Woodstock , New York Massachusetts Philadelphia
Where did Margaret Fulton Spencer live from 1907 to 1931?
Margaret Fulton Spencer Margaret Fulton Spencer ( 1882–1966 ) was a painter and early American woman architect who designed and built the architecturally unique dude ranch Las Lomas Estates outside of Tucson , Arizona . She was the second woman to become a member of the American Institute of Architects . Early life . Margaret Alexina Harrison Fulton was born September 26 , 1882 , to Robert and Margaret Alexina ( Harrison ) Fulton , a wealthy couple in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . She was a niece of the painters T . Alexander Harrison and L . Birge Harrison . The Fulton family eventually moved to Santa Barbara , California . Fulton enrolled at Bryn Mawr College in 1901 but left after two years . She then spent 1904 studying painting at the New York School of Applied Design , and the summers of 1904 and 1905 at the Art Students League . She studied painting with her uncle Birge in Woodstock , New York , between 1904 and 1907 . In around 1908 , she began to study architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , where she was the only woman in her class . She graduated from MIT with a degree in architecture in 1911 , making her part of the second generation of early American women architects . By 1912 she had found work with Philadelphia architect Frank Miles Day . After college , Margaret continued her painting studies with the landscape painter William Langson Lathrop , who had founded an art colony near New Hope , Pennsylvania . In 1913 she met another of Lathrops students , the impoverished Pennsylvania impressionist painter Robert Spencer , who quickly began courting her . Margaret was already engaged to someone else , but the Lathrops—with whom she was living at the time , and who favored Robert—intercepted an important letter from her fiancé , leading Margaret to believe she had been jilted . In something of a pique , she got engaged to Robert , and in 1914 they got married . The couple settled in New Hope , where they built a house using Margarets inheritance and had two daughters , Margaret ( known as Tink ) and Ann , who would later become a painter herself . The missing letter was unearthed and delivered to Margaret years later , and according to her daughters , she remained angry about the deception that had been practiced on her right up to her death . Career . Early in her career , Spencer developed a specialty in restoring old farmhouses built of fieldstone and also worked as an interior designer . She gained architects licenses in Pennsylvania and New Jersey ( and later , Arizona as well ) . In 1929 , she became the second woman member of the American Institute of Architects ( AIA ) . However , Robert did not support her architectural career , so despite her ambitions she eventually switched fully into painting while he lived , focusing on landscapes and floral still lifes in an impressionist style . Margaret and Roberts relationship was volatile and eventually became so unhappy that the couple considered divorce . Margaret built her own separate studio on their New Hope property , complete with a kitchen and bedroom , and would retreat there to paint alone for days at a time . She later considered her years in New Hope the worst part of her life . Robert Spencer , who suffered from depression , killed himself in 1931 , and Margaret was unfairly blamed for it by people in their social circle . She moved to Paris with her daughters and returned to architecture , joining an American architectural firm . She also exhibited her paintings at the Paris Salon . In 1938 she moved to Arizona , where she bought 190 acres of desert land near Tucson . On this land , she designed and built a rambling group of 16 buildings of locally quarried stone . Most were one-story cottages designed to blend with the landscape , but there were a few two-story towers as well , the entire group showing the influence of Tunisian vernacular architecture that she had particularly admired during earlier travels in Africa . There is even a legend that she sketched out the initial floor plans in the dirt with a stick . In any case , Spencers design program for the site stood in stark contrast to what was already becoming the dominant local aesthetic of tract houses and neatly organized subdivisions . The property was initially named Las Lomas Estates and later renamed Rancho Las Lomas . Spencer ran Las Lomas as a dude ranch , and the cottages became a popular vacation spot during the 1940s and 1950s for well-to-do celebrities like Clark Gable and Carole Lombard ( who honeymooned there ) and Frank Lloyd Wright . According to Spencer , Wright approved of the informal , rugged , low buildings when he visited the ranch . Spencer expanded the buildings over the years , and they now number 30 altogether . In the late 1950s , Spencer was still making plans to expand the property and add 50 new houses . She wrote an unpublished account of her years at Las Lomas , giving it the characteristically acerbic title Dudes and Dopes . In recent years , the site has become rental housing populated largely by artists and writers . As of 2015 , it was under consideration for refurbishment as a National Register of Historic Places site . During her Arizona years , Spencer helped to establish a Tucson chapter of the AIA . Spencer died January 1 , 1966 , in Philadelphia . Buildings . - Chimney Hill Bed and Breakfast , 207 Goat Hill Road. , Lamberville , NJ - Law Office of Hunt & Faherty , 40 Delaware Avenue , Lambertville , NJ - Isaac Clotheir House , alterations and additions , Gwynedd Valley , Montgomery County , PA . - Las Lomas Estates ( Rancho Las Lomas ) , near Tucson , AZ