Elbert Peets papers

Collection — Volume: 1

Identifier: 2772

COLLECTION DESCRIPTION

Includes correspondence, reports, clippings, photographs, plans, and drawings related to projects on which Peets worked; material on the L'Enfant plan for Washington, D.C., of which Peets was a major proponent and guardian; material related to articles and books by or about Peets, including photographs and negatives from the book Civic Art; and personal correspondence, notes, manuscripts, and family papers.

Dates

1883-1983,-1904-1974 (bulk)

Creator

Language of Materials

Collection material in English

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Biographical chronology

CHRONOLOGY

May 5, 1886
: Born Cleveland Ohio to Edward Orville Peets and Mary Curetta Houghton Peets

: Graduated from Central High School in Cleveland, Ohio
1912
: B.A. magna cum laude, Western Reserve University; First Scholarship Honors, Phi Beta Kappa

: Foreman for H.U. Horvath, landscape architect and nurseryman while in college
1915
: M.L.A., Harvard University, School of Landscape Architecture and City Planning; instructed in horticulture at Harvard, 1914-1915
June 1915-June 1916
: Worked for Pray, Hubbard and White, Landscape Architects, making plans for land subdivisions
June 1916-Jan. 1917
: Worked with Werner Hegemann on Kohler, Wisconsin, a "company" town, in Sheboygan; Milwaukee, Wisconsin--subdivisions, parks, playground, cemeteries
Jan. 1917-Dec. 1918
: Civilian Planning Engineer with the U.S. Army, Camp Planning Section, Construction Division. Made plans for: Hospitals (Staten Island, Colonia, Otisville, etc.); Remount Stations
Jan. 1919-Apr. 1920
: In practice with Werner Hegemann on: Washington Highlands, large subdivision in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Apr. 1920-Mar. 1921
: Charles Eliot Traveling Fellowship: London, Paris, Rome, Vienna, Berlin, Amsterdam
Apr. 1921-May 1922
: Continued practice with Werner Hegemann; collaborated with Hegemann in writing Civic Art: The American Vitruvius
June 1922-June 1923
: Wyomissing Park, large subdivision including areas for working people, Reading, Pennsylvania
July 1923-July 1933
: Private practice in Cleveland, Ohio; work included gardens, parks, land subdivisions; also wrote articles
July 1933-Nov. 1933
: Cleveland City Planning Commission; parks, playgrounds, civic improvements
Nov. 1933-Apr. 1934
: U.S. Department of Agriculture; layout of roads and other site planning work at Beltsville, Maryland; representative of A.D. Taylor, President of ASLA
May 1934-Nov. 1935
: Private practice in Cleveland; writing
Nov. 1935-Feb. 1938
: U.S. Farm Resettlement Administration in Washington; principal town planner for Greendale, Wisconsin
Feb. 1938-Apr. 1939
: Catalina Island, California; plans and report on the future development of the Wrigley Estate and the town of Avalon
Apr. 1938-1944
: Chief of Site Planning Section, U.S. Housing Authority, and Federal Public Housing Authority
1939
: Report on City Planning and Housing for San Juan, Puerto
1941
: Report for the National Resources Planning Board (NRPB): "An Interior Program of Planning Studies for the Physical Development of Puerto Rico" (with Hale Walker and Tracy Augur)
1944
: Lectured at the New York Museum of National History on Aerial Urban Reconnaissance and Site Recognition
1945
: Consultant in Town Planning for FPHA and USHA
1945-1948
: Prepared plans for the extension of Greendale; drafted a zoning ordinance for Greendale
1945-1951
: Housing consultant and site planner for the Municipal Housing Authority of San Juan, Puerto Rico
1946-1947
: Site and City Planner for Phillip Klutznick, American Community Builders, Park Forest, Illinois
1950-1954
: Member of the Fine Arts Commission, Washington
1951-1953
: Consultant to the National Capital Park and Planning Commission
1950-1960
: Lecturer at Yale and Harvard; consultant to several private planning firms; Harland Bartholomew; McGaughan and Johnson; plan for the S.W. Washington Redevelopment with Louis Justement
1951-1962
: Worked with sculptor Felix de Weldon on site planning for memorials: Plaza Bolivar, Washington, D.C.; monument to General Calixto Garcia, Havana, Cuba; Pershing Memorial, Washington, D.C.; Stone Mountain Memorial, Atlanta, Georgia; National War Memorial, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
1963
: Site plan for U.S. National Arboretum, Washington, D.C.
1964-1968
: Health problems prevented further work
Mar. 26, 1968
: Died in Austinburg, Ohio

Extent

4.2 cubic feet. (4.2 cubic feet.)

Additional Description

Abstract

COLLECTION ARRANGEMENT

This collection consists of three 16" boxes and three 5" boxes of papers, two oversize bound volumes, and one mapcase drawer of oversize plans and drawings. There was no discernible original order to the collection, so its present arrangement is entirely imposed.

The five boxes of papers are arranged under three subject headings. The first is Projects, Appointments and Consultations. It runs from Box 1 Folder 1 to Box 1 Folder 53, and contains papers relating to the major projects undertaken by Peets as outlined in the biographical sketch. A significant amount of material on the L'Enfant plan of Washington, D.C. is included; Peets was a major proponent and guardian of this original plan throughout his life.

Projects in the first subject area are arranged in chronological order, but with some overlap; within each project papers are arranged by item type (correspondence, writings, clippings, photos, plans and drawings) and chronologically within each type. Not all projects or appointments contain all record types.

The second subject heading is Peets' Writings, and is subdivided into published and unpublished sections. Material relating to newspaper and magazine articles and books are included in the published section, which goes from Box 1 Folder 54 to Box 2 Folder 89. A large number of negatives and prints from the book Civic Art (1922), which Peets co-authored with Werner Hegemann, is contained in this section. Also included are papers relating to the publication of On the Art of Designing Cities (1968), Paul D. Spreiregen, editor, a collection of selected essays of Elbert Peets. The rest of the writings in the section, both published and unpublished, deal with site and city planning, landscape architecture, and civic art. Unpublished writings run from Box 2 Folder 90 to Box 3 Folder 14.

The third subject category is General Papers, Box 3 Folder 15 to Box 5 Folder 13. This category contains personal materials, papers relating to minor projects and items not directly related to the two previous categories. It is divided into sections by record type and is arranged chronologically within each section. The ten sections are correspondence, notes, manuscripts, pamphlets, clippings, brochures, photos, graphics, family and biographical material, and miscellaneous papers. The quantity of personal correspondence is fairly small but helps give an impression of Peets' character and interests. Box 3 Folder 63 contains a number of photographs of Peets. The section of graphics is divided into several subsections: estates, perspectives, plans and elevations, sketches, sketchbooks and lineoleum prints. There are a variety of types (original pencil or pen and ink drawings, blueprints, photostats, etc.), but they have in common that they are not immediately recognizable as belonging with one of the major projects in the first subject category. The last subsection of the Graphics section contains miscellaneous non-Peets graphic items. The biographical material under the third subject heading largely repeats the information in the biographical sketch, but a few more details may be found here. The folder of family material (Box 5, Folder 12) contains a xerox copy of the last will and testament of Hiram Houghton, Elbert Peets' maternal grandfather. Also included is a xerox copy of a notebook of Edward O. Peets, Elbert's father, in which he kept notes on his readings.

The two oversize bound volumes in the collection are a copy of the book Civic Art and a scrapbook containing a number of original pencil and pen and ink drawings by Elbert Peets.

The oversize plans, prints, and original drawings in the mapcase drawer were either done by Peets or relate to his projects. There are 342 pieces in 19 folders divided as follows:

School projects--Folder 1

Town and city plans--Folders 2-7

Private residence and estates--Folders 8-11

Memorials, parks, and recreation areas--Folders 12-14

Other projects--Folders 15-19

See the guide for specific date ranges and piece counts in each category. The drawings are arranged in chronological order within each subject and project.

SERIES LIST

Series I. Projects, Appointments, and Consultations: Box 1, Folder 1 - Box 1, Folder 53
Series II. Writings: Box 1, Folder 54 - Box 3, Folder 14
Series III. General Papers: Box 3, Folder 15 - Box 5, Folder 13
Series IV. Oversize Plans, Prints, and Drawings: Mapcase, Folders 1-19

SEPARATED MATERIAL

Books - cataloged individually in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections

The American Vitruvius: An Architect's Handbook of Civic Art, by W. Hegemann and E. Peets, 1922, Rare NA9030 H46 ++
The American Vitruvius: An Architect's Handbook of Civic Art, by W. Hegemann and E. Peets, republication by Princeton Architectural Press with new introductory essays. 1988, Rare NA9030 H46 1988 ++

Physical Description

Correspondence, reports, manuscripts, notes, family papers, clippings, photographs, negatives, plans, and drawings.

General

Contact Information:: Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections 2B Carl A. Kroch Library Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-3530 Fax: (607) 255-9524 rareref@cornell.edu http://rmc.library.cornell.edu
Compiled by:: S. Waruch, M. Warren
Date completed:: June 1975, January 1986
EAD encoding:: Martin Heggestad, May 2002 Julia Guarneri, Aug. 2002
Date modified:: RMC Staff, August 2014

General

This sketch was largely done by Paul Spreiregen, editor of On the Art of Designing Cities (1968), a collection of Elbert Peets' writings. Several additions and corrections have been made since the arranging of the Elbert Peets Papers.

ELBERT PEETS' WRITINGS

"Civic Art - The American Vitruvius" by Hegemann & Peets, 1922 (Peets did many drawings and wrote the last chapter (VII) on Washington, D. C.): 1
"Central Park" <title>American Mercury</title> 4:339-341, March 1925: 2
"Interior of the Lincoln Memorial" <title>American Mercury</title> 5:194-196, June 1925: 3
"The New Washington" <title>American Mercury</title> 8:449-452, August 1926: 4
"Mussolini, Haussmann and Company" <title>New Republic</title> 45:295-296, February 3, 1926: 5
"Landscape Priesthood" <title>American Mercury</title> 10:94-100, January 1927: 6
"Restoration of Rome" <title>Catholic World</title> 124:451-456, January 1927: 7
"Cleveland Reservoir" <title>The Nation</title> 124:145, February 9, 1927 (Also in <title>American City</title> 36:825-826, June 1927): 8
"Reign of the Masonry Dome" <title>The Nation</title> 124:632-633, June 8, 1927: 9
"The Genealogy of L'Enfant's Washington" (3 Parts) <title>AIA Journal</title> Part I XV:115-119 April 1927, Part II XV:151-154 May 1927, Part III XV:187-191 June 1927 (A condensed version of these appeared in "Der Staedtebau", Berlin Heft 11, 1928): 10
A series of four articles called "Famous Town Planners" <title>The Town Planning Review</title> University of Liverpool 1. "Camillo Sitte" December 1927 pp. 249-259 2. "Haussmann" June 1927 pp. 181-190 3. "L'Enfant" July 1928 pp. 30-49 4. "Wren" (On the rebuilding of London 1666) May 1930 pp. 13-30: 11
A series on the L'Enfant Plan for Washington <title>Baltimore Sunday Sun</title> (under H. L. Mencken) 1. "The Ancestry of the L'Enfant Plan" February 10, 1929 2. "The New Washington" January 26, 1930 3. "The Lost Plazas of Washington" April 24, 1932 4. "New Plans for the Mall" March 3, 1935: 12
"Current Town Planning in Washington" <title>Town Planning Review</title> 219-237 December 1931: 13
"An Accurate Re-Drawing of the Central Part of L'Enfant's Autograph Plan" <title>Architectural Record</title> 72:158-160 September 1932: 14
"L'Enfant's Washington" <title>Town Planning Review</title> 155-164 May 1933: 15
"City Planner Believes (Architects) Pope Did Job He Was Supposed to Do" <title>The Washington Daily News</title> p. 10 April 7, 1937: 16
"Washington, Williamsburg, the Century of Progress, and Greendale" from "City Planning, Housing" Werner Hegemann pp. 383-416 1937: 17
"The Original Plan for Washington" <title>House and Garden</title> 78:16-19, 52, 61 July 1940: 18
"Post-War Use of Temporary Sites" <title>American City</title> 58:49-50 November 1943: 19
"Studies in Planning Texture" <title>Architectural Record</title> 106:130-137 Summer 1949: 20
"The Genealogy of the Plan of Washington" <title>Journal of the Society of American Architectural Historians</title> X 2:3-4 May 1951: 21
"The Golden Horses" <title>City Planning at Yale</title> (Book) 1954: 22
"East Front Pilgrims" <title>The Washington Post</title> Letter to the Editor 1958 (no exact date): 23
"The President's Square" <title>The Washington Post</title> Letter to the Editor October 1961 (no exact date): 24
Article on L'Enfant in French <title>Information et Documents</title> (USIS Magazine) April 15, 1962: 25
"Landscape Development" U.S. Housing Authority Bulletin on Policy and Procedure. Date Uncertain.: 1
"City Planning and Housing for San Juan" 1939: 2
"Approach to Planting and the Selection of Plant Materials" A monograph on the design of low rental housing projects. U.S. Housing Authority - Federal Works Agency. July 1940: 3
"An Interim Program of Planning - Studies for the Physical Development of Puerto Rico" With Tracy Augur and Hale Walker, National Resources Planning Board (MRPB) Charles W. Eliot, Director, 1941.: 4
"'Comments' on the Neighborhood Concept" ASPO Bulletin: 5
"Preliminary Indoctrination for Officials Enforcing the Old Georgetown Law" Fine Arts Commission, early 1950s.: 6
Reference is made to an article in the <title>American Mercury</title> prior to 1922.: 1
Reference is made to an exchange of letters to the editor between Peets and Lewis Mumford over Mumford's book <title>The Brown Decades</title>. This exchange took place in "The New Republic" about 1930-1931.: 2
Mr. Peets sent comments on Adams' Regional Plan for New York and on articles by Mumford et. al. to W. Doregill, then editor of the "Town Planning Review" about July 1932.: 3