Biographical Note

Architect of Hadlyme, Connecticut; born in Red Bud, Illinois (1899). Pfeiffer was one of the first women to study architecture at the University of Illinois--Urbana/Champaign where she graduated first in her class (1923). She was also the first woman to win the American Institute of Architects School Medal.

She began her 55 year career as an architect at the Chicago firm Tallmadge and Watson. After a year she returned to the University of Illinois for graduate work. In 1925, she moved to New York City where she worked with the Harrie T. Lindberg architectural firm until she set up practice in Hadlyme with her husband, Homer F. Pfeiffer, in the early 1930s.

Their practice was mainly residential focusing on design and renovations in the area surrounding Hadlyme, Connecticut. In 1940, Homer joined the Navy to supervise the construction of naval housing, hospitals, and other facilities while Alberta continued their firm's work on her own. After the war Alberta established her own private practice and flourished in the post-war boom recalling during the 1950s and 1960s she was never without a project and often had as many as ten designs on her desk at the same time. At her retirement in 1977 she had designed and/or renovated over 250 projects.

She was active in many professional and community groups joining the Society of Connecticut Craftsmen (1935) and a lifetime member of the Connecticut Society of Architects. Pfeiffer was a member of the local board of Education and the Zoning Board, and was involved in mental health issues and activities.

Pfeiffer died in 1994.

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