Eleanor S. Brown (born February 12, 1890, Saint Louis, Missouri - died February 1, 1991, New York, New York) was an American interior designer and entrepreneur. Born Eleanor Stockstrom, her father, Louis Stockstrom, was the founder of the American Stove Company. In 1911, she married Drury McMillen, an engineer, and the couple, while maintaining a residence in New York City, traveled extensively, especially to South America.

At the suggestion of a friend, Eleanor McMillen began attending classes at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art (later, Parsons School of Design). She studied interior design in New York and Paris while Frank Alvah Parsons was the school’s president and William M. Odom was director of the interior design and architecture department, the latter becoming a mentor to Eleanor. She graduated in 1920, and with the encouragement of Odom, who would become her informal business partner, borrowed $13,000 from her father to start her own interior design firm, McMillen Inc., in 1924. One of her earliest professional projects was the redecoration of the residence of the American ambassador to Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, and within three years of founding McMillen, Eleanor had paid back her father’s loan.

From 1925, Eleanor was a member of the New York School of Fine and Applied Art’s advisory board and a special lecturer, later becoming a trustee of the institution in 1940 and its Board of Trustees chair from 1942 to 1948. The McMillens divorced in 1932 and Eleanor married architect Archibald M. Brown in 1934.

Among the highlights of Eleanor Brown’s design career are the restoration of the interiors of Blair House, the guest house of the United States President in Washington, DC, in 1963 at the request of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and that of the President of the United States’s private quarters in the White House during the Johnson administration. Over the nearly fifty years that Brown actively directed McMillen Inc., she employed numerous Parsons graduates, as well as Grace Fakes, a faculty member at the time that Brown studied there, and funded scholarships for Parsons students. Brown received the French Legion of Honor in 1951 and the Parsons Medal for Distinguished Achievement in 1956.

In 1976, Brown retired from her duties as president of McMillen, becoming the company’s board chair. Brown died at the age of 100 in Manhattan in 1991.

References

Brown, Erica. “Eleanor Stockstrom McMillen Brown.” 1982. Eleanor S. Brown collection, KA.0162.01, box k_23, folder 7, New School Archives and Special Collections, The New School, New York, New York.

Course Catalogs. “New York School of Fine and Applied Art.” 1918-1941. Parsons School of Design Course Catalog Collection. The New School Archives Digital Collections, New York, New York.

Course Catalogs. “Parsons School of Design.” 1942-1969. Parsons School of Design Course Catalog Collection. The New School Archives Digital Collections, New York, New York.

Marriage and divorce documents. 1932-1934. Eleanor S. Brown collection, KA.0162.01, box k_23, folder 11, New School Archives and Special Collections, The New School, New York, New York. McMillen, Michael. “Eleanor Stockstrom Brown—Some Reminiscences.” October 8, 1998. Eleanor S. Brown collection, KA.0162.01, box k_23, folder 8, New School Archives and Special Collections, The New School, New York, New York.

“Salute to Eleanor S. Brown.” Parsons School of Design Alumni Bulletin, XXXII (November 1958) 1-2. https://digital.archives.newschool.edu/index.php/Detail/objects/NS050601_PSDAlum_195811.

“The School Year.” Parsons School of Design Alumni Bulletin, XVI (August 1948) 4. https://digital.archives.newschool.edu/index.php/Detail/objects/NS050601_PSDAlum_194808.

Vogel, Carol. “Eleanor S. Brown is Dead at 100; Interior Designer Pioneered Field.” New York Times, February 1, 1991. https://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/01/obituaries/eleanor-brown-is-dead-at-100-interior-designer-pioneered-field.html.