Thomas White Lamb (May 5, 1870 – February 26, 1942) was a Scottish-born, American
architect. He was one of the foremost designers of
theaters and
cinemas of the 20th century.
Career
Born in
Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom, Thomas W. Lamb came to the United States at the age of 12. He studied architecture at
Cooper Union in New York and initially worked for the City of New York as an inspector. His architecture firm, Thomas W. Lamb, Inc., was located at 36 West 40th Street in Manhattan, New York.[1]
Lamb achieved recognition as one of the leading architects of the boom in
movie theater construction of the 1910s and 1920s[citation needed]. Particularly associated with the
Fox Theatres,
Loew's Theatres and
Keith-Albee chains of vaudeville and film theaters, Lamb was instrumental in establishing and developing the design and construction of the large, lavishly decorated theaters, known as "
movie palaces", as showcases for the films of the emerging Hollywood studios.[citation needed]
As early as 1904, Lamb was credited with renovations for two existing theaters in the city: the
Weber and Fields' Broadway Music Hall at 1215 Broadway, and the Dewey Theater on East 14th Street, the latter owned by Tammany Hall figure
"Big Tim" Sullivan.[2] His first complete theater design was the City Theatre, built on 14th Street in 1909 for film mogul
William Fox. His designs for the 1914
Mark Strand Theatre, the 1916
Rialto Theatre and the 1917
Rivoli Theatre, all in
Times Square, set the template for what would become the American movie palace.[citation needed]
Among his most notable theaters are the 1929
Fox Theatre in San Francisco and the 1919
Capitol Theatre in New York, both now demolished. Among his most noted designs that have been preserved and restored are the B.F. Keith Memorial Theatre in Boston (1928) (now the
Boston Opera House),
Warner's Hollywood Theatre (1930) in New York (now the
Times Square Church), the
Hippodrome Theatre (1914) in Baltimore, and the
Loew's Ohio Theatre (1928) in Columbus, Ohio. Among Lamb's existing Canadian theaters are the Pantages Theatre in Toronto (1920) (now the
Ed Mirvish Theatre).[3] and
Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres. The Cinema Treasures website, which documents the history of film theaters, lists 174 theaters designed by Lamb's company.
During the last ten years of his practice, Lamb's associate was the architect John J. McNamara.[4] After Lamb's death, McNamara continued as an architect of theaters under his own name. McNamara was responsible for renovating some of Lamb's older New York theaters, and among his original designs was one for the 1969
Ziegfeld Theatre in Manhattan, which replaced Lamb's original building.
Selected theater designs
United States
Interior of B.F. Keith Memorial Theatre, Boston, 1928 (1970)
The Sanderson Centre, Brantford, Ontario, 1919; auditorium restored in 1990, currently a performing arts centre
Capitol Theatre, Hamilton, Ontario, 1920; 103 King Street East, Hamilton all but lobby demolished in 1973;[11] now vacant after Buttinsky's Bar and Wing Joint closed
In 1920, Lamb designed for himself a private summer home in the
Adirondacks in the village of
Elizabethtown, New York. The house, which is still extant as a residence, is situated on the
Boquet River. The eight-bedroom manor, referred to today as Cobble Mountain Lodge, is a shingle and cobble stone design marked by the inclusion of a stone turret.
^"Archived copy". Archived from
the original on 2012-03-20. Retrieved 2011-03-07.{{
cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
link) Ontario Heritage Trust Loew's Yonge Street and Winter Garden Theatres