Mary Rockwell Hook, Architect and Developer
Mary Rockwell was born in Junction City, Kansas, in 1877, the third daughter of a wealthy business man who, with his wife, believed in educating his five daughters. After Mary graduated from Wellesley College in 1900, she became the first woman to enroll in the architecture program at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1903. After a year there, she trained in Boston before leaving to study in Paris in 1905.
In preparation for taking the entrance exams at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, a family connection smoothed the way for Rockwell’s acceptance as the only female member of the studio of Jean-Marcel Auburtin. Not everything was easy, though; once Rockwell had to take refuge in a taxi to escape a mob of male students armed with water buckets and the intent to drench her.
The support of her wealthy family and friends no doubt tempered the professional hardships Rockwell faced owing to her gender. She left the Ecole for Kansas City where her father bought land in 1906. For this property, Rockwell gained experience by designing a bungalow that would become her first built design. The family moved to Kansas City in 1907 and, with her father’s support, Rockwell got an apprenticeship in the office of Kansas City architecture firm Howe, Holt, and Cutler.
Rockwell designed nine homes for wealthy owners in Kansas City. As her sisters married and moved away, they also became clients for new homes in Kansas City and California. Rockwelll’s homes were remarked on for their effect of bringing the outdoors inside. Perhaps in part owing to her travels in Asia and elsewhere with her family, Rockwell’s designs were considered ahead of their time for their use of passive heating, recycled materials, and innovative lighting.
Mary Rockwell Hook considered this chapel at Pine Mountain (1922 – 1924) one of her best designs. (Photo: National Park Service)
Through her network of Wellesley classmates and other college-educated women, in 1913 Rockwell was called on to design a campus plan and buildings for the new Pine Mountain Settlement School in Harlan Country, Kentucky. The school was one of the first rural applications of the model of settlement schools like Jane Addams’s Hull House. Students boarded at the school and, in addition to academic subjects, learned about raising livestock, dairying, furniture making, weaving, and home nursing. The school also helped preserve traditional songs and dances by impressing upon students the importance of their heritage.
Mary Rockwell Hook’s 1940 design for Laurel House at Pine Mountain replaced the Laurel House she designed in 1914 that was destroyed by fire. (Photo: National Park Service)
Rockwell’s campus plan preserved the flat valley floor for farming while building on surrounding slopes. She designed a number of buildings there over the decades, using locally available materials that were harmonious with their site. Rockwell served as the school’s architect or consultant until 1968. The school has since been designated a National Historic Landmark.
In 1921 at age 44, Rockwell married Kansas City attorney Ingram Hook. Initially she was concerned about how her marriage would affect her career, but she found Hook to be a supportive partner and her work continued. Rockwell Hook designed a home in Kansas City for the couple and their two adopted children. The family often spent summers in a rustic house on the Pine Mountain campus. From 1924 to 1929, she had her own firm with a partner; it was called Hook and Remington.
In 1935, Rockwell Hook fell for the white sand beaches near Sarasota, Florida and bought 55 acres of Gulf-front property for $10,000. There on Siesta Key she set aside some land for architects to experiment with new design ideas. She also developed Whispering Sands, a writers’ and artists’ colony, before designing and building more homes on Sandy Hook, including a third home for her family.
In 1977 at age 100, Mary Rockwell Hook’s career was celebrated by the Historic Kansas City Foundation with a tour of residences she had designed. At the end of the tour, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) gave her a plaque for distinguished service. Some 70 years earlier, her application for AIA membership had twice been rejected owing to her gender.
When Rockwell Hook died on her 101st birthday in 1978, she left behind children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, friends, and a strong architectural legacy. In addition to her built work, she had the admiration of many in the architecture community. In particular, her ideas about place and regional architecture are said to have influenced other architects including John Gaw Meem.
Sources
Ann Angel Eberhardt and Helen Hayes Wykle, “Mary Rockwell Hook: Architect,” Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections, Pine Mountain, Kentucky.
Daniel Coleman, “Mary Rockwell Hook: Architect, 1877 – 1978,” Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri.
Lee McCall, “Hooked on Architecture,” Sarasota Herald Tribune, December 4, 1977, 144-145.
National Park Service, “Kentucky NHL Pine Settlement School,” National Archives at College Park - Electronic Records (RDE).
National Park Service, “Kentucky SP Pine Mountain Settlement School,” National Archives, 1978.