Thompson M. Mayes

Thompson Mayes is the Vice President and Senior Counsel for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He grew up in North Carolina, receiving his B.A. with honors in History in 1981 and his J.D. in 1985 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an M.A. in writing from Johns Hopkins University

For many years, he taught historic preservation law at the University of Maryland Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, and has guest lectured at the American University in Rome, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, and others.

A recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Rome Prize in Historic Preservation in 2013, Mayes interviewed scholars, artists, writers, architects, architectural theorists, and urbanists about the reasons that old places matter to people, resulting in a series of essays based on his interviews and research, titled Why Old Places Matter.

Tom Mayes’ writings on preservation have been published in History News, Saving Land, and Preservation Forum. He contributed chapters to A Richer Heritage, Fifty Ideas for the Next Fifty Years of Historic Preservation, and other books. His editorials on the importance of historic preservation and old places have appeared in newspapers throughout the United States.