Theodate Pope Riddle
Encyclopedia
RMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland. The ship entered passenger service with the Cunard Line on 26 August 1907 and continued on the line's heavily-traveled passenger service between Liverpool, England and New...
.
Life
Born Effie Brooks Pope in Salem, OhioSalem, Ohio
Salem is a city in northern Columbiana County and extreme southern Mahoning County, Ohio, United States. At the 2000 census, the city's population was 12,197....
, she was the only child of industrialist and art collector Alfred Atmore Pope
Alfred Atmore Pope
Alfred Atmore Pope was an American industrialist and art collector. He was the father of Theodate Pope Riddle, a noted American architect.-Family background:...
and his wife Ada Lunette Brooks. When Effie was 19, she changed her name to Theodate in honor of her grandmother Theodate Stackpole. She was a graduate of Miss Porter's School
Miss Porter's School
Miss Porter's School, sometimes simply referred to as Porter's or Farmington, is a private college preparatory school for girls located in Farmington, Connecticut.- History :...
in Farmington, Connecticut
Farmington, Connecticut
Farmington is a town located in Hartford County in the Farmington Valley area of central Connecticut in the United States. The population was 25,340 at the 2010 census. It is home to the world headquarters of several large corporations including Carrier Corporation, Otis Elevator Company, and Carvel...
. She designed Hill-Stead, the family estate (now Hill-Stead Museum
Hill-Stead Museum
Hill-Stead Museum, also known as Hill-Stead, is a Colonial Revival house and art museum in Farmington, Connecticut, USA. It is best known for its French Impressionist masterpieces, architecture, and stately grounds.-House and museum:...
) in Farmington and designed and founded the famous Avon Old Farms
Avon Old Farms
Avon Old Farms is a single-sex boarding school for boys located in Avon, Connecticut. It was founded by Theodate Pope Riddle, an RMS Lusitania survivor and a master architect. It opened in 1927 and closed for a period during World War II to serve as a convalescent hospital for blind veterans. The...
School in Avon
Avon, Connecticut
Avon is a town in the Farmington Valley region of Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. , the town had a population of 18,098.Avon is a suburb of Hartford. Avon Old Farms School, a prestigious boarding school, is located there. In 2005, Avon was named the third-safest town in America by...
, as well as Westover School
Westover School
The Westover School, often referred to simply as "Westover," is an independent college-preparatory day and boarding school for girls. Located in Middlebury, Connecticut, USA, the school offers grades 9-12...
. Among her other well known architectural commissions was the 1920 reconstruction of the birthplace in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
of former President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
. She was a first cousin to the mother of architect Philip Johnson
Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson was an influential American architect.In 1930, he founded the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and later , as a trustee, he was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and the first Pritzker Architecture...
.
Theodate Pope was a member of the Architectural League of New York
Architectural League of New York
The Architectural League of New York is a non-profit organization "for creative and intellectual work in architecture, urbanism, and related disciplines"....
, the Archaeological Institute of America
Archaeological Institute of America
The Archaeological Institute of America is a North American nonprofit organization devoted to the promotion of public interest in archaeology, and the preservation of archaeological sites. It has offices on the campus of Boston University and in New York City.The institute was founded in 1879,...
, and the Mediaeval Academy of America.
Lusitania
On May 1, 1915, she boarded the British ocean liner LusitaniaRMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland. The ship entered passenger service with the Cunard Line on 26 August 1907 and continued on the line's heavily-traveled passenger service between Liverpool, England and New...
as a First Class passenger, together with her maid Miss Emily Robinson and Professor Edwin W. Friend, a fellow Farmington resident. When the ship was torpedoed by a German submarine on May 7, Theodate and Edwin were just going for a walk on the boat deck. They almost got into one of the lifeboats but before stepping inside, the couple watched the boat being thrown up into the air. They decided it was a better idea to jump off the deck. Theodate turned to her maid saying "Come, Robinson" and then jumped. When she rose to the surface, both Emily and Edwin had disappeared. Instead, she found herself caught in a mob of screaming, struggling people trying to keep themselves alive. She found herself "being washed and whirled up against wood." Something hit her hard on the head, but, although half-stunned, she surfaced at last. "People all around me were fighting, striking and struggling," she later recalled. Then a man "insane with fright" made "a sudden jump and landed clean on my shoulders, believing I could support him." He had no life jacket, and his weight was pushing her back under. Somehow she found the strength to say "Oh, please don't" before the waters closed over her. Feeling her sink, the man let go. Theodate surfaced again and looked around for Edwin Friend. Instead she saw close by her an elderly man, another man with a bloody gash in his forehead, and a third clasping a small tin tank as a float. Seeing an oar floating nearby, she pushed one end toward the old man and took hold of the other. Moments later she lost consciousness but was pulled in from the sea with boat hooks and laid among the dead "like a sack of cement." One woman pleaded with the rescuers to give her artificial respiration. They cut off her fashionable clothing and went to work. To their amazement, she came around. Gazing confusedly around her, Theodate gradually realized she was lying on the floor wrapped in a blanket and staring into a small open-grate fire. Neither her maid nor Professor Friend had survived.
On May 6, 1916 Theodate married 52-year-old John Wallace Riddle, who was a former American diplomat. She died on August 30, 1946 at her home in Farmington.
Further reading
- Brandegee, Arthur L. and Eddy H. Smith. Farmington, Connecticut, The Village of Beautiful Homes. Farmington, CT, 1906. Reprinted by the Farmington Historical Society, 1997.
- Cunningham, Phyllis Fenn. My Godmother, Theodate Pope Riddle. Canaan, NH: published privately, 1983.
- Emeny, Brooks. Theodate Pope Riddle and the Founding of Avon Old Farms School. Avon, CT: published privately, 1973 and 1977.
- Hewitt, Mark A. The Architect and the American Country House 1890-1940. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990.
- Hill-Stead: An Illustrated Museum Guide. Farmington, CT: Hill-Stead Museum, 2003.
- Katz, Sandra L. Dearest of Geniuses, A Life of Theodate Pope Riddle. Windsor, CT: Tide-Mark Press, 2003. www.tide-mark.com.
- Mercer, William W., ed. Avon Old Farms School. Arlington, MA: Royalston Press, 2001.
- Paine, Judith. Theodate Pope Riddle: Her Life and Work. Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, 1979.
- Preston, Diana. Lusitania, An Epic Tragedy. New York, NY: Walker & Company, 2002.
- Ramsey, Gordon, ed. Aspiration and Perseverance, The History of Avon Old Farms School, 1984.
- Smith, Sharon. Theodate Pope Riddle, Her Life and Architecture. Internet publication: www.valinet.com/~smithash/, 2002.
- Stern, Robert A. M. Pride of Place, Building the American Dream. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1988.
- Torre, Susanna, ed. Women in American Architecture: A Historic and Contemporary Perspective, A Publication and Exhibition Organized by the Architectural League of New York. New York, NY: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1977.