Howard R. Meyer collection

Personal papers, office files, job files, specifications, printed and visual materials, and drawings document Howard R. Meyer's architectural design career and civic affiliations (1924-1986).

Files in Meyer's personal papers highlight his participation in community organizations in the Dallas area. Correspondence, mailing lists, and printed material record his activities as design center representative for the West Dallas Block Project (1973-75), building committee member for the Rhoads Terrace Institute, a local day care facility at the Rhoads Housing Project (1974-75), member of the Temporary Building Committee and Acquisitions Committee for the Dallas Museum of Contemporary Arts (1957-58), and member of the fund raising team for the Dallas Symphony (1967-71).

The bulk of the written records, 12.5 linear feet, consists of job files and specifications. These two series contain documentation for more than forty of Meyer's residential designs, most of them within the Dallas Metropolitan area. Records of Meyer's commercial and religious projects included in these series are: Golden Acres - Dallas Home for the Jewish Aged, the Dallas Rehabilitation Center (later named Caruth Rehabilitation Center), the Dallas Public Library - West Dallas Branch and St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Denton. Another major well-documented project in both the Job File and Specification Series is the Job Corps Women's Training Center at McKinney, Texas. For this project Meyer's firm renovated and remodeled 66 of the 85 buildings in a former Veteran's Administration Hospital complex. One hundred eight negatives in the photograph series, illustrating plans of the original structures, augment the written records.

Several projects reflecting Meyer's commitment to improved low income housing design are highlighted in the Job Files and/or Specification series. The Housing Authority for the City of Dallas administered two Tex Housing Projects which Meyer's firm completed in the 1950s. The firm also worked on three projects for the Dallas Housing Authority between 1966 and 1976.

Missing from the Job Files and Specification series are comprehensive records for two of Meyer's major projects: 3525 Turtle Creek and Temple Emanu-El. These files reside with the family of Max Sandfield & the Temple Emanu-El archives respectively.

Publications featuring Meyer's work focus on his multi-family projects and non-residential designs. A supplement from the Dallas Times Herald (July 13, 1958) provides extensive coverage of building features and services offered to residents at 3525 Turtle Creek. Several publications deal with the Mastic Tile Competition Awards (1959) to provide homes and communities for families with modest incomes. Meyer, John H. Box and James Pratt presented the award winning design and received the $10,000 grand prize.

Visual material in the record group (not including drawings) consists of 35mm slides, negatives and photographs illustrating Meyer's residential, commercial and religious work. Floor and site plans, elevations, models and completed projects are documented in this series. Approximately twenty presentation quality 8"×10" black and white photographs describe Meyer's residential design work of the 1950s and 1960s. Six slide presentations, none with supporting text, are also contained in the series. Five of the presentations deal with low income housing and may have accompanied a series of slide talks that Meyer delivered in the mid-1960s. These lectures, sponsored by the Public Housing Administration (now HUD) and the National Association of Housing Renewal, were presented at seminars in Little Rock, New Orleans and Austin. Two slide shows contain presentations of entries for the Public Housing Awards, sponsored by the National Public Housing Administration. Meyer served as a juror for the 1964 competition.

The drawings series consists of more than 4000 items. Included among the drawings of residences (building is located in Dallas unless otherwise specified): Robert M. Burns, Wichita Falls; Louis Hexter; Edmund Kahn; Leo Landauer; Ben Lipshy; Henry Pearlstone; Helman Rosenthal; Milton Tobian; Morris and William Zale. Commercial and religious projects include: Apartments at 3525 Turtle Creek; Dallas Rehabilitation Center; David G. Burnet Elementary School; Denton Area Teacher's Credit Union, Denton; Golden Acres; Nogales Building, Vicksburg, Mississippi; Reba Mallison Nadel Memorial Nursery and Infant Welfare Clinic; Saint Paul's Lutheran Church, Denton; Temple Emanu-El; Temple Beth-El, Tyler; Turtle Creek Village.