Pierre & Wright's Fire Station #18 on the 10 Most Endangered List

Indiana Landmarks recently published their 10 Most Endangered List for 2017 and Pierre & Wright's Fire Station #18 is featured prominently on the list. A stylish Art Deco fire station built in 1936 on Indianapolis' west side, the building served the Indianapolis Fire Department handsomely until it was replaced in 1994 and left vacant.

A few years ago, Edward Pierre's granddaughter donated a large collection of the architect's papers, photographs, and other materials he collected over his long career. In the papers, he cited Fire Station #18 as one of his favorite buildings he designed. He matched fashionable design elegantly with the utilitarian needs of men who needed efficiency in their race to save lives and property. Pierre was proud to live in Indianapolis and worked very hard throughout his career to make it a better city for its citizens. He was proud to design important buildings like the Indiana State Library, but also proud to design small, utilitarian buildings like Fire Station #18. From gas stations to libraries and office buildings, Pierre infused every project with the best design he could produce.

Today the former fire station at Washington Street and Tibbs Avenue sits ready for redevelopment to transform it into its next life. Perhaps a restaurant, a residence, or an office will find its new home there. No matter what, the building will serve its purpose with style and grace straight from one of the greatest architects in Indiana history.


Images: Fire Station #18 rendering by Leslie Ayres, 1936. Pierre & Wright Architectural Records, Drawings + Documents Archive, Ball State University.
Current photo by Evan Hale, Courtesy of Indiana Landmarks.

Relax, it's still summer!

 

 

 

Despite the back-to-school sales seen cropping up at the stores, according to the calendar it's still July and nearly a month before students return to classes here at Ball State University. It's still summer! Spend some time outside in the hammock, on the Adirondack, or a really cool mid-century chair before tackling that shopping list of pencils and Trapper Keepers.

Images: Russell Walcott patio photograph by Jessie Tarbox Beals, ca. 1935, Trowbridge and Beals Photographs; O. C. Catterlin house photograph for Fran Schroeder, 1952, Fran Schroeder Architectural Records; Lawn chair design drawing by Joseph Cezar, 1943. Drawings + Documents Archive, Ball State University.

Architectural Holidays

From the office of Edward D. Pierre comes this angel adorning a holiday card from 1956, which can be found in the collection of architect and former alum from Pierre's previous firm Pierre & Wright, Fran Schroeder. They maintained a friendship throughout their careers, but Schroeder had his own firm by this time. A natural historian, it's in Schroeder's files that we find many of the holiday cards from Pierre, Leslie Ayres, and others. On this card, Pierre included his fellow architects in the firm, James Merrifield, Richard C. Zimmer, and J. Parke Randall.

Image: Holiday card from the office of Edward D. Pierre, 1956. Fran Schroeder Architectural Records, Drawings + Documents Archive, Ball State University.

Indianapolis Home Show

The Indianapolis Home Show has played a vital role in the development of architecture and design as well as promoting home ownership in Indianapolis from its beginning in 1922. Many of the architects reflected in the collections (Richard Bishop, Edward Pierre, Fran Schroeder, Leslie Ayres, Joseph Cezar, among others) participated in the event and therefore we have architectural drawings, ephemeral materials such as brochures and newspaper clippings, photographs, and other material related to this yearly Indianapolis event.

Depicted above is the souvenir booklet for the 1941 Indianapolis Home Show, which showcased three homes: the $5,000 All-American Four-Star Home by Pierre & Wright and built by Thelma D. Schaffner (the first woman builder at the Home Show); the Homemaker by architect Charles D. Ward and built by Bridges & Graves; and the Manor House by architect Leslie F. Ayres and built by S. E. Arvin, which is depicted above. All three houses were landscaped by James H. Lowry.

Typically the show organizers created just one full-scale home. In 1940, the year prior, the show organizers had also created three full-scale homes and were building on the success of that show. 1940 and 1941 would be the only years with three full-scale homes on display. The following year, the organizers decided to discontinue the show during World War II and wouldn't have another display until 1946, after the war ended.

The life of the display homes extended well past their short life on display for the thousands of visitors that flocked to the tour the homes every year. All three of the 1941 homes were dismantled after their exhibition and reconstructed throughout the city. The All-American Four-Star Home now resides at 2708 E. 58th Street, the Homemaker is at 5805 N. Oxford, and the Manor House is at 6085 N. Olney, all in Indianapolis.

The All-American Four Star Home would later be featured in the 1947 holiday issue of Popular Home magazine, shown below. The Pierre & Wright firm had disbanded earlier, in 1944, but Edward Pierre revisited the original design and created ten variations on the floor plan of the popular ranch-style house. Potential home builders were directed to order plans from Pierre at his office in the Architects' and Builders' Building in downtown Indianapolis.

You can find digitized items regarding contributions to the Indianapolis Home Show from the architecture firm Pierre & Wright, as well as Edward Pierre's work after the Pierre & Wright partnership dissolved, online in Ball State University Libraries' Digital Media Repository. Other items are available to view in the archives. For those intrigued by the history of the Indianapolis Home Show homes, you can read Indianapolis Home Show: Its History, Evolution, and Centerpiece Homes, an impressive and informative thesis written by Shannon L. Hill, for her Master of Science in Historic Preservation from Ball State University. Copies are available in Archives and Special Collections, as well as in the Architecture Library.

Images: Indianapolis Home Show booklet, 1941. Fran E. Schroeder Architectural Records, Drawings + Documents Archive, Archives and Special Collections, Ball State University Libraries.

Popular Home, 1947. Pierre & Wright Architectural Records, Drawings + Documents Archive, Archives and Special Collections, Ball State University Libraries.

Architectural Holidays

The holiday season gives us a chance to post some of our favorite holiday cards made by architects that make up our collections in the archives. These cards provided an opportunity for architects to display their drawing and design skills to clients, fellow architects, friends, and family. Given that some are printed on blueprint paper, it may have also been an economical choice, as well, since they already had the supplies in their offices. We feel furtunate to have so many of these cards in our collections because they give us an additional glimpse into the lives of the architects who built Indiana.

We're starting our holiday with one of my favorite cards from Leslie F. Ayres, the Indianapolis architect for the Wilkinson House in Muncie, and the subject of a recent publication from Commercial Artisan, titled Commercial Article 05: Leslie F. Ayres and written by architectural historian, Connie Zeigler. We were thrilled to participate during the research for the publication as well as to contribute many of the images that you see in it.

The Art Deco typography you see on the card, above, is pure Ayres and the design appears to be stamped in silver and black inks on hand-cut brown paper. The verso is plain, uncoated paper with pencil lines indicating where to cut the design. This card has never been folded but it's possible to imagine it being folded like a tent to perhaps display on the tree.

This interesting card belongs to the Fran E. Schroeder Collection. Ayres and Schroeder worked together at the Pierre & Wright Architects firm and, considering the numerous cards from Ayres that Schroeder saved, they were likely good friends in addition to colleagues.

Images: Greeting from Leslie F. Ayres card, 1930s. Fran E. Schroeder Architectural Records, Drawings + Documents Archive, Archives and Special Collections, Ball State University Libraries.

Cover of Commercial Article 05: Leslie F. Ayres. Indianapolis: Commercial Artisan, 2012.

Happy Birthday Arsenal Tech High School!

Arsenal Technical High School celebrated an impressive milestone this week when it turned 100 years old on September 11th. Of course the original military structures are much older than that, and some, such as the Pierre & Wright designed Milo H. Stuart Memorial building (seen above in the article Tech Honors Its Founder) built in 1938, are more recent. The Drawings + Documents Archive contains an extensive range of items related to the high school campus and will be posting a series of images from various collections in honor of this historic campus.

For this week, you see a small poster printed for its 20th anniversary in 1932. This comes from our Fran E. Schroeder Collection, an architect who worked for Pierre & Wright before starting his own firm in Indianapolis. Given the extent of material related to Arsenal Tech within his collection, it's likely he worked on the 1938 Milo H. Stuart Memorial building. The Pierre & Wright building is depicted in an Indianapolis Star article about its dedication, which took place May 22, 1940, a date chosen to honor the day known as "Supreme day by the faculty and the student body because of a Supreme Court decision which gave the campus of 76 acres to the school city of Indianapolis." As seen in the third image, an interior mural within the building "memorializes the life and service of Milo H. Stuart, one of Indiana's stalwart educators and inspired administrators."

Images: Arsenal Technical High School clippings and photographs, Fran E. Schroeder Architectural Records, Drawings + Documents Archive, Archives and Special Collections, Ball State University Libraries.

Functional Modernism: Fire Station #18

Fire Station #18, located at Washington Street and Tibbs Avenue on the west side of Indianapolis, is the earliest of the two Pierre & Wright designed fire stations represented in our collection of Pierre & Wright drawings. They both have a similar, Art Deco style with curvilinear walls of windows flanking the central fire truck bays.The fire department moved out of #18 when they built a larger building; however this Art Deco gem still stands today, although it is in need of preservation. Below is a description of the building soon after it was built, that appeard in American Builder magazine in June 1937.

Functional modernism is the order of the day--now even fire stations are models of efficiency in planning and construction. The building above, Fire Station #18, in Indianapolis, lacks the classic bell tower, brass poles, and elaborate stalls which characterized such buildings of twenty years ago. Instead it is compactly planned on a single floor with an exterior having modern lines and clean cut decoration.

The layout shows a central apparatus room, the entrance equipped with upward acting doors. Dormitories on both sides provide bunk room for the fire company; the locker room with showers and toilets extends across the rear and is directly connecting with sleeping quarters. At one side of the front there is a pleasant, well lighted recreation or lounge room with fireplace and a small office adjoining to the rear. Opposite are placed the dining room and kitchen. The small tower which can be seen in the exterior view is used to dry hose and not house the fire bell, as was the former function of such details.

Construction is fireproof, with masonry walls of haydite concrete block and brick facing, reinforced concrete floor, concrete ceiling slabs on steel joists and steel casement. The cost was approximately $20,000; Pierre and Wright of Indianapolis were the architects responsible for the efficient planning and modern appearance of the structure.

Images: Fire Station #18 photograph, ca. 1937 [34-216], Fran E. Schroeder Architectural Records; Presentation Drawing photostat, construction drawing, 1936 [3-41], Pierre & Wright Architectural Records, Drawings + Documents Archive, Archives and Special Collections, Ball State University Libraries.

The beginning of the Ball State University College of Architecture & Planning

Until the College of Architecture and Planning was established at Ball State University in 1965, Indiana students who wanted to become architects had to leave the state because none of the state schools offered an architecture program. The board of directors of the Indiana Society of Architects keenly felt this lack of educational opportunity affected their profession negatively and began planning to discuss the matter at the State Legislature in January 1961.

This article dates from October 9, 1960, shows the Indiana Society of Architects meeting at the Tavern Hotel in New Albany, Indiana, to plan their proposal. The agenda reads:

1. Establishment of a school of architecture in Indiana.
2. Revision of architect registration laws in Indiana.

Architects in attendance include Fran Schroeder, Wayne Weber, Alfred Porteous, Walter Scholer, Jr., Jim Walker, Harry Hunter, Ralph Knapp, R. J. Schultz, and Don Gibson. Fran Schroeder, from whose collection this article can be found, is shown seated, the third person from the left.

E. F. Marburger and Son Building, 1819 N. Meridian Street, Indianapolis

My mother always told me not to judge a book by its cover, but now I'm starting to feel the same way about building facades. Take, for example, the E. F. Marburger and Son building at 1819 N. Meridian Street in Indianapolis. Does the elegant, original facade perhaps still reside behind the urban renewal-era facade?

The historic photo can be found in the Drawings + Documents Archives' Fran E. Schroeder Architectural Records. The building was likely designed by the esteemed architecture firm of Pierre & Wright because Schroeder worked for the firm at that time. A natural historian, Schroeder often kept photographs and documentation related to his participation in architects' organizations as well as building projects throughout his lengthy career. 

Images: E. F. Marburger and Son building photograph, ca. 1930. [34-214] Fran E. Schroeder Architectural Records, Drawings + Documents Archive, Archives and Special Collections, Ball State University Libraries.

Google street view, image accessed 8 June 2012.

Indiana Landmarks 10 Most Endangered: House of Tomorrow

Cellophane curtains, rubber floors, ashtrays and lampshades like kitchen utensils, and kitchen utensils like parlor ornaments, tables that rise up in the air like a Joshua tree, enameled walls and wooden dishes, furniture made of mirrors, game boards inlaid on the floor, these are some of the brand new ideas which puzzle and fascinate the crowds shuffling through the model houses around Home-Planning hall.

World's Fair Weekly

To Hoosier architects and designers, visiting the 1933 Century of Progress International Exposition held in nearby Chicago, must have been the highlight of their summer. Intended to celebrate Chicago's 100 year anniversary, the fair featured the latest innovations in architecture, design, products,transportation, science, and technology.

One of the prominent displays at the exposition was The Homes of Tomorrow exhibition that showcased thirteen houses designed for modern and, sometimes, futuristic living. Five of the houses--the Florida Tropical, Rostone, Armco Ferro, Cypress Log Cabin, and the House of Tomorrow--were purchased after the exposition and moved to Beverly Shores, Indiana, where they provide breathtaking views of Lake Michigan.

You can see the houses as they were on display in these pictures from the booklet that architect Fran E. Schroeder purchased when he attended the exposition in July 1933. He brought back other ephemera from his trip, all of which can be found in his collection at the Archives. Another architect, Leslie F. Ayres, sketched drawings while he was there. A few years later Ayres would design Muncie's Wilkinson House, a house that also makes an appearance on this year's 10 Most Endangered list.

Decades at the shore haven't been kind to the houses and Indiana Landmarks has partnered with the National Park Service to allow long-term leases to people dedicated to restoring these buildings. I recently had the privilege to tour all but the House of Tomorrow, which is the only one that hasn't found a benefactor. The luxury house once featured a garage for the family car and airplane, but today it is in poor condition and on this year's 10 Most Endangered list.

Taken during my visit, the photograph below shows the completely renovated Florida Tropical house taken from the vantage point of the balcony belonging to its neighbor across the street, the nearly complete Armco Ferro house.

Images: World's Fair Weekly, week ending July 22, 1933. Fran E. Schroeder Architectural Records, Drawings + Documents Archive, Archives and Special Collections, Ball State University Libraries. 

Florida Tropical House, 2012. Photograph by Carol Street.



En-Ar-Co White Rose Service Station, Indianapolis

Continuing the gas station theme from yesterday's post is another Pierre & Wright design from the 1930s. Just like yestderday's post about the Gulf station, we have no working drawings for the station in the Pierre & Wright collection but were able to find photographs in the collection of Fran Schroeder, an architect who worked for the Pierre & Wright firm over many years. We have numerous design drawings for variations of En-Ar-Co White Rose gas stations and service stations, but we didn't know if any of the designs had been built until we came across these photographs.

Does anyone know its location on Meridian Street and if it still stands?

Gulf Gas Station, Indianapolis



The beautiful Art Deco-style gas stations shown in the recent Edward Pierre exhibit Civic Pride Begins in Your Backyard, which is on display at Blackline Studio for Architecture in Fountain Square until the end of the month, led many of us to wonder if they had actually been built. The collection only contains the presentation drawings, which are so lovely yet give us very little information, but not the architectural plans.

Fortunately we also have the collection of architect Fran Schroeder (1908-1988), an architect who worked for the Pierre & Wright firm from 1929 to 1940 before starting his own firm. His collection documents much of the activity of the Pierre & Wright firm through photographs, newspaper clippings, and promotional brochures. This is where we began to make some really interesting discoveries, such as this Gulf gas and service station which stood in Indianapolis. Our records don't include an address, but perhaps you recognize it or its location?



Images: Gulf gas station drawing, ca. 1936  [3-050] Pierre & Wright Architectural Records; Gulf gas station photograph [34-215] Fran Schroeder Architectural Records. Drawings + Documents Archive, Archives and Special Collections, Ball State University Libraries.

Happy New Year 1948

Architect Leslie Ayres drew a sketch of the Columbia Club, located prominently on Monument Circle, for this New Year's card to ring in 1948. It was likely commissioned by Pelham Blue Print & Supply, Inc., due to the logo on the back, and intended to advertise their services to architects and engineers. This card can be found in the Fran Schroeder Architectural Records.

Image: New Year's card, 1948. (34-6) Fran E. Schroeder Architectural Records, Drawings + Documents Archive, Archives and Special Collections, Ball State University Libraries.

The Holiday Office Party

While the Holiday Office Party is a tradition that continues on today, thankfully it doesn't usually occur on the morning of Christmas Eve like it did for the Pierre & Wright office in circa 1928. At that time Pierre & Wright, like other architectural firms, operated their office out of the Hume-Mansur Building located at 23 East Ohio Street. The invitation, wittily printed on blueprint, depicts two men moving a stack of drawings to clear out the office and calls for other firms to join their party on December 24th.

Image: Pierre & Wright Christmas Party Invitation, ca. 1928 (34-6). Fran E. Schroeder Architectural Records Collection, Drawings + Documents Archive, Archives and Special Collections, Ball State University Libraries.

Holiday Archives

Images: Leslie F. Ayres Christmas Cards, 1941-47 (34-6). Fran E. Schroeder Architectural Records Collection, Drawings + Documents Archive, Archives and Special Collections, Ball State University Libraries.

Holiday archives

Leslie Ayres (1906-1952) was an accomplished architect and illustrator responsible for many of the beautiful presentation drawings in our collections. If you've appreciated the color renderings in the Pierre and Wright Architectural Records Collection, you've likely seen his work. As an innovative architect, he's also responsible for the fascinating, Art-Moderne T. G. Wilkinson house here in Muncie.

Born in Indianapolis and educated at Arsenal Technical High School, Ayres began working at Pierre and Wright as a delineator while he was still in high school. Winning the 1926 Princeton Prize in Architecture allowed him to study architecture at Princeton University, and he credited his year of study for developing his understanding of modern design.

The holiday cards above represent our earliest cards from Ayres. More will follow. But these represent a significant period in his life--you will notice the first one, from 1936, is signed with his name but there's an addition of Mr. and Mrs. in 1938. Unfortunately, we don't have the card from 1937, the year he and Edna Carolyn Silcox married.

Leslie Ayres seemed to enjoy sketching scenes of Indianapolis that place impressive churches, such as Christ Church Cathedral seen above in the cards from 1936 and 1940, within the larger context of the cityscape for his Christmas card designs. As an ardent Modernist, perhaps he is showing how the traditional and the contemporary can coexist? Tomorrow we'll post Ayres' cards from the years 1941-1947

Images: Leslie F. Ayres Christmas Cards (34-6) Fran E. Schroeder Architectural Records Collection, Drawings + Documents Archive, Archives and Special Collections, Ball State University Libraries.

Holiday Greetings

 Indianapolis architect Fran Schroeder (1908-1988) appears to be working out the details from his ca. 1930 holiday card design  by printing them on different papers and with different inks. The fanciful castle architecture combined with stylized art-deco clouds and a banner declaring "Greetings" that is largely obscured by the structure make for a rather interesting holdiay card from this young architect.

Images: Fran Schroeder Christmas Card designs, ca 1930. Fran E. Schroeder Architectural Records Collection, Drawings + Documents Archive, Archives and Special Collections, Ball State University Libraries.

Holiday Archives

Every year we explore the collections for holiday cards that architects sent to clients, staff, and family. This year we discovered a wonderful collection of cards in the Fran E. Schroeder Architectural Records Collection. Schroeder (1908-1988) worked in the Pierre & Wright architectural firm from 1929-40, then the Curtis-Wright Corporation during World War II. After the war her joined McGuire & Shook before starting his own firm in Indianapolis, known as Fran E. Schroeder and Associates. He also enthusiastically participated in the Indiana Society of Architects, the Architectural Guild of Indianapolis, and the American Institute of Architects. The collection contains holiday cards that he received from fellow architects and firms, such as Ed Pierre, Leslie Ayres, and Pierre & Wright, as well as cards he designed.

To start off our blog celebration of holiday cards is this undated card from Edward Pierre and family with a gatefold design on blueprint. As is often found in the Pierre & Wright collection, Pierre seems to have drawn portraits of himself, his wife Louise, and their daughter caroling at the gate to their house. It exemplifies the creativity and familial joy that can typically be found in Pierre's sketches.

Front:

Center, open:

Back:

Images: Christmas card from Edward Pierre and Family, n.d. (3-117C) Pierre & Wright Architectural Records Collection, Drawings + Documents Archive, Archives and Special Collections, Ball State University Libraries.