Katharine Budd

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Katharine Cotheal Budd (1860–1951) was a pioneering American architect and writer who ran a New York City practice for more than 30 years. She became the first woman member of the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1924 and earned an architectural license in Georgia in 1920.

Education and early work
Budd did not start with formal architectural training. She studied art and design at William Merritt Chase’s Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art (1891–1894) on Long Island, where she later served as secretary and helped renovate several cottages. She learned from architect and professor William R. Ware and worked with Grosvenor Atterbury, Grenville T. Snelling, and William Appleton Potter. After 1910, she partnered with Henry G. Emery for several years. She maintained a Manhattan office from 1899 and employed Esther Marjorie Hill from 1925–1928.

Architectural style and output
Budd’s work covered Arts and Crafts, Colonial Revival, and Mediterranean styles. By 1908 she had designed more than 100 houses, and she also worked on hospitals and churches.

Hostess Houses and World War I
During World War I, Budd, along with Julia Morgan and Fay Kellogg, designed Hostess Houses for the YMCA to welcome female visitors of soldiers. She designed 72 of the 96 Hostess Houses, mainly shaped like barns or country houses and located near army bases in the South and Midwest. The first was the Great Lakes Hostess House, inspired by God's Providence House in Chester, England.

Notable buildings
She designed the Harry C. Duncan House in Tavares, Florida, regarded as a top example of Colonial Revival there. She also created the Innis Arden Cottage at Innis Arden (now Greenwich Point) in Old Greenwich, Connecticut. Built in 1903, the cottage is recognized as an early bungalow and was restored by the Greenwich Point Conservancy from 2006–2011.

Legacy
Beyond practice, Budd contributed to journals such as Architectural Record, Country Life, and American Homes and Gardens in the early 1900s, writing about kitchens, pantries, and Japanese design.