Thomas Henry Poole (1860 – 31 July 1919) was an English-born architect who designed numerous churches and schools in New York City. Poole was born in

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is sited on the River Severn, northwest of Wolverhampton, west of Telford, southeast of Wrexham and north of Hereford. At the 2021 United ...

, England, in 1860. He was educated at

Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...

and

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...

. Poole is listed in a

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

city directory A city directory is a listing of residents, streets, businesses, organizations or institutions, giving their location in a city. It may be arranged alphabetically or geographically or in other ways. Information Antedating telephone directories ...

as an architect in 1887, when he was 27, suggesting that he may have had a substantial apprenticeship.Streetscapes, by Christopher Gray, ''The New York Times'', 22 December 2002 In 1886, he resided at 127 West 56th Street. In 1900 he was listed at 15 West 30th Street. In 1918, the T. H. Poole Co. had offices at 13 West 30th Street.

Works (partial list)

Poole was a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, and most of his commissions were for the archdiocese in and around New York. He seldom designed

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

churches; but these too were in New York City.

Brooklyn

* St. Cecilia's, 1893, Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Bronx

* Academy of Mount St. Ursula High School, 1892, East Morrisania section of

the Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

Manhattan

* One of the earliest Poole designs is the Holy Name of Jesus Roman Catholic Church on the northwest corner of West 96th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, begun in 1891 and dedicated in 1900. The

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, a Germanic people **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Gothic alphabet, an alphabet used to write the Gothic language ** Gothic ( ...

design features an interior

hammerbeam roof A hammerbeam roof is a decorative, open timber roof truss typical of English Gothic architecture and has been called "the most spectacular endeavour of the English Medieval carpenter". They are traditionally timber framed, using short beams proj ...

. * Poole was a parishioner at the Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel, at 232 East 90th Street. It is also Gothic but with huge Tudor-style paired

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Optical microscope#Objective turret (revolver or revolving nose piece), Objective turre ...

s at each end. The church is executed in an unusual Vermont

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

, a filmy blue-white with rich veining. It was completed to Poole's design in 1892. * One of his few commissions not for a Catholic parish was the Harlem Presbyterian Church in 1905. Located at West 122nd Street and Mount Morris Park West, it boasts a strikingly eclectic design with a dome on top of a Romanesque lower section. It is in the

Mount Morris Park Historic District Mount Morris Park Historic District is a 16-block historic district in west central Harlem, Manhattan, New York City. It was designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1971, and is part of the larger Mount Morris Park nei ...

. * The wildly ornate neo-Gothic facade of the 1907 St. Thomas the Apostle, on 118th Street just west of

Saint Nicholas Avenue __NOTOC__ St. Nicholas Avenue is a major street that runs obliquely north-south through several blocks between 111th and 193rd Streets in the New York City borough of Manhattan. St. Nicholas Avenue serves as a border between the West Side of ...

, was for many years a neighbourhood landmark. In 2003 it closed and was slated for demolition. *

St. Catherine of Genoa Catherine of Genoa (Caterina Fieschi Adorno, 1447 – 15 September 1510) was an Italian Catholic saint and mystic, admired for her work among the sick and the poor and remembered because of various writings describing both these actions an ...

, 1887, 506 West 153rd Street, Hamilton Heights. The Archdiocese of New York closed the parish school in 2006. * St. Columba Catholic School, 1910, at 331 West 25th Street in Chelsea. Gothic style, pressed brick with terra cotta trimmings. In 2006, the Archdiocese of New York closed the school. * Sacred Heart Academy, 1884, 49 West 17th St. 4-story brick. Demolished. * St. Joseph of the Holy Family School, 1912, 125th Street and Morningside Avenue, Harlem. Closed.

Queens

* In 1915 he designed the grand limestone facade and sanctuary of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Astoria, Queens, NY. * 1919: Saint Benedict Joseph Labre Church, listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 2007.

Long Island

* Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, 1907, 168 Hill Street,

Southampton, New York Southampton, officially the Town of Southampton, is a town in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, partly on the South Fork of Long Island. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the town had a population of 69,036. Southampton is included in the stre ...

. * St. Lawrence the Martyr Church in

Sayville, New York Sayville is a hamlet and census-designated place in Suffolk County, New York, United States. Located on the South Shore of Long Island in the Town of Islip, the population of the CDP was 16,569 at the time of the 2020 census. History The earli ...

. Dedicated 1896; destroyed by fire 1967.

Westchester

* St. John the Evangelist, in

White Plains, New York White Plains is a city in and the county seat of Westchester County, New York, United States. It is an inner suburb of New York City, and a commercial hub of Westchester County, a densely populated suburban county that is home to about one milli ...

. Consecrated in 1892. English gothic style in Vermont marble. * The Church of the Transfiguration, 268 S. Broadway,

Tarrytown, New York Tarrytown is a administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in the administrative divisions of New York#Town, town of Greenburgh, New York, Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County, New York (state), New York, Unit ...

. Built by the

Carmelites The Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel (; abbreviated OCarm), known as the Carmelites or sometimes by synecdoche known simply as Carmel, is a mendicant order in the Catholic Church for both men and women. Histo ...

and dedicated in October 1898, it is a Gothic design done in

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

New Jersey

* St. Henry's Church in

Bayonne, New Jersey Bayonne ( ) is a City (New Jersey), city in Hudson County, New Jersey, Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey, in the Gateway Region on Bergen Neck, a peninsula between Newark Bay to the west, the Kill Van Kull to the south, and New York ...

. Started in 1911 and consecrated in 1915. St. Henry's is part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark.
Saint Cecilia's Church
55 West Demarest Avenue,

Englewood, New Jersey Englewood is a city in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from portions of Ridgefield Township and the remaining portions of Engle ...

, completed 1910. Also a Carmelite church in the Gothic tradition, it was built for the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark The Archdiocese of Newark () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or archdiocese, of the Catholic Church in northeastern New Jersey in the United States. The mother church of the archdiocese is the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Hea ...

Washington, DC

* Gibbons Hall at

The Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Catholic research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is one of two pontifical universities of the Catholic Church in the United States – the only one that is not primarily ...

, 620 Michigan Avenue, Northeast, Washington, D.C. Built in 1911 and named for the University's first chancellor,

James Gibbons James Cardinal Gibbons (July 23, 1834 – March 24, 1921) was an American Catholic prelate who served as Apostolic Vicar of North Carolina from 1868 to 1872, Bishop of Richmond from 1872 to 1877, and as Archbishop of Baltimore from 1877 unti ...

, Cardinal Archbishop of Baltimore (1877–1921). This

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

building is a student dormitory. *

Sisters of the Holy Cross The Sisters of the Holy Cross are one of three Roman Catholic Church, Catholic Religious congregation, congregations of nuns, religious sisters which trace their origins to the foundation of the Congregation of Holy Cross by Basil Moreau in Le Ma ...

Academy, 1909, 4-story brick and stone school, Northwest Washington, D.C. Demolished for

Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...

campus.

Writing career

Poole also served his Catholic faith as a writer. He contributed articles to ''The Messenger'', a church publication with offices in Manhattan. He wrote a detailed architectural review of the

Westminster Cathedral Westminster Cathedral, officially the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Most Precious Blood, is the largest Catholic Church in England and Wales, Roman Catholic church in England and Wales. The shrine is dedicated to the Blood of Jesus Ch ...

when it opened in London, England, in 1903:

…outside of its practical character it ought certainly to lead to the further development of all that is beautiful in art and to the better interior adornment of our churches… giving us the best possible facilities for the carrying out of all the requirements of our religion to the fullest possible extent with all the solemnity and grandeur that the service of man can invoke and the offering of our best works and thoughts as well as of our bodies and souls to God the Lord and Master of all.

Poole's name also appears as a contributor in the ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference'', published in 1913. He wrote entries about architectural terms, such as

apse chapel An apse chapel, apsidal chapel, or chevet is a chapel in traditional Christian church architecture, which radiates tangentially from one of the bays or divisions of the apse. It is reached generally by a semicircular passageway, or ambulatory, ext ...

, also known as the

lady chapel A Lady chapel or lady chapel is a traditional British English, British term for a chapel dedicated to Mary, mother of Jesus, particularly those inside a cathedral or other large church (building), church. The chapels are also known as a Mary chape ...

. Poole died 31 July 1919, at his

office, 13 West 30th Street. His funeral was held at Saint Cecilia's in Brooklyn, one of his churches.

Gallery

File:Cecilia's RCC GP jeh.JPG, Saint Cecilia's, 1891-1901, at North Henry and Herbert streets,

Greenpoint, Brooklyn Greenpoint is the northernmost neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bordered on the southwest by Williamsburg at Bushwick Inlet Park and McCarren Park; on the southeast by the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway and East ...

. File:H N of Jesus RCC Amst Av & 96 St dusk jeh.jpg,

Holy Name of Jesus In Catholicism, the veneration of the Holy Name of Jesus (also ''Most Holy Name of Jesus'', ) developed as a separate type of devotion in the early modern period, in parallel to that of the ''Sacred Heart''. The ''Litany of the Holy Name'' is ...

, 1891-1900, at 96th Street and Amsterdam Avenue,

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper We ...

, Manhattan. File:Lady Good Counsel RCC 230 E90 jeh.jpg,

Our Lady of Good Counsel Our Mother of Good Counsel () formerly known as Our Lady of Paradise is a Roman Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with a purported miraculous painting of the Madonna and Child enshrined within the namesake Minor Basilica at ...

, 1892, at 230 East 90th Street,

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded approximately by 96th Street (Manhattan), 96th Street to the north, the East River to the e ...

, Manhattan. File:St Henry's Church.jpg, St. Henry's Church, 1915, on Avenue C between 28th and 29th streets in

Bayonne Bayonne () is a city in southwestern France near the France–Spain border, Spanish border. It is a communes of France, commune and one of two subprefectures in France, subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques departments of France, departm ...

, New Jersey.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Poole, Thomas Henry 1860 births 1919 deaths American Roman Catholics Thomas Henry Poole buildings Architects from Shrewsbury English ecclesiastical architects Companies based in Manhattan Defunct architecture firms based in New York City Architects of Roman Catholic churches Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Architects from New York City English emigrants to the United States Contributors to the Catholic Encyclopedia