Stanley Albert Smith was born in Brookville, Kansas November 25, 1889. He attended Kansas State College where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1913, and immediately became an instructor at the college from 1913 to 1920. Smith held professor positions at several universities, including North Dakota Agricultural College (later NDSU), 1920-1923, and the State College of Washington (WSC, later Washington State University), 1923-1955.
While at WSC, Smith was the Head of the Department of Architectural Engineering and the second University Architect, from 1923-1947. While University Architect, he completed fourteen major buildings and fraternity houses. These included: Commons Hall, Duncan Dunn Hall, Bohler Gymnasium, Troy Hall, Hollingbery Field House, Honors Hall, Washington Building, Smith Gymnasium, the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory, the Central Steam Plant, Waller Hall, Wilmer-Davis Hall, Pine Manor, and L. J. Smith Hall (Smith Agricultural Engineering Building)." In 1947, the increased load of building work at WSC, Smith resigned as University Architect and concentrated on his position as Head of the Department of Architectural Engineering.
Additionally, Smith took on projects for private homes and commercial buildings in and around the town of Pullman. Many of these projects, both on and off campus, were undertaken by Smith’s private practices: Smith & Rounds in the 1920s during which Fred G. Rounds, an assistant professor of architecture at WSC, worked as Smith’s partner, and Smith & Weller in the 1930s during which Harry C. Weller, also architectural engineering faculty at WSC, worked as Smith’s partner. Occasionally during the 1930s, Smith and Rounds continued to collaborate on projects, including the addition to Pullman High School in the 1930s. This project was undertaken in part through a Public Works Administration (PWA) grant. The addition to the high school was carried out from 1933-1934, less than a year after the passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act which created the PWA.
Following his position at WSC, Smith became the architectural advisor to the Ataturk University Development Committee in Erzurum, Turkey, which in turn advised the Turkish Ministry of Education in the planning of the new university. This development was a joint Turkish-American effort to strengthen education and research in Turkey at the university level at Ankara University and Ataturk University. In 1954 the University of Nebraska was asked to assist with this effort under the university's Agency for International Development (A.I.D.) contract.
This collection consists primarily of records pertaining to Stanley Smith’s construction and remodeling projects for buildings near the WSC campus and in the larger Pullman community. These materials include blueprints, heating calculations, correspondence between Smith and his clients, a job index of some of the work done by Smith during this time period, and statements of accounts for services rendered, especially consultation services. The majority of the materials in this collection pertain to Greek Housing just off-campus and to the Pullman High School addition and remodeling that took place from 1933-1934. This collection also contains some correspondence from Smith’s private practice in the 1920s, Smith & Rounds, and in the 1930s, Smith & Weller.
Series 1 consists of correspondence from Smith’s private practice, including correspondence belonging to his partners: Rounds (partner in the 1920s) and Weller (partner in the 1930s).
Series 2 consists of materials pertaining to construction of specific houses near campus as well as buildings in and around Pullman. Series 2 is arranged into two subseries. Subseries 2.1 consists of materials on the construction/remodeling of Greek Housing, private residences, and small businesses in and near Pullman. Subseries 2.2 consists of materials pertaining to the addition and remodeling of Pullman High School.
This collection is arranged in two series.
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright restrictions apply.
[Item Description]
Stanley A. Smith Papers, 1924-1943 (Cage 888)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
The materials in this collection were transferred to the Washington State University Libraries’ Manuscripts, Archives, & Special Collections on December 14, 1988 by the WSU Architecture program and retained as accession UA88-47. In October 2025, Architecture student Matthew Johnson brought in the Alpha Delta Pi blueprints now in folder 23.5 o.s.; given the nature of the materials and the source (simply found loose in Architecture department storage), those were then incorporated into this collection.
This collection was processed in October 2017 by Laura Briere.
This collection was separated from other materials (originally twenty-one additional boxes) in UA 88-47 during processing. These other records contain materials from Washington State College’s Architectural Engineering and Mechanical Engineering departments from the 1910s-1950s and include some of Stanley Smith’s WSC-associated correspondence and class materials.
Stanley A. Smith Papers, 1954-1963
Stanley A. Smith Papers, circa 1900-1946
A. E. Drucker House Architectural Drawings, 1927-1928
Stanley A. Smith Oral History Interview, 1960 October
State College of Washington University Architect Records, 1923-1956
State College of Washington Department of Architectural Engineering Lantern Slides, 1927-1947
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.