Historic American Buildings Survey Southern Division

New Orleans architect Richard Koch received this telegram from United States Department of the Interior Associate Architect John P. O'Neill in December 1935, asking if he would be interested in expanding on his work for the Historic American Buildings Survey from supervision over state operations to the entire southern district. Koch later accepted the post, and his personal records chronicle a close engagement with Washington officials, southern plantation owners, and researchers.  Before he joined the HABS program, Koch worked under the Emergency Relief Administration of the State of Louisiana on Project S-36-F2-68, surveying historical American buildings in Orleans Parish.

HABS was established in Louisiana in 1935 under the auspices of the Interior Department and in direct cooperation with the Louisiana Chapter of the American Institute of Architects as a relief project for architects and draftsmen.  By April of 1935, O'Neill projected a Louisiana staff of 90 employees:  one administrator, five deputies, sixteen supervising architects (squad leaders), sixty-eight squad members, two clerk historians, two photographers, and six stenographers or clerks.

Image:  Wire of 23 December 1935 from John P. O'Neill to Richard Koch.  Box 234.  Koch and Wilson Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.