# Thomas Benner Garman
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##### House by Garman in Seminole Hills, Mount Lebanon
Based in Mount Lebanon, Thomas Benner Garman designed many houses in the South Hills, as well as some substantial commercial buildings. He was already wielding considerable influence at the age of about thirty, when his biography appeared in [Volume IV of *Pittsburgh of Today: Its Resources and People*](https://archive.org/details/pittsburghoftoda04harp/page/n203/mode/2up), by Frank S. Harper (New York: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1931). We reprint the article here.
> **THOMAS BENNER GARMAN**—Having pursued his architectural studies at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Mr. Garman quite naturally chose the city of Pittsburgh and the adjoining territory, in which to practice his profession after the completion of his studies and his training. At first associated with the offices of several prominent architects in the Pittsburgh district, he has been engaged in the independent practice of architecture at Mount Lebanon since 1926, and has become well known as the successful designer of numerous attractive private residences in the Greater Pittsburgh district.
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> Thomas Benner Garman was born at Bainbridge, Ohio, in 1900, a son of Walter Curtis and Harriett (Steadman) Garman. His father is now deceased. His paternal great-grandfather served in both the Spanish-American and Civil wars, while his maternal grandfather was a veteran of the Civil War. Mr. Garman received his early education in the public grammar and high schools of Bainbridge, Ohio, and then came to Pittsburgh to take up the study of architecture at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, of which he was a student during 1921-25. After the completion of his studies he became connected with the office of Henry Hornbostel, one of the best known and most successful Pittsburgh architects, and later with the offices of several other prominent architects in the Pittsburgh district. In 1926 he entered upon the Private practice of his profession at Mount Lebanon, where he has continued to make his home and his professional headquarters since then. He has been the architect of the Virginia Manor Plan, and has designed some thirty residences in this attractive restricted residential district. He also designed the residence of C. L. Succop, at Oakmont, of Dr. Bornschauer, at East End, Pittsburgh, of A. W. Miller, at Carnegie, and of W. L. Jeffreys, at Republic. Mr. Garman’s offices are located on the Virginia Manor Plan in Mount Lebanon. He is a member of Delta Mu Fraternity; and his religious affiliation is with the Methodist Episcopal church. In politics he is a supporter of the Republican party.
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> Garman married, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, December 12, 1929, Vivian Taylor. Mr. and Mrs. Garman make their home in the Princess Anne Apartments in Mount Lebanon.
Garman continued to prosper through the Depression, and he designed many of the more economical houses of that era in the South Hills. When he died in 1985 at the age of 85, his obituary mentioned that “He designed at least one house in all 50 states, including homes in Virginia Manor in Mt. Lebanon and Westminster Manor in Upper St. Clair. He also designed the rectory of St. Bernard Church in Mt. Lebanon.” (“Thomas B. Garman,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 12, 1985.)
In 1956, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published an extensive meditation on home design by Garman that may serve as a summation of his whole career.
> PERSONS who are planning to build a house should be careful not to stir up resistance from the other residents, Architect Thomas B. Garman says.
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> “ ‘This is my place and I can do what I wish with it,’ is a common thought which certainly doesn't help a neighborhood,” he declared.
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> Another duty of the architect, as seen by Garman, is to make a good landscaping job possible by his original conception of the building, and its location on the site.
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> Many times fences, gateways and walls do a lot to “pull a design into shape” and give a simplicity or homelike feeling to a house, which creates an intimate atmosphere for comfortable feeling which brings about a happy family life, he added.
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> **“A general law should be laid down to the effect that our human composition should avoid bizarre effects, or anything that savors of an attempt to bring the ends of the earth together,” he advises.** [*Bold in original.*]
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> “A single object cannot be too beautiful, too rich, or too perfect, but a medley even of perfect things that are not closely related by some general motive is disturbing to a cultivated taste.
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> “Nature has a law that fits architecture—namely: Avoid the grotesque and unseemly.”
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> —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 23, 1956, p. 6.
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##### House by Garman in Cedarhurst Manor, Mount Lebanon
Here is a small list of houses and other buildings known to have been designed by Garman. This is obviously only a tiny fraction of his output: at minimum, if it’s true that he designed at least one house in every state, there should be 49 more.
House at 68 Sunnyhill Drive (1935)
House at 81 Mayfair Drive (1935)
House at 751 Lebanon Avenue (1937)
House at 841 Valleyview Road (1939)
House at 763 Larchmont Road (1939)
House at 864 Osage Road (1939)
Boggs & Buhl Service Store, Mt. Lebanon (Washington Road at Central Square, 1940)
Dormont Shops (now Dormont Village, 1940)
House at 1055 Firwood Drive (1940)
Rectory of St. Bernard’s Church (date unknown)