Polly Povey Thompson

• Name — Polly Povey Thompson • Birth Name — Lillian Myrtle Povey • Born — 27 December 1904 • Birthplace — Portland, Oregon • Died — 26 June 1994 • Place of death — Portland, Oregon • Resting Place — River View Cemetery, Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon, USA • Education — Massachusetts Institute of Technology University of Oregon • Notable Works — Alpha Omicron Pi Sorority House, University of Oregon Ray F. Mooers Residence, Cathlamet, Washington • Spouse — Raymond Kermit Thompson • Elected — American Institute of Architects

The daughter of David Lincoln Povey and Hanna Povey, Lilian Myrtle "Polly" Povey was born December 27, 1904, in Portland, Oregon. Her father was a founder of the Povey Brothers Glass Company, and she worked in the studio there before attending the University of Oregon from 1927–1929. In 1928, she worked at the Portland architecture firm of DeYoung and Roald. She met Ray Thompson at the University, and they eloped in 1929. The Thompsons lived in Idaho, Denver, and St. Louis, before moving to New York. She worked in St. Louis as a secretary for the director of the St. Louis Art League, and in New York she was an artist/secretary for a large bakery. They returned to Oregon, where she earned a B.A. Arch. with Honors at the University of Oregon in 1935. She was a Frances and William Emerson scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1937–1938, and earned a B.Arch. there in 1938.

In 1929, Thompson was a drafter for Temple H. Buell, AIA, in Denver. In the 1930s, she worked in Boston with a classmate from M.I.T., Archie Riskin, and registered as an architect in Massachusetts in 1943. Her registration in Oregon came ten years later, as a principal in the firm Polly Povey Thompson, Ray Kermit Thompson, Architects. From 1953 to 1993, the Thompsons collaborated on projects, with each preparing design solutions, and they critiqued each other's proposals to arrive at solutions.