Emily Helen Butterfield was the first female architect licensed in the state of Michigan.

She took an interest in architecture at an early age, and was mentored by her father, architect Wells D. Butterfield. After graduating from Central High School in Detroit (today, the building is known as Old Main). In her younger years, she ran with Detroit's art community, including artists William B. Conely, Percy Ives and Robert Hopkins, whom her father had introduced to her.

She graduated from Syracuse University's architecture program in 1907 and went into business with her father. She practiced architecture until 1930, either designing or co-designing more than two dozen Methodist churches, several schools and a number of houses.

Butterfield also was a founder of the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority, as well as a co-founder of the Detroit Business and Professional Women's Club.

She died at age 73 on March 22, 1958, at her home in Algonac, Mich.