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Griffith Thomas 
Summary
Griffith Thomas (1820—1879) was an American architect. He partnered with his father, Thomas Thomas, at the architecture firm of T. Thomas and Son.[1]
Architecture writer Christopher Gray called him "one of the most prolific architects of the period" (the mid-19th century).[2] The American Institute of Architects in 1908 called him "the most fashionable architect of his generation."[3] Many of his notable buildings are found in New York City.
Griffith Thomas was interred at Green-Wood Cemetery, in Brooklyn, New York in 1879. His own marble monument is simple in comparison to the ornate structures he built during his lifetime.[4]
Selected works edit
- St. Nicholas Hotel (1853), 507-27 Broadway, demolished. 1,000 guest rooms.
- Fifth Avenue Hotel (1859), 200 Fifth Avenue (23rd to 24th Streets), demolished. Replaced by Robert Maynicke's Toy Center Building, 1909.
- Astor Library (1859 expansion), 444 Lafayette Street. Now the center section of The Public Theater.
- Madison Avenue Baptist Church (1859).[5] Demolished.
- Mortimer Building (1862), 935-939 Broadway (159 Fifth Avenue) Flatiron House. Now Restoration Hardware Building .
- National Park Bank Building (1868, altered 1905), 214-18 Broadway, demolished 1961
- Pike's Opera House (1868), 8th Avenue & 23rd Street, later renamed the Grand Opera House, demolished 1960.[1][6]
- Arnold Constable Building (1869), Broadway & West 19th Street
- New York Life Insurance Building (1870), 346 Broadway. Altered and expanded by McKim, Mead & White, 1904.
- 12 East 53rd Street (1872). Altered by Raleigh C. Gildersleeve, 1906.
- Gunther Building (1872), 469-75 Broome Street, cast-iron facade.[7]
- Hotel Bristol (1875), 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue, New York City, for the former shipbuilder and financier William H. Webb, demolished.[8][9]
- Kimball House Hotel (1870) Entire city block between Whitehall (now Peachtree) Street, Decatur Street, Pryor Street, and Wall Street, Atlanta, [8] with William Parkins, burned 1883. 500 rooms, early use of elevators and central heating, 4-story lobby, 16 shops.[10]
Notes edit
- ^ a b "Correspondence: The Death of Mr. Griffith Thomas", The American Architect and Building News Vol. 5 No. 161, January 25, 1879, pp. 29–30. Online at Google Books.
- ^ "On Canal Street, a Sooty Survivor of a Grander Time", by Christopher Gray, New York Times, March 26, 2006.
- ^ Architectural Record No. 24, American Institute of Architects, p. 303.
- ^ Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery: New York's Buried Treasure, by Jeffrey I. Richman
- ^ "New York Builders and Architects," The Building News 5 (May 20, 1859): 461
- ^ "A New Metropolitan Theater—Pike's Opera House", New-York Tribune, July 1, 1867, p. 4, col. 6
- ^ New York: A Guide to the Metropolis, by Gerard R. Wolfe
- ^ "William H. Webb Dead" (PDF). New York Times. 31 October 1899. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
- ^ The American Architect and Building News. 31 May 1879. p. 175. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
- ^ Funderburke, Richard D. "William H. Parkins (1836-1894)." New Georgia Encyclopedia. 17 July 2013. Web. 18 July 2019.
External links edit
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Griffith Thomas.
- "The Gunther Building", New York Architectural Images.
- "Arnold Constable Building", by edenpictures, on Flickr.
- "The Old Astor Library, Now the Joseph Papp Public Theater", by Christopher Gray, New York Times, February 10, 2002.
- "Former New York Life Insurance Company Building", The Masterpiece Next Door, archived by Internet Archive's Wayback Machine on December 7, 2008.
- Green-Wood Cemetery Burial Search