In 1930, Elizabeth Ayer (1897-1987) becomes the first woman to be registered as an architect in the state of Washington.
Ayer spent most of her career in the state. The first female graduate of the University of Washington's architecture program, she helped fashion the residential architecture of many Seattle neighborhoods in the mid-twentieth century. Notwithstanding the growing popularity of modernism, Ayer integrated modern needs with traditional forms and throughout her career embraced historical styles.
Sources:
S. Slan Roberts and Mary Shaughnessy, "Elizabeth Ayer," in Shaping Seattle Architecture ed. by Jeffrey Karl Ochsner (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994), 210-215; HistoryLink.org: The Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History, "Ayer, Elizabeth (1897-1987)," (by Heather MacIntosh) http://www.historylink.org (accessed July 2001).
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