Lee Arden Thomas architectural drawings of theaters in Portland, Oregon, 1926-1928

Lee Arden Thomas was born in Nebraska on February 27, 1886. He received a degree in electrical engineering from Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University) in Corvallis, Oregon, and a degree in architecture from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. After graduating, he worked for a time in New York City, then in Vancouver, British Columbia, and finally arrived in Portland, Oregon, as a draftsman for the Doyle and Patterson architectural firm in 1911. With that firm, he did design work on the first buildings built on the Reed College campus, and on the Multnomah County Public Library in downtown Portland. After a brief time in Bend, Oregon, Thomas returned to Portland to open a practice in 1920. In 1924, he joined forces with Albert Mercier, an engineer. In addition to theaters, Thomas and Mercier designed the Portland Golf Club Clubhouse (1928) and Grand Central Public Market (1929). Thomas died in 1953 in Vancouver, Washington.

Sources: National Register of Historic Places registration form for the J. C. Braly House, U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1991; National Register of Historic Places registration form for Grand Central Public Market, U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 2006; National Register of Historic Places registration form for Portland Golf Club Clubhouse, U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 2021; obituary in the Oregonian, December 3, 1953, page 19.

Adrien Alexandre Voisin was an American sculptor educated at Yale and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. After serving in the U.S. Army in World War I, Voisin settled in southern California, where he completed commissions, notably for some of the sculptural components at Hearst Castle, the mansion of publishing mogul William Randolph Hearst that was designed by California architect Julia Morgan. In 1927, Lee Arden Thomas and Albert Mercier engaged Voisin to design some of the interior sculptures for the Oriental Theater in Portland, Oregon. After a year spent in Montana creating artwork and teaching sculpture among the Blackfeet Nation, Voisin moved to Oregon for two years. In 1933, he moved to San Francisco and in 1938 bought Albion Castle on Hunter's Point, where he lived for the next 20 years. Voisin donated 53 of his sculptures to Gonzaga University's Pacific Northwest Indian Center (now the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture) in Spokane, Washington, in 1971. He died in 1979 in Palos Verdes Estates, California.

Sources: "Adrien Voisin," Wikipedia (accessed December 2025), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrien_Voisin; information in record for plaster sculpture from the Oriental Theater in Oregon Historical Society Museum Collection, object ID 2001-45.1 (accessed December 2025), https://museumcollection.ohs.org/argus/ohs/Portal/portal.aspx?component=AAAI&record=a954f071-bc90-4a33-a61f-c2cb3f1dd18d; "Local Landmark #60: Albion Castle in Hunters Point," by Alex Bevk, San Francisco Curbed (accessed December 2025), https://sf.curbed.com/2014/2/10/10145660/local-landmark-60-albion-castle-in-hunters-point; "Voisin Gallery Planned for Northwest Indian Center," Spokane Chronicle, February 14, 1973, page 17.