Victorine du Pont Homsey

Victorine du Pont, FAIA (November 27, 1900 – January 6, 1998)[1] was an American architect. She was a principal in Victorine & Samuel Homsey. She was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA) in 1967,[1] the first woman architect from Delaware and only the eighth woman nationwide to achieve that honor.[2]

Victorine du Pont Homsey
Born
Victorine du Pont

(1900-11-27)November 27, 1900
Grosse Pointe, Michigan
DiedJanuary 6, 1998(1998-01-06) (aged 97)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materSmith College
OccupationArchitect
PracticeVictorine & Samuel Homsey.

Life

She was born in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, to Antoine Biderman (or Bidermann) du Pont, Jr., and Mary Ethel (Clark) du Pont. The Du Ponts were an old and well-to-do family; her great-grandfather was the industrialist Alfred V. du Pont. She attended Wellesley College, where she earned her undergraduate degree in 1923. She went on to get her certificate in architecture in 1925 from the Cambridge School of Domestic and Landscape Architecture for Women (which was not yet a degree-granting institution); ten years later, after the school became affiliated with Smith College, she was awarded the M. Arch degree.[3]

After leaving the Cambridge School, she worked as a draftsperson at the firm of Allen and Collens in Boston (1926–27), and there she met Samuel Homsey, whom she married in 1929. [4]

Victorine and Samuel moved to Wilmington, Delaware, and in 1935, they opened a firm known as Victorine & Samuel Homsey (later Victorine & Samuel Homsey, Inc.).[5] They are thought to have been the first Delaware architects to work in the International Style, and one of their early house designs was chosen by New York's Museum of Modern Art to represent International Style in a 1938 Paris exhibition.[6][7] In general, however, their style was more eclectic, and in part because they began their careers during the Great Depression, they felt it was important for architects to work on developing ways to work economically and with new materials.[8][7] In 1950, one of their house designs for small sites was included in a "Five-Star" series developed by Better Homes and Gardens magazines, the working drawings and specifications for which could be bought by mail for $5.[9]

References
  1. Hager, Mary (January 9, 1998). "Victorine du Pont Homsey, architect". The News Journal. p. 5. Retrieved September 28, 2018.
  2. Allaback, Sarah (2008). The First American Women Architects. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. p. 238. ISBN 9780252033216. OCLC 167518574. Archived from the original on April 10, 2017. Retrieved April 10, 2017.
  3. Cooperman, Emily T., and Sandra L. Tatman. "Homsey, Victorine Du Pont (1900 - 1998) ". Philadelphia Architects and Buildings (website). Accessed Dec. 8, 2015.
  4. "Victorine Du Pont". Early Women of Architecture
    in Maryland    . Retrieved 2018-09-28.
  5. Cooperman, Emily T., and Sandra L. Tatman. "Homsey, Samuel Eldon (1904 - 1994)". Philadelphia Architects and Buildings (website). Accessed Dec. 7, 2015.
  6. "Homsey Architects, Inc.". Social Networks and Archival Context, University of Virginia website.
  7. "Victorine Du Pont Homsey, FAIA". Early Women of Architecture in Maryland. Accessed Dec. 8, 2015.
  8. Tatman, Sandra L. "Victorine & Samuel Homsey (fl. 1929 - 1962)". Philadelphia Architects and Buildings (website). Accessed Dec. 8, 2015.
  9. "Here is a Small House Ideal for a Corner Lot". The Deseret News, Dec. 24, 1950, p. 14.
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