Born in Girard, Illinois, Mary Anne Crawford graduated from MIT's Department of Architecture in 1929, at the beginning of the depression. She continued on at MIT and received her Masters Degree the following year, but was unable to find work in her field until the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was established in 1933. While with the WPA, Crawford made measured drawings of historic buildings for the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and worked on a variety of built projects. After the depression, Crawford was employed by a number of architectural firms in the Chicago area before opening her own practice in the late 1940s. Most of her independent work has been interior remodeling, residential construction and renovations.