User:Melody Pogula/New sandbox

Mary Elizabeth Sharpe is a philanthropist, businesswoman, and self-taught architect who is best known for her work on Brown University's campus in Providence, RI. She owned a candy-making business and a tea room as well as writing two books. Later in her life, she married Henry Dexter Sharpe and settled down in Providence, RI where she closed her businesses and explored gardening in the open areas of Providence. She became a large member of the Garden Club of American and created an annual tree fund.

Early Life
Sharpe was born in Syracuse, New York, on October 23, 1885, to William E. G. Evans and Fanny Elizabeth Evans. At a young age, Sharpe lost her father, and as a way to help her mother and three sisters, she began making candies to sell. At age 13, after selling candy to friends and townspeople, the knowledge of Sharpe's candy spread throughout the city as "Mary Elizabeth's Candy". The business grew, and she moved to New York and created "Mary Elizabeth Ltd of New York" and two tea rooms in Boston and Newport.

World War I
At the start of WWI Sharpe joined the US Food Administration and later joined the Red Cross in Paris to check over the U.S. Central Diet kitchen. Sharpe, also during this time, went on to write two books. One detailed her candy and chocolate recipes and techniques while the other had several wartime recipes collected from the war.

Post-War
After the war, Sharpe returned home to her businesses, and in 1920, she married Henry Dexter Sharpe. She met Henry Dexter Sharpe on a horseback-riding trip before the war and they both married and settled down in Providence, RI near the Sharpe family's manufacturing company: Brown & Sharpe.