Women of Steel and Stone by Anna M. Lewis

Author:Anna M. Lewis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 2014-03-11T04:00:00+00:00

Kate Gleason’s “Concrest.”

Courtesy of Jan Gleason

“I had been developing a talent that almost amounted to genius for putting myself in places where other women are not likely to come.”

The community was designed to resemble a French village, with homes placed on angles to minimize uniformity on roads wrapped around a hillside. Kate decided to use concrete as the building material for the homes instead of the traditional wood or brick. Earlier, she had witnessed the destruction of Gleason Works’ foundry and other nearby factories by fire. The devastation and lost lives affected her deeply. Also, concrete was an economical material.

An advertisement for the houses read:

Hang up your hat in a home of your own and enjoy the thrill that comes when you look over the happy homestead and proudly exclaim, “It’s mine! All mine!” … A home with a deed, title, porch light, garage, fine view, fireplace, electricity, green grass, French windows and everything…. Play “Home Sweet Home” on your own front porch this summer while you enjoy a ten-mile view of the surrounding country and the cooling breezes are wafted your way.

Kate wanted the entire world to hear of her project. She wrote and spoke at every opportunity. On one occasion, when her ship got stuck in the fog returning from France and Italy, she wired ahead to have a hairdresser ready for her so that she wouldn’t be late to her speaking engagement. She arrived on time wearing a Parisian gown and hat to give her, as she said, “moral support in undertaking to tell an audience of men how to build houses.”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.