Megowen, born in Alton, Ill., graduated from Shurtleff College in 1918. The teacher, Vera Megowen, was returning to the school for a third year. Everybody interested in the inner workings of the kitchen, even mere men.” This was the opening of a 1924 announcement for a free cooking school held in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “Housewives! Brides! Prospective Brides! Mothers!. Vera Maud Megowen (1894-1987), Alton High School yearbook, 1912. From 1926 to 1927, White designed five homes on Sheridan Road in Winnetka, using the same principles. A few years later, White was still fascinated by designing homes that “reduce the labor in a home to a minimum,” as she said. The house, which cost $12,000, was not White’s last design. “I’m just trying out a few ideas,” White said. The ultra-modern design featured a gas furnace, with heat regulated by thermostats “scattered” throughout an automatic clothes washer lots of large glass windows (for maximum light and warmth) waxed Italian stone and linoleum floors a rooftop sleeping area and an open floor plan, among other highlights. White explained that she designed the home to eliminate housework, janitors and maids. The news made national headlines: A woman (!), Leah White (1873-1945), had designed an “automatic home.” The house (still extant) is located at 1002 Judson Ave., at Lee Street, in Evanston. Leah White’s “Automatic Home” in Evanston, Illinois, Arizona Republican, August 24, 1920.
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