Building a legacy brick by brick

“I think this is something you should have.”

Weighing approximately two pounds, the clay object is shaped like the Roman numeral“two” with holes punched evenly along the top and bottom. The interior, exposed on either end, reveals thin layers of material in a transverse web formation.

Handed to then 37-year-old Nancy Perkins by her aunt Sally during a family function in the 1980s, the “something” was a brick, but not just any brick.

Treasured by the family for more than six decades, this brick was the invention of Perkins’s great aunt, architect Anna Keichline. The innovation was the epitome of Keichline’s philosophy of efficiency and economy — its lightweight design required less materials to make, was quicker to fire, and its features provided versatility when building hollow walls — two principles that would revolutionize the construction industry.

In addition to being an inventor and one of the first women to practice architecture professionally, Keichline was also involved in the women’s suffragist movement and was a special agent for the military during World War I.

“I was very inspired by the fact that she had accomplished so much when she did, because when I went to school to study industrial design, there weren’t very many women in the field,” said Perkins, who first learned about her famous relative’s patents and inventions while studying at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Keichline’s work as an inventor and architect — she obtained seven patents and designed more than two dozen structures — was so prolific that Perkins decided to register “Anna W. Keichline” as a trademark in 2023 to protect her name and to develop products that express Keichline’s philosophy of economy and efficiency. Perkins draws inspiration for her own design work from the collection of her great aunt’s patents, drawings, published articles, letters, photos, watercolor renderings of architecture projects, and the brick her aunt Sally gave her four decades prior, all lovingly preserved by family members since Keichline’s death in 1943.

Anna Wagner Keichline was born on May 24, 1889, in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, the youngest of four children. The daughter of lawyer and justice of the peace John Martin Keichline, Anna and her siblings were encouraged to be academically and civically minded from birth. Interested in carpentry from an early age, her parents supported her hobby by building her a workshop stocked with the best carpenter implements available.

At the age of 14, Keichline’s talents moved beyond her family home and into the public eye. The young carpenter entered a small oak table and walnut chest into the 1903 Pennsylvania Centre County Fair, winning first prize and garnering interest by the press. With the headline “May Devote Life to Industrial Art”, The Philadelphia Inquirer published a brief article comparing her craftsmanship to that of a skilled mechanic and noted, “She goes to school, but every spare moment is put in her shop.”

Buoyed by the win at the fair and her parents unwavering support, Keichline went on to attend Pennsylvania State College in 1906 to study mechanical engineering — the only woman in her class — before transferring to Cornell University the following year and changing her focus of study to the field of architecture. By all accounts, Keichline was an exemplary student, active in university organizations and well-respected by her classmates. Going by the nickname “Jack,” Keichline served in leadership positions during her time at Cornell, including as secretary of the Sports and Pastimes Association and as second vice-president of her class during her sophomore year. In addition to her academic and leadership pursuits, Keichline was also a multisport athlete, playing basketball for three years and rowing for one year during her time at Cornell after being a member of the women’s fencing club during her sole year at Penn State.

Alongside her successes in and outside of the classroom, Keichline’s tenure at Cornell also highlighted the division of the sexes still prominent in higher education at the time, particularly in a male-dominated field. She was inducted into two honor societies, Raven and Serpent and Der Hexenkreis, both exclusively for female students who were otherwise excluded from many of the societies and fraternal organizations on campus.

Keichline received her degree in architecture in 1911, only the fifth woman in the history of the university to do so.

With her degree and job offers in both Florida and her home state of Pennsylvania in hand, the new graduate had the option to join an existing architectural firm. Instead, Keichline chose to strike out on her own.

Returning to her hometown of Bellefonte in central Pennsylvania, she opened an independent architectural practice, sharing office space with her father. Advertising her business heavily in local newspapers, Keichline soon began to receive requests for designs and building her reputation. An article in the Centre Daily Times, published in August of 1911, refers to the burgeoning architect as “one of the most efficient and painstaking in her profession.” Her skill and confidence were on display the following year, when she used an advert in the same publication to offer preliminary plans at no charge if the recipient did not like them – an early version of the now-popular ‘money back guarantee.’

Two of Keichline’s early architectural works include the Bald Eagle and Nittany Valley Presbyterian Church in Mill Hall, Pa., (1915) and the Cadillac Building (1916), a three-story brick structure built on a hill in Bellefonte that served as a car dealership. The second level of the building was designed with a floor car access door at street level which allowed vehicles to be driven directly into storage from the road.

In addition to commercial and religious structures, Keichline also designed several private homes in central Pennsylvania during the first decade of her career, including multiple in the town of Bellefonte and Tyrone. Although many featured elements of the colonial revival style gaining popularity at the time, the architect’s emphasis on functionality over strict style was a trait consistent throughout her career. 

As a female architect in the early 20th century, Keichline operated in the familiar space of home design and yet challenged the boundaries placed on women in the profession at the time. Unlike many women in male-dominated fields, Keichline made no efforts to hide her gender in her early advertisements, perhaps partially because she chose to stay in her home community where her family was well-known. Her primary income was designing domestic spaces, but she was more interested in functionality over aesthetics. Focusing on the principles of efficiency and economy, Keichline invented space-saving household items while also creating practical building designs early in her career. And she also took a step not all women innovators in the larger domestic sphere were able to, due to financial or societal restraints; Keichline received patent protection for her inventions.

In 1912, a year after graduation, she was granted her first patent for a “Sink for Apartments” — a combined sink and washtub. Made for the purpose of saving space in the kitchen or laundry room, the sink could slide out from its position on the wash tub to increase capacity. It also featured a drain board that could be folded up against a wall when not in use. This early invention showed Keichline’s determination to use her expertise to make the lives of those responsible for domestic labor, at the time mostly women, better.

In addition to her growing prowess as a professional, Keichline also took a leading role in social activism within her community. The 1910s marked the height of the suffrage movement, when activists around the nation lobbied for women’s right to vote. Suffragists relied on many arguments to convince male voters to support what would become the 19th Amendment, including highlighting women in male-dominated professions and women patent holders as evidence of their intellectual capabilities. Anna Keichline happened to be both.

In 1913, the Bellefonte architect made at least one public demonstration of her support for the movement, leading the Bellefonte March for Women’s Suffrage in the town’s Fourth of July parade. Having graduated from Cornell just a few years prior, she donned her cap and gown over the white clothing that became emblematic of the movement. In addition to her dedication to civic participation, this walk down Bellefonte’s Allegheny Street also revealed Keichline’s bravery. With her business in its infancy, she took a public stand on what at the time was a controversial political topic, tying her support of the issue directly to her career as an architect.

“I saw that as a very provocative thing to do when you are trying to build a business, especially as a woman,” Perkins said.

This would not be the last time Keichline’s confidence in her abilities made a difference.

A year after the United States entered World War I, Keichline volunteered for service. In a letter to Captain Harry A. Taylor of the U.S. Army’s Military Intelligence Division, Keichline described herself as “twenty-eight and physically somewhat stronger than the average. Might add that I can operate and take care of a car. The above might suggest a drafting or office job, but if you should deem it advisable to give me something more difficult or as I wish to say more dangerous, I should much prefer it. You have asked for my salary in order to rate me. ...last year my fees amounted to something over six thousand.”

Fluent in German, she served as a special agent in the Military Intelligence Division of the Army in Washington, D.C. for several months in 1918 before returning to Bellefonte to resume her architectural career.

In 1920, when the first test to register architects in Pennsylvania was offered, Keichline passed it, becoming the first woman to be registered as an architect in the state. During her career, the architect would design and build homes, schools, a theater, a church, and commercial buildings in central Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia. She also began to clearly define her design philosophy, which would eventually draw national attention.

“Modern ways of housekeeping require modern construction,” Keichline explained in a 1929 interview with journalist Edith Lennon. Drawing on the movement towards full electric heating as one example, the architect went on to say, “The house should be built in such a manner that it will better coordinate with its mechanical equipment,” allowing for the work of housekeeping to be as streamlined as possible.

While Keichline did not stick to one specific architectural style, her focus on efficiency and practicality shine through.

“The obvious thoughtfulness of the room plans, how one space relates to adjoining spaces, is something I really appreciate and enjoy every day,” said Perkins, who lives in a home her great aunt designed in 1936. “In my home, there is alignment of the windows from front to back (from the living room to the dining room) through an arched doorway; the space was designed intentionally regarding these features rather than being dictated by construction convenience.”

As one of the few professional female architects at the time, Keichline advocated for women’s involvement in home designs.

A March 12, 1936 article by columnist Eleanor Morton in The Philadelphia Inquirer, entitled “More About the Advantages of Having a Woman as Architect for the Home,” quoted Keichline’s insights on the subject: “[T]he equipment of houses has been developed by people who seldom have experience using or operating these materials. Women as engineers or architects have immense opportunities there. There should be scientifically built houses and this can be done better by women than men. Indeed, this will never be accomplished until women take hold.”

For her part, Keichline would patent several inventions focused on improving household areas, especially living rooms and kitchens. Her creations include portable partitions, a folding bed for apartments, kitchen construction components, and an air system.

But her most well-known invention by far was the “K-Brick,” patented in 1927. A forerunner of concrete block design today, the K-Brick was an inexpensive, light weight, fireproof clay brick that could be filled with insulating or sound-proofing material and used for hollow wall construction.

Keichline said her K-Brick “requires less to make than brick and, because of its design, takes less time to fire – the tile would reduce the weight of the wall by one-half.”

Although the K-Brick never went into widespread use, it immediately began to gain interest in the construction industry. The American Ceramic Society recognized this invention at its annual meeting in 1931. The next year, Keichline wrote an article on the benefits of brick construction titled “Modern Wall Construction,” which was published in The Clay-Worker, the journal of the National Brick Manufacturers’ Association.

Writing under the name A.W. Keichline, perhaps to hide the fact she was a woman, she posited:

“There is no doubt that architecture is now passing through a transition period, possibly the most definite and extensive that it has ever had. Changes are being made in materials and methods of construction, but probably the most notable change is in the form of the building itself and the omission of decorative features.

How permanent these changes will be only history can tell, but it is entirely fitting that at this time we stop and face the problem, as to where the trend is leading us and what may be its ultimate effect—whether such radical changes are necessary and whether they will or will not add to our craftmanship and culture.”

Due to her expertise as both an engineer and architectural designer, Keichline was appointed as a delegate to President Herbert Hoover’s Better Housing Conference in 1931, which promoted better and more affordable dwellings.

In a speech at the conference, President Hoover said, "Next to food and clothing, the housing of a nation is its most vital problem... The sentiment for home ownership is embedded in the American heart [of] millions of people who dwell in tenements, apartments and rented rows of solid brick... This aspiration penetrates the heart of our national wellbeing. It makes for happier married life. It makes for better children. It makes for courage to meet the battle of life... There is a wide distinction between homes and mere housing.”

It seemed more than fitting to have Keichline there, an architect who paid attention to saving space and building efficient homes for the everyday American. In The Clay-Worker she wrote, “The functioning of a building should be shelter and the applying of all science at our command to make this shelter a safe, convenient and healthy place in which to live and work.”

Keichline’s work on advancing opportunities for women both in their private lives and in the field of architecture would be tragically cut short when she died at the age of 53 on February 5, 1943, after a year-long illness that saw her bedridden for the last several months of her life. Having lived during the first half of the 20th century, Keichline led an extraordinarily non-traditional life. She never married or had children. She ran her own business and drove her own car.

Nearly 60 years after her passing, Keichline was honored in 2002 with an official state of Pennsylvania historical marker placed in front of the Plaza Theater – designed by her in 1925 – in Bellefonte. When it was first built, the theater encompassed a stage, orchestra pit, and pipe organ, as well as a "Cry Room" that was enclosed in glass for parents to watch movies with young children. Today the Plaza is a cooperative of dealers in antiques and collectibles.

Following in her great aunt’s footsteps, Perkins continues Keichline’s tradition of design innovation. She has earned 27 patents and serves as a patent litigation expert witness. Perkins has designed successful products in diverse categories, including industrial equipment, mass transit, and marine and consumer products.

One of her favorite patents was a canister vacuum cleaner, which she designed for Sears in 1981 and subsequently launched in their product line in 1984. It enjoyed sales success for 25 years and was retooled many times – unusual for a consumer product.

After working for Sears for 11 years, Perkins pursued her own consulting business, Perkins Design Ltd., which she ran for 20 years in Chicago. She enjoyed the diversity of her work, rather than specializing in just one product area.

“For example, it was fun to design a cake decorator at the same time I was designing a heavy rail train for San Juan, Puerto Rico,” Perkins said about some of her work during the 1990s.

She’s also the co-inventor on patents used by local Pennsylvania businesses, such as the Floorometry modular entrance flooring products developed for Construction Specialties Inc. in Muncy, Pa. These were developed in 2006 and patented.

For Perkins, Anna’s achievements have been a source of career inspiration.

“Keichline’s record demonstrates her thought process of solving problems for the construction industry, the apartment dweller, and the homemaker — wherever better ideas could be explored,” Perkins said. “She ignored societal expectations and political restrictions; many projects were completed before she had the right to vote. She did not limit herself and nor should we. All of us can learn from her example.”