On Marburg Avenue in Oakley today there stands a house built in 1907. The house, like others in that neighborhood, appears to be well kept and still in very good condition after more than a century. There is nothing obvious to distinguish the house from any other along that stretch of Marburg Avenue. There is no clue that this house was built entirely by a woman.
From Cincinnati Post 10 June 1907, Image extracted from microfilm by Greg Hand
Her name was Sarah Pollock and she was around 40 when she single-handedly built the house on what was then called McCormick Road. She was inspired to build her own house by herself because she had survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Sarah told the Cincinnati Post [10 January 1907]:
“Since passing through that terrible ordeal you could never get me to live in a house that I did not know was properly built. My house is put up to stay. I wouldn’t be afraid to live in it during the heaviest earthquake.”
Sarah was married to Hiram Pollock, who was an engineer at a company that manufactured industrial scales. He helped out somewhat during construction, but readily conceded to the Post that Sarah was the boss.
“Mrs. Pollock . . . managed the purchase of the half-acre lot where their home will stand; she drew the plans for the house, and submitted them to the Building Inspector for his approval; she purchased the cement for the concrete foundation and helped to lay the foundation; she selected the lumber, and is now putting it into place, and she is going to put the paint on the house, too. The only things she will not do will be to put on the plastering and to fit the plumbing.”
And, Sarah built this house while wearing an ankle-length skirt. The Post reporter suggested that perhaps bloomers might have been more appropriate attire for a construction site, but Sarah would have none of it:
“A good old skirt and waist are good enough for me.”
Although the Post called Sarah “the only woman carpenter and house builder in Ohio,” that was certainly not the case. Just a few months after checking in with Sarah Pollock, the Post profiled Carrie Wiley. Although not as hands-on as Mrs. Pollock, Mrs. Wiley managed the construction company she inherited when her husband died in the spring of 1907. At Joseph R. Wiley’s demise, he was under contract to build seven houses in the Hyde Park vicinity and those houses were in various stages of completion. His widow had to go to probate court to get permission to allow her to finish the jobs. She told the Post that she had completed those projects and now had ten buildings under construction, including a couple of apartment units.
Carolyn Levina McGowen Wiley, known as Carrie, was described by the Post as:
“ . . . a little woman, who fairly bristles with business-like activity. She talks rapidly, but only when necessary. Apparently she is one of the very few persons who actually think twice before they speak.”
From Cincinnati Post 10 August 1910, Image extracted from microfilm by Greg Hand
Throughout her husband’s illness, Carrie Wiley oversaw some of the construction projects he had started. Consequently, she had some experience managing gangs of workmen. She was on-site frequently and did not have to remind her workers that she was the boss.
“She not only manages the business affairs of her calling, but goes out on the job and personally inspects the work. If a workman is doing a bad job, she tells him so. If things are not running smoothly, she finds out why. If she thinks it advisable she adds a word of praise and cheer now and then, for she believes it pays to show appreciation of loyalty and honest service.”
Carrie found nothing at all unusual about a woman managing a construction company. She described her role as a necessary occupation to provide for her four children.
“Why shouldn’t there be woman contractors? Women have entered many other fields of industry. There are even women engineers. In the professions, women are quite numerous. So when it fell to my lot to take up the work my dead husband left off, I resolved not only to do it as best I could, but to learn a little more each day. I have got to the point now where I have actually been turning down work.”
Another Cincinnati woman who took on the job of general contractor after her husband’s funeral was Elizabeth Moser. Born in Germany, Mrs. Moser emigrated to the United States and married Joseph Moser in 1880. With him, she had seven children. When Joseph died in 1910, Mrs. Moser inherited his construction company and ran it until her death in 1928. It appears that business was good. Mrs. Moser and her daughter indulged in an extensive tour of Germany in 1923.
When Berl R. Davis celebrated a successful first year in business as a building contractor in 1930, the Cincinnati Post declared her to be “Cincinnati’s only woman building contractor.” By then Sarah Pollock, Carrie Wiley and Elizabeth Moser were either retired or dead, so the field was open for Mrs. Davis.
The 33-year-old contractor had quite a career before opening her own business in 1929. Born in Kentucky, she was widowed at 23 with an infant son. She made headlines in 1923 when she became the first woman to apply for a Cincinnati taxicab license.
When Mary Emery decided to create the brand-new town of Mariemont, Mrs. Davis opened a field kitchen for the construction crews engaged in building the city. One of her customers was the project manager, Colonel Leo Townsend. He taught Mrs. Davis to read blueprints and discussed the details of the project with her. Once the new city was built and inhabited, Mrs. Davis opened a tearoom that quickly failed, so she decided to go into housebuilding.
She formed a partnership with an existing contractor and the company successfully built and sold 40 homes. Dissolving the partnership and striking out on her own, Mrs. Davis constructed a dozen homes during her first year in business and had three more in progress when she celebrated her first anniversary.
By the 1960s, houses designed or built by woman contractors boasted a strong selling point, and that fact was trumpeted in the real estate advertisements.
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