My subject this week is Miss Laura Rogers White, who first caught my attention when she was mentioned in the Dec. 2, 1881 issue of The Mountain Echo newspaper: “Laura R. White has opened an office in Washington City for the practice of her profession— architecture.”

Hmmm. A woman architect in 1881? A Laurel County woman opening an office in Washington, D.C., as a professional architect in 1881?

I had to know more.

So I began researching Laura Rogers White, and found that she was quite a remarkable woman for her time.

Laura taught school in Laurel County and also did land surveying here for quitclaim deeds. She was a Clay County native, born near Manchester on Dec. 11, 1852, a daughter of Daugherty and Sarah White.

She was one of the first eight women to graduate from the University of Michigan (1874), and studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) in Boston and the Sorbonne in Paris, France.

Laura worked as draughtsman in the Office of the Supervisory Architect of the Treasury Department in Washington, D.C., for two years, and served as a Kentucky delegate at the first session of the first annual meeting of the Women’s Peace Party Convention in Washington, D.C., in January 1916.

Probably her greatest architectural achievement was designing the First Christian Church of Ashland, Kentucky, which was completed in 1890.

According to the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form for the First Christian Church of Ashland, “the designer of Ashland’s old First Christian Church provided the community with a tasteful house of worship that represented an affluent and fashionable neighborhood near the heart of the downtown, and that now serves as an 1890 landmark near the center of the central business district.”

Ashland’s pastor, W. H. Hull, said at the church’s dedication in 1891, that “the success which has attended my work here is largely due to the substantial aid of Miss White, our architect.”

To put into perspective just how rare Laura White’s profession was in the late 1800s, there were only 118 architects in Kentucky in 1900. Of those, only two were women (A History of the Profession of Architecture in Kentucky, p. 20).

Although Laura R. White apparently did not design any other buildings—at least none that were built—she did design a circular staircase for the ante-bellum house at 1844 Griffith Avenue in Owensboro, Kentucky.

She traveled widely throughout Europe and the United States, but eventually returned to her native Clay County to manage the White family’s salt-making business. She never married or had any children.

Laura Rogers White died of a heart condition on Jan. 25, 1929 at the home of her sister, Elizabeth White Hager, in Owensboro, Kentucky. She is buried in the White family cemetery at Goose Rock in Clay County, Kentucky.

Danna C. Estridge, Guest Blogger

While I was there, Judy Krahenbuhl, one of the volunteers whose time and talent helps keep the facility open and available to researchers like myself, showed me a large three-ring binder filled with biographies of Laurel County citizens from the past.

I didn’t count the number of individuals contained within the binder, but it was an impressive collection. Judy has worked long and hard in compiling such a wonderful resource.

After thumbing through the pages, looking at the names and reading some of the more interesting life stories, I only had one question.

“Where are the women?” I asked?

Within the 3-inch-thick binder filled with lives of Laurel Countians, only a handful were women, and most of them were only there by virtue of having married a well-known man.

So, where were the women?

I know there were Laurel County women who left their mark on Laurel County history. I know, because I’ve come across some of them in my reading and research about Laurel County’s past.

“I never really thought about them,” Judy replied.

“Apparently no one else has, either,” I sighed.

But that is about to change.

For the next several weeks, I intend to write about Laurel County women who made a difference, who did things important enough to be remembered–and not just because they were attached to an important man in the county’s history.

That’s not to say it wasn’t important for women to be part of a marriage and raise the children and run the household. It was very important. And still is.

But I want to bring your attention to some women who did other important things.

After all, most men in the history books (or in Judy’s biography notebook) aren’t just remembered for being good husbands and fathers who provided a stable home environment for their wives and children.

They may have been that and done that. But the reason they are written about and still remembered and talked about today is because they did more. They went above and beyond their roles as good men, good husbands, good fathers, good providers.

They helped the community in some way. They blazed trails. They acted courageously in the face of adversity. They did something for the greater good of those outside their immediate family.

And many women in Laurel County’s history did the same. Not only that, but they often had to overcome obstacles men didn’t — especially prejudice against their gender.

Yet these women persevered. They stood up for a cause greater then themselves. They made the community, the county, the state, the nation and the world a little better for their having been here.

And they, too, should be written about and talked about and remembered for their accomplishments.

So, beginning next week, I intend to write about Laurel County women who made a difference.

I hope you’ll join me.

Danna C. Estridge
Guest Blogger