Clay Lancaster (March 30, 1917 – December 25, 2000), was an authority on American architecture, an orientalist, and an influential advocate of historical preservation.
Returning to Lexington, he served as stage designer for the university's Guignol Theatre and was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
[3] In 1943, Lancaster moved to New York and, as a graduate student there, worked in Columbia University's Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library with Talbot Hamlin, biographer of Benjamin Henry Latrobe.
Here he restored an 1829 saltbox dwelling and wrote studies of historic Nantucket, of Victorian architecture, and of train terminals and stations.
Also he produced a study on the World Parliament of Religions (1987), which was held at the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893; the book was published in England in May 1987.
Lancaster received a Certificate of Merit from the Municipal Art Society of New York City in 1962 for his book Old Brooklyn Heights.
[4] He also assembled an extensive acreage nearby to serve as a nature preserve, called Shantalaya ("abode of peace").
Also, in his final years, Lancaster established a charitable organization, The Warwick Foundation, to promote and extend his many interests.