Inventory of the Operations and Maintenance Dept. Records, 1919 - 1957

Frank Clyde Brown was the supervisor of construction of the new buildings on the West Campus of Duke University from 1925-1930, as well as a literature professor at Duke. The files in this series pertain mainly to planning the construction of new buildings on the Duke Campus. The biographical note in for the Frank Clyde Brown Papers (located in the Duke University Archives) notes:

"Between 1924 and 1930, Brown was deeply absorbed in the expansion of Trinity College into Duke University, serving as a member of the Building Committee of the Board of Trustees and as the first comptroller of the University. As comptroller, he acted as the liaison for architects, contractors, suppliers, administrators, and faculty in the designing, construction, and equipping of the redesigned East Campus, which became the Woman's College, and of the completely new West Campus. Brown is credited with contributing many original ideas to the building plans, foremost of which was the discovery of the nearby Hillsborough, N.C. stone and the recommendation that this material be utilized in the construction of the Gothic West Campus. He also served as university marshal, planning all major formal celebrations and entertaining numerous distinguished visitors to the new university."

Brown's files in this series mainly contain correspondence, plans, contracts, some architectural drawings, and other materials related to construction. Several files have more relation to his interest in literature and his position as professor. Researchers should be aware that the materials in this series and the materials in the Frank Clyde Brown Papers are very closely related, and both collections may need to be examined.

The S.W. Myatt Files series contains information about construction on the Duke Campus. Seth W. Myatt served as one of the Directors of the Duke Construction Company, as well as an Assistant to the President. The series contains correspondence, plans, contracts, many architectural drawings and blueprints, and other details related to construction at Duke in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. A large post-war building program was undertaken at Duke from 1946 onward. During this period the growth of science and engineering projects jumped due to increased veteran enrollment in these programs. In addition to the materials mentioned above, the S.W. Myatt series also contains a collection of keys that were used in several Duke buildings.

The Duke Construction Company was formed in 1927 on the advisement of the Building Committee of the Duke Endowment. In a letter to Duke president R.L. Flowers, N.A. Cocke, Assistant Secretary of the Duke Endowment, wrote:

"It is hardly practicable to conduct the operations in the name of the trustees of The Duke Endowment for the reason that The Duke Endowment has no separate entity apart from the trustees, it not being a corporation. On the other hand while the title to the property is in Duke University the Will and Trust Indenture contemplate that the trustees shall erect the buildings for Duke University and turn same over when completed. With the idea, therefore, of establishing some medium for the purpose of carrying on this construction, it has occured to us that it would be wise to form a corporation, known as the "Duke Construction Company" for the sole purpose of constructing these buildings, with a nominal capital stock so that it will clearly appear that this corporation is merely an agency for carrying out this work."

The Duke Construction Company series consists mainly of financial and corporate records, such as articles of incorporation, tax reports, and a large invoice register. Actual construction plans can be found in the Frank C. Brown Files series and the S.W. Myatt Files series.

The Duke Construction Company was active in the 1930s and into the 1940s, but it then became dormant and was officially dissolved in 1957.

The Desk Diaries series contains 19 volumes of diaries that detail daily events held at Duke. The Operations and Maintenance department served as the central booking agency for campus events, and these diaries record events, places, and times over a nearly twenty-year period.