Sollitt Construction Company Architectural Records Collection
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
- Sollitt Construction Company (South Bend, Ind.) (Contractor, Organization)
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.
- Architecture, American Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Architecture, commercial Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Architecture--Indiana--Anderson Subject Source: Local sources
- Architecture--Indiana--Elkhart Subject Source: Local sources
- Architecture--Indiana--Fort Wayne Subject Source: Local sources
- Architecture--Indiana--Goshen Subject Source: Local sources
- Architecture--Indiana--Indianapolis Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Architecture--Indiana--Marion Subject Source: Local sources
- Architecture--Indiana--Terre Haute Subject Source: Local sources
- Bank buildings Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Blueprints Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Buildings, commercial Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Buildings, religious Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Church buildings Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Drawings, architectural (visual works) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Elevations Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Government buildings Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Industrial buildings Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Masonic buildings Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- School buildings Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- 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
Architecture Building, Room 120
Muncie IN 47306 USA
765-285-8441
765-285-3726 (Fax)
libarchives@bsu.edu
