Thomas Silloway

Thomas W. Silloway was an American architect, known for building over 400 church buildings in the eastern United States. Thomas William Silloway was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts and raised a Methodist by his parents, Susan Stone Silloway and Thomas Silloway, Sr., a coppersmith. As a teenager, Silloway apprenticed to a housewright and as a clerk in an East India merchant store. In 1844 Silloway became a Universalist. He was educated in the local public schools, at Brown High School, and in the local Latin School. In 1847 Silloway began studying under Ammi B. Young, designer of the Boston Custom House. In 1851 Thomas W. Silloway began his own architecture practice. In 1862 Silloway started a second career as a Universalist minister in New Hampshire, Boston, and Brighton, Massachusetts. He left the ministry in 1867 when his architectural work increased. Silloway had diverse interests in architecture, theology, music, and genealogy and published many books on diverse topics. By the time he died in 1910 Silloway was credited for designing more church buildings than any other individual in America.