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Calvin S. Hamilton Papers Finding Aid
605981  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Administration Information
  • Scope and Content
  • Arrangement
  • Indexing Terms

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Calvin S. Hamilton Papers
    Dates (inclusive): 1959 - 1990
    Collection Number: 605981
    Creator: Hamilton, Calvin S.
    Extent: Approximately 842 items.
    Repository: The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Architecture Collections
    1151 Oxford Road
    San Marino, California 91108
    Phone: (626) 405-2191
    Email: reference@huntington.org
    URL: http://www.huntington.org
    Abstract: This collection contains professional papers generated by Calvin S. Hamilton during his tenure as planning director for the City of Los Angeles from 1960 to 1985.
    Language: English.
    Note:
    Finding aid last updated on April 22, 2014.

    Administration Information

    Access

    Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

    Publication Rights

    The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining permission rests with the researcher.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item]. Calvin S. Hamilton Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

    Provenance

    The Calvin S. Hamilton Papers were donated by Glenda Hamilton in 1997.

    Biographical Note

    Calvin S. Hamilton (Dec. 12, 1924 – May 27, 1997) was an American city planner and landscape architect based in Southern California. From 1964 to 1986, he served as director of the Department of City Planning in Los Angeles. Prior to that, Hamilton was the director of planning in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1960 – 1964) and Indianapolis, Indiana (1955 – 1960). Hamilton was born in 1924 in Lakeland, Florida. In 1931 his parents, Calvin Ralph and Francelia Hamilton, relocated to Indianapolis, Indiana, to seek better economic opportunities. After completing his high school education in Indianapolis, Hamilton was drafted in 1942 and worked in radio intelligence with the US Air Force. In 1946 Hamilton studied Fine Arts in Landscape Architecture at the University of Illinois and graduated in 1949. From 1950 to 1952, he completed the Master of City Planning program at Harvard University.
    Hamilton’s planning and landscape architecture career started in 1947 as a planning consultant in Indianapolis. Over the next eight years, he has held several planning positions in the private sector. In 1955 he was appointed director of Metropolitan Planning Department for the City of Indianapolis, one of the first planning agencies in the US. Hamilton developed several designation and rezoning programs for the metropolitan area’s 24 cities and towns. In 1960 he left Indianapolis to become the planning director for the City of Pittsburgh. Hamilton was instrumental in the preparation of a master plan and developed a federally funded community renewal program, an urban simulation model to analyze the impacts of city-wide renewal efforts. He also initiated a citizen planning participation program and 13 urban renewal projects.
    In 1960 Hamilton left Pittsburgh to take up the post of planning director at the Department of City Planning in the City of Los Angeles. One of his major projects was the Goals Program, a participatory planning project that involved more than 80,000 Angelenos in formulating goals for the general plan. In addition, in 1970, Hamilton prepared Concept Los Angeles, the first citywide general plan that set long-range policy for the social, economic, and physical aspects of Los Angeles. The plan also called for radical changes to Los Angeles’s zoning system, such as creating business centers like Century City and Westwood in West Los Angeles and halting commercial development adjacent residential areas. Hamilton’s tenure with the City of Los Angeles ended when he resigned in late 1985, after an eight-month investigation by the California Attorney General’s Office found that he exercised questionable judgment but had not violated any law, as Hamilton was accused of using city staff and resources to promote a private firm that he had founded. After his resignation, Hamilton worked as a planning consultant for many years. In 1997 Hamilton passed away in San Diego, California.

    Scope and Content

    This collection contains professional papers generated by Calvin S. Hamilton during his tenure as planning director for the City of Los Angeles. The papers were organized into two series: 1) Bound Volumes Series 2) Correspondence, Manuscripts, and Ephemera Series.
    The Bound Volumes Series contains 45 scrapbooks of newspaper clippings on subjects such as Calvin S. Hamilton and planning issues related to Los Angeles during the period of 1964 to 1986. This series also contains an area plan of Los Angeles (1963 to 1975), land use community plan, City of Los Angeles employees’ telephone directory, and a zoning code book.
    The Correspondence, Manuscripts, and Ephemera Series contains a range of unbound materials that were generated by Hamilton. Most prominently are periodicals that featured Hamilton and the City of Los Angeles’s planning endeavors and projects, various planning reports, transcripts of speeches given by Hamilton, and subject files on earthquake preparedness and Olvera Street in Los Angeles, California.
    The Los Angeles City Archives also holds a large collection of Calvin S. Hamilton’s professional papers.

    Arrangement

    The collection is arranged in the following two series:
    • Series I. Bound Volumes Series
    • Series II. Correspondence, Manuscripts, and Ephemera Series

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Huntington Library's Online Catalog.  

    Subjects

    Hamilton, Calvin S.
    City planning--California--Los Angeles.
    City planning--California--Los Angeles--History--20th century.
    Housing policy--California--Los Angeles.
    Land use --California --Los Angeles --Planning.
    Landscape architecture.
    Los Angeles (Calif.)
    Los Angeles (Calif.). Department of City Planning.
    Neighborhood planning--California--Los Angeles.
    Olvera Street (Los Angeles, Calif.)
    Zoning--California--Los Angeles.

    Forms/Genres

    Reports.
    Scrapbooks.
    Speeches (documents).