McNeill said Morgan’s work in the Women’s Movement before World War I helped women amplify their public presence in the early 19th Century. Not one to conform, Morgan would mix Classical, Renaissance and Gothic styles in her designs.Īnd while she is perhaps most famous for her involvement with Hearst Castle, Morgan designed houses, churches, schools, commercial establishment, hospitals and at least 80 buildings for women’s clubs. And in the École they were religious with a particular style.” In her time at that institution, she drove the faculty nuts, which most Americans did at the time, because she mixed and matched styles. “Still, Morgan persevered and was the first woman to be admitted and earn a degree. “They didn’t admit women,” McNeil explained. In 1896, Morgan wanted to go to the École des Beaux-Arts in France, one of the most prestigious architecture programs in the world at that time. “She was the only woman to do so that year and the fifth woman to do so in the school’s history,” McNeill said with a smile. In 1894, Morgan graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in civil engineering. During her talk, she said Morgan was born in San Francisco and grew up in Oakland.
The afternoon’s guest speaker, McNeill, is a historian based in Oakland, and an expert on Morgan. Both women are prominent in the early 20th century history of California.” “Both were sensitive to the importance of architecture - Julia in her own right as a practitioner, and Ellen in her patronage of architect Irving Gill’s building designs for community-based organizations. La Jolla Historical Society executive director Heath Fox told La Jolla Light: “Julia Morgan was a contemporary of Ellen Browning Scripps (1836-1932), and like her, worked for the advancement of society through Progressive Era-ideas of how women could expand and strengthen their roles in communities. 20 at the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club, at which Karen McNeill, Ph.D, discussed Morgan’s legacy under the theme: “Designing Women’s Spaces from San Diego to the Redwood Forest.”
She designed the Hearst Castle in San Simeon and oversaw its construction over more than 20 years, in addition to designing more than 700 buildings in her lifetime.Īnd she was the focus of the La Jolla Historical Society’s Ellen Browning Scripps luncheon, Oct. She is credited with giving legitimacy to women’s causes and evolving public presence in the first few decades of the 1900s. She was the first woman to earn a degree from the École des Beaux-Arts in France in the late 1800s. American architect Julia Morgan (1872-1957) is considered a pioneer in both the Women’s Movement and the architecture profession.