Emily Helen Butterfield

In 1903 Butterfield was accepted into the architecture program at Syracuse University in New York. After graduation, in 1907 she became the first licensed woman architect in the state of Michigan. With her father, in 1917 she established the firm of Butterfield and Butterfield. The firm specialized in church architecture. It led the transformation of churches, especially Methodist, from Sunday meeting halls to centers of daily community and social activities. She practiced architecture in Detroit and Pontiac, designing 26 churches throughout the state. Her other projects included factories, summer camps, stores, schools, and homes.

Butterfield was among the three co-founders, along with publisher Emma Spoor, and manufacturer's agent Grace Wright, of the Detroit Business Women's Club in 1912. It was the first professional women's club in the nation and Butterfield served as founding president.

She designed the chapter houses of Alpha Gamma Delta at Syracuse and Michigan State universities. When the fraternity established a summer camp (the "Alpha Gamma Delta Summer Camp Lodges") for underprivileged children in Jackson, Michigan in 1920, Butterfield was the architect of the camp. She also served as camp manager until 1924. She served as editor of the Alpha Gamma Delta Quarterly, the fraternity publication, for 7 years.

Butterfield and her father shared a love for, and studied the art of, heraldry. Following creating many heraldry designs for fraternal organizations, she also wrote College Fraternity Heraldry, published in 1931.

Butterfield retired to Neebish Island, where she served as postmaster during World War II. She died on March 22, 1958 and was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame for her work in the field of architecture in 1990.

Butterfield had a strong influence on her sorority and Greek life, as noted in the 2004 Alpha Gamma Delta Centennial Keynote Address: