Louis Francis
Voorhees
(1892–1974)
Voorhees was born in Adrian MI, the son of Ella M. Finch and William B. Voorhees. He was educated in the city schools of Toledo OH and later attended the University of Michigan where he studied under architectural historian Fiske Kimball and received a Bachelor of Architecture in 1916 and a Master of Science in Architecture in 1917. After serving with the Rainbow Division as sergeant in the Camouflage Corps during World War I - one of many artists and architects who applied their drawing and painting skills to the newly developed art of camouflage, Voorhees practiced architecture in San Francisco until 1921 when he moved to Charlottesville VA. There he practiced and taught design at the University of Virginia with Fiske Kimball, and met his future wife, Elizabeth Peyton. They moved to High Point in 1924. Voorhees first worked under architect Herbert Hunter, then practiced under his own name for a short time before forming a partnership in 1938 with Eccles D. Everhart, photo below, an established High Point architect.
During World War II Voorhees was briefly employed as an engineer at the Oak Ridge Project in TN. In 1959, Everhart and Voorhees took on a third partner, George C. Connor Jr. He retired from Voorhees Everhart Connor in 1965 but remained a consultant for the firm. Here's a firm photo from 1954:
Left to right: Howard Olive, Frances Hoover, Bob Conner, Ruth Summey, Eccles Everhart, Dave Oden, Willie Merrit, Louis Voorhees, David Journey, Hilda Laprade, George Connor. Photo provided by Lib Conner.
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Sources include: Gabe Nicholson; North Carolina Architects and Builders; Curtis Leonard.
