Trepte Construction Company Building Project Records, 1921-1965

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Summary

Title:
Trepte Construction Company Building Project Records
Dates:
1921-1965
Creators:
Trepte Construction Company.
Abstract:
This collection contains information about Trepte Construction Company’s projects from 1921 to 1965, including project listings and cost analysis. There are also records on the Ocean Vista Corporation and information on the Sumas Reclamation Project.
Extent:
2.5 Linear feet (5 boxes)
Language:
Preferred citation:

Trepte Construction Company Records, MS 222, San Diego History Center Document Collection, San Diego, CA.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains information regarding Trepte Construction Company building projects from 1921 to 1965. Included in this collection are project ledgers containing costs and sketched diagrams of construction projects. The Company’s projects include those commissioned by both locally and nationally prominent clients such as the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Military, San Diego Trust and Savings Bank, Scripps Memorial Hospital, Simon Levi Company, Isis Theatre, Safeway Stores, Frost Hardwood Lumber Corporation, Solar Aircraft Company, Rohr Aircraft Corporation, Ryan Aeronautical Company, Consolidated Aircraft, and the National Biscuit Company also known as Nabisco, Inc. Many of the projects produced structures that have become prominent fixtures in San Diego history such as the U.S. Grant Hotel, El Cortez, Spreckels Theatre, and the Marston Company Store. The Company was also involved with projects for the California Pacific Exposition that was held in San Diego. The collection also includes a notebook of statistical analyses of construction projects from 1925 to 1931 listing unit costs, job costs and material usage ratios. The corporation record book for the Ocean Vista Corporation as well as a Sumas Reclamation Project scrapbook and article are also part of the collection.

Biographical / historical:

Trepte Construction is San Diego’s oldest construction company. Moritz Trepte, an immigrant from Germany, founded the Trepte Construction Company in 1895. Trepte originally migrated to San Francisco in 1890, and then came to San Diego to join his brother-in-law, Herman Stroele, in starting a carpentry and cabinet making business, Trepte & Stroele. It lasted a year before Stroele moved to Los Angeles for what he viewed as greater opportunity. Trepte remained in San Diego where his place of business was a small cabinet shop.

In those first years, Trepte’s business activities consisted mostly of cabinet making, store fittings, remodels and repairs. The firm began to take on larger projects primarily through government contracts to build military facilities, and then went into the construction of buildings for well-known companies or individuals. Moritz Trepte’s son, Walter Trepte, entered the business in 1913, and eventually became president in 1928. Walter also created the Ocean Vista Corporation in order to facilitate management of construction projects on a subdivided yet vacant tract of land between the following streets: to the North, Boston Avenue, to the East, 43rd Street or Highland Avenue, to the South, Gama Street and to the West, 40th Street. Since Walter’s involvement, the Trepte Construction Company has played an active role in every era of San Diego’s development, completing nearly 5,000 construction projects including more than 40 in the historic Gaslamp Quarter.

Processing information:

Collection processed by Sean Flores on November 7, 2011.

Collection processed as part of grant project supported by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) with generous funding from The Andrew Mellon Foundation.

Arrangement:

Items in the collection are arranged by subject and chronologically. Itemized database can be accessed at the San Diego History Center Library.

Physical / technical requirements:

Some pages in the ledgers are partially or completely detached from the bindings. Taped labels are detaching from ledger spines. Cover of Sumas Reclamation Project scrapbook is crumbling and has signs of mold.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Finding aid prepared by Sean Flores
Sponsor:
Collection processed as part of grant project supported by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) with generous funding from The Andrew Mellon Foundation.
Date Prepared:
August 15, 2011
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using the Archivists' Toolkit 2012-03-20T10:25-0700

Access and use

Restrictions:

This collection is open for research. Itemized database can be accessed at the San Diego History Center Library.

Terms of access:

The San Diego History Center (SDHC) holds the copyright to any unpublished materials. SDHC Library regulations do apply.

Preferred citation:

Trepte Construction Company Records, MS 222, San Diego History Center Document Collection, San Diego, CA.

Location of this collection:
1649 El Prado, Suite 3
San Diego, CA 92101, US
Contact:
(619) 232-6203
Website