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
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).