Available for use in the Manuscripts Division reading room. Advance notice is requested.
There are no restrictions on the use of materials in this collection. Copies can be requested if the condition of the originals warrants it.
Frank Thayer collection (N 80), Northwest Architectural Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries, Minneapolis.
Frank Thayer was born in New York State about 1851. He moved to Minnesota about 1875 and established his practice in Mankato in 1885. In 1901, he was in partnership with Olof Hanson, an 1886 graduate of the National College for the Deaf (Gallaudet College), Washington, DC. Hanson was well known for his knowledge of the special architectural needs of the hearing impaired in an educational setting. On the strength of obtaining the commission for the Court House and Jail in Juneau, Alaska (1901), Thayer and Hanson closed their Mankato office in 1902 and moved to Seattle to be nearer the project. They afterward received other work in Alaska and Seattle, but the partnership ended about 1903 and each continued in practice alone.
Thayer designed many prominent buildings in Mankato, such as the Swedish Lutheran Immanuel Church (Grace Lutheran), the Lorin Cray residence (1890s), the post office, J.H. Ray's Block, and Brett's Department Store (1895), as well as numerous residences. He also designed many buildings in southern Minnesota, including the Park Hotel (St. James, 1898); Murray County Court House (Slayton); the Lind House (New Ulm); and the Slade Hotel (Adrian, 1891).
The collection contains 9 sheets of elevations and floor plans for the Dinehart-Holt residence, constructed for Christopher and Flora Dinehart in Slayton, Minnesota, 1891.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the University of Minnesota Libraries. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.