Mrs Howard Memorial Hall and Girls' Club Norton Way South Letchworth

The hall was built as a memorial to Ebenezer Howard’s first wife, Elizabeth Ann Bills, who died shortly before she was to move to the Garden City. The design by Parker and Unwin is said to be based on Edgar Wood’s Church of Christ Scientist in Manchester. In 1907, an extension, paid for by Juliet Reckitt (who built the Howgills Friends Meeting House in Letchworth), provided space for the new Girls Club where Letchworth girls could meet and learn skills such as dressmaking, cooking and crafts.

LETCHWORTH GARDEN CITY – At Letchworth Garden City on Saturday afternoon, in the presence of many friends of the movement, the Mrs Howard Memorial Hall was opened. This hall, which is situated in Howard Park, has been built at a cost of £1,100 by the women who were associated with the late Mrs Ebenezer Howard in propagating the principles enunciated by Mr Howard in his work. “Garden Cities of Tomorrow,” which started the Garden City Movement. The hall will be the centre of the social and educational life of the new city for some little time to come, and it is so planed that when the occasion arises it can be easily extended. It is designed in harmony with the old Gothic buildings of the district by Mr Raymond Unwin, the estate architect. [Times 6 April 1906 p14]

In the Howard Hall and Girls' Club at Letchworth we have an instance of small public buildings designed for differing purposes, but arranged to form one group, each building completing the other, and this accomplished by the adoption of the courtyard idea.[B Parker page 407].

Reference    Times 6 April 1906 page 14 – opening
Reference    The Craftsman  Volume XXI Number 4, January  1912, pages 395-409. Barry Parker Modern country homes in England: number twenty-one,
Illustration    Howard Hall: Exterior, The Craftsman Jan 1912 p402
Illustration    Howard Hall: Sketch of Court; Floor plan, The Craftsman Jan 1912 p 403
Reference    The Craftsman  Volume XXII Number 4 July 1912 pages 425-434.     Barry Parker Modern country homes in England: number twenty-six
Illustration    Howard Hall Letchworth Two interior views Craftsman July 1912 p430