Leslie Ayres Architectural Drawings

 

We are very pleased to announce a recent donation from Stephen and Sharon Zimmerman of drawings, sketches, photographs, and watercolor paintings by Indiana architect Leslie F. Ayres. The collection includes some of his early work, likely for the architectural firm Pierre & Wright, his student work at Princeton University, and later examples of his own commissions. Many of the drawings, sketches, and paintings depict scenes around downtown Indianapolis during the 1920s through the 1940s. Ayres grew up on the east side of the city and went to school at Arsenal Technical High School, so many of the scenes show that area of town and nearby downtown. The image above is the DePew Memorial Fountain in downtown Indianapolis' University Park.

 

Ayres (1906-1952) was an extremely talented renderer and architect. His beautiful and atmospheric renderings, which were often made in watercolor and colored pencil, lent an air of sophistication to any project and were used to sell the client on the architect’s design. He was so successful that in 1948 the magazine National Architect described him as “just about the only professional renderer in Indiana.”

While his time was in high demand for other architect's projects, he also built his architectural practice by designing residences, apartments, commercial buildings, and chapels in his distinctive Art Moderne and Art Deco styles. Buildings such as the Federal Economic Recovery Act Building (1934) at the Indiana State Fairgrounds and the Wilkinson House (1936) in Muncie, Indiana, exemplify his modern and glamorous contributions to Indiana architecture. An active leader in the Indianapolis Home Show from 1940-1947, Ayres designed many of the model homes during this time. He created sophisticated small homes that did not trade style for square footage.

 

Ayres died at the young age of 46, but left behind extraordinary contributions to Indiana architecture. His buildings that remain typify the elegance of an age long lost, and his drawings, now archived at the Drawings + Documents Archive, allow us a glimpse into that era.

 

Image: DePew Memorial Fountain, University Park, Indianapolis, undated. Watercolor on paper. Leslie Ayres Architectural Drawings, 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.

Mid-Century Modern Edward Pierre

Edward Pierre, like many Indianapolis architects, participated in the Indianapolis Home Show for numerous years throughout his career. His design for the 1954 ranch-style show home is well documented in the Pierre & Wright Architectural Records Collection with drawings, boards, and the above photograph of the house installed in the exhibition hall. You can find them online in the Ball State University Libraries' Digital Media Repository

Images: Indianapolis Home Show presentation board and photograph, 1954. [3-123] Pierre & Wright Architectural Records Collection, Drawings + Documents Archive, Archives and Special Collections, Ball State University Libraries.