Turpin Chambers Bannister (October 1, 1904 – March 15, 1982) was one of the leading American architectural historians of his generation.

By his early 20s, Bannister had become highly involved in the national music fraternity Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.

[1] Bannister was one of the original five or six young scholars who talked informally but earnestly during the 1938 Harvard Summer Session about the formation of a professional organization of architectural historians.

The first organized meeting of The American Society of Architectural Historians finally occurred on July 31, 1940, when twenty five charter members elected Bannister the first President, and directed him to edit a Journal.

That year he left Rensselaer and became dean of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute's School of Architecture and Arts in Auburn.