By Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr.
Elmer I. Thomas (1863-1895) was born in Lewiston in 1863. His father Sylvanus D. Thomas was a brick mason and building contractor, who was responsible for the construction of many buildings in Lewiston and Auburn. Elmer Thomas graduated from Lewiston High School in 1882 and attended Wesleyan University for two years. At the end of his sophomore year in 1884, he decided to become an architect and returned to Lewiston to train as a draftsman with George M. Coombs. After four years in Coombs’s office, Thomas enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he attended architecture classes in 1888 and 1889. His studies at MIT were followed by travel in England and Europe in 1890 and 1891.
Upon returning to Maine in 1891, Elmer Thomas opened his own practice, first in Auburn and then in Lewiston. Between 1891 and his untimely death in 1895 at the age of thirty-two, he was active in designing homes, churches, public buildings, and business blocks. While much of his work was centered in the Lewiston-Auburn area, he received commissions from throughput the state. Thomas favored the Shingle Style and the Colonial Revival for his houses and the Romanesque Revival for his public and commercial buildings. Notable examples of his work include the Camden Opera House (1893), the Atkinson Block in Lewiston (1892), the Syndicate Block in Rockland (1892), Brunswick High School (1892), and the McLain School in Rockland (1892).
Following Thomas’ death on Christmas Day, 1895, the Lewiston Evening Journal paid him the following tribute on January 2, 1896:
As an architect he had been successful, and he had before him a bright future. He designed several large public buildings in the state and was building a business both at home and throughout the state. His skill as an architect was recognized far and wide, and he was looked upon as a rising young businessman.
After Elmer Thomas’ death, his chief draftsman, William R. Miller, continued his practice. The twenty-two sets of ink on linen drawings by Thomas at the Maine Historical Society were preserved by the successor firms of Miller and Mayo; Miller, Mayo, and Beal; and Beal, DePeter, and Ward.