DeWitt Sanford Dykes Sr.

Rev. DeWitt Sanford Dykes Sr. (August 16, 1903 – August 4, 1991) was an American architect and Methodist minister. He was an early African American architect, known for his Methodist church designs found nationally, of which he designed some seventy churches. His firm was DeWitt S. Dykes and Associates.

Early life, family, and education DeWitt Sanford Dykes was born on August 16, 1903, in Gladsden, Alabama, to parents Mary Anna Wade and Henry Sanford Roland Dykes. His mother was a mother of six children, and his father was a lay minister of Methodism and brick mason. In 1910, the family moved to Newport, Tennessee. While he was studying, Dykes earned money as a brick mason. His second wife was school principal Viola Gertrude Logan, they married in 1950.

Career Dykes was the pastor of the churches in the East Tennessee Annual Conferences of the Methodist church from 1932 to 1954.

Dykes died on August 4, 1991 in his home in Knoxville, and he was buried at Sherwood Memorial Gardens in Alcoa, Tennessee.

List of works

1957, Bethlehem Methodist Church, Bay Springs, Mississippi 1982, Golden Age Retirement Village, 1109 Beaman Lake Rd., Knoxville, Tennessee 1988, Lonsdale Day Care Center, 1212 New York Ave., Knoxville, Tennessee