The Roland E. Coate collection spans 45.5 linear feet and dates from 1925 to 1956. The collection is primarily composed of Coate’s architectural drawings and reprographic copies of his residential designs, but also includes presentation drawings, 8 x 14 in. black-and-white matted photographs of his buildings, his diplomas, large format scrapbook pages filled with drawings and reprographic copies, clippings regarding Coate’s work, awards, and Coate’s documents relating to projects.

Roland Eli Coate, Sr. (1890-1958) was born in Richmond, Indiana. After attending Earlham College for two years, he transferred to Cornell University where he completed his degree in architecture in 1914. After school, Coate settled in New York and found work at the Trowbridge and Ackerman architectural firm. During WWI Coate served as a 1 st Lieutenant with the American Expeditionary Forces. In 1919 Coate moved to Los Angeles and joined the architectural firm which became known as Johnson, Kaufmann and Coate. While he was a junior partner in the firm, Coate helped to design St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Los Angeles and All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena. By 1925, the firm had disbanded and Coate opened his own firm in Los Angeles and continued to design until his death in 1958. His first solo project was the All Saints Episcopal church in Beverly Hills. He went on to design many homes in the grater Pasadena area and in West Los Angeles. Coate was one of the early exponents of the Monterey Revival, the style for which he is best known, though he also designed Colonial Revival houses and California ranch houses.

45.5 Linear feet (10 record storage boxes and 13 flat file drawers)