Thomas Holt (1835–1889) was an American architect active in the second half of the 19th century.

Life and career

Holt was born in Bethel, Maine, in 1835, to carpenter Jacob D. Holt (1807–1865) and Hannah White (1794–1892).''Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts'', Volume 3, William Frederick Adams (1910), p. 1760 He graduated from

Gould Academy Gould Academy is a private, co-ed, college preparatory boarding and day school founded in 1836 and located in the small town of Bethel, Maine, United States. History In 1835 citizens of Bethel, Maine, formed an organization as trustees of the ...

in Bethel. It is believed that Holt established a firm with contractors Moses C. Foster and Cyrus Buck, but had started out on his own by 1857, for he was advertising his services in the ''Bethel Courier''. Buck died in the Civil War in 1865, aged 24 or 25, while fighting for the Union Army. In 1860, Holt designed the

Central Parish Church The First Universalist Church, also once known as the Central Parish Church, is a historic church at 97 Main Street in Yarmouth, Maine. Built in 1859–60, it is an excellent local example of religious Italianate architecture, and one of the s ...

in Yarmouth, Maine, which still stands on the town's Main Street, at the head of Portland Street, and is now on the National Register of Historic Places. It is one of only four surviving examples of his work on churches in Maine. Between 1871 and 1876, he served as chief engineer of the Maine Central Railroad, for whom he designed bridges and buildings, in addition to undertaking surveys for potential new lines. In 1876, he moved to California, where he continued in architecture but also branched into mining and lumbering.

Death

Holt died while in the western United States on November 9, 1889, with sources saying it was either after catching pneumonia in a blizzard in Nevada or while in San Francisco, California."The Kennebec Historical Society's September Public Presentation: 'Thomas Holt, Architect and Chief Engineer of the Maine Central Railroad'"
- Maine Museums

Selected notable works

, Yarmouth, Maine (1860) * Portland and Kennebec railway station,

Augusta, Maine Augusta is the capital of the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat of Kennebec County. The city's population was 18,899 at the 2020 census, making it the tenth-most populous city in Maine, and third-least populous state capital in the Un ...

(1865)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holt, Thomas 1835 births 1889 deaths 19th-century American architects Architects from Maine People from Bethel, Maine