13 Facts About Sophia Hayden

Sophia Hayden was an American architect and first female graduate of the four-year program in architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Sophia Hayden's mother, Elezena Fernandez, was from Chile, and her father, George Henry Hayden, was an American dentist from Boston.

When she was six, she was sent to Jamaica Plain, a neighborhood of Boston, to live with her paternal grandparents, George and Sophia Hayden, and attended the Hillside School.

Sophia Hayden graduated from MIT in 1890 with a degree in architecture, with honours.

Sophia Hayden shared a drafting room with Lois Lilley Howe, a fellow female architect at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Sophia Hayden is best known for designing The Woman's Building at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, when she was just 21.

Sophia Hayden based her design on her thesis project, "Renaissance Museum of Fine Arts," a grand two-story structure with center and end pavilions, multiple arches, columned terraces and other classical features, reflecting her Beaux-Art training.

Sophia Hayden's entry won first prize out of a field of thirteen entries submitted by trained female architects.

Sophia Hayden received $1,000 for the design, when some male architects earned $10,000 for similar buildings.

Sophia Hayden appeared at the inaugural celebration and had published accounts of support by her fellow architects.

In 1900, Sophia Hayden married a portrait painter and, later, interior designer, William Blackstone Bennett, in Winthrop, Massachusetts.

Sophia Hayden worked as an artist for years and lived a quiet life in Winthrop, Massachusetts.

Sophia Hayden died at the Winthrop Convalescent Nursing Home in 1953 of pneumonia after suffering a stroke.