Thomas Rogers Kimball

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The Hotel Fontenelle, designed by Thomas Kimball

Thomas Rogers Kimball (1862 – 1934) was an American arcitect.

Born in 1862 in Linwood, Cincinnati, Ohio, he moved to Omaha, Nebraska with his parents when he was in his early teens. After graduating from high school in 1878, he attended the University of Nebraska for two years, but did not graduate. He next went to Boston, where he worked with a private tutor for another two years. Kimball then entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied architecture until 1887. He did not graduate, but was later given an affiliation with the School of Architecture.

Kimball then moved to Paris, where he spent a year studying art at L'Ecole des Beaux Arts. Returning to Boston in 1888, he began working for a publishing company. The following year, Kimball married Annie McPhail in Boston. In 1891, he formed an architectural firm with MIT instructor C. Howard Walker and architect Herbert Best.

Best soon retired. Walker remained in Boston to run the office there; Kimball moved back to Omaha and opened an office. Both operated under the name Walker and Kimball. In 1892, Kimball was commissioned to design a public library building in Omaha; Kimball had been able to get the job through connections established by his father, railroad executive Thomas Lord Kimball. However, the younger Kimball was well-qualified for the work. He was also something of a curiosity in 1890s Omaha, since he has been educated in he East and had studied architecture both in the United States and in France.

Kimball began attracting many high-profile projects , including St. Frances Cabrini Church and the Burlington Station. In 1893, some of his architectural plans were shown in Chicago at the World Columbian Exposition. By 1896, Wattles was president of the Trans Mississippi and International Exposition, a World's Fair-like event planned for 1898 that would require the construction of many buildings. Kimball and Walker were named co-architects-in-chief for the event. The two men were responsible for the overall site development, including perimeter buildings. They designed several major buildings, some smaller structures and the Arch of States (a main entrance). "The other 'name' architects who were there did a main building and nothing else," Batie said.

The buildings were constructed of strips of wood covered with a mixture of plaster and horsehair. They were temporary by design, built at about half the cost of permanent buildings. The lower the cost allowed the construction of larger structures. Kimball was already successful, but his Exhibition work made him even more so. Kimball began attracting commissions for major projects, such as St. Cecilia Cathedral and the Fontenelle Hotel in Omaha, and the Electricity Building at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis.

By 1918, he had gained tremendous stature among his peers and was elected national president of the American Institute of Architects, an office he held until 1920. Kimball was involved in many architecture-related activities, including supervision of the 1920 design contest that selected Bertram Goodhue as architect of the Nebraska State Capitol. In 1927, Kimball went into a partnership with architect William L. Steele.

However, his success was not to last. The Great Depression hurt Kimball financially, and he died a pauper in 1934.