Real Estate: Campus

Série

Real Estate: Campus

• 1914-1975 (Produção)

Consists of papers dealing with the construction of campus buildings between 1914 and 1975. Many papers on financing of earlier buildings (pre ca. 1940) are in series 6 (Grinnell College foundation), those on financing of the Physical Eduation Complex and Norris are in this series.

Records in series 4.1 through 4.8 were left in Burling when the Treasurer moved out in the early 1970s.  Those papers were originally in wooden letter boxes, some arranged alphabetically by vendor or correspondent, but more often with no discernible arrangement or chronological order.  Records for the rest of series 4 were transfered from the Treasurer's Office at various times after 1988.  Very little rearranging has been done in processing the collections.

Items discarded include invoices, weekly worker pay lists, routine correspondence, frieght slips, unaccepted bids, papers dealing with purchase of such small items as vacuum cleaners, shower curtains, cots, mattresses, some furnishings.

Items retained include sample of "human interest" correspondence; correspondence dealing with typical problems encountered in the construction process, such as delays in paying bills, labor problems; lawsuits, actual or threatened; description of the railway spur built to deliver goods to construction sites; letters that indicate where materials and equipment came from.

Some letters indicate a contract is attached, but no contract was attached in the files that came to the archives.  Such letters were preserved to indicate that such a contract was signed and to identify contractors, vendors, and dates.

Since several buildings were under construction at the same time, some lettters deal with two buildings.  Therefore, the corresponcence concerning one building may be filed in the correspondence of another.