A Woman Builder for the Women’s Station: Elise Bahnson, Denmark’s First Woman Architect

In 1929, the Danish Missionary Society assigned a missionary to Siuyen who was also the architect that would build the women’s station for which Anna Bøg had so zealously raised the funds during her 1926-1927 furlough in the United States. That missionary architect was a woman -- Elise Marie Bahnson (1886-1968).

As a result of their collaboration in Siuyen, a friendship was formed between Anna Bøg and Elise Bahnson that would endure for the rest of their lives. Because of the long and close association of the two women, we introduce Bahnson at some length here:

Born September 20, 1886, Elise Bahnson was Denmark’s first woman architect. Bahnson was the first woman bricklayer’s apprentice in Denmark and she enrolled in the first class at the School of Architecture of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts to which women could be admitted. After graduating from the School of Architecture in 1916, Bahnson worked as an independent architect in Copenhagen. (1) During that time, she also participated in parish work at Frederiksberg Parish. (2)

In June, 1921, Bahnson and four other Danish architects formed the Circle of Architects, a Christian professional society. Among Bahnson’s friends were missionaries Rev. Johannes Rasmussen and his wife Ellen Plum Rasmussen. The Rasmussens were involved in plans to build a trade school for blind girls in Mukden in Manchuria and thought Danish architect Johannes Prip-Møller would be a good choice to oversee the project. (3)

The Circle of Architects took on the mission of raising the funds to send Prip-Møller to China under the auspices of D.M.S. They promised to provide 20,000 Danish crowns to cover the living expenses of Prip-Møller and his wife for three years as well as the couples’ voyage to China, and their stay in the language school in Peking. The idea was that Prip-Møller would work on a fee basis as an architect for the various missionary societies in China and also find private work doing projects for Europeans and Chinese. The hope was that by the end of the three years Prip-Møller would be able to support himself. (4)

According to Prip-Møller’s biographer, Tobias Faber, while Bahnson was still working as an independent architect in Denmark, she wished to “travel to China as a missionary and simultaneously make use of her knowledge of building in her missionary service.” Faber said, “[Bahnson] would have gone to China as a missionary herself, but held back when Prip-Møller left.” (5)

The Prip-Møllers left for China in August, 1921. After language training, Prip-Møller worked on various private and church-related projects, the most significant of which were the School for Blind Girls (1922-1924) and the head office of the Young Men’s Christian Association (1923-1926), both in Mukden. He also constructed a large church in Harbin. (6) Prip-Moller found the work of supervising his projects frustrating, however, because of the lack of skilled workmen and the need for his designs to be followed with precision. (7)

Since Prip-Møller needed help, Bahnson left for China on September 4, 1925, to assist him in his drafting room in Mukden. By June, 1926, however, Prip-Møller was discouraged and not getting much work. Prip-Møller wrote to the Danish Missionary Society that Bahnson could not only do the work he was doing but she could manage things better than he could. (8)

Prip-Møller went back to Denmark in early 1927 and Bahnson finished his projects in Mukden.* On May 1, 1927, Bahnson became part of the Danish Missionary Society and from 1927 to 1929 served as a missionary at the School for Blind Girls at Mukden while continuing her architectural work. Prip-Møller’s assessment of Bahnson proved accurate in that she went on not only to construct the women’s mission station in Siuyen but also to design and construct numerous churches and other architectural projects. (9) This included churches at Pikou, Dairen, Feng-Huang-Ch’eng, and Sui-Hua, as well as restorations at Antung and Siuyen, and an extension at Hsin-Ching. (10)

Faber’s admiration for Bahnson is apparent:

“Earlier, [Bahnson] had said she would stop doing architectural work . . . in order to devote herself to missionary work; and now she had seen how difficult it was to combine the two occupations. Nevertheless, Elise Bahnson was capable of doing it. She worked as a missionary at the school for blind girls, at the same time as she attended to several building operations. Between 1930 and 1940, … she designed and built no less than 8 churches.” (11)

The Danish Missionary Society also praised Bahnson. Writing in 1937 for the D.M.S., Gullach-Jensen stated, “These last years, during which the construction of churches in the mission field has really expanded, Miss Bahnson, thanks to her skilled education, has been of great help to the mission board and the missionaries in helping to construct and renovate buildings, especially churches. (12)

As Prip-Møller had before her, however, Bahnson found that the local workmen did not always follow her designs. In 1937, Bahnson related:

“During the year I have been helping with the drawing of churches in Feng-Huang-Ch’eng, Antung, Dairen and Sui-Hua. The drawings were not always followed as made, for example in Feng-Huang-Ch’eng. For D.M.S. I have also helped plan buildings, the Danish School, the alterations of the mission station in Antung and the extension in Hsin-Ching.” (13)

Much more will be said about Elise Bahnson in future excerpts.

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*After some months, Prip-Møller returned to China on his own and devoted himself primarily to studying the Buddhist monasteries. This resulted in a significant published work entitled Chinese Buddhist Monasteries. Also, in 1929, outside Nanking, Prip-Møller discovered the oldest Christian church in China, which had been built in 1324 by the Franciscans, a Roman Catholic religious order, and later incorporated into a Buddhist monastery.

Referenced sources:
(1) Faber, Tobias; Johannes Prip-Møller: A Danish Architect in China (Hong Kong, 1994), p. 11.
(2) Gullach-Jensen, Thyra; D.M.S. i Manchuriet (Copenhagen, 1937), p. 34.
(3) Faber, op. cit.,, pp. 11-13.
(4) Faber, op. cit., pp. 12-14.
(5) Faber, op. cit., p. 11, 25.
(6) Faber, op.cit., pp. 21-24.
(7) Faber, op.cit., pp. 26.
(8) Faber, op.cit.,, pp. 25-27
(9) Faber, op.cit., pp. 26-27
(10) Det Danske Missionsselskabs Arsberetning for 1936, pp. 136-138; 1937, p. 132.
(11) Faber, op.cit., p. 27.
(12) Gullach-Jensen, op. cit., p. 34.
(13) Det Danske Missionsselskabs Arsberetning for 1937, p. 132.

Image:
Portrait of Elise Bahnson; Dansk Missionsblad, Vol. 100, Nr. 41, October 11, 1933, p. 600.
All D.M.S. items used with permission.