Orin Miles Bullock Jr. Photograph Collection

Dublin Core

Title

Subject

Bullock, Orin Miles Jr., 1905-1994

Architecture, Domestic - Virginia - Williamsburg

Architecture, Colonial - Virginia - Williamsburg

Public buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg

Williamsburg (Va.) - Photographs

Description

Orin Miles Bullock Jr. (1905-1994), a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a native of Oakland, California, studied architecture at Harvard University and worked as a draftsman with the firms of McKim, Mead & White and Cram & Ferguson. In 1929, he joined the Williamsburg office of architects Perry, Shaw & Hepburn and spent five years assisting the team with drafting designs for the restoration or reconstruction of some of the earliest exhibition buildings in the Historic Area. He departed in 1934 to take a position as a regional architect for the National Park Service in Richmond. In 1941, he began a brief appointment as Executive Director of the Portsmouth Housing and Redevelopment Authority before enlisting for military service. After active duty during World War II, he returned to Colonial Williamsburg as Supervisor of Architectural Research in 1953. He oversaw a second phase of restoration work and archaeological investigations and contributed to documentation, via research reports, of efforts to combine authenticity and sound preservation methods to the continued restoration work at each building site, including "The How, What, Why of the Restoration of the Buildings in Colonial Williamsburg." During the 1960s, he contributed to the historic preservation movement with the publication of his "The Restoration Manual" of 1966 while serving as a Rehabilitation Architect with the Baltimore Urban Renewal and Housing Authority.

The Rockefeller Library holds a selection of eighteen black and white photographs either taken by or collected by architect Orin Miles Bullock Jr. in the 1920s as part of his fieldwork studying extant eighteenth-century buildings in Williamsburg, Virginia and the surrounding area. Public buildings featured in the photos include the President’s House, Brafferton Hall, and Wren Building at the College of William & Mary, as well as the Powder Magazine and Public Gaol. Domestic structures documented include Tazewell Hall, the Benjamin Waller House, and the James Galt House. Bruton Parish Church and the Colonial Hotel and Williamsburg Baptist Church once located on Market Square are also represented. A few photos of historic buildings Bullock examined in other parts of the state complete the collection, including Tuckahoe in Goochland County, North Wales in Fauquier County, and the Adam Keeling House in Virginia Beach.