Ann Nelson Stacy, doyenne of Baltimore architecture, dies at 95

Jacques Kelly, Baltimore Sun
·4 min read

Ann Nelson Stacy, a founder of the Baltimore Architecture Foundation who organized tours of Baltimore’s historic neighborhoods, died April 9 of complications from a fall. The former Butchers Hill and Fells Point resident was 95.

She died as a patient in a Gainesville, Florida, hospital. Her stepson, Tim Mason, said she had been in failing health and left Baltimore in 2015 for a warmer climate.

Born Elizabeth Ann Nelson in Detroit, she was a graduate of Eastern Michigan University. She was named executive director of the Michigan American Institute of Architects in 1966 and was the first woman to hold the position. She also had been executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

For many years she was executive director of the American Institute of Architects’ Baltimore chapter and the Maryland Society of Architects. She also headed the Delaware chapter.

She proposed starting a Baltimore Architecture Foundation to preserve and archive architects’ records, documents and photographs.

“Ann was forward-looking and fostered an awareness of architecture in Baltimore,” said Walter Schamu, a friend and architect. “She came with new ideas and was a behind-the-scenes pusher of the profession. She was not an architect, but we called her an architecture junkie. She was just a wonderful character, too.”

Mr. Schamu recalled how Ms. Stacy organized and promoted weekly tours of Mount Vernon and Federal Hill.

“Ann was a determined person with an active personality,” Mr. Mason said. “She was intelligent and was well-read. She loved the arts. She often attended the Baltimore Symphony and the Walters Art Museum.”

David Gleason, an architect and friend, said Ms. Stacy was known for being outspoken and businesslike.

“She was organized and had an agenda to expand and enhance AIA committees. People appreciated her forthright approach. Ann did not mince words,” Mr. Gleason said. “And most of the time she was correct. Within our profession, Ann set the tone for how things should be done.”

She bought a 19th century East Baltimore Street rowhouse, which she filled with family pieces, contemporary designs and art. She was also an entertainer.

“We rescued feral cats in the alley,” said Carolyn Boitnott, a former neighbor. “She was a wonderful neighbor — she got an after-school program through the Girl Scouts started. My husband and I benefited from the fact she loved to cook.”

“Ann was always having dinner parties or gatherings or just Saturday afternoons at her place,” Mr. Gleason said. “She was gregarious and a great cook too. If you went to her house, you had a thousand things to eat.”

In 2005 Sun food writer Rob Kasper wrote of her when she and neighbors began holding a late summer gathering as crops of figs in their backyards ripened.

She called the get-together a “fignic.”

“Figs arrive in torrents,” he wrote. “As for Stacy, when asked about her motivation to organize the first party, she replied, ‘Boredom.'”

“The fignic, she thought, could be a ‘community spark,’ something to get people out of their houses and mingling,” he wrote.

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In the article, Ms. Stacy said: “In the summer, with air conditioning and television, people don’t get out on their porches. The fignic could be a good mixer-upper.”

Mr. Kasper wrote that he took her advice on preparing some figs.

“Using a recipe I got from Stacy at last year’s fignic, I stuffed the figs with goat cheese, then wrapped them in slices of bacon that had been sprinkled with brown sugar and cumin and heated them. Figs like cumin, Stacy had told me,” Mr. Kasper wrote in 2005. “Boy, was she right.”

She later lived in Fells Point and was a board member of the Society for the Preservation of Federal Hill and Fell’s Point and sat on the neighborhood’s Design Review Committee.

After leaving Baltimore she was executive director at AIA Gainesville from 2015 to 2016.

She was awarded an honorary AIA membership.

“Ann Stacy will be remembered as a trailblazer, a visionary, and an advocate for the architectural profession,” said a statement from the American Institute of Architects. “Her unwavering dedication, tireless efforts, and significant contributions have left an indelible mark on the AIA and the architectural community as a whole.”

Survivors include her stepson, Tim Mason of Berkeley, California.