By J. F. Pirro
From Thunderbird Lodge to Hedgerow Theatre to historic private homes, the late Wallingford native’s pioneering work can be seen throughout the borough.
George Thomas was a 25-year-old graduate student studying art history at the University of Pennsylvania when, in 1970, he spent $75 on thousands of glass plates and film negatives. It was to be his food money for the month, but he had a good feeling about his Freeman’s auction acquisition, which came wrapped in paper and manila envelopes from the office of William Lightfoot Price. “I only knew that he was a Philadelphia architect,” Thomas says now.
The purchase eventually led to a doctoral dissertation guided by a question: How could a designer who reshaped the architecture of his time suddenly
be forgotten?
“Will invented what led into Art Deco,” says Thomas. “Everyone still calls it Art Deco, but it was actually Art Price.”
