Lafayette Square lost one of its best restorationist pioneers and ambassadors on June 27th. Tom Keay died following a long illness. He is survived by his wife, Lynne and a son and grandson in Chicago.
The Keays were originals; the type who could look at a brick pile and imagine a mansion waiting to be reclaimed from that rubble. They weren’t of fabulous means. Tom was a history teacher at Roosevelt High School and Lynne was a computer programmer. They saw 1532 Mississippi Avenue in 1970, and spent the next nine years in reclaiming it.