DIY Rathbone DeBuys

In the early 1930s, New Orleans architect Rathbone DeBuys (1874-1960) was experiencing hard times. He laid off his fourteen employees and reduced his office space. Faced with typing his own correspondence and juggling various contract documents, he designed this time-motion suite in the Hibernia Bank Building and wrote an article about his efforts.

He made the 96 x 30" conference table with griffin legs that he purchased in an antique shop. A sash and door company supplied the top, and DeBuys built an informal truss to tie the elements together. He placed all of his active job files on the table so that they would be close at hand.

Read more in American Architect (June 1932).

Image above:  Rathbone DeBuys Office, Hibernia Bank Building, 812 Gravier Street. 1932. As reproduced in Rathbone DeBuys. "An Architect Cuts Office Time." American Architect 141:2608 (June 1932): p.16.

Second Generation

A month ago, we posted an announcement regarding the Andrew M. Lockett Office Records, and featured an image of his Crown Food Palace, built at 3955 Washington Avenue in 1928. Today, we came across this image of Benson & Riehl's mid-century renovation of the structure for client M.S. Ernst.

Image above: Benson & Riehl, architects. Project for M.S. Ernst, Washington Avenue, New Orleans, LA.  Undated. Benson and Riehl Office Records, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

More Building Letterheads

Here are a few more letterheads that prominently feature buildings:

Crescent City Manufacturing Company
Corner Montegut and Marais Streets
1909

New Abita Springs Hotel
Abita Springs
1912

Gaiennie Company Plumbing
Carondelet and St. Joseph Streets
1914

Gaiennie Incorporated Plumbing & Heating
501-503 Napoleon Avenue
1925

Enochs Lumber and Manufacturing Company
Jackson, Mississippi
1925

Stauffer, Eschelman & Company, Limited
Canal and Dorsiere Streets
1914

Home Paint Store
342 Camp Street
1910

Interstate Electric Company
Baronne & Perdido Streets
1907

Interstate Electric company
352-356 Baronne Street
1922

Interstate Electric Company
Magazine and Girod Streets
1927

John T. Pender
431-433 Carondelet Street
1913

The Louisiana Cypress Lumber Company Limited
Harvey Canal, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana
1920

J.H. Menge and Sons, Limited
Common and Tchoupitoulas Streets
1914

Menge Marine Hardware and Supply Company
The Menge Block
729 Tchoupitoulas Street
Undated

Kingsley House Association
1202 Annunciation Street
1913

Central Manufacturing and Lumber Company
Howard Avenue and Dryades Street
1902

The A.J. Nelson Manufacturing Company
Howard Avenue and Dryades Street
1907

New Orleans Roofing and Metal Works
Scott, Toulouse, St. Louis Streets and Carrollton Avenue
1913

Riecke Cabinet Works
Annunciation and Calliope Streets
1921

Riecke Cabint Works
Corner Tulane and Solomon Street
1925

F.C.Turner & Company
Mobile, Alabama
1927

Barnett-Schaeffer-Connor, Incorporated
537-547 Baronne Street
1914

F.F. Hansell & Bro., Ltd.
404-412 Carondelet Street
1925

M. Augustin
323 Baronne Street, near Union Street
1915

Teutonia Insurance Company
217 Camp Street
1903

Canal Bank and Trust Company [with view of Teutonia Insurance building]
607 Gravier Street (at Camp)/217 Camp Street
1914

The Natchez Hotel
Natchez, Mississippi
1912

The Cowan Hotel
Greenville, Mississippi
1912

Liverpool and London and Globe Insurance Company
204 Carondelet Street
1907

The German Insurance Company of Freeport, IL
Southern Department Building
626-630 Common Street
1904

Images above:  Martin Shepard Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

More Building Letterheads

We located another cache of early twentieth-century letterheads and invoices that features New Orleans building representations. From top to bottom they are:

American Paint Works
424-434 Josephine Street
1919

Dameron-Pierson Building
400-408 Camp Street
1926

A. Baldwin & Co. Building
Corner Camp & Common
1919

Gibbens & Gordon Building
532-534 Canal Street
1924

Hotel De Soto
833 Poydras Street
1925

Interstate Electric Company Building
Magazine & Girod Streets
1927

Roberts & Co. Building
1419 Gravier Street
1915

Steckler Seed Co. Building
512-516 Gravier Street
1911

Sutton's Foundry & Structural Steel Works
St. Andrew & Rousseau Streets
1916

O.K. Storage & Transfer Co. Building
1901-07 St. Charles Avenue
1926

F.H. Lande Furniture and Household Goods
[Local dealer for Grand Rapids, Michigan Furniture]
532-534 Baronne Street
1914

Jacob Schoen & Son, Funeral Directors
519-521 Elysian Fields Avenue
1912


Martin Shepard Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Dallas Tout Ensemble

In the late 1940s, the modern design firm Knoll began to establish its Dallas showroom located at 2909 Fairmount Street, then a residential district. Designed by Florence Knoll Bassett (born 1917), the showroom utilized a preexisting "Texas-Colonial" structure modified with enlarged showroom windows. Knoll opted to paint the structure black, added a white roof, and incorporated a Knoll-red door emblazoned with the firm's name in distinctive slab-serif capitals. Chicagoans architect Robert Bruce Tague (1912-1985) and photographer Arthur S. Siegel (1913-1978) contributed artworks for the front room, which was organized as a conversational grouping. Knoll adopted bold contrasts of black, yellow and gray that was meant to attract passing motorists (lower image).

Want to see/read more? Consult:

Bassett, Florence Knoll. Papers. Smithsonian Archives of American Art. Series 5: Subject Files, circa 1930s-1999. Box 3, Folder 11. URL: http://www.aaa.si.edu/collectionsonline/knolflor/container224319.htm

"Famous Designers Visiting Dallas." Dallas Morning News 29 July 1956.

"Firm Plans Branch Here." Dallas Morning News 29 January 1950.

"Outpost in Dallas: Knoll opens a Lone Star Branch." Knoll Showroom in Dallas. New York: Knoll, n.d. Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries. [Images above are by Arthur S. Siegel for Knoll and from this publication]