Allen & Kelley collection

DESIGNATION:

5-

SIZE:

COLLECTION DATES:

1916-1967

PROVENANCE:

RESTRICTIONS:

None

FINDING AIDS:

Inventory (PDF), catalog cards, and ARCAT.

Biographical Sketch

J. Lloyd Allen and John R. Kelley practiced independently in the mid 1930s before forming the Allen & Kelley firm about 1936 or 1940.  Allen was the more active partner.  The office was at its peak during Work War II and for about ten years afterward, employing about 75 architects on defense contracts.  Though known largely as industrial architects, Allen & Kelley also designed theaters, other types of commercial buildings, and a series of housing projects.  Many of the housing projects were done under F.H.A. auspices between 1946 and 1950.  Kelley retired in 1960.  Allen continued the business as J. Lloyd Allen, architects and engineers, until 1967, sometimes in association with Lloyd W. Scholl.

Among those who worked for the firm, in addition to Scholl, were Jon Anderson; Julius Ehlert; George Fink; Walter Petterson; Joe Small; Cheek and Lynch; Charles Lowe; Richard Karl Zimmerly; Ronald Shettleworth; Wanda Lyday; and (Ernest) Fennig and Don Weir.

Scope and Content

Architectural records, 1916-1967, from the Indianapolis office of Allen & Kelley, architects and engineers, and its successor, J. Lloyd Allen, architects and engineers.  Approx. 1,940 items in 96 catalog entries.

One series, chiefly working drawings, includes 86 projects by J. Lloyd Allen & John R. Kelley practicing independently, by the Allen & Kelley firm, and by the successor firm.  1937-1967. Arranged chronologically.

A second series consists of drawings for 7 buildings by architects not connected with the Allen & Kelley firm:  Robert Frost Daggett, Pierre & Wright, Russ & Harrison, McGuire & Shook, Edward D. Pierre, Walter B. Chambers (New York), and Albert Kahn (Detroit).  1916 to 194-?

Cataloging of this collection was completed in 1990 with the aid of a grant from the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, administered by the Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology, Indiana Department of Natural Resources.