Education
Graduated from high school in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, he moved with his family to Chicago in 1883.
Graduated from high school in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, he moved with his family to Chicago in 1883.
He designed some 500 residences and various public and private buildings in Sarasota, as well as commercial buildings. His Florida buildings are located from Tampa to Fort Myers with many in Nokomis. Many of Martin"s buildings are listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).
He was listed as a Great Floridian in 2000.
Martin was the son of William Davidson Martin and Myra Martin. His family was part of the construction business for generations.
Thomas married Sadie West. Coffin on February 19, 1890. Martin was first employed as a draftsman with Global Machinery Company in Chicago.
He apprenticed with the architectural firm of Holabird and Roche in Chicago.
At that firm, Martin met wealthy Chicago socialite and art patron, Bertha Palmer, the widow of Chicago real estate developer Potter Palmer. Palmer commissioned Holabird and Roche to design her large winter home in Sarasota. Sketches for the house bear Martin"s trademark signature.
She soon would become one of the largest landholders in Florida and she also became renowned for her real estate developments and the introduction of revolutionary agricultural and ranching practices in Florida.
At the age of forty-four, Martin came to the Sarasota area from Chicago to work for Palmer in the fall of 1910. He set up his own practice, which flourished throughout the Florida land boom of the 1920s.
Among the five hundred homes Martin designed in the Sarasota area, are many "Floridian" style homes use glass block and formed concrete embellished with Mediterranean Revival features. lieutenant was a federal economic stimulus project
William J. Burns House on South Washington Boulevard, Saint Armands Key, in Sarasota (NRHP listed)
Case House, South Washington Boulevard, in Sarasota (NRHP listed)
Columbia Restaurant, in Tampa
Lemon Bay Woman"s Club
Hacienda Hotel, in New Portuguese Richey
Roth Cigar Factory, in Sarasota (NRHP listed)
Municipal Auditorium (sometimes identified as Sarasota Exhibition Hall) with Clarence A. Martin, a 1930s Works Progress Administration, in Sarasota (NRHP listed).