Henrietta Dozier Favored Rammed Earth

In 1939, architect Henrietta Cuttine Dozier (1872 – 1947) recalled drafting plans and wanting to study architecture since she was seven years old. After graduating from high school, she apprenticed for a year with an architect in her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, before attending the Pratt Institute in New York for two years. She then attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for four years before graduating in 1899 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture. Although she had started at MIT with two female classmates in the architecture program, she recalled being the only woman to graduate that year.

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta - Jacksonville, Florida, c. 1924 (State Archives of Florida)

Dozier returned to Atlanta and practiced architecture there for almost fourteen years. She primarily designed apartment buildings, residences, and churches, although she also designed office buildings, schools, and other building types. Her work included being the associate architect on the Federal Reserve Bank building in Jacksonville, Florida. In 1905 Dozier became only the third woman to gain membership in the American Institute of Architects. In 1906, she helped organize the Atlanta chapter.

During World War I, Dozier became connected to Jacksonville’s Engineering Department and in 1918 she opened her own office in that city. Over the years, Dozier trained twenty-four architects in her office, some of whom went on to considerable success. Four of the twenty-four were women, although Dozier said these got married after a while and left the profession. Dozier herself did not marry.

Her business was successful until the Great Depression, which Dozier described as “eliminating” her. She lost the house she had designed for herself and her sister and closed her office, not reopening it until 1936. She later wondered if pursuing her interest in astronomy would have been a more secure career choice. In addition to astronomy, Dozier counted genealogy and fishing among her hobbies.

In a 1939 interview, Dozier expressed concern about “flimsy construction” financed with government loans. She said her houses were built of timber and other durable materials. She also advocated for rammed earth construction, calling homes made of it “the best house for this climate.” while costing about half as much as the less durable construction. “If I can once get started on my idea of the earth-rammed house, it will catch on like wildfire—durable, vermin-proof, termite-proof, insulated against cold and heat,…good for the constant use of two or three generations.”

Dozier died in 1947. It is not known if she had the opportunity to design and supervise the construction of a rammed earth house.

Sources:

Sarah Allaback, The First American Women Architects. University of Illinois Press: 2008.

Rose Shepherd and Henrietta C Dozier. Miss Henrietta C. Dozier. Florida, 1939. Manuscript/Mixed Material, Library of Congress.

“Harriet Dozier,” American Institute of Architects Directory of American Architects.