Born: 7/26/1881, Died: 3/7/1979

Helena Augusta Lukens is one of very few female architects working in Philadelphia before World War II. The daughter of Leila (Kerr) and Charles Enos Lukens, she received her first training in music, attending the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music in the piano and launching a career as a music teacher before she turned to architecture. In 1908 she received her Diploma in Architecture from Drexel Institute, graduating in the same class as Benjamin Lackey of Philadelphia and Edward Canby May of Wilmington, DE. She then entered the office of Morris & Erskine, where she remained until 1925. Lukens was active in the Lansdowne Meeting, Society of Friends, and was a direct descendant of Thomas Fletcher, a Philadelphia jeweler and silversmith.

Written by Sandra L. Tatman.