Guide to the Cutter & Malmgren (Spokane, Wash.) Records 1889-1923

Creator:	Cutter & Malmgren (Spokane, Wash.)
Title:	Cutter & Malmgren Records
Dates:	1889-1923 ( inclusive )
Quantity:	3 linear ft. (4 boxes) (4000 architectural drawings)
Collection Number:	Ms 49
Summary:	Architectural firm, headquartered in Spokane, Wash.; founded ca. 1889 by Kirtland Kelsey Cutter and John Poetz as Cutter & Poetz; with retirement of Poetz, reorganized as Cutter & Malmgren with addition of new partner, Karl Gunnar Malmgren; partnership ended in 1917 and Cutter continued practice in Spokane until 1923 when he moved to Long Beach, Calif. Correspondence, contracts, and bids, chiefly with suppliers of materials for the following Spokane, Wash., structures: W.H. Cowles Building (1910), Davenport Hotel (1911-1913), residence of L.M. Davenport (1904-1911), J.P. Graves residence, "Waikiki" (1910-1911), C.P. Lindsley residence (1911), Spokane Club (1910-1911), and Washington Water Power office building (1910-1919); check registers for personal and office expenses; and other papers; together with architectural drawings and sketches (290 sets of plans in various mediums, including ink or pencil drawings on linen, vellum, or tissue, watercolors, and blueprints) of residences and commercial buildings, designed by the firm, chiefly in the Pacifc Northwest, especially in Seattle, Spokane, and other cities in Washington State, but also in Montana, California, New York, and Colorado.
Repository:	Eastern Washington State Historical Society/Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture Joel E. Ferris Research Library and Archives 2316 W. First Avenue Spokane, WA 99201 Phone: (509) 363-5313 Fax: (509) 363-5303 Email: archives@northwestmuseum.org
Languages:	Materials are in English
Sponsor:	Funding for preparing this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Biographical Note

Kirtland Kelesy Cutter was born in Cleveland, OH in 1860. He attended the Brooks Military Academy, and later studied at the Art Students’ League in New York. He studied and traveled in Europe before coming to Spokane Falls to work in his uncle’s bank in 1855. He apparently did some architectural work at this time, but any records of it were lost in the Spokane fire in 1889.

In late 1889 or early 1890, Cutter formed a partnership with John Poetz, and the firm did an enormous business after the fire destroyed Spokane’s business district. When Poetz retired, Karl Gunnar Malmgren, a young Swedish architect, became Cutter’s partner. This partnership lasted until 1917. Cutter practiced in Spokane until 1923, when financial difficulties forced him to leave and establish a successful architectural practice in Long Beach, CA, where he died in 1939.

The partnership of Cutter and Malmgren produced some of the finest structures in the Pacific Northwest. They also designed buildings in Montana, California, New York, and Colorado. For a time the firm had offices in Seattle and Tacoma, where a number of public buildings and private residences were designed. Spokane and the Inland Empire, however, had the greatest concentration of the firm’s work.

Content Description

The collection consists of correspondence, contracts and bids, mainly with suppliers of materials, for the following structures: W.H. Cowles Building, 1910; Davenport Hotel, 1911-1913; L.M. Davenport residence, 1904-1911; J.P. Graves residence, “Waikiki”, 1910-1911; C.D. Lindsley residence, 1911; Spokane Club, 1910-1911; and Washington Water Power office building, 1910-1919. Some cheque registers for both personal and office expenses are included. Architectural drawings and sketches (290 sets of plans in various mediums, including ink or pencil drawings on linen, vellum, or tissue, watercolors, and blueprints) of residences and commercial buildings, designed by the firm, chiefly in the Pacifc Northwest, especially in Seattle, Spokane, and other cities in Washington State, but also in Montana, California, New York, and Colorado.

Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Access :

Collection is not restricted.

Restrictions on Use :

Collection is open for use.

Preferred Citation :

Cutter & Malmgren Records (Ms 49), Eastern Washington State Historical Society/Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, Spokane, WA.

Administrative Information

Acquisition Information :

Purchase, 1984 (L84-207).

Processing Note :

Processed to the file folder level.

Separated Materials :

Architectural drawings have been physically separated from the manuscript collection, but are listed in the inventory. Some photographs have been physically separated from the manuscript collection and cataloged under L84-207; they are not listed in the inventory. Contact the repository for further information about the photographs.

Bibliography :

Matthews, Henry. Kirtland Cutter: Architect in the Land of Promise (Seattle: University of Washington Press; Spokane: Eastern Washington State Historical Society, 1998).

Additional Reference Guides :

Nolan, Edward W. A Guide to the Manuscript Collections in the Eastern Washington State Historical Society (Spokane, WA: Eastern Washington State Historical Society, 1987).

Architectural drawings described in: Noland, Edward W. Guide to the Cutter Collection (Spokane, WA, Eastern Washington State Historical Society, 1984).

Related Materials :

Peggy Bayless Collection

Cutter Research Collection (RE 1)

Detailed Description of the Collection

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

Architect’s License, California, 1914

Container(s)
box-folder
1/1

Guide to the Cutter & Malmgren (Spokane, Wash.) Records 1889-1923

Overview of the Collection

Biographical Note

Content Description

Use of the Collection

Administrative Information

Detailed Description of the Collection

Subjects

Finding aid prepared by Edward W. Nolan© 1987

Guide to the Cutter & Malmgren (Spokane, Wash.) Records
1889-1923

Finding aid prepared by Edward W. Nolan
© 1987