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USModernist

MARY LUND DAVIS (1922-2008)

Davis grew up in Sacramento CA where she helped her father design houses from an early age. During childhood she learned how to sail, and she won a number of races including the 1960 Adams Cup in Chicago. In 1945, she was one of the first women to graduate in architecture from the University of Washington and one of the first women architects to be licensed in WA. She interned at Moore Massar, Chiarelli & Kirk, and Thomas Grainger Thomas. In 1950 she married George L. Davis Jr., one of her UW classmates. They had two daughters, Katherine and Gail. George Davis inherited a wood-milling business from his father, prompting the couple to experiment extensively with cabinets and storage spaces, and during the 1950s Mary Lund Davis designed build-it-yourself mid-century modern furniture distributed nationally by the Douglas Fir Plywood Association. In the late 1950s, the couple were among the earliest designers to introduce laminates into kitchen cabinets and counters. 

Davis was the first woman architect to be featured in an issue of Architectural Record Houses in 1964.  She died in Rancho Mirage CA and her archives are at the University of Washington Library, including photos by architectural photographers Phyllis Dearborn and Robert Massar. Bio adapted from Wikipedia. Research by Catherine Westergaard Cramer.


 

1950 - The George Davis Sr. House, 3616 North 38th Street, Tacoma WA.  Lund designed a house for her father-in-law that local critics saw as inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright. House was listed as Home of the Week March 1955 in the Tacoma paper. Sold in 1999.


1954 - The Mary Lund Davis Cabin, aka Fircrest House, 137 Del Monte Avenue, Fircrest WA. 800sf. Features prefab panels on post-and-beam framing. Won a 1966 AIA Sunset Western Home Award. Sold in 2018 to Kurt Pelusi.


1955 - Home of the week, published July. Status unknown.


1956 - The Mary Lund Davis and George Davis House, 3801 Alameda Avenue, Tacoma WA. Destroyed.


1956 - Attic renovation. Status unknown.


1956 - The James M. Reynolds House, 12624 Lakeland Avenue, Lakewood WA.  Sold in 2008.


1957 - Model house for Daffodil Society Show, Tacoma WA.  Status unknown.


1961 - Model House, 619 South 119th Street, Tacoma WA.  Status unknown. 


1961 - The Jack and Claire Shaver House, Raft Island near Rosedale WA. Status unknown.


1963 - The Bruce Fuller House, Burley WA.  Based on a plan Davis designed for the Ron Mitchell Corporation, below. 


1963 - The Ron Mitchell Development House, 105 South 114th Street, Tacoma WA. Featured in Architectural Record Houses of 1964. Built by Ron Mitchell. Still standing as of 2020. Status unknown.


1967 - The Leonard Schroeder House, 531 East Ahlvers Road, Port Angeles WA. Sold in 2005 to Keith Curtid.


1969 - The Mary Lund Davis Home, 4713 24th Street NW, Wollochet Bay near Gig Harbor WA. Features a number of ingenious storage solutions and built in furniture, exuding a Danish modern-meets Japanese take on minimalist design. Extensive gardens. She retired not long after the house was built. Pool added around 1974, last photo. Sold in 2016 to Pampas Point LLC.


Sources include: Architectural Record; Arts and Architecture; AIA Journal.