Otto H. Thorman
American architect

Otto H. Thorman (April 12, 1887 - March 11, 1966) was an American architect. He designed many houses in the Manhattan Heights neighborhood of El Paso, Texas, as well as several buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places like the Woman's Club of El Paso and Goddard Hall on the campus of New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Early life
Thorman was born on April 12, 1887, in Washington, Missouri. He attended the St. Louis Art Institute.
Career
Thorman began his career as an architect in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he focused on the Spanish Colonial Revival style.
From 1911 to his death, Thorman maintained an architectural practice in El Paso, Texas. He designed many houses in the Manhattan Heights neighborhood. He also designed the El Paso Free Public Library and the pavilion for the former Statue of Liberty in Pioneer Plaza. In 1916, he designed the Woman's Club of El Paso in the Georgian Revival and Beaux-Arts styles.
“Otto H. Thorman” enters the record as american architect. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Otto, Thorman and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q64684058. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1887, 1966, 1911 and 1916.
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This entry incorporates text from “Otto H. Thorman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.