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Mary Colter
Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter (April 4, 1869 – January 8, 1958) was an American architect and designer. She was one of the very few female American architects in her day. She was the designer of many landmark buildings and spaces for the Fred Harvey Company and the Santa Fe Railroad, notably in Grand Canyon National Park. Her work had enormous influence as she helped to create a style, blending Spanish Colonial Revival and Mission Revival architecture with Native American motifs and Rustic elements, that became popular throughout the Southwest. Colter was a perfectionist, who spent a lifetime advocating and defending her aesthetic vision in a largely male-dominated field.
Mary Colter was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Irish immigrants William and Rebecca Crozier Colter. Her family moved to Colorado and Texas before settling down in St. Paul, Minnesota, the town she considered to be her home, when Mary was eleven.
In 1880, the town of St. Paul was boasting a population of 40,000 people and a large minority population of Sioux Indians. As a child, a family friend, John Graham, presented the Colter family with Sioux drawings, made by prisoners at Fort Keogh. This is the point where her fascination with the Native American cultures began.[citation needed] When the Indian community was ravaged by a smallpox outbreak, Colter's mother tried to burn all of the Native American things they had for fear that it would get her family sick. Mary, however, hid those drawings from her mother and so prevented them from being burned. Mary also kept these same Sioux drawings for much of her life, bequeathing them to the Custer Battlefield National Monument in 1956.
Colter graduated high school in 1883 at the age of 14. After her father died in 1886, Colter attended the California School of Design (now the San Francisco Art Institute) until 1890, where she studied art and design. She promised that, when she graduated, she would return to St. Paul to financially support her mother and older sister, who was chronically ill. While in San Francisco, she apprenticed in an architect's office to gain experience and support herself. She was taught by teachers including Arthur Frank Mathews, who painted the earliest known portrait of Colter.
After teaching at the Stout Manual Training School in Menomonie, Wisconsin for a year, Colter moved back to St. Paul and taught art, drafting, and architecture for some years.[unreliable source?] Colter taught at the Mechanic Arts High School for fifteen years and lectured at the University Extension School. At this time, she was involved in the Arts and Crafts movement. She was also a clubwoman, and gave several lectures and classes related to art.
By one account, in 1902, Minnie Harvey Huckel helped Colter obtain a summer job with her family's Fred Harvey Company (operator of the famous railstop Harvey House restaurants), decorating the Indian Building at the Alvarado Hotel in Albuquerque (since demolished). The Indian Buildings, one of Minnie's ideas executed by her husband, were meant to entertain passengers as trains made stops to replenish water and fuel. Colter was given the challenge of arranging salesrooms so tourists could imagine displaying goods in their homes. She also worked with Charles Whittlesey on the El Tovar Hotel and began designing a curio shop. Upon returning to St. Paul to teach in the fall, Colter continued her work on the curio shop, which became the Hopi House.
For the next seven years, Colter continued working for Harvey from St. Paul. She continued teaching and her involvement in art and clubs in the city. In 1908, Colter moved with her mother and sister to Seattle to take a position developing the Decoration Department for the Frederick and Nelson department store in Seattle. Colter left the position in 1909, when her mother became ill and died. The Colter sisters returned to St. Paul to bury their mother in the family plot.
Colter began working full-time for the company in 1910, moving from interior designer to architect in a position based in Kansas City. For the next 38 years, Colter served as chief architect and decorator for the Fred Harvey Company. As one of the country's few female architects – and arguably the most outstanding – Colter worked in often rugged conditions to complete 21 landmark hotels, commercial lodges, and public spaces for the Fred Harvey Company, by then being run by the founder's sons.
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Mary Colter
Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter (April 4, 1869 – January 8, 1958) was an American architect and designer. She was one of the very few female American architects in her day. She was the designer of many landmark buildings and spaces for the Fred Harvey Company and the Santa Fe Railroad, notably in Grand Canyon National Park. Her work had enormous influence as she helped to create a style, blending Spanish Colonial Revival and Mission Revival architecture with Native American motifs and Rustic elements, that became popular throughout the Southwest. Colter was a perfectionist, who spent a lifetime advocating and defending her aesthetic vision in a largely male-dominated field.
Mary Colter was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Irish immigrants William and Rebecca Crozier Colter. Her family moved to Colorado and Texas before settling down in St. Paul, Minnesota, the town she considered to be her home, when Mary was eleven.
In 1880, the town of St. Paul was boasting a population of 40,000 people and a large minority population of Sioux Indians. As a child, a family friend, John Graham, presented the Colter family with Sioux drawings, made by prisoners at Fort Keogh. This is the point where her fascination with the Native American cultures began.[citation needed] When the Indian community was ravaged by a smallpox outbreak, Colter's mother tried to burn all of the Native American things they had for fear that it would get her family sick. Mary, however, hid those drawings from her mother and so prevented them from being burned. Mary also kept these same Sioux drawings for much of her life, bequeathing them to the Custer Battlefield National Monument in 1956.
Colter graduated high school in 1883 at the age of 14. After her father died in 1886, Colter attended the California School of Design (now the San Francisco Art Institute) until 1890, where she studied art and design. She promised that, when she graduated, she would return to St. Paul to financially support her mother and older sister, who was chronically ill. While in San Francisco, she apprenticed in an architect's office to gain experience and support herself. She was taught by teachers including Arthur Frank Mathews, who painted the earliest known portrait of Colter.
After teaching at the Stout Manual Training School in Menomonie, Wisconsin for a year, Colter moved back to St. Paul and taught art, drafting, and architecture for some years.[unreliable source?] Colter taught at the Mechanic Arts High School for fifteen years and lectured at the University Extension School. At this time, she was involved in the Arts and Crafts movement. She was also a clubwoman, and gave several lectures and classes related to art.
By one account, in 1902, Minnie Harvey Huckel helped Colter obtain a summer job with her family's Fred Harvey Company (operator of the famous railstop Harvey House restaurants), decorating the Indian Building at the Alvarado Hotel in Albuquerque (since demolished). The Indian Buildings, one of Minnie's ideas executed by her husband, were meant to entertain passengers as trains made stops to replenish water and fuel. Colter was given the challenge of arranging salesrooms so tourists could imagine displaying goods in their homes. She also worked with Charles Whittlesey on the El Tovar Hotel and began designing a curio shop. Upon returning to St. Paul to teach in the fall, Colter continued her work on the curio shop, which became the Hopi House.
For the next seven years, Colter continued working for Harvey from St. Paul. She continued teaching and her involvement in art and clubs in the city. In 1908, Colter moved with her mother and sister to Seattle to take a position developing the Decoration Department for the Frederick and Nelson department store in Seattle. Colter left the position in 1909, when her mother became ill and died. The Colter sisters returned to St. Paul to bury their mother in the family plot.
Colter began working full-time for the company in 1910, moving from interior designer to architect in a position based in Kansas City. For the next 38 years, Colter served as chief architect and decorator for the Fred Harvey Company. As one of the country's few female architects – and arguably the most outstanding – Colter worked in often rugged conditions to complete 21 landmark hotels, commercial lodges, and public spaces for the Fred Harvey Company, by then being run by the founder's sons.