William G. and Mary Foster House, 1870

324 Catherine Street

William G. and Mary Foster House, 1870

This two-and-a-half story brick building is an austere version of the Italianate style, lacking the more exuberant arched window hoods, bay windows and belvederes commonly found in this style. Only a few of the characteristic elements can be found such as the paired carved brackets under the eaves and the half-size "eyebrow" windows on the third floor. Although the porch is not original and the windows have been replaced, the exterior is basically little changed, including the classical doorway with transom and sidelights.

The house was built for attorney William G. Foster and his wife Mary. When Foster died suddenly in 1873, his widow entered the University of Michigan Law School and, in 1876 at the age of 51, obtained her law degree with high honors. She opened her practice in this house as Ann Arbor's first female lawyer.

Mary Lowry Foster was a native of New York State who had come to Michigan at the age of one and grown up in Lodi Township. Hers is the only portrait of a woman in her own right (and not as a wife) in the 1881 History of Washtenaw County Described in this history as ranking "high among the profession," Foster wrote the next year that she "ignores the base, pities the ignorant & commits all to the great Law Giver" and that her home was "a place the very atmosphere of which is freedom to think, act, and plan wisely."

Mary Foster was active in the Women's Christian Temperance Union and a member of several pioneer societies. In 1879 she read a paper in Lansing entitled "Echoes of the Past," that was reprinted in 1880 by the Pioneer Society of Michigan. Since 1988 the Women Lawyers Association has presented an annual "Mary Foster Award" in memory of this remarkable woman. Today her home is a rental property with most of the tenants being students at the University of Michigan.