Mary Almy

Who is Mary Almy?

Mary Almy was an American architect. Almy grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As a child, she suffered from polio and would walk with crutches throughout her life. In 1905 she graduated from Radcliffe College. She taught in local private schools and became interested in architecture. This interest led her family to encourage her to design and build a summer house for them in Cape Cod. In 1917 she went to study architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She graduated from MIT with a Bachelor of Science in 1919.

After graduation she worked as a drafter at a London based architectural firm called Collcut and Hamp, for two years. In the 1920s she became a drafter for the Boston firm owned by Louis Howe and Eleanor Manning, who had also attended MIT. In 1926 she became a member of the American Institute of Architects and a partner at Howe and Manning. Despite surviving the Great Depression, the firm closed in 1937 after Howe retired. Manning and Almy continued in private practice and Almy would also work with landscape architect Henrietta Pope.