Thomas Podmore


Thomas Podmore was an architect from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. In addition to his lengthy architectural career as an architect, Podmore is noteworthy for his experiments with the fabrication of concrete products.

Early life

Thomas Podmore was born at Cherrington, Shropshire, England in 1859, the son of a farmer, and was baptized at the nearby village of Tibberton on March 23, 1859. In 1881, he was living on St. Ann Street in Stoke-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, employed as an "architect's assistant."

Career in America

Podmore emigrated to the United States about 1883, worked for a few years in New York, then moved to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. There, in 1886, he joined forces with Albert Hamilton Kipp to form the architecture firm Kipp & Podmore. The firm dissolved by mutual consent at the end of 1891.
In 1903, Podmore received a patent for a "machine for molding concrete blocks," and in 1907 founded the Podmore Concrete Co., for the manufacture of concrete blocks by a method of Podmore's own devising.
Podmore retired in 1928 after the completion of his last building, Sprague Memorial Hall, in Kingston, Pennsylvania. He died in 1948.

Principal Architectural Works