After graduating from Girls High School in 1891, she studied Beaux-Arts classicism at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, and in 1899 she earned a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was one of three women in her class.
She was involved in the decision to require architects practicing in Georgia to be licensed, a rule which went into effect in 1920.
She criticized the Modernist style of architecture as a mere fad, believing instead in the classic traditions of good style and high-quality materials.