Joseph O. Cezar collection

DESIGNATION:

21-

SIZE:

COLLECTION DATES:

PROVENANCE:

RESTRICTIONS:

None

FINDING AIDS:

Inventory conducted October 2008 By Assistant Archivist Brian Knowles and Graduate Assistants Derek Rohde and Breanne Robbins.  An Inventory (PDF) is available.

Biographical Sketch

Joseph Orland Cezar (1903 –1991) practiced architecture from his home in Indianapolis from 1930 to 1979, designing homes, churches and commercial structures.  Among his designs are centerpiece houses for the Indianapolis Home Shows of 1953 and 1962.

Cezar was born in Austria  in an area that later became part of Yugoslavia  .  His father was a stonecutter.  The family moved to Chicago in 1905, then to Bedford, Indiana in 1912.  Joseph attended Hanover College for two years, then transferred to Georgia Tech for one year (1928-29).  He received his Bachelor of Architecture (with honors) from Chicago Technical College in 1931.  He then worked primarily as a high school teacher (teaching applied mathematics, stone drafting, and stone shop work) until 1938 when he moved to Indianapolis.  In that city, he worked for other firms until beginning his own practice in 1944.

Scope and Content

Records for hundreds of projects by Indianapolis architect Joseph O. Cezar dating from 1930 to 1979.  Most of the projects are residential but the collection includes some commercial and ecclesiastical work.   Materials in the collection include:

          Approximately 1000 sheets of drawings, 1930-1979

          Scrapbook material

          Mounted drawings

          Christmas cards, ca. 1940-ca. 1986.