Born on July 21, 1856, in Waterloo, New York, Louise Blanchard, christened Jennie Louise, graduated from Buffalo, New York, High School in 1874 and for two years traveled and taught school. In 1876 she abandoned her plan to enter Cornell University and instead took a position as a draftsman in the architectural office of Richard A. Waite of Buffalo. She spent a profitable apprenticeship, and in October 1881 she opened her own architectural office in partnership with Robert A. Bethune, whom she married in December. As the first woman professional architect in America, she purposefully worked on a wide range of building types╤chapels, stores, factories, banks, houses, apartment buildings. Among their major commissions were the Lockport High School, begun in 1890, the East Buffalo Live Stock Exchange, and the Hotel Lafayette in Buffalo, completed in 1904. In 1885 she joined the Western Association of Architects, of which she later served a term as vice president. In April 1888 she became the first woman elected to membership in the American Institute of Architects, and the next year she became the first woman fellow of the institute. Her last years were spent in semiretirement. She died in Buffalo, New York, on December 18, 1913.
