P.J. Walker Construction Company Photographs

This collection contains photographic prints, film negatives, photo albums, company records, ephemera, and promotional material depicting construction jobs of the P.J. Walker Company, chiefly commercial buildings in the Los Angeles region from the early 1920s to the 1960s. Building types include office buildings, department stores, public utilities, industrial plants, university buildings, banks, hotels, and residences. Many of the construction projects are documented as 8 x 10 in. black-and-white progress photographs by local commercial photographers, and show the building process from the ground up over a period of months or years,. Several important architects are represented in the collection including Morgan, Walls & Clements, John and Donald Parkinson, Edward Durrell Stone, Walker & Eisen, George Kelham, and Gordon Kaufmann, to name a few.

Identified photographers represented in the collection include: the "Dick" Whittington Studio; Dwyer Studios, L.A.; Green & Tillisch; and Mushet Photography.

While the bulk of the collection consists of construction site photographs, there are also manuscripts and ephemera, which chiefly consist of cost reports, business correspondence, and miscellaneous ephemera and magazines and newspaper clippings related to the opening of the building. There is a small group of additional company records including job indexes, promotional booklets, and some photographs, film negatives, photo albums, company records, ephemera, and promotional material documenting construction jobs of the P.J. Walker Company, chiefly of commercial buildings in the Los Angeles region from the early 1920s to the 1960s.