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Finding Aid for the Roland Eli Coate, Sr. papers, 1925-1956
0000120
0000120
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Title: Roland Eli Coate, Sr. papers
Identifier/Call Number: 0000120
Contributing Institution:
Architecture and Design Collection, Art, Design & Architecture Museum
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
69.71 Linear feet
(12 half record storage boxes, 1 quarter record storage box, 4 oversize flat boxes, and 13 flat file drawers)
Date (inclusive): 1916-1957
Location note: Boxes 1-13/ADC - regular Boxes 14-15/ADC - oversize* Boxes 16-17/ADC - oversize** 13 Flat File Drawers/ADC - flat files
creator:
Coate, Roland E., 1890-1958
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Gift of Roland Coate Jr., 1973.
Roland Eli Coate, Sr. papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California,
Santa Barbara.
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.
The following arrangement scheme for this collection was imposed during processing in the absence of a usable original order.
The collection is organized in four series: professional papers, office files, reference, and architecture and design projects.
The contents of the professional papers, office files and reference series are arranged in alphabetical order by subject.
The architecture and design project series are divided into subseries by client/project name, and subsequently arranged by
format (for example: architectural drawings, photographs, project files, and slides).
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.
Individual payroll records were shredded. Names, addresses and years are annotated within the project index.
Removed 4 drawings of garden plan for J. L. Severance at Pasadena and moved to the Reginald Johnson Collection #146.
Removed portions of a disbound photo album of architectural designs by Carleton Winslow and added to the Carlton Winslow Collection
#196.
Related Archival Materials note
Johnson, Kaufmann, & Coate drawing for Saint Paul's Cathedral, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture
Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Coate, Roland E., 1890-1958
Architects -- California
Architectural drawings
Architecture -- California
Architecture -- California -- 20th century
Clippings (Books, newspapers, etc.)
Photographic prints
Presentation drawings (proposals)
Ranch houses--Design and construction
Spanish Colonial Revival