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Alice Johnson, 1862 - 1936
This image
was produced
from the
Hayes Center's
Grob
Collection.
Allie and Addie Johnson, 1895
Trinity United Methodist Church
Wayne and Court Streets
Fremont, Ohio |
Born in 1862, Alice E. Johnson was the youngest daughter of
nationally known architect John Carlton Johnson of Fremont, Ohio. Known to
friends and family as "Allie," Miss Johnson became one of Ohio's first women
architects. Allie apprenticed at her father's firm located in the
Jackson-Tschumy building, a structure the senior Johnson had designed on
Fremont's South Front street. The prominent Victorian architect had designed
dozens of infirmaries, schools, jails, churches, city halls, and at least four
county courthouses in the Midwest. Although public buildings dominated his work,
Johnson had drafted plans for many homes in Fremont and Northwest Ohio.
As early as 1889, Allie was listed as an architect in the
Fremont city directory. One of her commissions was the new Trinity United
Methodist Church to be built at the corner of Wayne and Court streets in 1895.
The Gothic-style structure was featured in Art Work of Seneca and Sandusky
Counties that same year. In 1903, Ohio Architect and Engineer
reported that Ms. Johnson was designing a frame home for David B. Love and
brick and stone home for W. B. Kridler, both of Fremont.
When J. C. Johnson died suddenly in 1901, Allie continued the
work her father had so successfully developed. She went on to design other homes
and businesses throughout Northwest Ohio and in neighboring states. Ms. Johnson
continued to live in Fremont with her sister Addie, a professional seamstress,
until her death in 1936. The Fremont News-Messenger praised her "skill
and talent as an architect and business woman," noting that Allie "was one of
the very few women in the United States to win recognition in a field dominated
almost exclusively be men."
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