Robert D. Farquhar Collection
Scope and Contents
The Robert D. Farquhar Collection consists of photographic prints and negatives of the buildings Farquhar designed as well as scrapbooks, correspondence, personal papers and ephemera. The collection is mainly focused on the Wililam Andrews Clark Memorial Library, William Andrews Clark Jr's Mausoleum, and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, but also includes 2 scrapbooks, most likely created by Farquhar, with photographs of the buildings he designed (in addition to a third scrapbook of uncertain provenance).
Dates
- Creation: 1900-1967
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
The Clark Library owns the property rights to its collections but does not hold the copyright to these materials and therefore cannot grant or deny permission to use them. Researchers are responsible for determining the copyright status of any materials they may wish to use, investigating the owner of the copyright, and obtaining permission for their intended publication or other use. In all cases, you must cite the Clark Library as the source with the following credit line: The William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Biographical Note
Robert D. Farquhar (1872-1967) was one of the foremost California architects of the early 20th century. He was born in Brooklyn, NY to David Webber Farquhar (1844-1905) and Sarah Malvia Joslyn in 1872. He was educated at Phillips Exter Academy and Harvard University before studying architecture at MIT and at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1903, he married tennis championMarion Jones. The couple had three children; David Farquhar, John Percival Farquhar and Colin Farquhar.
Farquhar established his practice in Los Angeles in 1905 and was the prinicpal architect on such well known buildings in California as the Gorham House in Santa Monica, El Mirasol in Santa Barbara, the Barlow Medical Library, and the E.R. Kellam House in Pasadena. In 1915, Farquhar won a bid to design the Festival Hall at the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco. From 1918 to 1919, Farquhar closed his architectural practice and joined the Red Cross in Italy.
When he returned to Los Angeles in late 1919, he reopened his practice and went on to design several buildings for William Andrews Clark, Jr. including his library and memorial, in addition to the Canfield-Moreno Estate, Beverly Hills High School, the California Club, the Thomasella H. Graham residence, and (as a chief architect on a design team) the Pentagon. He died on December 6, 1967 in Berkeley, California where he had lived since retirement with his brother Francis P. Farquhar.
List of Architectural Projects
Note: this list is not exhaustive.
- El Mirasol (1905), Santa Barbara
- Mrs. Christian Herter Residence (1905), Santa Barbara
- Adelbert and Eva Feynes Residence (1906), Pasadena
- Barlow Medical Library (1907), Los Angeles
- O.T. Higgins Residence (1908), Redlands
- Herman Blumenthal Residence (ca. 1908)(building improvement), Los Angeles
- Dr. Robert P. McReynolds Residence (ca. 1908), Los Angeles
- E.R. Kellam Residence (1908), Pasdadena
- Santa Monica Board of Education, Washington School (1908), Santa Monica
- Major General J.P.Story Residence (1909), Pasadena
- Dwight Lefferts Residence (1910), Redlands
- Gorham Residence (1910), Santa Monica
- Henry Weyse/Charles Morris Residence (1910), Santa Monica
- Thomasella H. Graham Residence (ca. 1910), Sierra Madre
- Johnson Bransford Residence (1911), Nashville
- R.D. Farquhar Residence (1911), Santa Monica
- Roy Jones Residence (1911) (attributed), Santa Monica
- Robert A. Rowan Residence (1911), Pasadena
- Ralph Burnham Residence (1912), Riverside
- Eugene H. Bragg Residence (1912), Pasadena
- Chateau Bradbury (1912), Duarte
- Dr. Haynes Residence (1912), Los Angeles
- Charles Eaton Residence (1913), San Marino
- Torrance Public Library, Central Libary (1913), Torrance
- Panama-Pacific International Exposition's Festival Hall (1915), San Francisco
- John S.Craven's Estate Pool (1916), Pasadena
- William Andrews Clark Memorial Library (1924-1926), Los Angeles
- Alice McManus Clark Memorial Library (1926), University of Nevada, Reno
- Clark Mausoleum (1924), Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Los Angeles
- Thomas C. Marlowe Residence (1921), Pasadena
- Canfield-Moreno Estate (1923), Los Angeles
- Harry Cohn House (1927), Los Angeles
- Richard I. Rogers Residence (ca. 1927), Beverly Hills
- Beverly Hills High School (1928), Beverly Hills
- California Club (1929), Los Angeles
- Marion MacNeil Smith Residence, (1931), Azuza
- William H. Tippett Residence (1932), Del Mar
- Clark Memorial Hall (1932), University of Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia
- Owlwood-Roland Arnall Mansion (1936), Los Angeles
- Mr. and Mrs. James Whittlesey Residence (1937), La Jolla
- Harold McCormick Residence (1939), Beverly Hills
- William Garland Residence (1940), Pebble Beach
- The Pentagon (1941-1942), Arlington County, Virginia
- Browning Building (1948), Baylor University, Waco, Texas
- Mr.and Mrs. Billy Workman Residence, Los Angeles
- Mrs. H.L. MacNeil Residence, Los Angeles
- Hanson Moore Residence, Los Angeles
- J.T.Lindley Residence, Azuza
- Florence Brown Residence, Bel Air
- Ada McCormicks' Father's Residence, Idaho
- Mr. and Mrs. Charles Quinn Residence, Holmby Hills
- Francis Farquhar Residence
- Mr. and Mrs. Ben Stroud Residence, Santa Monica
- Harvey Mudd Residence, Beverly Hills
- Mrs. Fudger Residence
- Studio for Alice Lewisohn Crowley at "Crossroads", Ossining, New York
- Mrs. Wesley C. Mitchell Residence, Stamford, Connecticut
- Walter P. Lewisohn Residence. The Mill, Hunter's Creek
- Jim Page-LA Library Branch
- Stevens Residence
Extent
8 Linear Feet (11 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Scrapbooks, ephemera, photographs, and correspondence related to architect Robert D. Farquhar and his work, particularly buildings commissioned by William Andrews Clark, Jr.
Arrangement note
The collection is arranged in two series: Series 1. Projects for William Andrews Clark Jr. and Series 2. Other Projects and Personal Papers.
Physical Location
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library.
Acquisition Note
The provenance of these materials is unclear. The library holds records of a donation of materials from the Farquhar family soon after Robert Farquhar's 1967 death, and it is likely that most of the scrapbooks described below come from that gift (accession MS.1968.017). One box contains a note saying it was found by library staff in the Clark Library gatehouse in 1993; other while other materials were likely purchasedin the 1990s or early 2000s.
Processing Information
The collection was processed by Rebecca Ruud in 2012. The processor made all arrangement choices, as the provenance information for this collection was unclear.
Subject
- Clark, William Andrews, 1877-1934 (Person)
- William Andrews Clark Memorial Library (Organization)
- Title
- Robert D. Farquhar Collection
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Finding aid by Rebecca Ruud
- Date
- 2012
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library Repository