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Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Visual Materials
Microfilm reel 24 : Correspondence (Job numbers 1802-1873)
- Description
- This collection contains original architectural drawings and microfilm of drawings and correspondence from architectural firm Morgan, Walls & Clements, dating between 1895 and 1960. Some material bears the names of forerunner and successor firms during those years, particularly Stiles O. Clements, who practiced on his own beginning in 1937. Materials include sets of original drawings for 129 projects from 1900 to 1960, and microfilm of drawings for more than 600 projects from 1895 to 1951, as well as over 10,000 pieces of business correspondence from the 1930s. Many of the plans are incomplete, and this material represents only a portion of the firm's entire output. The microfilm was created by the firm after 1951. The majority of projects represented are commercial buildings in downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, and the Wilshire Boulevard corridor. They include theaters, office and store buildings, banks, industrial warehouses, manufacturing plants, apartment buildings, and schools, among others. Some projects are in cities and communities of greater Los Angeles County, and three are in Arizona and Oregon. The firm was known for large-scale Art Deco and Streamline Moderne buildings, contributing many significant public buildings to Los Angeles between the wars. Notable projects in the collection are: the Pellissier Building and Wiltern Theater, the Hollywood Turf Club, Richfield Tower (demolished), the Samson Tire and Rubber Company, Music Box Theater, and the Mayan Theatre. (There are no drawings for the Richfield Tower or El Capitan Theater, two of their well-known buildings.) In the 1930s and 1940s, under Stiles Clements, the firm designed many Streamline Moderne-style Ralph's Grocery Company markets, and Sears department stores. There are a few residential projects, including original drawings for the Merritt Adamson residence in Malibu (Adamson House), and Malibu pioneer May K. Rindge's residence. There are also six blueprint drawings for the residence of Octavius W. Morgan Jr. in Los Angeles.
