Finding Aid for the H. Roy Kelley papers, circa 1912-circa 1957 0000147
Finding aid prepared by Chris Marino
Architecture and Design Collection, Art, Design & Architecture Museum
Arts Building Room 1434
University of California
Santa Barbara, California, 93106-7130
805-893-2724
adc@museum.ucsb.edu
Title: H. Roy Kelley papers
Identifier/Call Number: 0000147
Contributing Institution:
Architecture and Design Collection, Art, Design & Architecture Museum
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
6.5 Linear feet
(7 record storage boxes and 6 flat file folders)
Date (inclusive): circa 1912-circa 1957
creator:
Kelley, H. Roy, (Harold Roy), 1892-1989
Partially processed collection, open for use by qualified researchers.
Gift of Roy Kelley, 1975. Additional materials gifted by Mr. Martin E. Weil, 1999.
H. Roy Kelley papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa
Barbara.
Harold Roy Kelley was born in New York on May 2, 1893. Prior to college, Kelley gained experience working in architectural
firms and was able to skip his freshman courses upon entering Cornell University. Kelley graduated with a degree in architecture
in 1915, at the age of 22. Upon graduation, Kelley got a job working under architect Paul Chalfin, then under architect Herbert
L. Foltz, and finally under Herb Bass until he was drafted. Kelley served in WWI and was discharged in 1919. After the war,
Kelley found employment with Harry Allen and L. Andrew Reinhard before he established his own independent practice in 1925
in San Marino, California. Kelley served on the architectural advisory committees for the Bel-Air Estates and the Palos Verdes
Estates and in 1931 he was appointed to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Home Building by Herbert Hoover. He retired
in 1957 and died at the age of 95, in 1988. Kelley, throughout his career designed many Monterey revival style homes in the
Los Angeles area, the RAND headquarters in Santa Monica, as well as the Institute of Aeronautical Science in Los Angeles,
and won several first prize awards from
House Beautiful Magazine.
The H. Roy Kelley papers span 6.5 linear feet and date from circa 1912 to circa 1957. The collection consists of annotated
drafts of Kelley’s memoir entitled
50 Happy Years of Architecture, correspondence, interior and exterior black-and-white photographs and negatives of Kelley’s residential and commercial designs,
commemorative metals, and architectural drawings.
Related Archival Materials note
H. Roy Kelley papers, #3864. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Kelley, H. Roy, (Harold Roy), 1892-1989
Architectural drawings
Negatives
Photographic prints
Presentation drawings (proposals)