Sophia G. Hayden and the Women’s Building

Sophia Gregoria Hayden (1868–1953) was born in Chile to a Peruvian mother and American father. As a girl she moved to her grandparents’ Boston-area home and attended the Hillside School. In 1886, Hayden became the first woman admitted to MIT’s Bachelor of Architecture program. 

After graduating with honors in 1890, Hayden began teaching mechanical drafting in a Boston-area grammar school. In early 1891, she learned about a design competition for the Women’s Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The exposition’s Board of Lady Managers restricted the competition for the building, which was to contain exhibits made by women, to female architects.

The competition winner would be compensated $1,000 as compared to the $10,000 awarded to the men appointed to design other Exposition buildings. In addition to earning a fraction of the pay, the female architect was asked to provide more services than her better-paid male colleagues. Louise Blanchard Bethune, FAIA (1856 – 1913) refused to enter the competition, explaining in an 1891 speech, “The open sesame to the favor of our compeers and the respect of the public is ‘Equal remuneration for Equal Service,’ and a strict observance of all the honorable traditions of our profession and its amenities of practice.”

Other experienced architects may also have been discouraged by the disadvantageous compensation. All fourteen competition entries were reported to have been submitted by architects of not more than twenty-five years of age. The Board of Lady Managers and architect Daniel Burnham, the exposition’s Chief of Construction, selected Hayden’s design as the competition’s winner.

The Women’s Building (Chromolithograph by C. Graham, 1892, Library of Congress)

Hayden soon grew unhappy with the changes the Board of Lady Managers required and the short amount of time she had to complete the work. From the time she received the commission, much had been made of Hayden’s gender, youth, and inexperience and it was widely reported during the summer of 1892 that Hayden had “broken down mentally” owing to overwork. She evidently recovered in time to attend the exposition’s Inaugural Celebration in the fall of 1892.

In addition to a challenging schedule, difficult client, inadequate fee, and public scrutiny, Hayden had the extra burden of representing her gender. After commenting on Hayden’s purported breakdown, the author of a November 1892 article in American Architect and Building News opined, “It may be that Miss Hayden’s experience has been unusual, but…it seems as if it was a question not yet answered how successfully a woman with her physical limitations can enter and engage in the work of a profession which is a very wearing one.”

A few weeks later in the same publication, architect Minerva Parker Nichols responded, “The conditions of the competition and the selection of a design made it impossible to secure satisfactory results.” After emphasizing Hayden’s inexperience, Nichols continued, “It is not fair, because one woman makes a doubtful success, to draw conclusions from her example. It is time to put aside prejudice and sentimentalism and judge women’s work by their ability.”

Setting aside the attention given to the architect’s “breakdown,” the design for the Women’s Building was widely considered a success. In addition to largely positive coverage in the popular press, the Board of Lady Managers awarded Hayden a Gold Medal for her design and Burnham awarded Hayden an Artist’s Medal.

The Women’s Building was Hayden’s first built commission as well as her last. Hayden married artist and interior designer William Blackstone Bennett in 1900 and lived in Winthrop, Massachusetts until her death in 1953. She is not known to have designed any other buildings.

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Sources:

Timothy Hyde, “Sophia Gregoria HaydenBennett,” Pioneering Women of American Architecture.

Julian Ralph, “Woman’s Triumph at our Exposition,” Harper’s Bazaar, August 27, 1892: 698.

Weimann, Jeanne Madeline. The Fair Women: The Story of the Women's Building at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893. Chicago: Academy Chicago Publishers, 1981: 147.

Bethune, Louise. “Women and Architecture (Portions of a talk before the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, Buffalo, March 6, 1891).” The Inland Architect and News Record, XVII(2), March 1891: 20 – 21.

“Chicago,” American Architect and Building News, November 26, 1892: 184.

Minerva Parker Nichols, “A Woman on the Women’s Building,” American Architect and Building News, December 12, 1892: 170.