Charles Downing Lay papers, 1898-1956.
Collection Number: 4477
Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
Cornell University Library
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Title:
Charles Downing Lay papers, 1898-1956.
Repository:
Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
Collection Number:
4477
Abstract:
Notebooks of architectural class notes and drawings; student papers; notebooks and
sketchbooks on gardens; photographs of gardens and parks; architectural drawings and
renderings; pen and ink drawings; and articles on architectural topics.
Creator:
Lay, Charles Downing, 1877-1956.
Quanitities:
11.6 cubic feet.
13 mapcase folders.
Language:
Collection material in English
Landscape architect, architect, town planner.
Charles Downing Lay attended the School of Architecture at Columbia University from
1896 to 1900 and received a S.B. in Landscape Architecture from Harvard University's
School of Landscape Architecture in 1902. From 1902 to 1948 he maintained a landscape
architecture practice in New York City. He served as editor and publisher of Landscape Architecture with H. V. Hubbard and Robert Wheelwright. His projects included town planning for
Albany, N.Y. and for the United States Housing Corporation in Erie and Butler, Pa.;
parks in New York City, Troy, Albany, Schenectady, and Brooklyn, N.Y., Washington,
D.C., and Stratford, Connecticut; school grounds in New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut;
subdivisions in New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey;
and housing in New York City. He also was consulting architect to the 1939 New York
World's Fair and worked on conservation efforts in the Housatonic River valley, founding
the Housatonic Valley Planning Association in 1948.
Notebooks of architectural class notes and drawings, 1898, 1899; student papers; notebooks
and sketchbooks on gardens; photographs of gardens and parks, especially Marine Park
in Brooklyn; architectural drawings and renderings; pen and ink drawings; and articles
on architectural topics. Also, papers relating to lectures; and club memberships,
including the Century Club; miscellaneous correspondence; and condolence letters upon
his death.
Related collections: Oliver Ingraham Lay, Charles Downing Lay, and Lay family papers
at the Archives of American Art, https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oliver-ingraham-lay-charles-downing-lay-and-lay-family-papers-6011.
INFORMATION FOR USERS
Charles Downing Lay papers, #4477. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell
University Library.
Names:
United States Housing Corporation
Housatonic Valley Planning Association
New York World\'s Fair (Location of meeting: New York, N.Y.). Date of meeting or treaty
signing: (1939-1940 :.)
Places:
Marine Park (New York, N.Y.)
Subjects:
Architects and housing developers.
Landscape architects.
Gardens -- Design.
Housing -- New York (N.Y.)
Housing development -- New Jersey.
Housing development -- Connecticut.
Housing development -- Rhode Island.
Housing development -- New York (State)
School grounds -- Connecticut -- Stratford.
School grounds -- Washington (D.C.)
School grounds -- New York (State)
City planning -- Pennsylvania -- Butler.
City planning -- Pennsylvania -- Erie.
City planning -- New York (N.Y.)
Landscape architecture.
Form and Genre Terms:
Photographs.
Architectural drawings.
CONTAINER LIST
Container
|
Description
|
Date
|
|
Series I. Personal
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 1 |
Obituaries
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 2 |
Bibliography
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 3 |
Copies of holograph list of paintings of Oliver I. Lay II
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 4 |
Letter written by Laura Lay to Women's Committee, Emergency Peace Federation
|
1917 |
Box 18 | Folder 1 |
Condolence letters
|
1940-1956 |
Box 19 |
Job photograph album (Cambridge, Storer, Van Norden)
|
1930 | |
Box 19 |
Scrapbook newspaper clippings
|
1924-1933 | |
Series II. Student Papers
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 5 |
The Back Bay Fens, Boston, Massachusetts
|
1901 |
Box 1 | Folder 6 |
The Gardens of Haddon Hall
|
Dec. 21, 1900 |
Box 1 | Folder 7 |
The Gore Place - Waltham
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 7-9 |
Horticulture I
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 10 |
Horticulture II
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 11 |
Prospect Park, Brooklyn - 3rd class, L.L.S.
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 12 |
Reports
|
October 12, 1900 |
Box 1 | Folder 13 |
Trees and Shrubs
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 14 |
The Tuscan Order
|
|
Series III. Correspondence, 1900-1956
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 15 |
A
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 16 |
B
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 17 |
C
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 18 |
D
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 19 |
Darling, J. N.
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 20 |
E
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 21 |
F
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 22 |
G (including "Gorge")
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 23 |
H
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 24 |
J-K
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 25 |
L
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 26 |
Lahey, Charles
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 27 |
M
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 28 |
N-O
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 29 |
P
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 30 |
R
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 31 |
S
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 32 |
Speicher, Eugene
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 33 |
T-V
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 34 |
W
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 35 |
Y-Z
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 36 |
Condolence letters
|
1956 |
Box 1 | Folder 37 |
Unknown (no last name or illegible)
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 38-39 |
European trip account to Mr. Thomas(includes travel miscellany)
|
1934 |
Box 18 | Folder 5 |
Misc. correspondence
|
1940-1947 |
Box 18 | Folder 6 |
Harvard correspondence
|
1900-1902 |
Series IV. Art and Artists
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 40 |
A
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 41 |
B
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 42 |
C
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 43 |
D
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 44 |
E-F
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 45 |
G
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 46 |
H
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 47 |
I-K
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 48 |
L
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 49 |
M
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 50 |
N
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 51 |
P
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 52 |
R
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 53 |
S
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 54 |
T-U
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 55 |
W
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 56 |
Z
|
|
Series V. Private Homes and Estates
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 57 |
Adams, Elbridge L., Great Barrington, Massachusetts
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 58 |
Agnew, George B., Lewisboro, New York
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 59 |
Bartram, J. Percy, Caritas Island, Stamford, Connecticut
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 60 |
Bowen, Mrs. H. S., Greenwich, Connecticut
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 61 |
Chamberlain, Joseph, Middlebury, Connecticut
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 62 |
McAlpin, Charles W., Morristown, New Jersey
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 63 |
May, George O., Southport, Connecticut
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 64 |
Mogull, Edward, Easton, Connecticut
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 65 |
Morse, E. B., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 66 |
Stillman, Edgar, Middlebury, Connecticut
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 67 |
Willcox, James M., Radnor, Pennsylvania
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 68 |
Miscellaneous details, plans
|
|
Series VI. Architecture, Planning, etc.: Housing, Parks, Committees and Other
|
|||
Box 2 | Folder 1 |
American Institute of Architects (A.I.A.) Civic Design Committee
|
1942-1948 |
Box 2 | Folder 2 |
A.I.A. New York Chapter
|
1934-1953 |
Box 2 | Folder 3 |
Arnold Arboretum
|
1954-1955 |
Box 2 | Folder 4 |
Art Commission - New York,
|
1949-1952 |
Box 2 | Folder 5 |
Art Students' League of New York
|
1931-1936 |
Box 2 | Folder 6-7 |
Battery-Brooklyn Bridge
|
1939 |
Box 2 | Folder 8 |
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle - Brooklyn Committee on the City Plan
|
1914 |
Box 2 | Folder 9 |
Central Park - miscellaneous extracts
|
1911 |
Box 2 | Folder 10-11 |
Coney Island
|
1942-1945 |
Box 2 | Folder 12 |
East Harlem
|
1949 |
Box 2 | Folder 13 |
Greenwich, Connecticut
|
1942 |
Box 2 | Folder 14-22 |
Housatonic Valley Planning Association records
|
1939-1972 |
Box 2 | Folder 23 |
Long Island Parks
|
1925 |
Box 2 | Folder 24 |
Long Island State Park Commission
|
1925 |
Box 2 | Folder 25 |
Marine Park
|
1932 |
Box 2 | Folder 26 |
Nassau County Committee
|
1925 |
Box 2 | Folder 27-28 |
Natural Resources Council - Connecticut
|
1951-1954 |
Box 2 | Folder 29 |
Neustadter Foundation, Yonkers
|
1949-1950 |
Box 2 | Folder 30 |
New York City
|
1908 |
Box 2 | Folder 31 |
New York City
|
1919 |
Box 2 | Folder 32 |
New York City Park Department
|
1913 |
Box 2 | Folder 33-34 |
New York City Parks
|
1927-1934 |
Box 2 | Folder 35-37 |
New York City Planning Commission
|
1938-1940 |
Box 2 | Folder 38 |
New York Recreation Terrace
|
1927 |
Box 2 | Folder 39 |
New York City - Vehicular Traffic Committee
|
1946 |
Box 2 | Folder 40 |
New York City War Memorial
|
1923 |
Box 2 | Folder 41 |
New York World's Fair
|
1939 |
Box 2 | Folder 42 |
New York World's Fair - Gardens on Parade
|
|
Box 2 | Folder 43 |
1938 Olympic Award - Marine Park
|
1936-1947 |
Box 2 | Folder 44-45 |
St. Nicholas Houses - New York City Housing Authority
|
1952-1955 |
Box 2 | Folder 46 |
Sharon, Connecticut
|
|
Box 2 | Folder 47 |
Scintilla-Bendix, Sidney, New York
|
|
Box 2 | Folder 48 |
Sterling Park, Stratford, Connecticut,
|
1935-1937 |
Box 2 | Folder 49 |
Washington Square
|
|
Series VII. Writings
|
|||
Box 2 | Folder 50 |
List of Writings
|
|
Box 2 | Folder 51 |
Conservation
|
|
Box 2 | Folder 52 |
Farming
|
|
Box 2 | Folder 53 |
Forest and Trees
|
|
Box 2 | Folder 54 |
"Freedom of the City;" "Garden Book of Autumn and Winter," Duffield & Co.
|
1917-1933 |
Scope and Contents
Writings related to the works, not the works themselves
|
|||
Box 2 | Folder 55 |
Gardens - Chapter V
|
|
Box 2 | Folder 56 |
Housing
|
|
Box 2 | Folder 57 |
Land and Outdoors
|
|
Box 2 | Folder 58 |
The Loon and the Vesper
|
|
Box 2 | Folder 59 |
Nassau County
|
1925 |
Box 2 | Folder 60-61 |
New York Times Article
|
|
Box 2 | Folder 62 |
Outdoor Delights, Chapter VII
|
|
Box 2 | Folder 63 |
A Park System for Long Island
|
1925 |
Box 2 | Folder 64 |
Planning the Country Club Grounds
|
1930 |
Box 2 | Folder 65 |
A Tame Crow - Woodshed
|
|
Box 3 | Folder 1 |
Published magazine articles
|
|
Box 3 | Folder 2-22 |
Miscellaneous writings
|
|
Box 18 | Folder 10 |
Unpublished manuscript
|
Undated |
Series VIII. Printed Material
|
|||
Box 4 |
Public Parks, Frederick Law Olmsted,
|
1902 | |
Box 4 |
Hudson Nurseries, Inc.
|
1929 | |
Box 4 |
State of Connecticut Report of the State Park Commission
|
1914 | |
Box 4 |
Landscape Architecture compiled index
|
1910-1930 | |
Box 4 |
Landscape Architecture
|
April 1958, April 1965 | |
Box 4 |
Notes on Preparation of Contracts and Specifications, by Albert D. Taylor,
|
1927 | |
Box 4 |
The Prairie Spirit in Landscape Gardening, Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station
|
November 1915 | |
Box 4 |
The Future of Jamaica Bay, Department of Parks, New York City
|
1938 | |
Box 4 |
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians
|
May 1956 | |
Box 4 |
Beauty in Gardens - A Tribute, William Edwin Rudge
|
1928 | |
Series IX. Photographs and negatives of private homes, estates, public areas and other
|
|||
Box 5 |
Glass lantern slides: New York City parks including Central, Prospect, and Coney Island;
private homes and estates; housing projects, other parks.
|
||
Box 6 |
Glass lantern slides: New York City parks including Central, Prospect, and Coney Island;
private homes and estates; housing projects, other parks.
|
||
Box 7 |
Glass lantern slides: New York City parks including Central, Prospect, and Coney Island;
private homes and estates; housing projects, other parks.
|
||
Box 8 |
Small - in alphabetical order
|
||
Box 9 | Folder 1-2 |
Adams
|
|
Box 9 | Folder 3 |
Agnew
|
|
Box 9 | Folder 4 |
Albany - evergreens Ravine Beaver park
|
|
Box 9 | Folder 5 |
Art Commission of the City of New York
|
|
Box 9 | Folder 6-7 |
Bartram
|
|
Box 9 | Folder 8 |
Battery-Brooklyn Bridge
|
|
Box 9 | Folder 9 |
Bowen
|
|
Box 9 | Folder 10 |
Bryant
|
|
Box 9 | Folder 11 |
Cappleen
|
|
Box 9 | Folder 12 |
Crittenden
|
|
Box 9 | Folder 13 |
Donald
|
|
Box 9 | Folder 14 |
Eaton
|
|
Box 9 | Folder 15 |
Essex Country Golf Course
|
|
Box 9 | Folder 16 |
France
|
|
Box 9 | Folder 17 |
Frear park
|
|
Box 9 | Folder 18 |
Philips Gallery
|
|
Box 9 | Folder 19 |
Greenburgh, New York
|
|
Box 9 | Folder 20 |
Hunsaker
|
|
Box 9 | Folder 21-24 |
Laucks
|
|
Box 9 | Folder 25 |
Lefevre
|
|
Box 9 | Folder 26 |
Long Island parks
|
|
Box 9 | Folder 27 |
Lovett
|
|
Box 9 | Folder 28 |
McAlpin
|
|
Box 9 | Folder 29 |
Mallory
|
|
Box 9 | Folder 30 |
Marine Park
|
|
Box 9 | Folder 31-33 |
Miscellaneous
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 1 |
Morris
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 2 |
Nassau County Committee
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 3-4 |
National Academy of Sciences Washington, D.C.
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 5-6 |
New York City
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 7 |
New York City Park Department
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 8 |
New York City Parks
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 9-10 |
New York Recreation Terrace
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 11 |
New York Training School, Cortland, New York
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 12 |
New York World's Fair
|
1939 |
Box 10 | Folder 13 |
Power
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 14 |
Olcott
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 15 |
Post
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 16 |
Pratt - mausoleum
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 17 |
Pulitzer
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 18 |
Roberts
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 19 |
Salem, Massachusetts
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 20 |
Sheldon
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 21 |
Siewers
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 22 |
Simpson
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 23 |
Stillman - Chamberlain negatives
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 24 |
Storer
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 25 |
Stratford, Connecticut - War Memorial
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 26 |
Union Park Square
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 27 |
Van Norden
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 28 |
Van Rensselaer
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 29 |
Vietor [Victor?]
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 30 |
Willcox
|
|
Box 10 | Folder 31-32 |
Yarnall
|
|
Box 11 |
Marine Park, Brooklyn, New York: reproductions of sketches, matted
|
||
Box 12 |
Laucks: photographs, most matted
|
||
Box 13 |
Agnew, Bartram, Bassick, Budd, Casagmo, Hunsaker, Noyes, Yarnall: photographs, some
mounted, some oversize
|
||
Box 14 |
Andrews, Bijur, Brown, Crane, Devereauz, Donald, Forsberg, Fowler, Gallaher, Hostetter,
Howland, Keating, Lehman, Mallory, Morris, Olcott, Power, Smith, Seift, Van Rensselaer,
Wertheim, Zinsser; Butler, Erie, Essex County Golf Course, Gate of Heaven, Loudon
Heights, Madison Square, Overview Park; miscellaneous, unidentified photographs, sketches
|
||
Box 15 |
Adams, Anderson, Bowen, Burchard, Chamberlain, Cooper, Cosgrave, Crane, Davis, Dodge,
Eton, Florham, Fowler, Gill, Lefevre, Lovett, Mallory, McIntosh, Mitchell, Olcott,
Post, Power, Prescott, Smith, Stockly, Storer, Van Rensselaer, Willcox; Battery Park
photographs, sketches
|
||
Box 16 |
Unidentified and miscellaneous
|
||
Box 17 |
Charles Downing Lay photograph proofs
|
||
Box 17 |
Schell Lewis Sketches
|
||
Box 17 |
Certificates
|
1936, 1947 | |
Scope and Contents
Columbia-Delta Upsilon fraternity; Harvard; National Academy of Design; Olympiade
Berlin, 1936; New York City Arts Commission, 1947; American Institute of Planning
|
|||
Box 17 |
Student drawings
|
||
Box 17 |
Columbia and Harvard memorabilia (mounted as in an over-sized scrapbook)
|
||
Box 17 |
Miscellaneous
|
||
Series X. Oversize blueprints, sketches, drawings, paintings and photographs
|
|||
Box 19 |
Oil Painting
|
1912-10-09 | |
Lane, Alice Lay
|
|||
Box 19 |
Oil Painting Children
|
1914-10-10 | |
Box 19 |
Watercolours and Etchings
|
1924-10-10-1930 | |
Box 19 |
School of Architecture 1900 class photograph
|
1900 | |
Mapcase Folder 1 |
Bassick, Jr.; Bowen and Ives; Davis; Hunsaker; Kraushaar; Laucks
|
||
Mapcase Folder 2 |
May; Mogul; Pagenstecher; Power; Stockley; Yarnall
|
||
Mapcase Folder 3 |
Beaver Park; Bridgford Park; Central Park; North End Junior High School; Prospect
Park; Woodruff Park
|
||
Mapcase Folder 4 |
Four-story house; Water color or ink wash, 1899; "Plan for a Small House"; "House
for Mrs. C.D. Lay"
|
||
Mapcase Folder 5 |
Blueprints for Marine Park
|
||
Mapcase Folder 6 |
Blueprints for Marine Park
|
||
Mapcase Folder 7 |
St. Nicholas Houses, Manhattan, New York
|
||
Mapcase Folder 8 |
Stratford, Connecticut - blueprints
|
||
Mapcase Folder 9 |
Coney Island (New York City Fair); Recreation Terraces & Public Baths
|
1943 | |
Mapcase Folder 10 |
Mrs. Edgar W. Bassick
|
||
Mapcase Folder 11 |
Battery Park; Sheepshead Bay Houses
|
||
Mapcase Folder 12 |
Recreation Terraces and Public Baths
|
||
Mapcase Folder 13 |
Topographic maps of various properties, blue prints, planting plans
|
1900-1930 | |
Series XI. Other
|
|||
Box 18 | Folder 2 |
Notes, photos, etc.
|
|
Box 18 | Folder 3 |
Clubs and certificates
|
1913-1940 |
Box 18 | Folder 4 |
Lectures by C.D. Lay
|
Undated |
Box 18 | Folder 7 |
Century club - membership
|
1911-1932 |
Box 18 | Folder 8 |
Century Association - Chateau in Spain, photos and correspondence
|
1920-1930 |
Box 18 | Folder 9 |
Century Association - Frescoes
|
1922-1930 |