Description
The Roland E. Coate collection spans 45.5 linear feet and dates from 1916 to 1957. The collection is primarily composed of
Coate’s architectural drawings and reprographic copies of his residential designs, but also includes presentation drawings,
black-and-white matted photographs of his buildings, his diplomas, large format scrapbook pages filled with drawings and reprographic
copies, clippings regarding Coate’s work, awards, and Coate’s documents relating to projects.
Background
Roland Eli Coate, Sr. (1890-1958) was born in Richmond, Indiana. After attending Earlham College for two years, he transferred
to Cornell University where he completed a degree in architecture in 1914. Upon finishing school, Coate settled in New York
and found work at the Trowbridge and Ackerman architectural firm. During WWI, Coate served as a 1
st Lieutenant with the American Expeditionary Forces. In 1919, Coate moved to Los Angeles and joined Reginald Johnson and Gordon
Kaufmann, in the architectural firm, Johnson, Kaufmann and Coate. While he was a junior partner in the firm, Coate helped
to design St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Los Angeles and All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena. By 1925, the
firm had disbanded and Coate opened his own office in Los Angeles and continued to design until his death in 1958. His first
solo project was the All Saints Episcopal church in Beverly Hills. He went on to design many homes in the greater Pasadena
area and in West Los Angeles. Coate was one of the early exponents of Monterey Revival, the style for which he is best known,
though he also designed Colonial Revival and California ranch houses.
Extent
69.71 Linear feet
(12 half record storage boxes, 1 quarter record storage box, 4 oversize flat boxes, and 13 flat file drawers)
Availability
Open for use by qualified researchers.