Ida Annah Ryan - Pioneering Woman Architect

Ida Annah Ryan (1873-1950), was a pioneering United States architect, known for her work in Massachusetts and in Florida.  She was the first woman to receive a Master of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the first woman to receive a Master's degree in architecture anywhere in the United States.  She was the eighth woman to be admitted to the American Institute of Architects.

Ryan was born on November 4, 1873, in Waltham, Massachusetts, one of five children of Albert Morse Ryan and Carrie S. Jameson. Albert Morse Ryan was a Waltham city employee and historian who also ran a milk business. She graduated from the Waltham High School. During her Waltham High School years, Ryan was first attracted to the study of architectural design.

Studies at Massachusetts Normal Art School

In 1892 Ida A. Ryan began attending classes at Massachusetts Normal Art School (now Massachusetts College of Art and Design), which was founded in 1873 with the intention to support the Massachusetts Drawing Act of 1870 by providing drawing teachers for the public schools as well as training professional artists, designers, and architects. In 1894 she received her diploma in Elementary Drawing and Constructive Art and Design (which encompasses Descriptive Geometry, Machine Drawing- Construction and Architectural Design).

Architecture Studies at MIT

Ida A. Ryan entered architecture studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which offered the first collegiate architectural studies program in the United States. There she studied with the noted architecture professor Constant-Désiré Despradelle. In 1905, Ryan received the Rotch Prize of two hundred dollars for the regular student making the best record during their four years of studies.

At the end of her term at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ryan's junior design received the first of the first four prizes. Thereafter, she was invited to compete with only senior and fifth class men in the Junior Beaux Arts contest, in which she won second prize for a grand plan, elevation, and section of a public market.

In 1904, Ryan showed a project for "A Proposed City Hall" at the Boston Architectural Club's annual exhibition.^[6] In 1905, Ryan drafted a plan for a New England model town for her final master's degree project ("Layout for a Model New England Town", 1905). In 1907, Ryan showed five examples of her work at the Boston Architectural Club Exhibition: Camp at Litchfield, NH, Cottage Made From a Stable, Sewage Pump House at Crescent Park, Cottage at Violet Hill, Waltham, and Inexpensive Two-Family House at Waltham Highlands. 

Inexpensive Two-Family House at Waltham Highlands, 1907, below:

The two-family house is a large Spanish Revival stucco structure with double height bay windows, hip roof, overhanging eaves and a double height triple-arched entry porch that is a precursor of Ryan's work at 1114 Massachusetts Avenue, St. Cloud Florida; located at 228-240 Hammond Street the double-house is still in good condition more than a hundred years later.

Ryan became the first woman to earn a master of science degree from MIT and also the first woman in the United States to receive a master's degree in architecture. In 1907, Ryan was awarded the Perkins Traveling Fellowship in Architecture, from MIT, of $1200, the highest prize that the MIT Architectural Department could confer on one of its graduates.

Ida Annah Ryan's winning entry for the 1907 Perkins Traveling Scholarship:

This Traveling Fellowship enabled Ida to spend a year in Europe engaged in the study of architecture; with a travel itinerary that included France, Spain, and Italy. Ryan spent the greater part of the time in Spain and Italy, making her headquarters in Naples.

While at MIT Ryan was a member of Cleophan a club for women students that also included her friends Matilda A. Fraser and Harriet F. Locke (read more about both of these women, below).

Architectural Practice in Waltham, Massachusetts

Ida Annah Ryan launched the first all-women's architectural practice in the United States, in Waltham, showing a particular concern for the design of modest housing. In 1909, Ryan added fellow MIT graduate and women's rights activist Florence Luscomb to her practice, making this one of the first all-women's architectural practices in the United States. Luscomb would remain in partnership with Ryan until the start of WWI.  The two practiced architecture in the Lawrence Block across from Boston Common from 1912 to 1918.

Work designed and completed by Miss Ryan, and in conjunction with partners, chiefly Florence Luscomb, in this period includes:

Woerd Avenue Bridge (1905) (demolished in 2021):

The Woerd Avenue Bridge replaced an earlier wooden post bridge.  Much discussion took place about the type of bridge to be built, with the end result being a decision to use reinforced concrete, both for its aesthetic beauty and its durability. While not new, the use of reinforced concrete for bridges was just coming into common usage. The bridge served the community for 115 years, more than justifying that decision. Today, a memorial plaque commemorates Ryan, at the new bridge's railing:

Ida Ryan designed her own home, a bungalow retreat on a hillside in Needham, Massachusetts, and while diminutive in size, it was described in a 1910 news  article as containing “every convenience and comfort dear to a woman’s heart.”

Ryan described it in her own words for the story:

“This particular spot was shown to me by the land agent after I had looked at all other parts of his estate. On the west, the land was near the village, and the outlook limited. On the south and north, the hill and trees made it hot and suggested mosquitoes. But on the eastern corner, a hillside sloping down to the Charles River, new growth of foliage, a few trees and an outlook for miles extending from Newton at the left, through Brookline, West Roxbury, Roslindale and Milton, were the features that first interested me in the spot. Later, the fresh air (with oxygen enough to remove a week’s weariness in one hour), the fertility of the soil, and the winding ‘Hillway,’ which protects the lot on two sides from possible future neighbors, helped to impress upon me the superiority of this place over others that I had previously visited.” (Although the modest house has yet to be positively identified, the private street called St. Cloud Avenue perpetuates Ryan's association with this locale).

Prospect Barn, Hammond Street, Waltham (1911), Remodeling, below:

Also of note is the Prospect Barn apartment building at 19 Hammond Street, Waltham; a Ryan remodeling of a barn once owned by David Smith. Her office address was, for a time, at this building.

Waltham Theater Building, 408-416 Moody Street, Waltham (1912) (altered):

H.B. and E.B. Staples House, 90 Ellison Park, Waltham (1912), showing elements of both the Colonial Revival and Prairie Style (especially when seen from the side view):

Mrs, H.C. Duncan House, 25 Banks Street, Waltham (1912)

Ida Annah and Mabel Ryan House, 26 Hammond Street, Waltham (1913):

Lincoln Park School, Waltham:

In February 1913, Miss Ryan was appointed the superintendent of buildings and grounds and buildings inspector for the city of Waltham, by Mayor Duane. In this position she was responsible for the design and the remodeling of many civic projects including public schools, such as the Samuel Warren School, Old Waltham High School, the Thomas Hill School, the Pond End School, the Chauncey Newhall School, and the Lincoln Park School, which is shown above.

Thomas Hilll School, circa 1914:

Chauncey Newall School (addition? as shown; original building to the right seems older) circa 1914:

Woodside Cottages, Framingham, Massachusetts, circa 1914:

Ida and M. F. Ryan House, 22 Hammond Street, Waltham (1914)(The Prospect Barn can be seen to the left background of this photo):

Rev. Thomas Hills House, 132 Church Street, Waltham (1915)(demolished?).

J.  W.  Fisher Apartments, 54 Dale Street (Conversion into six apartments, remodeling and addition):

20 Adams Street, Waltham (1915):

B.C. Ames House, 250 Bacon Street, Waltham (1915):

During her Waltham practice, Ryan also designed the spacious, well-appointed home of industrialist B. C. Ames. 

Many of the most attractive Waltham homes of that era were said to have been designed by Miss Ryan. 

128 Ellison Park, Waltham (1916):

Edith M. Hamlin House, 114 Church Street (1916):

House for Nephew, Henry M. Ryan, Sr, below:

Typical of her work during this time is the house that Ryan designed for her nephew Henry M. Ryan, Sr., as a wedding present in 1914, located at 19 Boynton Street, Waltham. The 2 1⁄2-story smooth stucco residence turns its gable-end to the street. A small, 1-story covered porch at the entrance is distinguished by an arched roof reminiscent of the work of George Washington Maher in the Chicago suburbs. Windows are placed singly, in pairs, or, as in the gable, in threes, while sill heights vary according to the interior needs. Ryan would continue the use of many of these distinctive elements in her work in Florida.

Memorial Hospital, Nashua, New Hampshire, below:

While associated with fellow MIT graduate Harriet F. Locke (1870–1919), Ryan was responsible for the design of Memorial Hospital, Nashua, New Hampshire, circa 1915, a 3-story stuccoed symmetrical building with recessed porches, of a simplified Grecian design, closely anticipating the Amherst Apartments in Orlando. The intertwined "cross and x" used for the porch railings would appear later in the Veteran's Memorial Library windows and ventilation grills. The hospital featured a curved roof parapet that prefigures Ryan and Roberts' work in Florida, as well.

Ryan was active in the women's suffrage movement, a member of the Waltham Equal Suffrage League and the Political Equality Association of Massachusetts. Her recreational activities included camping and traveling. 

Army and Navy Canteen, below:

When the United States entered World War I, Ryan gave her services without charge in designing and decorating the Army and Navy Canteen on Boston Common. Ryan offered her services to the government in Washington, D.C., and was the first woman employed in the War Department (in the gun carriage section).

Unity Chapel, Orlando, below:

Ryan began an association with the Central Florida area while still in practice in Massachusetts, designing there the Unity Chapel of Orlando (built in 1913, remodeled by Ryan and Roberts circa 1920). Pictured above.  And Miss Ryan is also credited as the architect of the Railroad Depot in Saint Cloud Florida, pictured below:

Throughout this time, Ryan's many attempts to join the Massachusetts chapter of the American Institute of Architects were rebuffed solely because she was a woman.

The 1920 US census (taken between January 5 and February 5) finds Ida Annah Ryan enumerated twice: once in Waltham Massachusetts, and once in Washington DC.  In Waltham, as part of her parents' household, her profession is listed as "architect; in Washington, where she is a lodger, she lists her profession as "draughtsman" for the US Government.  

Architectural Practice in Central Florida

As a result of this and of the building slump caused by the First World War, Ida A. Ryan moved to Central Florida and began an architecture practice based in Orlando, Florida. She became Orlando's first female architect. In 1918–1919, Frederick H. Trimble employed Ryan as designing architect in his firm. She was admitted to AIA, at last, in 1921; only the eighth woman AIA member, nationwide.

Soon thereafter, Ryan was join Isabel Roberts (1871–1955) who had been a designer-draftsman in the Oak Park Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright and the co-owner, with her mother Mary, of the Isabel Roberts House. Ida Annah Ryan and Isabel Roberts formed an architectural practice, "Ryan and Roberts" which was among no more than twelve firms active in Orlando in the 1920s. Their business is listed under the heading "Architects" as "Ryan and Roberts" in the 1926 and in the 1927 Orlando City Directories, at 240 S. Orange St. and the Kenilworth Terrace address. One of only 10 architectural firms listed in 1926, the others include Frank L. Bodine, Fred E. Field, David Hyer, Murry S. King, George E. Krug, Howard M. Reynolds, Frederick H. Trimble and Percy P. Turner. And one of 12 firms so listed in Orlando in 1927, which included Maurice E. Kressly. Each of these architects is notable and together these firms were supportive colleagues in promoting excellence in the built environment, as one can learn by reading the links to each.

We have a letter from Ida Annah Ryan, who responded to her Massachusetts Institute of Technology Class of 1905 "annual" praising what she found in Orlando, when she relocated in the early 1920s: 

"Glad to know of a revival of interest in the Class of '05, particularly in a State where there are so few M.I.T. architects. Henrietta C. Dosier of Jacksonville and Mr. Adams of Tampa , president of the State Architectural Association, being the only two discovered to date.  Florida is the new pioneer state in the United States, has the most equitable climate, except California and is three times as accessible to the East and Middle West.  We have no dull times here - building has continued marvelously through it all - towns spring up like mushrooms, almost, in 90 days.  Good roads are increasing every day and afford the best means of approach to all parts of the state.  Natural resources are waiting to be developed.  No one knows how many or to what extent.  Hundreds of miles of wild country are waiting for setters.  Parts of the Everglades have been drained and some of the richest truck soil in the world uncovered,  I am glad to be here, and hope to help put this new country in its rightful place on the map.  Cordially, Ida Annah Ryan (1905)" (Technology Review, MIT, 1921)

Miss Ryan was far from alone.  Indeed, throngs of people were coming to Florida, not only to enjoy the climate, but also to get in on the wonders of creating something vital and new.  Pioneering spirit was alive and well in Orlando.  It was a bit like the boom towns out West.  For Ryan and Roberts, it brought about roughly a decade of busy and successful work in the 1920s, as women architects in Central Florida.  

For a look at the buildings that Ida Annah Ryan designed in conjunction with Isabel Roberts, please see my post several back about Isabel Roberts.

Ida A. Ryan worked with builder Samuel (Sam) Stoltz who created fantasy architecture with original murals in storybook settings in Orlando, Mount Plymouth, and Windermere, Florida. 

Ryan lived in Orlando until her death on February 17, 1950, after an illness of several years, during which she was cared for by Isabel Roberts. (Some references mistakenly give her year of death as a decade later).

According to her wishes, Ryan was buried in Grove Hill Cemetery in her hometown of Waltham, Massachusetts.

Additional work by Ida Annah Ryan will be added as time permits.