This collection is available for use by appointment in the Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. For further information and to make an appointment, please email avery-drawings@library.columbia.edu.
The collection includes architectural drawings for approximately 240 projects located primarily in Southern California, particularly Pasadena, including the Earle C. Anthony house, Los Angeles, 1909, and additions, 1913, 1917; the R. R. Blacker house, Oak Knoll, California, 1907-1909, and additions; work for the Culbertson family of Pasadena, specifically additions to the grounds of the Cordelia A. Culbertson house, 1914-1915, and additions for her to the William T. Bolton house, 1918, 1926, and the James A. Culbertson house, 1902, and garage, 1906, and later additions, 1907, 1910; the Herbert Fleishhacker house in San Francisco, outbuildings, 1911, and alterations, 1915; the Freeman A. Ford house, Pasadena, 1907-1909; the David B. Gamble house, Pasadena, California, 1913; the Sidney D. Gamble house, Escondido, California; and the Robert Pitcairn, Jr. house, Pasadena, 1906. Photographs and specifications for some projects are also included in this collection.
Series I: Architectural Drawings
This series contains approximately 4,800 architectural drawings for over 240 Greene & Greene projects. Drawings are arranged alphabetically using client surname for private houses and project name for corporate and public clients.
Each project was catalogued separately in the online catalog. This finding aid provides a link to each project's associated record. Sheet level description can be found in these project-level records. Each sheet is individually accessioned with numbers ranging from NYDA.1960.001.00001 through .04764.
The drawings in this collection were digitized as part of the Greene & Greene Virtual Archives (GGVA) project. The GGVA is made possible by a generous grant from the J. Paul Getty Trust under the Electronic Cataloguing Initiative of the Getty Grant Program. With the objective of creating a single visual resource for Greene & Greene researchers, homeowners, students, and the general public, the GGVA brings together selected material from the four major Greene & Greene collections: the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library; the Environmental Design Archives at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB); The Gamble House, University of Southern California (USC), in Pasadena, California; and the Greene & Greene Archives, USC at The Huntington Library Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California. Access to digital images of the architectural drawings from Avery's collection is provided in this finding aid.
Series II: Project Photographs
This series contains approximately 527 photographs for 23 Greene & Greene projects. Photographs are arranged alphabetically using client surname for private houses and project name for corporate and public clients.
Each project was catalogued separately in the online catalog. This finding aid provides a link to each project's associated record. Item level description can be found in these project-level records. Each photograph is individually accessioned with numbers ranging from Range: NYDA.1987.003.00001 through .00527.
A selection of photographs in this collection were digitized as part of the Greene & Greene Virtual Archives (GGVA) project. Access to these digital images is provided in this finding aid.
This series includes a small collection of manuscript fragments and sketches by Charles Sumner Greene (1868-1957). The series also includes photographs of the Greene brothers and family members.
Series IV: Jean Murray Bangs' Research Files on Greene & Greene
The series consists of the research papers of architectural historian Jean Murrary Bangs (1894-1985). Bangs was a Berkeley-trained economist who became an architectural historian of the United States Modern movement. In the 1940s, she focused her work on the rediscovery of Charles and Henry Greene's work in Southern California. Her research on Greene & Greene was published in Architectural Forum (Oct. 1948). A planned book on the firm was never completed. The series includes blueprints found by Bangs in the garage of one of the Greene brother's former home.
Digitized images from Avery's Greene Greene Collection
This collection is available for use by appointment in the Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. For further information and to make an appointment, please email avery-drawings@library.columbia.edu.
Greene & Greene architectural drawings and records, Drawings and Archives, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University.
Greene Greene Virtual Archives: The GGVA provides a searchable database of over 4,000 images selected from the four major Greene & Greene collections: the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University in the City of New York; the Environmental Design Archives at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB); The Gamble House, University of Southern California (USC), in Pasadena, California; and the Greene and Greene Archives, USC at The Huntington Library in San Marino, California.
Charles Sumner Greene collection (1959-1): Environmental Design Archives, College of Environmental Design. University of California, Berkeley. Berkeley, California.
Gamble House, Pasadena, California): The Gamble House, designed and built by Charles and Henry Greene in 1908-9, is now an historic museum. It is owned by the City of Pasadena and operated by the University of Southern California.
Greene and Greene Archives: University of Southern California, housed at the Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Harwell Hamilton Harris papers, 1906-1990: Alexander Architectural Library, University of Texas at Austin.
The Greene & Greene Collection at Avery is comprised of two accessions. The first, accession number 1960.001, was made possible by Jean Murray Bangs (1894-1985), while the second accession, 1987.003, was received from her husband, the architect Harwell Hamilton Harris (1903-1990).
Columbia University Libraries, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library
The collection was processed by Roberta Blitz and drawings were catalogued by Project AVIADOR staff with grant funding from the Getty Foundation. Shelley Hayreh, Avery Archivist, edited and published the ArchivesSpace finding aid in 2020.
Biographical Timeline:
1868: Charles Sumner Greene born, Brighton, Ohio
1870: Henry Mather Greene born, Brighton, Ohio
1874: Greene family moves to St. Louis, Missouri
1884: Charles enrolls in Calvin Milton Woodward's Manual Training School of Washington University, St. Louis
1885: Henry enrolls in MTS
1888: Greene brothers enroll in the architectural curriculum at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston
1890-1893: Charles and Henry serve apprenticeships with Boston architectural firms
1891: The brothers receive Certificates of Partial Course in Architecture from MIT
1892: Charles' and Henry's parents, Lelia Ariana and Thomas Sumner Greene, move to Pasadena, Calif.
1893: Greene brothers travel to Pasadena, visiting the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago enroute
1894: Greenes open an architectural office in Pasadena
1899: Henry marries Emeline Augusta Dart
1901: Charles marries Alice Gordon White
1902: James A. Culbertson house designed
1903: Bandini and first Van Rossem house designed
1904: Camp, Garfield and Tichenor houses designed
1906: Major article on the Greenes appears in Oct. issue of Architectural Record
1907-1909: Greene & Greene create some of their most renowned residences, including the Blacker, Gamble, Pratt, and Thorsen houses
1911: Cordelia A. Culbertson and Fleishhacker houses designed
1912: Number of commissions begins to decrease
1916: Charles Greene family moves to Carmel
1918: D.L. James commissions Charles to build a house in Carmel
1921: Henry designs a house for Kate A. Kelly
1922: Official dissolution of the firm; Henry reorganizes under his own name, Charles continues to practice out of his Carmel studio
1923: Charles designs a game room addition for the Fleishhackers
1925: Henry designs the William Thum house
1927: Charles designs a water garden for the Fleishhacker estate
1929: Henry designs the Strasburg and Richardson houses
1933: Henry closes his office and moves the practice to his home
1935: Emeline Greene, Henry's wife, dies
1944: Charles ceases work on his last architectural commission, the D.L. James library addition
1948: Southern California Chapter, American Institute of Architects, awards the Greenes a Certificate of Merit
1951: Henry designs a concrete block residence for the McElwains, his daughter and son-in-law
1952: American Institute of Architects honors the Greenes with a special citation
1954: Henry dies in Pasadena
1957: Charles dies in Carmel
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
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