Object Details
- Creator
- Lockwood Greene Engineers, Incorporated
- Lockwood-Greene Company
- Whitman, David
- Greene, Stephen
- Lockwood, Amos
- Former owner
- National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of History of Technology
- National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Mechanical and Civil Engineering
- Topic
- Architects
- Architecture, Commercial
- Architecture, Domestic
- Building materials
- Buildings
- Construction industry
- Company towns
- Textile mills
- Mills
- Manufacturing industries
- Industrial engineering
- Industrial buildings -- Design and construction
- Industrial buildings
- Engineering
- Factories -- Power supply
- Factories -- Design and construction
- Factories
- Cotton textile industry
- Commercial buildings
- Electric power production
- Provenance
- This collection was donated by Lockwood Greene, Spartanburg, South Carolina, 1997 (original drawings). An addendum to the collection was donated by CH2M HILL in 2007.
- Creator
- Lockwood Greene Engineers, Incorporated
- Lockwood-Greene Company
- Whitman, David
- Greene, Stephen
- Lockwood, Amos
- See more items in
- Lockwood-Greene Records
- Sponsor
- Preservation of this collection was made possible in part by a generous gift from CH2M HILL.
- Summary
- The engineering firm that became Lockwood Greene was founded by David Whitman, a mill engineer, in 1832. Amos D. Lockwood, a consultant, succeeded Whitman and entered a partnership with Stephen Greene in 1882. The firm specialized in industrial engineering and construction; they designed and built a wide variety of structures and work environments worldwide over the next century. Lockwood Greene was acquired by CH2M HILL in December, 2003. Before its acquisition by CH2MHILL it was reportedly the oldest industrial engineering, construction, and professional services firm in the United States.
- Biographical / Historical
- Lockwood Greene, one of the nation's oldest engineering firms, traces it roots to 1832, when Rhode Island native David Whitman began a machinery repair service. Riding the wave of the early industrial revolution in textile manufacturing, Whitman added mill design services to his repertoire, which formed the backbone of a flourishing consulting business for the rest of the century. Whitman was one of the first itinerant mill engineers or "doctors" that traveled throughout New England advising various industrialists on the placement, design, and construction of their factories and the layout of the complicated system of machinery and shafting that they contained. His largest commission was the design of the Bates Manufacturing Company complex in Lewiston, Maine, which was incorporated in 1850 and soon became one of the largest textile producers in New England. Upon Whitman's death in 1858, his unfinished work was assumed by Amos D. Lockwood, a prominent mill agent and astute businessman who had built a name for himself in Connecticut and Rhode Island. The successful completion of the projects at Lewiston brought enough additional demand for Lockwood's services to prompt him to relocate to Boston, where he formally opened an independent consulting office with partner John W. Danielson in 1871. For the next ten years, A.D. Lockwood & Company was involved in a least eight major mill design projects, half of which were for new construction. One of these projects, the design and construction of the Piedmont Manufacturing Company in Greenville (now Piedmont), South Carolina was especially significant and is considered to be a prototype for the Southern textile industry. In 1882, Lockwood established a new business, Lockwood, Greene and Company, with Stephen Greene, a professionally-trained civil engineer who had joined the firm in 1879. As the firm grew, it expanded its scope as consultants supplying all of the necessary architectural and engineering services a prospective owner needed to initiate, equip, and run a complete plant. Acting as the owners' representative, the company supervised construction and installation but did not directly act as builders or contractors. Lockwood Greene's objective expertise was legendary and made it a leader in this emergent field. As Samuel B. Lincoln explains in his history of the company: "The new firm's knowledge and experience in the textile industry enabled it to analyze samples of cloth and, from such samples, to provide everything necessary for a completed plant to make such goods in any desired quantity. It did not at any time act as selling agents for machinery or equipment, neither did it accept commissions or rebates from suppliers: by this policy it maintained a position as impartial and independent engineer." (pages 105-107) Greene became president of the company upon Lockwood's death in 1884. Under his leadership, the company expanded into additional industries and designed an array of other industrial building types that would prefigure the diversity of later work. In 1893, the company revolutionized American industry by designing and constructing the first factory whose operating power was provided entirely over electric wires from a remote power plant, rather than relying upon a water source or a stockpiled fuel supply. The Columbia Mills project created a great deal of publicity for the firm and was a signal to other manufacturers that there were viable alternatives to the use of steam power. As changing economic conditions led Lockwood Greene to move away from its traditional reliance upon the textile manufacturing industry, it was very successful at soliciting projects for a wide variety of structures, from newspaper plants and automotive factories to convention halls and schools. After 1900, Lockwood Greene expanded its operations and opened branch offices in other cities, including Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit, Atlanta, and Charlotte. In 1915, Edwin F. Greene, president and son of Stephen Greene, reorganized the firm as Lockwood, Greene & Company, Incorporated This new entity served as the parent company and controlled three subsidiaries: one to own and operate cotton mills that Greene had acquired; one to manage other companies' textile mills; and one to provide engineering services. Lockwood Greene expanded its operations tremendously as the textile industry boomed under wartime demand and in the years following. The severe textile depression from 1923 to 1928 caused the collapse of this structure, however, as Lockwood Greene continued to suffer deep losses in the textile mills that it owned. The parent company was dissolved in 1928 and the engineering subsidiary, which had remained profitable, was salvaged as Lockwood Greene Engineers, Incorporated. After a rocky start with the onset of the Depression, the company began to prosper during the Second World War and its growth continued steadily throughout the next several decades. In the late 1960s, as a result of declining business, the company's headquarters was transferred from Boston to Spartanburg, South Carolina. In 1981, Phillipp Holtzman USA, a subsidiary of Phillipp Holtzman AG of Frankfurt, Germany, acquired a majority interest in Lockwood Greene. In 2003, CH2M Hill, a global provider of engineering, construction, and operations services based in Denver, Colorado, acquired the company. From its beginnings under David Whitman, Lockwood Greene has become one of the most diversified engineering firms in the United States. The firm is best known as a designer of industrial and institutional buildings, but the company has become a leader in many additional areas in recent years. Lockwood Greene dominates the market in the design and production of the germ- and dust-free "clean room" facilities required by the pharmaceutical industry and micro-electronics manufacturers. The company has also developed expertise in designing integrated security and networking systems for industrial plants, international port facilities, and military installations worldwide. Banham, Raynor. A Concrete Atlantis: U.S. Industrial Building and European Modern Architecture, 1900-1925. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1986. Biggs, Lindy. The Rational Factory: Architecture, Technology, and Work in America's Age of Mass Production. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. Bradley, Betsy Hunter. The Works: The Industrial Architecture of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Greene, Benjamin Allen. Stephen Greene: Memories of His Life, with Addresses, Resolutions and Other Tributes of Affection. Chicago, R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company, 1903. Heiser, William J. Lockwood Greene, 1958-1968, Another Period in the History of an Engineering Business. Lockwood Greene Engineers, Incorporated, 1970. Lincoln, Samuel B. Lockwood Greene: The History of an Engineering Business, 1832-1958. Brattleboro, Vermont: The Stephen Greene Press, 1960. Lockwood Greene Engineers, Incorporated The Lockwood Greene Story: One-Hundred-Fifty Years of Engineering Progress. Spartanburg, South Carolina: Lockwood Greene Engineers, Incorporated; undated.
- Extent
- 270 Cubic feet (233 boxes, 850 oversize folders)
- Date
- 1784-2004, undated
- bulk 1915-1930
- Custodial History
- Over 5,000 architectural drawings transferred to the Archives Center from the Division of Work and Industry, 1997.
- Archival Repository
- Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Identifier
- NMAH.AC.1113
- Type
- Collection descriptions
- Archival materials
- Linen tracings
- Paper flimsies
- Business records
- Design drawings
- Blueprints
- Patents
- Specifications
- Reports
- Photograph albums
- Photographs
- Trade literature
- Citation
- Lockwood Greene Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Arrangement
- The collection is divided into six series. Series 1, Project Drawings, Renderings, and Plans, 1784-1969, undated Series 2, Photographs and Slides, 1881-2001, undated Subseries 2.1: Photo Albums, 1906-1934 Subseries 2.2: Photographic Files, 1881-1956 Subseries 2.3: Spartanburg Office Photographic File, 1948-1974 Subseries 2.4: Spartanburg Office Photographic File, 1919-1999 Subseries 2.5: Project Negatives and Transparencies, 1956-1970 Subseries 2.6: Project Slides and Transparencies, 1985-2001 Subseries 2.7: Project Slides and Transparencies, Culls, 1974-2001 Subseries 2.8: Project Slides and Transparencies, Corporate Photography, 1976-1998 Subseries 2.9: Photograph Album Covers, 1920, undated Series 3: Job Files, 1872-1957, undated Subseries 3.1, Specifications, 1913-1942, undated Subseries 3.2: List of Drawings, 1872-1951, undated Subseries 3.3: Project Files, 1919-1969, undated Subseries 3.4: Reports, 1913-1969 Subseries 3.5: Job Cost Records, 1913-1957, undated Series 4, Corporate Records and History, 1881-2004, undated Subseries 4.1: Meeting Minutes, 1913-1995 Subseries 4.2: Corporate Files, 1891-2004, undated Subseries 4.3: Historical Research and Reference Files and Photographs, 1881-1983, undated Subseries 4.4: Corporate Publications, 1917-2001, undated Series 5, Non-Lockwood Greene Publications, 1910-1984, undated Series 6, Audio-Visual, 1964
- Processing Information
- Processed by Franklin A. Robinson, Jr., archives specialist, and Matthew J. Kuhnert, archives technician, 2008-2010; assisted by Ashley Davies, Laura Fielding, Rita O'Hara, interns, Anne Jones, volunteer; supervised by Vanessa Broussard Simmons, archivist.
- Rights
- Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
- Existence and Location of Copies
- Microfilm copies of many materials are available at CH2M HILL Lockwood Greene offices in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Additional information may also reside with the clients of Lockwood Greene in corporate or institutional archives.
- Genre/Form
- Linen tracings
- Paper flimsies
- Business records
- Design drawings
- Blueprints
- Patents
- Specifications
- Reports
- Photograph albums
- Photographs -- 21st century
- Photographs -- 20th century
- Trade literature
- Photographs -- 1890-1900
- Scope and Contents
- The Lockwood Greene records are a comprehensive range of documents related to the appraisal, building, construction, design, evaluation, and engineering of facilities for a variety of clients. The material covers the entire period of industrialization of the United States, and, provides a thorough record of the textile industry, both in New England and the South. Some of the textile mills are documented with unusual completeness, showing water and steam power layouts, factory village plans, and landscaping schedules. A broad range of other building typologies is also covered, including projects with public or retail functions, such as early automobile showrooms, hospitals, apartments and private dwellings, churches, and schools. In-depth study of the company's earliest history is hampered by a scarcity of records, many of which were lost in the great fire that destroyed Boston's city center in 1872. Nevertheless, graphic and textual evidence does exist within the collection that illuminates these early projects, in addition to the fabric of surviving buildings. The Lockwood Greene records document several commissions that the firm would return to again and again over the course of many decades as clients requested plant additions, upgrades to mechanical and operating systems, and other substantive changes. Researchers are encouraged to examine the blueprints, elevations, and plans for these later additions in order to find illustrations of the firm's earlier interventions at the site. In addition to drawings, other visual evidence for nineteenth-century projects can be found in the company's extensive photo files, which often document structures for which drawings do not exist. The Lockwood Greene records contain an abundance of graphic and textual evidence for structures designed after 1910 until the 1930s. After this period, visual documentation becomes much more limited. This is partially due to the evolution of drafting tools and information management technologies within the architecture and engineering profession. Lockwood Greene was an early adopter of technological innovations in rendering and data capture, beginning with the introduction of aperture cards and microfilm and extending to the adoption of computer-aided design (CAD) programs. These more modern formats were not part of the acquisition, and, at the time of writing, still reside with the company. The Lockwood-Greene collection will be of interest to historians of architecture and engineering, as well as those that study the history of business and labor relations. It provides extensive textual and documentary evidence on the evolution and growth of American engineering and the increasing professionalization of the discipline through specialization during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Rich holdings of architectural drawings, photographs, and specifications provide unparalleled resources that trace the evolution of industrial buildings and their typologies; experimentation with building materials and systems, particularly with regards to fireproofing; and the history of textile manufacture in the United States. In addition, there is also rich visual and documentary evidence of the changing relationships between corporations and their employees through photographs, plans, and designs for company towns and mill villages, as well as through corporate records that illustrate the work culture of Lockwood Greene itself. The Lockwood-Greene collection will be of special interest to historic preservationists as the awareness of the significance of industrial and vernacular buildings continues to grow, and detailed design drawings and other visual material will be of especial value for restoration, rehabilitation, and adaptive-reuse projects.
- Restrictions
- Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at [email protected] or 202-633-3270.
- Record ID
- ebl-1562768182670-1562768182855-0
In the Collection
Pages
Pages
View Slideshow
