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Sollitt Construction Company Architectural Records Collection

 Collection
Identifier: DADA-030

Scope and Contents

The collection contains 358 architectural working drawings and two sets of specifications for 11 buildings from the Sollitt Construction Co. of South Bend, Indiana, from 1923-85.

A variety of building types are represented: an apartment building, a retirement home, a government center, a church, a bank, a Masonic temple, a U.S. post office, two schools, and two industrial buildings. Most of the buildings are in northern Indiana (Elkhart, Ft. Wayne, Goshen, Marion) but projects in Anderson, Indianapolis, and Terre Haute are also included.

Sollitt Construction Co. presumably acted as a contractor for all of the projects and designed four of them. Other designs are by K. M. Vitzthum and J. J. Burns, Austin & Shambleau, Hubert Miller, W. E. Russ, Guy Mahurin, Johnson Ritchhart & Assoc. with D. L. Collins, Smith-Voorhees-Jensen Assoc., and Sherbondy Associates.

The collection contains only a fraction of the firm's work. It consists of selections made in 1994 from a much larger body of Sollitt Company records--several hundred cubic feet, mostly drawings--stored temporarily in the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend. Most of the drawings were for large institutional and industrial commissions: schools, wastewater treatment plants, oil refineries, factories, and factory additions. About half were Indiana commissions. The other half were in neighboring states: Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky.

Dates

  • 1923 - 1985

Creator

Language of Materials

Materials entirely in English.

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Copyright Notice

Legal title, copyright, and literary rights reside with Drawings and Documents Archive, Archives and Special Collections, Ball State University Libraries, Muncie, IN. All requests to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted to Drawings and Documents Archive.

Biographical Note

Sollitt Construction Company was founded in South Bend, Indiana, by Ralph Shannon Sollitt ca. 1920. Ralph Sollitt's father and grandfather had been successful general building contractors in Chicago, Illinois. Ralph Sollitt was the vice president and general manager of the South Bend branch of the family business. The firm received many important commissions over the following decades but went out of business ca. 1993. As of 2012, the George Sollitt Construction Company, based in Chicago, is still in operation.

Extent

12.3 Cubic Feet (2 flat file drawers, 1 roll oversized drawings, 1 legal-size manuscript box)

Arrangement

The Sollitt Construction Company Architectural Records are arranged chronologically.

Custodial History

The Sollitt Construction Company Architectural Records were received by Drawings and Documents Archive as a donation from the Studebaker National Museum on 1994/2/3.

Accruals

No additions are expected.

Processing Information

Collection processing completed. Finding aid created 1990/7/13 by Andrew R. Seager; revised 2011/11/1 by Julie Edwards; revised 2012/2/17 by Carol Street.

Title
Sollitt Construction Company Architectural Records
Status
Completed
Author
Created by Andrew R. Seager; revised by Julie Edwards in 2011 and by Carol Street in 2012.
Date
Created 1990/7/13; revised 2011/11/1, 2012/2/17.
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
English

Repository Details

Part of the Andrew Seager Archives of the Built Environment Repository

Contact:
Architecture Building, Room 120
Muncie IN 47306 USA
765-285-8441
765-285-3726 (Fax)