Luther Lashmit (April 22, 1899-May 21, 1989), an architect born in Winston-Salem, was a key figure in the prolific Winston-Salem architectural firm of Northup and O’Brien and one of North Carolina’s notable architects of the mid-20th century. Although his name was not incorporated into the firm’s name until after the founders had died or retired, he was the lead architect for some of the firm’s premier projects, of which the best known are two Winston-Salem residences built for tobacco magnates’ families: Graylyn and Merry Acres. As these and other works demonstrate, Lashmit was equally at ease in revivalist and modernist modes. In addition to those listed here, others of the firm’s projects may also have been designed by Lashmit.

The son of James Luther Lashmit (proprietor of a shoe store) and Mary J. Snow Lashmit, Luther Lashmit was part of a family numerous in the Winston and Salem area for many years. Both his parents were buried in the Salem Cemetery. The Lashmit family’s social life was covered regularly in local newspapers, indicative of their sociability and their status in the community. In 1911, the Winston-Salem Journal described a “most delightful surprise party” Mrs. Lashmit held for Luther on his twelfth birthday: “It was a most complete surprise to the little fellow on entering the parlor to find all is little friends assembled there to enjoy his birthday with him,” with the parlor and the dining room “artistically” decorated in pink and white carnations and smilax entwined with pink ribbons.” As a youth, he participated in local literary and musical groups (he was an accomplished violinist), won prizes for freehand drawing at a county fair, and traveled frequently, alone or with family members, to visit friends and family members in communities across the state. Such events may have helped shape the life of a man known for his sociable nature and artistic abilities. The Winston-Salem newspapers continued to follow “Toot” Lashmit’s progress during his studies at the University of North Carolina and at Carnegie Tech, where he won many honors in architectural work and became an instructor as well as a graduate student. During summers he worked in the office of architect Gilbert C. Humphreys.

Pursuing a course of professional training typical of many leading American architects of his day, Lashmit took undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh by 1922, earned a diploma from the Ecole des Beaux Arts at Fontainbleau in 1925, and traveled in Europe. He taught at the Georgia Institute of Technology before returning to Winston-Salem to work with Northup and O’Brien in 1927, a busy and prestigious firm whose clients included many of the city’s leading industrialists, especially those associated by employment or kinship with the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. Even in the Great Depression, people kept on buying and using tobacco, so that the fortunes of Winston-Salem held up better than did those of most cities. In 1930, as in 1920, Luther was recorded in the United States Census as a single man residing with his parents and his sister Dorothy. By 1935, the city directory showed him living with his wife, the former Lucille Leigh, a native of Virginia.

Well acquainted with French precedents, Lashmit promptly took on Northup and O’Brien’s project to design Graylyn, the opulent French-influenced residence of Bowman Gray (R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company’s president ) and his wife Nathalie Lyons Gray, the latter of whom took a key role in planning the house. The project began in 1927 and was not completed until 1932. The drawings for Graylyn are held by SCRC at North Carolina State University Libraries.

Lashmit left Northup and O’Brien in the early 1930s to teach at the Carnegie Institute until 1938, when he rejoined the firm. In 1940 he designed another distinctive residence for a member of the tobacco elite: Merry Acres, the streamlined International Style home of Richard J. Reynolds Jr. and his wife, Elizabeth Dillard Reynolds, in 1940. As at Graylyn, the copious drawings (also at NCSU Libraries) depict every feature in detail, with many modernist features shown explicitly to assure that local workmen produced the desired results. Despite the marked difference in styles, in many respects, the expansive, zoned floor plan is akin to that of Graylyn. There are other notable buildings for which the firm of record was Northup and O’Brien and in which Lashmit took an important role; this topic requires further exploration.

A unique opportunity came early in World War II. In 1940, aware of the threat from German U-boats in the Atlantic, the United States Navy realized that “the best sub spotters were blimps, which could linger over a suspicious spot in the ocean for as long as needed.” With only one blimp base in place, in New Jersey, the Navy planned a series of eight bases distributed along the nation’s coastlines. Luther Lashmit joined a team of architects and engineers to design the gigantic blimp hangars. He had little industrial experience but recalled, “I guess they figured that since nobody outside of Germany knew the first thing about designing a blimp hangar, let’s just hire people with a lot of imagination.” They “took a look” at two existing and outdated facilities, “So we just made it up as we went. Most fun I ever had.” Two of the hangars were built in North Carolina, near Elizabeth City, one of steel (still standing) with great clamshell doors, the second of wood (no longer standing) because of materials shortages. Put into service in 1942, the blimps played an effective role in locating U-boats and sometimes destroying them. (“The U-boat war in North Carolina,” Forsyth County Public Library, Fam Brownlee, 2013, https://northcarolinaroom.wordpress.com/2013/11/05/the-u-boat-war-in-north-carolina/).

In 1942-1945, Lashmit took another leave from the firm to work for the Federal Public Housing Authority in Atlanta. He then returned to Winston-Salem and became a partner in Northup and O’Brien. Among the notable modernist buildings credited to him is the Forsyth County Central Library of 1953, a clean-lined, formally designed edifice sheathed in stone. After O’Brien retired in 1953, Lashmit partnered with engineers Mack D. Brown and William W. Pollock, who had joined the firm in 1929 and 1936, respectively, and architect William Russell James Jr. to reorganize the firm under the name Lashmit, James, Brown, and Pollock, with Lashmit the head of the firm. (Why Lashmit’s name was not part of the firm’s title earlier is not clear.) Under Lashmit’s direction the firm designed many buildings at Salem College, Davidson College, and NC Wesleyan College.

Active in the architectural profession, Lashmit served as secretary of the North Carolina Association of Architects at their meeting in Charlotte in 1940-1941 and, working to reorganize the chapter after the war as vice-president (1947) and president (1948-1949) of the North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute. At the latter group’s meeting in Raleigh in January, 1947, “the group went on record as opposing any proposed additions to the State Capitol.” He was also an organizer of the North Carolina Architectural Foundation (Gastonia Gazette, February 1, 1949), formed to promote architectural education and research at the recently established School of Design at present North Carolina State University. Locally, Lashmit became involved in Winston-Salem’s historic preservation activities including as a trustee of Old Salem, Inc. In 1976, he received the first Gold Medal awarded by the North Carolina Chapter of the AIA. Throughout his long life, Luther Lashmit was greatly admired by his colleagues and many friends and was known as a gentle as well as highly talented man.

Luther Snow Lashmit was preceded in death by his wife, Lucille Leigh Lashmit (May 14, 1905-May 5, 1978). Their graves are at the burial ground of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Winston-Salem. The architectural firm in which he had spent his illustrious career After several changes over the years, the successor firm became Calloway Johnson Moore and West in 1994 and continues under the name CJMW. Acknowledging Lashmit’s importance, the firm’s website (see https://www.cjmw.com/history/) divides its history into eras including “Early Days” (1906-1927); “The Lashmit Era” (1927-1972); The Newman Era (1972-1984); and CJMW Architecture (1984-present). The Northup and O’Brien Collection at Special Collections at North Carolina State University Libraries contains some drawings and other records associated with Luther Lashmit. The Building List for this entry encompasses only a fraction of Lashmit’s work.

Charlotte Vestal Brown Wainwright Collection, Special Collections, North Carolina State University Libraries.

Gwynne Stephens Taylor, From Frontier to Factory: An Architectural History of Forsyth County (1981).

Heather Fearnbach, Winston-Salem’s Architectural Heritage (2015)