Valley Girl Views: America's Foremost Woman Architect, Born in Milton PA

Fay Kellogg was described in her own time as “the foremost woman architect in the United States”, and known for staying on the job site “until the last brick is laid and the last nail is driven.”.

Ethel Fay Kellogg was born May 13 1871, the daughter of Albert Horace & Juliet Claudeine [Reed] Kellogg, of Milton Pa. The family moved to Brooklyn New York after the great fire of 1880 in Milton, but she returned to visit Milton frequently, having a large circle of friends & cousins there.

From New York, Kellog went to Washington, to stay with an aunt, and study at Columbian [today George Washington] University. Her intent was to become a doctor, but her father convinced her to study drawing instead.

After studying with a German tutor for two years, learning drawing and mathematics, she attended the Pratt institute in Brooklyn, and then worked for a New York architectural firm before going to Paris. There she hoped to attend the prestigious Ecole des Beaux Arts, but the academy did not accept female students. It was through her efforts that the school was eventually opened to women, but only after Kellogg had completed her studies elsewhere.

When asked what she considered the biggest piece of work she had ever done, she replied "The opening of the Ecole Des Beaux Arts in Paris to women architects. When I went to Paris there was just one atelier where women were received. Today conditions are entirely different" - The Lancaster News Journal, 1908

"And why shouldn’t a woman do as well at this profession as a man? Why, in my opinion, the very nature of the field invites her services. In fact, it needs her." - Fay Kellogg

Kellogg returned to the US in 1900 and was immediately employed by an established architect in New York City, John R. Thomas. While working for him she designed the large double staircase in the atrium of the Hall of Records, and she came up with the idea of placing statues of earlier governors on the building. She spent 6 months on the drawings alone. "The delicate wrought iron work came from her brain, and so did many of the other details, from the base moulding to the crown of the roof".

She was known for getting highly involved in her projects, climbing around the scaffolding on the Hall of Records almost a hundred feet above the streets. In her skirt, she’d scale ladders, jump across gaps, and run up and down wobbly unfinished stairs to make sure every detail of her plans were carried out correctly.

After her employer died, Fay started her own architectural firm in 1903. She started off right away with a commission to renovate and construct seven buildings for the American News Company in Manhattan, and they soon placed her in charge of all their work in New York City. She directly supervised all work within 200 miles of the city, and drew plans for other projects that were further away.

"There can be no more anomalous condition than that which makes men the sole builders of our homes, while women, their chief occupants and governing spirits, are excluded from all participation in their preparation."- Fay Kellogg

She was known for her thoroughness in all of her work. The American News Company was quoted as saying "Early every morning she was on the job, in stout high boots and short skirt she wore when a building was in course of construction. There wasn't a detail from the plumbing up - or down - that she wasn't familiar with, and her eye was everywhere"

In addition to her architectural work, Kellogg was an ardent suffragist, campaigning for the right for women to vote. "I believe in my rights" she said "and I want a chance to vote for good roads, improvement of schools, and transportation."

While sitting on a hill in France, looking down at the Cathedral of Beauvals, she decided she wanted to own a farm. She was quoted as saying that the "wonderful peace of that beautiful country made her wish to become a farmer.

And so she did. Back in America, she purchased 35 acres of difficult land that had not seen a plow in 75 years. She set to work clearing the land, frequently going ahead of the teams herself with a bush scythe, to clear out brambles and poison ivy. She set out her own orchard, planted clover and alfalfa and in a "wonderfully short time" had herself a fine farm. She completely surprised her father, doing all of this while he was in Australia. Upon his return she invited him to dinner on her farm.

The farmhouse was very modern with electric lights, and framed by roses and clematis.

"I was always handy with my tools, and more than once beat my brothers in work with the hammer and saw" - Fay Kellogg

"Miss Kellogg always wore khaki riding breeches, surveyors shoes, a khaki middy and a big hat when running traction engines and so on as a week end diversion after her hard work on her profression. She was once heard to say that she thanked God when she got in her trousesrs, they were so convenient to work in."

"I don't think a woman architect ought to be satisfied with small pieces, but launch out into business building. That's where the money and name are made."

She once said ‘I don’t approve of a well-equipped woman creeping along; let her leap ahead as men do. All she needs is courage.'”

In addition to her career, farm, and suffragist activities, she also enjoyed athletic activities like fencing, boxing, wrestling, horse-riding, basketball, and golf. The Miltonian reported that she "did much journalistic work, and the articles from her pen found their way the columns of the principal papers and magazines of the East"

During World War I, Fay was one of three women architects (including Julia Morgan and Katherine Budd) who were contracted to design “hostess houses” for military camps. Before the hostess houses were built, the wives of the soldiers had no specific place to meet and spend time with their husbands when they visited.

Kellogg died in July of 1918, from "a complication of diseases". She was working on the Y.M.C.A. hostess houses at Camp Gordon at Atlanta Georgia at the time, and according to the New York Herald, refused to leave the project, though ill, "until her mother went to her and fairy dragged her away."

"Those who knew Fay Kellogg in any or all of the aspects of her full and varied life, as farmer, as suffragist, as friend, as patriot or as an architect of wide fame, found it difficult to realize yesterday that she was dead. She did so much, she did it all with such whole souled ardor and enjoyment; that she seemed like one who would never have time to die."

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Find More Of Milton's History Here
https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2020/04/milton-pa.html

And An Index To All Of My History Tidbits Here:
https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2020/04/milton-pa.html
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Architectural Projects:

Hall Of Records (Surrogates Courthouse) 31 Chambers St, Manhattan NY
American News Company (Renovating 7 buildings 7 designing one, for their new headquarters)
Greenlawn Bungalow (Post Office)
Women's Memorial Hospital In Brooklyn
Possibly a skyscraper in San Francisco?
Y.M.C.A. hostess houses in Georgia (during the war)

Double Staircase in the Hall of Records, Designed by Kellogg

22 Boulevard Ave, Greenlawn, NY 11740, USA

In 1911, Kellogg was commissioned to design a new home and post office for Greenlawn’s postmaster Elizabeth A. Hilton near the entrance to the new train station on Boulevard across from the firehouse. The bungalow provided living quarters for Hilton as well as space for the post office. Following Hilton’s death in 1919, the building was sold to her sister Sarah Hilton. The building continued to be used as the post office until as late as 1929. The building is now a residence
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