Frances GABe

Frances Gabe is an American artist and inventor perhaps most well known for designing and building the Self-Cleaning House in Newberg, Oregon. She built her own model for $15,000 and was estimated to go on the market in 1984 for about $50,000.

Life

Born in 1915 as Frances Grace Arnholtz on a ranch near Boise, Idaho, she was a self-proclaimed "unusual" person. She either spent much of her time alone with her building contractor father, Frederick, and would accompany him on jobs. It wasn't until after her divorce from Herbert Grant Bateson that she changed her surname to GABe. The actual self-cleaning house was granted a patent from the U.S. government, along with 25 additional patents for individual inventions unique to the house totaling to 68 patents. Her psychiatrist once remarked, "You're many times over a genius. The world belongs to you, and don't let anyone tell you anything different." She was once ridiculed for her invention but now architects and builders now agree about it being "functional and attractive". The Self-Cleaning House has fascinated Harvard University researchers and humorist Erma Bombeck who said she should be added to Mount Rushmore while Fred Amran, the professor of creativity at University of Minnesota, called her patent "incredibly complex, the longest I've ever read" and the Self-Cleaning House appeared on Ripley's Believe It or Not!. The house was also display in 2002 and 2003 at The Women's Museum in Dallas, Texas where it was a popular exhibit. She and the house were also featured in People magazine in 1982.