John Hudson Thomas

Described as a "medieval-ist," designing strongly unfiltered period revivals (as well as true to form Craftsman residences) between 1906 - 1945, architect John Hudson Thomas may be best known for his category defying creations between 1908 - 1915, bulky, stucco house castles, with massing-to-the-max, and a strong cubist bent.


Many of these homes, which share the overt geometricism of the Vienesse Secession, are virtually impossible to represent with a single image. Side elevations are seemingly disconnected to the precepts of the facade, like a toppled ziggurat, liberated entirely from the usual architectural contract, Euclidean manners, civility, and impulse.


In addition to ground-hugging prairie style clean machines, Thomas' work of this period anticipates the sky-reaching verticality of the Streamline Moderne and perhaps even those ideas that shaped modular building.


Born in Ward, Nevada, Thomas graduated from UC Berkeley in 1905, and spent two years working for UC faculty architect John Galen Howard. Thomas was a noted member of the Hillside Club, a City Beautiful movement inspired off-shoot, concerned wih the development of the Berkeley Hills, which counted amongst its ranks Julia Morgan, Bernard Maybeck, and Charles Keeler.