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Carleton Winslow, Sr. Papers
MS 161
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Title: Carleton Winslow, Sr. Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1910-1946
Date (bulk): 1935-1945
Collection number: MS 161
Creator:
Winslow Sr., Carleton, 1876-1946
Extent:
2 boxes, 1 flat file
Language: English
Repository:
Special Collections, Robert E. Kennedy Library
California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Abstract: This collection contains the correspondence, photographs, project files, and drawings of architect Carleton Winslow, Sr.,
who is known for his work on the Panama-California Exposition of 1915 in San Diego, the Los Angeles Public Library headquarters
building, as well as churches and residences in Southern California and Santa Barbara.
Donated in 1986.
Collection is open to qualified researchers by appointment only. For more information on access policies and to obtain a copy
of the Researcher Registration form, please visit the Special Collections Access page.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
In order to reproduce, publish, broadcast, exhibit, and/or quote from this material, researchers must submit a written request
and obtain formal permission from Special Collections, Cal Poly, as the owner of the physical collection. Photocopying of
material is permitted at staff discretion and provided on a fee basis. Photocopies are not to be used for any purpose other
than for private study, scholarship, or research. Special Collections staff reserves the right to limit photocopying and deny
access or reproduction in cases when, in the opinion of staff, the original materials would be harmed.
Carleton Winslow, Sr. Papers, Special Collections, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
Abbreviations Used:
A.I.A.: American Association of Architects
c.: circa
n.d.: no date
n.p.: no publisher
FF: flat file
Carleton Monroe Winslow, Sr. was born in Damariscotta, Maine, on December 27, 1876, the son of Edwin and Clara Winslow. He
studied architecture at the Art Institute of Chicago and did additional coursework at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. He
married Helen Hume in New York in 1910. They had a son, Carleton Winslow, Jr., in 1919.
Winslow represented the New York office of Cram, Goodhue, & Ferguson as the supervising architect of the Panama-California
Exposition of 1915 in San Diego. He is credited with choosing the Spanish Colonial style for the U.S. Exposition buildings,
gaining favorable recognition for his work at the Exposition. In 1916, he and the Exposition's other architects co-authored
a book,
The Architecture and the Gardens of the San Diego Exposition: A Pictorial Survey of the Aesthetic Features of the Panama California
International Exposition
.
Remaining with Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, an architect known for synthesizing modern and traditional architectural forms,
Winslow moved to Los Angeles in 1917, where he contributed to the design of the Los Angeles Public Library headquarters building,
completing the work after Goodhue's death in 1924.
A noted church architect, Winslow is best known for the Community Presbyterian Church in Beverly Hills, the First Baptist
Church in Pasadena, Church of the Star of the Sea in La Jolla, and St. Mary of the Angels in Los Angeles. Winslow was a practicing
Episcopalian and a trustee for the Episcopal Home for the Aged.
After 1917, Winslow opened an additional office in Santa Barbara, where he designed Cottage Hospital and worked with Floyd
E. Brewster on the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Other noteworthy commissions in Santa Barbara include the Bliss,
Billings, and Wilder residences.
In 1924, Winslow worked with Edward Fisher Brown on
Small House Designs, published by the Community Arts Association of Santa Barbara. Winslow became a member of the Southern Chapter of the AIA
in 1916, and was became a Fellow of the AIA in 1939. He served as the president of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Commission
from 1931 to 1933. He died in Los Angeles on October 16, 1946, and was survived by his wife and son.
Sources
"Carleton M. Winslow." [obituary]
New York Times 17 October 1946: 22.
"C.M. Winslow, Architect, Dies."
Los Angeles Times 17 October 1946: 12.
Winslow, Carleton M.
The Architecture and Gardens of the San Diego Exposition: A Pictorial Survey of the Aesthetic Features of the Panama California
International Exposition
. San Francisco: Paul Elder and Co., 1916.
Withey, Henry F. and Elsie Rathburn Withey.
Biographical Dictionary of American Architects (Deceased). Detroit: Omnigraphics, 1996.
World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918.
Ancestry.com.
This collection contains correspondence, photographs, project files, and drawings of Carleton Winslow, Sr. The collection
is comprised of personal and professional correspondence in Box 1, project files and photographs in Box 2, and oversized project
drawings housed in one flat file. The collection includes correspondence from World War I, the 1920s and early 1930s, with
the bulk of records dating from 1935 to 1945.
Church project files in the collection include St. Mary of the Angels in Hollywood, one of Winslow Sr.'s better-known designs;
the Episcopal Home for the Aged in Alhambra; Mission of the Holy Comforter chapel in Los Angeles; St. David's Episcopal Church
of North Hollywood and St. Paul's Episcopal Church.
The collection contains a project file as well as photographs of the Los Angeles Public Library, which Winslow and Bertram
Grosvenor Goodhue began work on following the California-Pacific Exposition of 1915. Julius Shulman took the photo of the
library.
There are letters illustrated with sketches by Carleton Winslow, Sr., from his hospital bed in 1944, to his son Carleton,
Jr., and letters from Carleton, Jr. to his mother and father when he was deployed in the Pacific during World War II.
Researchers should note that when the architectural drawings and records of both Carleton Winslow, Sr. and Carleton Jr. were
found in the same client file, the work by Carleton Jr. was extracted and placed in the more extensive Carleton Winslow, Jr.
Collection.
With offices in Santa Barbara as well as Los Angeles from 1917 on, Carleton Winslow, Sr. designed Cottage Hospital and residences
like the Bliss House. In San Marino, he designed a Spanish style, studio residence for portrait painter Adolf Muller-Ury,
for which there is correspondence in the collection. There is also a publicity list of Carleton Winslow's work, dated 1921
and 1924, and an invitation list, which includes colleagues and clients.
Joe Weston's letters to Winslow during World War I describe aerial observer training and service in France, as well as Weston's
wish to pursue a future in architecture. Weston had been employed by Winslow as an architectural draftsman before the war
and would become a partner in Winslow and Weston, Associated, from 1935 to 1936. The letters and the later financial records
of this partnership are also in the collection. Winslow's professional correspondence regarding National Service during World
War I is in Series 2, subseries B.
Where possible, the provenance, or original organization, of the papers has been preserved. However, in order to simplify
access to the collection for researchers, some materials in specific formats and topics were reorganized and refoldered alphabetically
or chronologically to reflect their contents.
The Carleton Winslow, Sr. Papers are housed in 2 boxes and one flat file. It is divided into four series:
Series 1: Personal Papers, 1910-1946
Series 2: Professional Papers, 1917-1944
Series 3: Project Records, 1921-1943
Series 4: Art, undated
The National Endowment for the Humanities has generously funded the arrangement and description of this collection, along
with matching funds from California Polytechnic State University.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Architecture -- California.
Architecture, Domestic -- Design and plans
Church architecture -- California
Church architecture -- History
Goodhue, Bertram Grosvenor, 1869-1924
Liturgy and architecture — History
Panama-California Exposition, 1915-1919
Winslow, Carleton M., 1876-1946
Winslow, Carleton M., 1876-1946 -- Career in Architecture
Winslow, Carleton M., 1919-1983
Correspondence
Project files
Photographs
Drawings
Materials Cataloged Separately:
Erstad, Rev. William, "Carleton M. Winslow: His Greatest Challenge as a Church Architect." Term paper, no publisher, 1982
Winslow, Carleton M., Jr. "The Architecture of the Panama-California Exposition, 1909-1915." MA Thesis. U of San Diego, 1976.
Related Collections:
Carleton Winslow, Jr. Papers