Theodate Pope Riddle

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Theodate Pope Riddle (February 3, 1867- August 30, 1946) was a well-known American architect.

Born Effie Brooks Pope in Salem, Ohio, she was the only child of Alfred Atmore Pope and his wife Ada Lunette Brooks. When Effie was 19, she changed her name into Theodate in honor of her grandmother Theodate Stackpole. She was a graduate of Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut. She designed the Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington and designed and founded the famous Avon Old Farms School in Avon, as well as Westover School. Among her other well known architectural commissions was the 1920 reconstruction of the birthplace in New York City of former President Theodore Roosevelt.

Theodate Pope was a member of the Architectural League of New York, the Archaeological Institute of America, and the Mediaeval Academy of America.

On May 1, 1915, she boarded the British ocean liner Lusitania as a First Class passenger, together with her maid Miss Emily Robinson and Professor Edwin W. Friend, a fellow Farmington resident. When the ship was torpedoed by a German submarine on May 7, Theodate and Edwin were just going for a walk on the boat deck. They almost got into one of the lifeboats but before stepping inside, the couple watched the boat being thrown up into the air. They decided it was a better idea to jump off the deck. Theodate turned to her maid saying "Come, Robinson" and then jumped. When she rose to the surface, both Emily and Edwin had disapperead. Instead, she found herself caught in a mob of screaming, struggling people trying to keep themselves alive. After almost being drowned by a panicked man, Theodate soon lost consciousness. She woke up frozen, bruised and exhausted on one of the rescue ships. Neither her maid nor Professor Friend had survived the tragedy.

On May 6, 1916 Theodate married 52-year-old John Wallace Riddle who was a former Russian diplomat. She died on August 30, 1946 at her home in Farmington.

In 2003, University of Hartford professor Sandra L. Katz told her story in her book: "Dearest of Geniuses: A Life of Theodate Pope Riddle."