Todd and Brown Inc. Photograph Collection
Dublin Core
Title
Todd and Brown Inc. Photograph Collection
Subject
Todd and Brown Inc., New York
Todd, Webster B.
Brown, J.O.
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg - 1930-1939
Williamsburg (Va.) - Photographs
Williamsburg (Va.) - Buildings, structures, etc.
Description
Todd and Brown, Incorporated, a subsidiary firm of Todd, Robertson and Todd Engineering Corporation, headquartered in New York City, entered into a contract with the Williamsburg Holding Corporation on June 6, 1928. The engineers and contractors carried out work as directed by the architects and landscape architects on the reconstruction and restoration of historic structures and gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia. Mr. Webster B. Todd and Mr. J.O. Brown served as the principals of Todd and Brown, Incorporated. They appointed Robert Trimble to head the firm's Williamsburg office. Between 1928 and 1934, the Williamsburg crew undertook many different construction tasks in support of the museum's development and the relocation of the town's business district to Merchants Square. The Williamsburg office closed in 1934, when Williamsburg Restoration Inc. established its own Construction and Maintenance Department. However, the firm continued to be involved in a supervisory capacity with the building of the Williamsburg Inn from 1936 to 1938.
The Todd and Brown Inc. Photograph Collection, AV2010.3, encompasses over eight hundred negatives and their corresponding photographic prints housed in an album. Systematic examination of the town and extensive planning occurred before the contractors began their assignment to demolish or move buildings not dating to the colonial era. Each photograph they took served a documentary purpose of recording a colonial structure, modern dwelling, business, church, municipal building, or outbuilding as it appeared prior to any work proceeding at a site. The collection is thus a significant archive of the many homes, grocery stores, general stores, gas stations, barber shops, banks, and offices that once stretched up and down Duke of Gloucester Street. It also offers many pre-restoration views of eighteenth-century buildings that had undergone modifications by later residents. A selection of images offers views of early progress on the reconstruction of such public buildings as the Capitol and Raleigh Tavern.
The Todd and Brown Inc. Photograph Collection, AV2010.3, encompasses over eight hundred negatives and their corresponding photographic prints housed in an album. Systematic examination of the town and extensive planning occurred before the contractors began their assignment to demolish or move buildings not dating to the colonial era. Each photograph they took served a documentary purpose of recording a colonial structure, modern dwelling, business, church, municipal building, or outbuilding as it appeared prior to any work proceeding at a site. The collection is thus a significant archive of the many homes, grocery stores, general stores, gas stations, barber shops, banks, and offices that once stretched up and down Duke of Gloucester Street. It also offers many pre-restoration views of eighteenth-century buildings that had undergone modifications by later residents. A selection of images offers views of early progress on the reconstruction of such public buildings as the Capitol and Raleigh Tavern.
Creator
Todd and Brown Inc., New York
Rights Holder
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
