Name Harriet Irwin | Died 1897 | |
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Harriet Morrison Irwin (1828 Mecklenburg County, North Carolina – 1897 Charlotte, North Carolina) was an American architect and the first American woman to patent an architectural design. In August 24, 1869, she submitted a patent, categorized under the Improvement in the Construction of Houses, for a residential design proposal of a hexagonal house.
Life
She was home schooled by her father, Reverend Robert Hall Morrison, president of Davidson College and attended the Salem Female Academy in North Carolina. She married James P. Irwin; they moved to Charlotte, North Carolina; they had nine children. They lived at 912 West Fifth Street.
She wrote for the magazine, The Land We Love, edited Daniel Harvey Hill. Irwin also wrote the book, The Hermit of Petraea, in 1871, in which she discussed her ideas of health, the outdoors and how hexagonal living could promote physical well-being.
She studied Bindon Blood Stoney, and John Ruskin On August 24, 1869, she patented her design of a six sided house.
She is buried in Elmwood Cemetery.