Eric G. Flannagan Papers 1922-1989

Summary
Contents
Names/subjects
Using these materials
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Creator
Flannagan, Eric G. (Eric Goodyear), 1892-1970
Size
145 linear feet (134 document cases, 117 tubes of drawings, and 68 flat folders of drawings.)
Call number
MC 00087

Contained in this collection are project files and drawings of buildings designed by Eric G. Flannagan and the firm Eric G. Flannagan and Sons, Architects and Engineers. The materials in this collection represents a sampling of the buildings designed by Flannagan and his company. They primarily date from the time period when Flannagan was most active,1922-1949.

Eric G. Flannagan, Sr. (1892-1970) was an architect and engineer practicing most of his life in North Carolina. He specialized in institutional buildings, especially hospitals and schools, but his work also included houses, churches, stores, and offices.

Biographical/historical note

Eric G. Flannagan, Sr. (1892-1970) was an architect and engineer practicing most of his life in North Carolina. He specialized in institutional buildings, especially hospitals and schools, but his work also included houses, churches, stores, and offices.

Eric G. Flannagan, Sr., was born on July 18, 1892, in Charlottesville, Virginia. He received technical training at the Miller boarding school in Albemarle, Virginia, from which he was a high school graduate in 1912. He graduated as a draftsman from corespondence school in 1914. He married Beryl Morris on June 26, 1915. Flannagan gained on-the-job training as a draftsman and mechanical engineer in New York and Virginia before settling in Henderson, North Carolina, in 1922.

Flannagan established an architecture and engineering firm that same year. He was a registered architect and professional engineer in both North Carolina and Virginia. Most of the buildings he designed were in North Carolina, but some were also constructed in the state of his birth. The firm specialized in institutional buildings, especially hospitals and schools, but work also included houses, churches, stores, and offices. Governor Bob Scott appointed Flannagan to the North Carolina Architectural Examination and Registration Board, for which he served as vice president in 1955-1956. He retired from his firm on December 31, 1964, leaving it's continued operation to his sons Eric G. Flannagan, Jr., and Stephen G. Flannagan. The elder Flannagan continued to serve as a consultant until he died on April 15, 1970.

Among the prominent buildings designed by Flannagan were the First United Methodist Church in Henderson, the Henderson High School, the Randolph County Hospital in Asheboro, Asheboro High School, Roses 5-10-25 store and offices in Henderson, and municipal buildings in Henderson and Roanoke Rapids. He designed several buildings for East Carolina University in Greenville over a twenty-year period.

Scope/content

Contained in this collection are project files and drawings of buildings designed by Eric G. Flannagan and the firm Eric G. Flannagan and Sons, Architects and Engineers. Documents on all of the hundreds of buildings designed by the firm could not be collected because of their large volume, and the materials in this collection represents a sampling of the buildings designed by Flannagan and his company. They primarily date from the time period when the senior Flannagan was most active (1922-1949). The files and drawings that date from the 1960s and 1980s primarily represent additions or alterations to buildings designed during the earlier time period. Several drawings and other records of the Asheboro hospital and buildings at East Carolina University had been given by Stephen G. Flannagan to those institutions prior to his gift to North Carolina State University.

The Flannagan firm originally kept track of this documentation by file numbers, five-digit numbers beginning with a letter and then containing four numerals. The letters match the following code.

  • A - Residential: Private Homes
  • B - Residential: Apartment Houses, Apartment Hotels and Hotels
  • C - Partly Residential: Clubs, YMCAs, Lodges, Fraternities, and Charity Homes
  • D - Educational: Schools, Teacherages, and Colleges
  • E - Office Buildings, Banks, Stores, Plants, Industrial Buildings, and Warehouses
  • G - Churches and Church Buildings
  • H - Remedial: Hospitals, Sanatoria, and Nurses Homes
  • J - Transportational

A project list was already included with the Flannagan files and drawings when they were acquired by Special Collections. The creator of this project list is unknown. See "Firm and Person History, Project List" Box 132, Folder 1,430 under Series 1. Project Files.

Additional information about buildings documented in the records listed below has been provided by the archival staff. It mostly refers to architectural guidebooks and surveys in which these buildings are mentioned. References to Guide to Historic Architecture of Piedmont are for Catherine W. Bishir's and Michael T. Southern's A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Piedmont, North Carolina (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003). A few files appear to contain some drawings or other documents with attribution to other architects, such as Harry Barton and H. C. Linthicum.

Arrangement

This collection consists of two series:

  • Series 1. Project Files
  • ,
  • Series 2. Drawings

Use of these materials

The nature of the NC State University Libraries' Special Collections means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The NC State University Libraries claims only physical ownership of most Special Collections materials.

The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.

This collection may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which North Carolina State University assumes no responsibility.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Eric G. Flannagan Papers, MC 00087, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC

Related material

More materials from the architecture firm of Eric Flannagan and Sons can be found at the Special Collections Department at East Carolina University. These materials include architectural plans and records for projects that the firm completed in the eastern part of the state in Greenville, Halifax, and Perquimans County. Also included is one wall map, "Map of Halifax, North Carolina, 1914-1915."

Source of acquisition

Gift of Stephen G. Flannagan, 2007 (Accession 2007-0371), 2008 (Accession 2008-0243).

Processing information

Processed by Danica Cullinan, Claire Ruswick and Emily Walters, 2010 May

Encoded by Todd Kosmerick 2008 January

Finding aid updated by Danica Cullinan, Claire Ruswick and Emily Walters, 2010 May

Please note that some historical materials may contain harmful content and/or descriptions. Learn how we’re addressing it.

The collection is organized into two principal series:

Please note that some historical materials may contain harmful content and/or descriptions. Learn how we’re addressing it.

Access to the collection

This collection is open for research; access requires at least 48 hours advance notice. Because of the nature of certain archival formats, including digital and audio-visual materials, access to digital files may require additional advanced notice.

For more information contact us via mail, phone, or our web form.

Mailing address:
Special Collections Research Center
Box 7111
Raleigh, NC, 27695-7111

Phone: (919) 515-2273

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Eric G. Flannagan Papers, MC 00087, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC

Use of these materials

The nature of the NC State University Libraries' Special Collections means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The NC State University Libraries claims only physical ownership of most Special Collections materials.

The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.

This collection may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which North Carolina State University assumes no responsibility.