Juliet Peddle, Modernist and Preservationist

Juliet Peddle (1899 – 1979) designed and remodeled homes, schools, and commercial buildings, many of them in her hometown of Terre Haute, Indiana. Her father, a professor of machine design, taught Peddle mechanical drawing and photography to prepare her for a career in architecture.

Peddle’s sketch won a prize in 1925 from the professional journal Pencil Points.

Peddle graduated from the architecture program at the University of Michigan in 1922. Her student activities included serving as President of the T-Square Society, “a society of engineering and architectural women,” and as a member of the national honor society Tau Sigma Delta Honor Society in Architecture and Allied Arts. She was also president of her dormitory.

After graduating, Peddle moved to Chicago where, with several other members of Michigan’s T-square Society, she helped to found the Chicago Women’s Drafting Club. The club was created in response to Elisabeth Martini’s 1921 newspaper announcement: “Only Girl Architect Lonely: Wanted—to meet all of the women architects in Chicago to form a club.” Peddle would later serve as president of that organization as well.

Between 1922 and 1926, Peddle worked for Perkins, Fellows and Hamilton, a firm known for its civic buildings including schools. She earned her Illinois architecture license in 1925. A gifted draftsperson, Peddle spent six months in 1926 traveling and sketching in Italy, France, and England. From 1927 to 1931, Peddle was employed by Edwin H. Clark whose firm designed both residential and commercial structures. In 1931, when the economic impact of the Great Depression led to Peddle losing her job, she found work with the federally-funded Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS). This experience documenting existing historic buildings, as well as the training she received, contributed to an ongoing interest in historic buildings.

Peddle’s father died in 1933. In 1935, Peddle returned to Terre Haute. Architectural work was scarce, but from 1936 to 1937, she worked for Miller & Yeager. In 1939, Peddle became licensed in Indiana and opened her own firm. In both the 1940 and 1950 US Census, Peddle is listed as the only employed family member in her household; she lived with her mother and younger sister. In 1941, Peddle’s firm worked on 20 projects but in 1942, she closed her office owing to World War II. Peddle went to work in the engineering department of Commercial Solvents Corporation where she did drafting and designed a research building. She continued to work there until 1948.

In 1945, Peddle joined the American Institute of Architects, and in 1946 she re-opened her firm. Her firm’s work included many residential projects, but also commercial and educational buildings. In the mid-1950s Peddle designed the Medicenter Building, a professional building for six Terre Haute doctors. Of a modern design, the building received much notice locally. It also received national exposure through an advertising campaign by Marlite. “‘Marlite provides a smooth, easily-maintained surface in attractive colors and patterns,’ says architect Juliet Peddle,” led the ad copy positioned below a black-and-white photo of the Medicenter’s reception area. In 1958, the advertisement appeared in national magazines including Architectural Record and Nation’s Business.

Peddle’s Crawford School building opened in 1961. (Photo: Indiana Landmarks)

Peddle’s other commissions included homes “both for the wealthy and the average citizen, both original and remodeling,” as Alice O. Kieweg reported to the Indiana Society of Architects after Peddle’s death in 1979. Peddle also designed a Social Security Building for the federal government and the Crawford School in Terre Haute, as well as remodeling a number of schools and higher education buildings. A friend of Kieweg’s who worked on the Crawford School said of Peddle, “Her plans were the most complete of any architect I have worked under.”

While Peddle designed modern buildings, she studied and wrote about historic ones.  She edited the monthly bulletin for the county historical society for 29 years and contributed 66 sketches and comments to the local newspaper in a weekly column about pre-Civil War houses and buildings in Vigo County. She also photographed historic buildings, including those slated for or undergoing demolition. “Juliet Peddle, a Modernist in her own work, recognized that buildings of every era represent past human achievement and contribute to the character of a place,” wrote Tommy Kleckner of Indiana Landmarks.

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Topping House in Terre Haute (Photo: Indiana Landmarks)

 Sources:

AIA Historical Directory of American Architects, “Peddle, Juliet Alice,” (ahd1034459), including Peddle’s membership file and firm records.

Michiganensian, v.26 1922, Published by senior members of U Michigan.

Tommy Kleckner, Indiana Landmarks, “Praise for Peddle,” August 31, 2016.

Sarah Allaback, The First American Women Architects. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008.

Ancestry.com