Theodate Pope,Alice Hamilton, and a student believed to beAgnes Hamilton, 1888. Courtesy of Miss Porter's School.
Theodate Pope Riddle (February 2, 1867 – August 30, 1946) was anAmerican architect andphilanthropist. She was one of the first American women architects and a survivor of the sinking of theRMSLusitania.
BornEffie Brooks Pope inCleveland, Ohio, she was the only child of industrialist and art collectorAlfred Atmore Pope and his wife Ada Lunette Brooks and was a first cousin to Louisa Pope, the future mother of architectPhilip Johnson.
When Effie was 19, she changed her name to Theodate in honor of her grandmother Theodate Stackpole. She graduated fromMiss Porter's School inFarmington, Connecticut and later hired faculty members to tutor her privately in architecture. The first woman to become a licensed architect inNew York and the sixth woman to be licensed inConnecticut, in 1926, she was appointed a Fellow of theAmerican Institute of Architects.[1]
Her best-known architectural commission was the 1920 reconstruction ofthe birthplace inNew York City of former PresidentTheodore Roosevelt. In the fall of 2014, Pope's work on that site was recognized in a competition, Built by Women New York City, launched by theBeverly Willis Architecture Foundation to identify outstanding and diverse sites and spaces designed, engineered, and built by women.[2]
On May 1, 1915, she boarded the British ocean linerRMSLusitania as a First Class passenger, together with her maid Miss Emily Robinson and Professor Edwin W. Friend, a fellow Farmington resident.[6] When theship was torpedoed by anImperial German NavyU-boat on May 7, Pope, Robinson, and Friend made for the lifeboats. TheLusitania's crew was inexperienced at launching the boats, and Pope saw one lifeboat tip all its passengers into the sea. Pope and Friend decided it would be better to jump from the deck. Before jumping, Theodate turned to her maid, saying, "Come, Robinson."
In the water, Pope was buffeted by debris and struggling swimmers. She was struck on the head by debris. "People all around me were fighting, striking and struggling," she later recalled. Then a man "insane with fright" made "a sudden jump and landed clean on my shoulders, believing I could support him."
She lost consciousness in the water, and when she was rescued, she was initially placed among the dead until another rescued passenger, Belle Naish, recognized signs of life in her. However, it took two hours before she could be revived. Neither Robinson nor Professor Friend survived.[7]
Brandegee, Arthur L. and Eddy H. Smith.Farmington, Connecticut, The Village of Beautiful Homes. Farmington, CT, 1906. Reprinted by the Farmington Historical Society, 1997.
Cunningham, Phyllis Fenn.My Godmother, Theodate Pope Riddle. Canaan, NH: published privately, 1983.
Emeny, Brooks.Theodate Pope Riddle and the Founding of Avon Old Farms School. Avon, CT: published privately, 1973 and 1977.
Hewitt, Mark A.The Architect and the American Country House 1890-1940. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990.
Hill-Stead: An Illustrated Museum Guide. Farmington, CT: Hill-Stead Museum, 2003.
Katz, Sandra L.Dearest of Geniuses, A Life of Theodate Pope Riddle. Windsor, CT: Tide-Mark Press, 2003. www.tide-mark.com.
Mercer, William W., ed.Avon Old Farms School. Arlington, MA: Royalston Press, 2001.
Paine, Judith.Theodate Pope Riddle: Her Life and Work. Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, 1979.
Preston, Diana.Lusitania, An Epic Tragedy. New York, NY: Walker & Company, 2002.
Ramsey, Gordon, ed.Aspiration and Perseverance, The History of Avon Old Farms School, 1984.
Smith, Sharon.Theodate Pope Riddle, Her Life and Architecture. Internet publication: www.valinet.com/~smithash/, 2002.
Stern, Robert A. M.Pride of Place, Building the American Dream. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1988.
Torre, Susanna, ed.Women in American Architecture: A Historic and Contemporary Perspective, A Publication and Exhibition Organized by the Architectural League of New York. New York, NY: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1977.
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