Lawrence S. Whitten, Architect
Drawings, 1950-1966
AR 0892
Overview
Lawrence
S. Whitten (1906-1968), a native of Anderson, South Carolina, practiced
architecture in Birmingham from the late 1920s through the 1960s. During his
early career, he worked as a draftsman and engineer for the firm of Miller &
Martin, architect David O. Whilldin, and the Birmingham Electric Company. From
1938 through 1950 with only a brief absence in the mid-1940s when he served in
the United States Navy, Whitten was an architect in the office of Charles H.
McCauley. In 1950, Whitten started his own firm, Lawrence S. Whitten, Architect.
Whitten’s son James S. Whitten later joined the firm, and they practiced under
the name of Lawrence S. Whitten & Son. The two firms designed many residences,
small commercial buildings, small industrial facilities, clinics, hospitals,
academic buildings, churches, and office buildings. One of the firm’s most
notable designs is the Bank for Savings Building (c. 1962, now Two North
Twentieth) at Twentieth Street North & Morris Avenue in downtown Birmingham.
Scope and Content
This collection contains thousands of drawings, blueprints, and renderings
for hundreds of jobs completed by Lawrence S. Whitten, Architect, and Lawrence
S. Whitten & Son, between 1950 and 1966. The collection also includes job books
that list individual projects both alphabetically by project name and
numerically by project number. This collection is currently being processed by
Archives staff.
Sources
Bank for Savings Building, April 20, 1962.
File #0820.11.48. Alfred C. Keily Collection. Birmingham Public Library.
Department of Archives and Manuscripts.
“Mr. Whitten.” The Birmingham News 27 August 1968, p.29. Polk’s Birmingham City
Directory. Birmingham: R.L. Polk & Co., 1928-1952.
Thermofax Copy of Rendering of Building for Albert Bluttman. File
#0892.149.04. Lawrence S. Whitten Collection. Birmingham Public Library.
Department of Archives and Manuscripts.
White, Marjorie Longenecker. Downtown Birmingham: Architectural and Historical
Walking Tour Guide. Birmingham, Alabama: Birmingham Publishing Company, 1980.
Publication of the Birmingham Historical Society & First National Bank of
Birmingham.
Westinghouse Commercial: Bank for Savings Building, 1962
)