Ethel Bailey Furman née Ethel Madison Bailey (July 6, 1893–February 24, 1976) was an American

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

who was the earliest known African-American female architect in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

.Dreck Spurlock Wilson (ed.), ''African-American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945''
Routledge, 2004, p. 222.Selden Richardson, Maurice Duke (ed.), ''Built by Blacks: African American Architecture and Neighborhoods in Richmond''
Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2008, p. 92.

Biography

Ethel Madison Bailey was born in Richmond, Virginia. She was the daughter of Margaret M. Jones Bailey and Madison J. Bailey. She married William H. Carter on October 12, 1912, in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, and they had two children. Their daughter, Thelma Carter Henderson was born in 1914 in Buffalo, New York and their son, Madison Carter, was born in 1916 in Lakawana, New York. Having divorced Carter by 1918, she married Joseph D. Furman, a Pullman porter for the New York Central Railroad. Together they had a son named J. Livingston Furman. After training in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, she returned to Richmond in 1921 and began designing houses for locals. Furman worked with her father, and also raised three children. During this time she worked other jobs to supplement income to raise her family. As an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

woman she experienced discrimination in the architecture community, as local bureaucrats refused to accept her as the architect of record on her own projects. Consequently, she would often have to submit her job proposals through male contractors with whom she worked.

Education

As a young child Furman started to gain knowledge on architecture and the building arts by shadowing her father, Madison J. Bailey, who was the second licensed Black building contractor in Richmond. Over time, this informal education allowed Bailey to take on some of the drafting duties for her father's business. Furman briefly attended Armstrong High School in Richmond, Virginia before her family moved to Philadelphia. She graduated from Germantown High School in North Philadelphia in 1910. At one point in her training she moved to

where she studied architecture privately. In the late 1920s she was the only woman to attend the

Hampton Institute Hampton University is a private, historically black, research university in Hampton, Virginia. Founded in 1868 as Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, it was established by Black and White leaders of the American Missionary Association aft ...

's annual builder's conference. She trained in drafting through Chicago Technical College into the 1940s.

Notable works

Furman designed over 200 churches and residences in

and two churches in Liberia, including the Fourth Baptist Church Educational Wing which still stands in the historic Church Hill district of Richmond, Virginia. To recognize her contributions to the field of architecture, a park in Richmond was named after her in 1985. In 2010, Furman was honored as one of the Library of Virginia's "

Virginia Women in History Virginia Women in History was an annual program sponsored by the Library of Virginia that honored Virginia women, living and dead, for their contributions to their community, region, state, and nation. The program began in 2000 under the aegis of th ...

" for her civic work and accomplishments in the field of architecture.

Later life

Furman died in 1976. She is buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.

References

External links

* *Virginia Changemakers. “Ethel Bailey Furman.” Accessed October 19, 2021. https://edu.lva.virginia.gov/changemakers/items/show/167. *William Richards. “Pioneering Architects: Ethel Bailey Furman.” Accessed October 19, 2021. https://www.aia.org/articles/6380755-pioneering-architects-ethel-bailey-furman. *Wilson, Dreck Spurlock. ''African-American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945''. New York: Routledge, 2004. {{DEFAULTSORT:Furman, Ethel 1893 births 1976 deaths 20th-century American architects African-American architects African-American history of Virginia Architects from Richmond, Virginia American women architects 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American artists