Beatrice May Hutton

Beatrice May (Bea) Hutton was an architect in Rockhampton, Queensland, and Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. She was the first female architect to be admitted to any of the Australian Institutes of Architecture.[1]

Early life

Hutton was born in 1893 and educated at Rockhampton Grammar School.[1]

Architectural career

Like many of the women who attempted to enter the male domain of architecture at the time, Hutton came from a family with associations in the field. Her father, Falconer West Hutton, was a surveyor and she initially wanted to pursue a career in surveying but had to "accept architecture as the nearest feasible alternative". She became the articled pupil of prominent Rockhampton architect, Edwin Morton Hockings from 1913 until 1916.[1]

In October 1916, Hutton became the first female architect to be admitted to the Queensland Institute of Architects.[2] The Sydney architectural journal The Salon announced:[1]

"The Queensland Institute is, we believe, the first Australian Institute of Architecture to admit a lady member...The credentials placed before the Institute Council by the candidate showed that Miss Hutton was an earnest and industrious student, and the application was supported by her principals."[1]

It is not yet clear what constituted her contribution to the work of Hockings and Palmer, however, several wide verandahed houses in Rockhampton have been attributed to Hutton's early career, such as the now heritage-listed Rudd Residence. Houses were Hutton's particular interest and like other early women architects, she felt that women had a significant role in designing houses that were suitable for the climate and that utilised labour saving features.[1]

Later in 1916, Hutton moved to Sydney to broaden her experience. From April 1917 she worked for expatriate Queensland architect, Claude William Chambers, becoming a junior partner from 1931 to 1933. The firm was listed for those years as "Chambers and Hutton" in Sands New South Wales Directory, and it may be that Hutton was the only woman practising as a principal in Sydney at the time. She returned to Rockhampton in 1934 to care for her elderly parents, effectively ending her architectural career.

Later life

After her father died, Hutton moved to Brisbane with her mother in 1936 and opened an art studio in the Colonial Mutual Life Building in Queen Street where she exhibited and sold her wood carvings. Judith Mackay wrote in 1984 when Hutton was 90 that "Beatrice Hutton currently lives surrounded by an impressive array of her own handwork in wood carving, pottery and rug-making. Her sustained enthusiasm for using her creative skills is inspirational."[1]

Hutton died on 7 October 1990 at Indooroopilly, Brisbane, and was cremated.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Rudd Residence (entry 601923)". Queensland Heritage Register. Queensland Heritage Council. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
  2. ↑ "Queensland Institute of Architects.". The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933) (Qld.: National Library of Australia). 1 November 1916. p. 11. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  3. ↑ McKay, Judith M. Hutton, Beatrice May (Bea) (1893–1990). Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.

Attribution

This Wikipedia article was originally based on "The Queensland heritage register" published by the State of Queensland under CC-BY 3.0 AU licence (accessed on 7 July 2014, archived on 8 October 2014). The geo-coordinates were originally computed from the "Queensland heritage register boundaries" published by the State of Queensland under CC-BY 3.0 AU licence (accessed on 5 September 2014, archived on 15 October 2014).

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, February 28, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.