Mary Louise Schmidt was one of the first women in Los Angeles to find success within the business of architecture when she arrived in the city in 1911 from Mexico by way of Denver and St. Louis. Though she would never design anything herself, Schmidt’s many contributions to the city’s experimental architecture scene in its formative period as a businesswoman and organizer—particularly through the creation of the landmark 1936 California House and Garden Exhibition and later the Building Center, a design resource hub, in 1957—positions her in a unique historic role all her own that has since been superseded by those of her male counterparts, including journalist and historic preservation advocate Charles F. Lummis and John Entenza, editor of the journal Arts & Architecture, whose respective careers have been extolled throughout the decades.

Through a fellowship from the local architecture preservation nonprofit Friends of Residential Treasures: Los Angeles (FORT: LA), historic preservationist Jenna Snow and historian Dr. Andrea Thabet have banded together to return Schmidt’s legacy to the city’s complex history.