Background
John H Thomas was born in Nevada in 1878.
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John Thomas
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He attended Yale University, receiving an undergraduate degree in 1902, then received a graduate degree in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley (University of California, Berkeley) in 1904.
Career
His family relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area when he was still young. From 1904 through 1906 Thomas worked in the architectural office of John Galen Howard, who had prepared the master plan for the University of California, Berkeley campus. In 1910 Thomas established his own office, becoming one of the first tenants in the new Berkeley Studio Building, home of the Berkeley Arts and Crafts School.
During this period he associated with architects Bernard Maybeck and Julia Morgan, whose ideas influenced his early work.
As Thomas took on bigger and more prominent projects, his work became more orthodox, though he continued to have an inclination for interior architecture. He continued working until his death in 1945.
His reputation rests on the hundreds of homes that he designed for San Francisco and the Bay Area. His work is characterized by unorthodox blending of various historic styles including Craftsman, Prairie School, Mission, Gothic, Tudor, Art Nouveau, English Cottage, and in his later years Viennese Secessionist.
Thomas operated from 1910 to 1945 throughout California with his work influencing residential development styles in the Bay Area throughout the 20th century.
Membership
Thomas was a prominent member of the First Bay Tradition architectural school of thought.
