TULSA, Okla. — On Nov. 13, 1912, a pioneer for female architects was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Mary Caroline Cole was the state's first licensed architect, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society.
Cole graduated from Holland Hall and got a bachelor of arts degree from Smith College in Massachusetts.
She came back to Tulsa and worked as a drafter for architect Donald McCormick for two years. Afterward, she went to OSU, at the time called Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College.
Over the summers, Cole worked for Arthur M. Atkinson as a drafter and designer.
She then went on to get a bachelor's degree in architecture at Cornell University in 1941.
With her degrees, she worked for Keene and Simpson in Kansas City, Missouri for two years.
In 1945, she was the first woman in Oklahoma to get her architectural license and organized her own firm.
One of her first jobs was designing a home for a family with a handicapped child. This work contributed to her later being appointed to the Oklahoma Governor's Committee on the Employment of the Handicapped and the White House Conference on Handicapped Individuals later in life.
Cole was a member of the Architecture League of Tulsa and the Association of Women in Architecture.
"Although Cole had difficulties breaking into an occupation dominated by men, her determination led to success and opened opportunities for other women architects," said OHS.
So much so that Tulsa artist Adah Robinson, who was involved in designing the Boston Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, credited Cole with inspiring her to become an architect.
Cole's legacy lives on in her designs around Tulsa, including two Tulsa fire stations.
Cole was never married and passed away on July 16, 1991. She's buried in Tulsa's Memorial Park Cemetery.
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