Principal, Warren H. Hayes, Architect, Penn Yan, NY, 1871-1873; Principal, Warren H. Hayes, Architect, Elmira, NY, 1873-1881; Principal, Warren H. Hayes, Architect, Minneapolis, MN, 09/1881-1894; a one-time apprentice and employee, Frederick M. Heath, bought Hayes's practice, after the former's death in 1899. Hayes distinguished himself as an architect of churches, examples of which were erected across the US and Canada. Hayes advertised in various church publications, including those of the Presbyterians (its "Assembly Herald,") Baptists ("Baptist Home Monthly,") and Congregationalists ("Church and Building Quarterly"). He had connections with the Congregational Church Building Society, through which he sold plans, elevations and specifications to members for $5.00. In this way, his influence spread. (The missionaries of the First Methodist Church Society even built a design of his as far away as Beijing, China.) Hayes emphasized his churches' acoustical clarity; for this reason, he focused on diagonally sited auditoria, with pews laid out in a fan-shape stepping down to a speaker's pulpit. To improve sound transmission, he often used domes to cover the congregation. Some of his designs conformed to the "Akron Plan" church ideal, first articulated by architect Jacob Snyder in his 1st Methodist Episcopal Church, Akron, OH. In an Akron Plan church, an often fan-shaped, one- or two-story array of Sunday school classrooms was built immediately adjoining the main auditorium.

Hayes attended local secondary schools; he went on to a school in Italy, NY, and Watkins Academy, Schuyler, NY, c. 1865; he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1865. He later matriculated at Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, Lima, NY, an institution founded by the Methodist Episcopal in 1831 that later relocated to Syracuse, NY, and became Syracuse University. He transferred to Cornell University with enough credits to qualify as a sophomore. B.S., Architecture and Civil Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 1868-1871.

His father was George Goundry Hayes, a prosperous farmer who cultivated land in in Yates, NY, Steuben, NY, and Ontario, NY.

He married M. F. Beardsley in 05/1881; four years after her death in 1882, Hayes married Lillie Cook Van Norman of Ontario, NY, in 10/1886.

He and Beardsley had a daughter who died c. 1882.

Thank you to Catherine Westergaard for some of the information on Hayes.