page_title: Josephine Wright Chapman
section_title: Designs
hierarchical_section_title: Josephine Wright Chapman / Designs
caption_attribution_description: New Century Building, Boston, Mass.
context_page_description: Josephine Wright Chapman was an American architect in Boston, Massachusetts, and New York. Chapman received no formal education or encouragement from her family to pursue architecture. She is considered one of the most important female architects around the start of the 20th century.
  Chapman was raised in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. She would leave home and pawn jewelry and clothing to support herself. In 1892, she was able to convince Clarence Blackall to let her apprentice under him. Through Blackall she learned about public building design and how to experiment with new materials. In 1893, the firm designed the first steel-frame building, the Carter Building in Boston. Chapman would go on to set up her own firm in Boston, in Grundmann Studios, a women's art collective, in 1897. Upon forming her firm, Chapman was commissioned by Harvard University to design their Craigie Arms dormitory. While working on that project she also designed St. Mark's Episcopal in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. By the start of the 20th century, Chapman had six drafters, including one woman, at her firm.
  After 1901, she applied to join the American Institute of Architects and the Boston Architectural Club.
context_section_description: Craigie Hall / Craigie Arms, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1897)
  All Saints Episcopal church, Attleboro, Mass. (c. 1900)
  Episcopal church, Leominster, Mass. (c. 1900)
  New England Building, Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York, 1901
  Worcester Woman's Club / Tuckerman Hall, Worcester, Mass. (1902)
  New Century Building, Huntington Ave., Boston (c. 1903)
  Hillandale, Georgetown, Washington DC (1922)
  Houses, Douglas Manor, Queens, NY (c. 1916)
caption: New Century Building, Huntington Ave., Boston, designed by Chapman c. 1903
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