Bernice Lippitt Thomas was born in Albany, Georgia in 1929. Her father was the City Attorney of Albany, and her mother was a woman of many accomplishments. Among others, she was the amateur golf champion and amateur badminton champion of Georgia. There is a film of Bernice's mother putting against Dizzy Dean for $150 a putt (which was real money in those days). Bernice's grandfather was the Mayor of Albany in 1904-5, and a City Councilman.
The Lippitts have several distinguished American ancestors, including Henry Lippitt (Governor of Rhode Island, 1875-77), Charles Warren Lippitt (Governor of Rhode Island, 1896) and Henry Frederick Lippitt (U.S. Senator for Rhode Island, 1911-1917), among others.
Ms. Thomas did not turn to scholarly pursuits until late in life. She skipped a grade in her two high schools (Albany High School and Sullins Academy), graduated at age 16, then graduated from Vassar College at age 20 (in the Class of '49). She began graduate work at Columbia University, but dropped out to marry a seminary student, the Rev. Dr. Owen C. Thomas, who subsequently taught New Testament Theology at the Episcopal Theological School (now Episcopal Divinity School). Bernice settled down as a faculty wife in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she raised 3 children: Aaron, Addison and Owen, Jr. Rev. Thomas was also the summer pastor at Emmanuel Church in Dublin, New Hampshire for 18 years.
Once her children were grown, Bernice went back to school, finished her Master's in Art History at Boston University, then earned her Ph.D. in Medieval Art and Sculpture from B.U. (also studying at the University of Chicago).
Bernice Thomas found beauty in unlikely places. For example: in Kress 5&10 cent store architecture, Coca-Cola bottling plant architecture, and in post office architecture and murals. Most scholars today are supported by an academic career, but Bernice had little outside help for her work. She was ahead of her time, and today would probably receive a lot more recognition for what she achieved.
It's hard to keep the chronology straight, but to support her independent scholarship, Bernice took jobs at: Emory University; the State Office of Historic Preservation in San Juan, Puerto Rico; the Honolulu Academy of Arts; Hudson River Heritage; the Dutchess County Historical Society; and the National Gallery of Arts' Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA).
Here are some details about her most popular book:
"In America's 5 & 10 Cent Stores: The Kress Legacy (National Building Museum and Preservation Press/John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1997), Bernice Thomas tells the story of the more than 200 stores designed and built that set a new standard in commercial architecture."
Growing up in Albany, Georgia, the teenage Bernice whiled away countless hours at the downtown Kress 5 & 10 Cent Store. It was on a visit to that same store in 1984, long after its windows had been boarded up, that she stopped the car and thought, "Why, you're beautiful. You look just like a medieval reliquary." She moved a few months later to Honolulu, and discovered a large Mediterranean Revival Kress store, also boarded up, and thought, "There's a story here." Bernice then embarked on an odyssey across 29 states, and visited 260 buildings that had been Kress stores, photographed them and talked to the people who used to work there.
Ironically, the two Kress stores that inspired Ms. Thomas' book were subsequently torn down, during her research. Bernice's way to prevent further destruction was to get the word out that Kress buildings were important.
Bernice convinced the Samuel H. Kress Foundation to fund her research on Kress stores. She discovered that many records of the Kress architectural division, thought to be discarded, still existed in the basement of Genesco, Inc., which had acquired Kress in 1964. Genesco subsequently donated the records to the National Building Museum in Washington. The National Building Museum also organized an exhibition on the Kress store architecture (based on Bernice's work) in 1997.
"Thomas…focuses on the variety store, which until now has been almost completely ignored by scholars. Even more to the point, her inquiry centers on…artistic expression. Yes, artistic expression." (Richard Longstreth, George Washington U., in Foreword to Kress book)."
"Kress stores have become Main Street icons - often praised for their architectural excellence and attention to detail."
"The architectural department at Kress produced designs for retail stores that were often the most striking buildings in town…. Kress stores were elegant, stylish, well appointed, and individually designed."
Many Kress buildings still survive around the country, including stores in downtown Seattle, Ballard, and Wenatchee, Washington.
Growing up in the Deep South, Bernice was always passionate about civil rights, and she also pointed out that five and dime stores, including the Kress stores, became symbols of the African-American cause.
(Sources of above information on Kress book include: "Thomas studies the beauty of commercial architecture", Emory U. Perspectives, January 20, 1998; book review by Carter L. Hudgins, Historic Charleston Foundation, The Public Historian, Fall 1998; Peter Leonard, "Thomas puts pizzazz in history", Poughkeepsie Journal, October 1, 1999; and Jim Sweeney, "Kress Dime Stores", Oklahoma Today, November-December 1997).
Other books by Ms. Thomas include:
- The Stamp of FDR: New Deal Post Offices in the Mid-Hudson Valley (Fleischmans / Purple Mountain Press, 2002) - on the architecture, murals, and influence of President Roosevelt on six New Deal post offices.
The Kress book and FDR Post Office book are both available at Amazon.com.
- Dean Hoffman's Grand Design (exhibition catalogue) - on the architecture of General Seminary in New York.
Ms. Thomas' numerous published articles have explored: Coca-Cola bottling plant architecture (3 articles); Coca-Cola bottle sculpture; a mural of cranberry pickers in the Wareham, MA post office; a mural of coal miners in the Renton, WA post office (Columbia Magazine, Washington State Historical Society, 2008-09); hidden portraits in Hawaii's churches; stained-glass angels in Vassar College chapels; and the Bishop's Seal in the Christ of Autun, France (her Ph.D dissertation in 1984). She may have an article pending in the Georgia Historical Society journal, on post office murals in rural Georgia (with photos by her niece, Gray Griffith).
Ms. Thomas lived in the Evergreen Court retirement community in Bellevue, Washington from 2005 to 2014. She was a member of Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Bellevue, and served on its Vestry. She is survived by her brother, Samuel Brown Lippitt, Jr., her ex-husband, three sons, five grandchildren, one great-grandson, and many friends. There will be a funeral service for Bernice in Albany, Georgia, and she will be buried at Riverside-Oakview Cemetery in the Lippitt family plot, next to her parents.
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