page_title: Emily Elizabeth Holman
section_title: National Park Seminary
hierarchical_section_title: Emily Elizabeth Holman / Selected projects / National Park Seminary
caption_attribution_description: National Park Seminary, Aloha House, North of Linden Lane near corner of Beech Drive, Silver Spring, Montgomery County, MD. Detail view in caryatid breezeway to show entrance steps; lion statues once flanked these steps. 39°0′40.4″N 77°3′24.6″W﻿ / ﻿39.011222°N 77.056833°W
context_page_description: Emily Elizabeth Holman, better known by her professional name of E. E. Holman, was one of the first female architects of Pennsylvania. She was active from the 1880s to her retirement in 1914 and was responsible for planning several important historical sites like the Goold House in the Wilder Village Historic District, Wilder, Vermont and the National Park Seminary among many others.
context_section_description: The National Park Seminary was a project that lasted for several years and according to an interview in the New York Tribune, Holman created nearly every building on the site. A former hotel/casino, the site was purchased by  John and Vesta Cassedy in 1894 with plans to make an exclusive finishing school there. There are approximately 20 buildings on the site (though the ballroom was added in 1927 and was not designed by Holman). Besides the eight sorority clubhouses built between 1894 and 1904, there are the Chapel (1898), the Aloha Dormitory (1898), the Miller Library (1901), the Odeon Theater (1907), gymnasium (1907), and an Italianate dormitory. The United States Army purchased the property in 1941 and incorporated the site as part of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. During the period it operated as a hospital some interior and exterior alterations, which changed the "historical integrity of the structures" were made. In an attempt to prevent further deterioration or significant loss, in 1972, the remaining buildings were designated on the National Register of Historic Places.
  
  Each of the cottages on the property were designed by Holman and the girls for each sorority selected the plans under which their clubhouse was designed. The clubhouses were not lived in but were used for social functions. The first bungalow was built for the Alpha Epsilon Pi Sorority formed in 1895.  It followed the East Coast bungalow style, utilizing oak trees which had been felled to clear the site. The second bungalow built was for the Chi Omicron Pi ("Chiopi") Sorority, which had been formed in 1894, but whose clubhouse was not built until after the completion of Alpha. Built in 1896, it was also in the bungalow style but featured upturned edges giving it an oriental look. The third clubhouse built was for the Zeta Eta Theta Sorority in 1898. It was built in the style of a Swiss chalet and relocated from its original site when the ballroom was built in 1927. The Kappa Delta Phi Sorority was formed in 1899 and selected a smocked Dutch Windmill style from Holman's plan book. The fifth bungalow was built in 1903 for the Phi Delta Psi Sorority in the Colonial Revival style, featuring both Georgian and Neoclassical elements. It was initially intended to emulate an English gatehouse, but the road underneath was never completed. The sixth bungalow was built for the Theta Sigma Rho Sorority, which formed in 1903. The sorority sisters chose the Spanish Mission Revival style for their clubhouse. It was the first example of Mission style in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and its interior featured authentic Native American rugs and furnishings from New Mexico. Pi Beta Nu Sorority formed in 1903, but their clubhouse was not built until 1904. The girls chose a circular stuccoed Castle, based on a British design complete with a drawbridge. The last of the clubhouses to be completed was perhaps the most distinctive. It was built for the   Chi Psi Upsilon Sorority in 1904 and is in the style of a Japanese pagoda. Its interior featured a Buddha statue as well as many authentic details.
   
  In 1898 the chapel was constructed. It is a rectangular stuccoed building with a bell tower and wood trim. Stained glass, typical of the late nineteenth century is featured. Originally the chapel had green velour, auditorium-style seats, but the army replaced them with pews. The Aloha Dormitory was also built in 1898 and is stucco with wood trim. The one story arcade is flanked by a series of arches supported by caryatids. In 1901, Holman built the Miller Library, which is not the main library of the property but was built to house a collection of rare books for Dewitt Miller, a personal friend of the Cassedys. The stucco band around the exterior of the building marks the interior location of the mezzanine level. An office on the upper level is believed to have been used by Miller when he visited the property.
  After completion of the clubhouses, the Odeon Theater and the new gymnasium were built in 1907. Both are in the Greek Revival style, though the elements
caption: Aloha Dormitory
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