimes even
getting her to do the actual drawing. FL
nally she realized that In everything put
name she was really and truly an archl-
tect.
II thought then" she said smiling, rem
iniscing," out at her summer home In
Germantown over the early days when
she started in, that 1 might just as well
come out in the open and be known for
what was. and so went into business
for myself and opened my own office"
Practicing architecture 20 years ago was
very much like writing novels In the 18th
and 10th centuries. If woman wanted to
indulge, It was safest to mask her identity
under masculne-sounding nom dc
plume.
1t was thus that T.. f. Holman made
name for herself. In some cases when
her clients discovered that 1t was
woman with whom they were intrusting
the building of their homes they with
drew their orders. being persons OF little
faith in feminine ability. But in the ma
jorty of cases all that was asked was
that the architect deliver the goods"
and this being done satisfactorily, Mrs.
Holman was forgiven for being a woman.
II remember once, though" she said, II
had an order from Now York and my
client called me on the long distance. He
asked for L. T. Holman This is r. q.
Holman l replied. want to speak to
Z. E. Holman, the architect he said Sc
verely
SURPRISED HIM.
'I explained" she continued. "timidly
and as best l could that I was e. F., Hol-
man, the architect. Is e. Il. Holman a
woman he asked ferociously. On being
told the truth he put down the receiver
and I have never heard from him since"
Despite such instances as these, how
ever, many people showed liking for the
designs which came from the e. L. Hol-
man office, and it was not long before