The Arthur Brown, Jr. Papers largely document the buildings designed by Arthur Brown, Jr. as a member of the firms Bakewell & Brown (1905-1927) and Arthur Brown, Jr. and Associates (1927-1950), through manuscript materials and drawings. Records also reflect the professional career of Arthur Brown, Jr., and, to a lesser extent, the personal life of the architect.

Arthur Brown, Jr. was born in 1874 in Oakland, California, the only child of upper middle class parents Arthur Brown, Sr. and Victoria Runyon Brown. Arthur Brown, Sr., was an engineer for Central Pacific Railroad during the completion of the transcontinental railroad in the 1860s. His position as the Superintendent of the Bridges and Buildings Dept put him in close contact with the powerful leaders of the Central Pacific. Along with his regular work for the railroad, including design of the Oakland Mole and the train car ferry Solano, Brown, Sr. was also the chosen construction manager for the Crocker, Hopkins and Stanford mansions in San Francisco. Brown, Jr. later benefited tremendously from these connections: the Big Four and their families provided him with many commissions throughout his career. Mark Hopkins' son, Timothy Hopkins, was in large part responsible for giving many Stanford University commissions to Brown.When Brown returned to the United States in 1904, the Beaux-Arts style was very much in vogue. The "White City" of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, with its Greek, Roman, and Baroque inspired buildings and bountiful sculpture, had popularized the style. The firm of Bakewell & Brown dissolved in 1927, although the two former partners continued to collaborate on many later projects, most notably several buildings on the Stanford University campus. After the dissolution, Brown established his own firm, Arthur Brown, Jr. and Associates, while Bakewell formed Bakewell & Weihe with longtime employee Ernest Weihe.

Number of containers: 107 boxes, 4 oversize boxes, 575 oversize folders, 225 rolled drawings Linear feet: approximately 390

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Collection is open for research, with the following exception: some RESTRICTED ORIGINALS (extremely fragile or extremely oversize) Coit Tower: Oversize Folders 197-198 Pasadena City Hall: Oversize Folder 498 and Rolls 4-5, 91d-98c; Saint Mark's Cathedral: Roll 98d; San Francisco City Hall: Oversize Folder 526-529 and Rolls 6-17, 99a-105c; United States: Department of Labor and Interstate Commerce Commission Building: Rolls 105d-108d; Various Projects Full Scale Detail Drawings: Rolls 70a-91c. USE ONLY MICROFILM COPY or REFERENCE COPY if available. Use of some originals only by permission of the appropriate curator. Inquiries concerning these materials should be directed, in writing, to the Head of Public Services, The Bancroft Library.