This collection includes aerial photographs, building photographs, related documents, and a newspaper article documenting CMU’s buildings and campus. Materials relate to CMU’s planning, land acquisition, development, and building construction. Photographs in this collection include the construction process of Anspach Hall, the 1966 addition to Grawn Hall, the groundbreaking for Wightman Hall, the exterior of the first and second heating plants, the Power House, the exterior and interior of the Physical Plant, students inside Finch Fieldhouse, a house on the site of what is currently the North Art Studio, and aerial views of various sizes of campus. Additionally, there is a letter from CMU to Roger Allen and Associates, Grand Rapids, CMU’s long-time architectural firm, summarizing a meeting, two campus zoning maps, and presentation drawings by the firm of campus buildings including the University Center and South Quadrangle. There is also a newspaper article (copy) about how CMU was preparing for the 1960s by planning and building new infrastructure.
The collection includes materials related to Dow/Veit’s Woods and Wendrow Estates. There are four site maps of the Dow/Veit’s Woods area and three Surveyor’s Certificates (copies) for Wendrow Estates.
A significant portion of the collection is a series of aerial survey photographs (in the boxes) from between 1970 and 2002. These were taken by Abrams Aerial Survey Corporation, Air-Land Surveys, Inc., and Advanced Mapping Technologies. Each folder corresponds to a single flight line. Notable landmarks or roads were noted on the back of the first photograph in each folder by the student processor to assist researchers. The series is incomplete. The following photographed sections are missing; DEL 2, DDT 4, 16, 17, 46, FYS 21, JMK 1, 4, 11, 12, 18, KMU 4, 12, 18.
Oversized aerial photographs by Abrams Aerial Survey Corporation are in the oversized folders. There is one from 1942 and a series of eight from 1984.
Access to the digitized architectural CMU buildings and grounds records will occur in the future.
Researchers may be interested in other Roger Allen, CMU buildings, and campus aerial collections in the Clarke Historical Library.
Processing Notes:
During processing a handful of newspapers and duplicates were withdrawn. Acidic materials were photocopied, and the originals were retained in the collection. One brochure was added to the CMU Vertical Files.
