Career
On 30 October 1916, she became the first female to be accepted into an institute of architects in Australia. This followed the rejection of earlier female applicants, including Florence Taylor in 1907, on the grounds of being female. Born 16 July 1893 at The Folly, Lakes Creek, central Queensland, Beatrice Hutton was the second of seven children of a grazier and surveyor Falconer West Hutton and Clara Susannah, née Holt.
Her early life was spent on the family property at Comet Down.
Drought forced the family off the land in 1902 and they moved to Rockhampton in 1906. Beatrice Hutton did not undertake any formal architectural education, but began her training in Rockhampton firstly, in her father’s surveying office, and later, as an articled pupil in Hocking and Palmer, the architectural office of Edwin Morton Hockings.
She became the firm"s chief draftsperson during Hockings" war service. Her career progressed following her move to Sydney in late 1916, where her work focussed mainly on residential projects, as well as the New South Wales Masonic Club building (1927) and Sirius House in Macquarie Place.
Hutton believed that women had a valuable contribution to make in the design of the residential realm, “in the design of homes suited to climate and equipped for modern living”, and she is best known for her residential work, in Rockhampton and Sydney.
After the passing of her father, Hutton focussed on her interest in the arts and crafts, exhibiting and selling her work in a studio she opened with her mother, called ‘The Glory Box’, in Brisbane. In her later life, she continued to develop her craft work, with a brief return to architecture practice in 1940. Hutton died on 7 October 1990, and is commemorated by the Beatrice Hutton Award for Commercial Architecture, given by the Australian Institute of Architects Queensland Chapter, the Beatrice Hutton room in the Rockhampton Art Gallery, and the Beatrice Hutton House of Capricornia College, in Central Queensland University, Rockhampton.
J. West. Dalzell residence, Rockhampton (c1916);
Myles House, Rockhampton (c 1919)
H Rudd house, Rockhampton (1923)
"Ngarita", Bellevue Hill, Sydney (1923) – attributed to architect James Vicars (Hutton’s uncle’s brother)
Brecknell Street, Rockhampton (1926)
NSW Masonic Club building (1927)
Sirius House, Macquarie Place.
