Thomas Rogers Kimball

Thomas Rogers Kimball (April 19, 1862 – September 7, 1934) was an American architect in Omaha, Nebraska. An architect-in-chief of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha in 1898, he served as national President of the American Institute of Architects from 1918 to 1920 and from 1919 to 1932 served on the Nebraska State Capitol Commission.

Kimball was credited with pursuing 871 commissions including designing 167 new residential buildings and 162 new non-residential structures. The National Register of Historic Places received nomination forms for 42 of Kimball’s works. In 1905 he was invited to judge the San Francisco Custom House competition. Kimball served as architectural adviser to commissions responsible for erection of the Missouri and Nebraska state capitols, the Kansas City Liberty Memorial, and the Indiana War Memorial in Indianapolis, and was a member of the national council of fine arts established by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt to evaluate all plans for public buildings, monuments, and statutes.

Born April 19, 1862, in Linwood, Cincinnati, Ohio, he moved to Omaha, Nebraska with his parents Thomas Lord Kimball and Mary Porter Rogers Kimball when he was nine. Kimball attended Central High School until 1878 when he enrolled at the University of Nebraska Latin School (former University of Nebraska–Lincoln prep school) for two years. Next, Kimball went to Boston, where he worked with a private tutor for two years. He then entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study architecture until 1887. He did not graduate but was later given an affiliation with the School of Architecture.

Kimball continued at the Cowles Art School of Boston then moved to Paris where he spent a year studying art at L'Ecole des Beaux Arts under notable tutors such as Henri Harpingnies. Returning to Boston in 1888, Kimball along with Henry D. Bates established Technology Architectural Review, a publication of The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Architectural Society. As reported in the first issue, "The REVIEW - the first essay of its kind by architectural students in America - will aim to call attention to and emphasize the resources of classical architecture, and its usefulness as a basis for all design." The following year, Kimball married Annie Lydia McPhail in Boston.

In 1891, Kimball 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. Although Kimball had been able to get the job through connections established by his father, railroad executive Thomas Lord Kimball, the younger Kimball was in fact well qualified for the work. He was also something of a curiosity in 1890s Omaha, since he had been educated in the East and had studied architecture both in the United States and in France. Kimball began attracting many high-profile projects in Omaha, including St. Philomena's Cathedral and the Burlington Train Station. In 1893, some of his architectural plans were shown in Chicago at the World Columbian Exposition.

The 1898 Trans Mississippi and International Exposition was a World's Fair-like event in Omaha that required 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 staff, which was a mixture of plaster and horsehair. They were temporary by design, built at about half the cost of permanent buildings. The lower cost allowed the construction of larger structures. Kimball was already successful, but his Exhibition work made him even more so. Kimball won commissions for major new 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.