One Of Fred Harvey's Special Girls

Trigger

I recently visited the Grand Canyon Village at the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. On the rim SR you find three structures, which were part of Fred Harvey Company, i.e. El Tovar, Blue Angel Lodge, and the Lookout Studio.

It Is Not Judy Garland

Her name is Mary Colter. She is probably among the few early, accomplished female architects of the U.S. She was hired in 1901 by the Fred Harvey as an interior designer, but quickly became one of the main architects for this company completing 21 projects during her over 30 years career with the company.

To excerpt from Wikipedia: “She created a series of landmark hotels and commercial lodges through the southwest, including the La Posada, the 1922 Phantom Ranch buildings at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and five structures on the south rim of the Grand Canyon: the Hopi House (1905), Hermit's Rest (1914), the observatory Lookout Studio (1914), the 70-foot Desert View Watchtower (1932) with its hidden steel structure, and the Bright Angel Lodge [1](1935); Colter decorated, but did not design, the El Tovar Hotel. The four "Mary Jane Colter Buildings", as a group, were listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1987.”

The Import

Long before big government imposition of Civil Rights, Equal Pay and so on, talented women were making careers in formerly male dominated domains like architecture.