New Collection Guide for the D.J. Rose and Son Architectural Drawings and Project Files Now Available

This blog post contributed by Shima Hosseininasab.

NC State University Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center is pleased to announce that the collection guide for the D.J. Rose and Son Architectural Drawings and Project Files is now available online. The SCRC is excited to provide access to the collection of materials related to the oldest licensed and continuously operating general contractor in North Carolina. 

David Jeptha Rose (1861-1940) started his building career in 1890 in Rocky Mount, N.C. after relocating from his native Johnston County. Rose established his offices in 1900 on Rose Street, Rocky Mount, partnering with Sam Toler, Sr. In 1925, the firm earned its unlimited, unclassified general contractor's license in North Carolina. Soon after Rose's sons, Ira Woodall and Dillon Jeptha, joined the firm resulting in a name change to D.J. Rose & Son. D.J. Rose passed away in 1940. Since then, the firm's leadership has been handed down from generation to generation. Now D.J. Rose & Son employs a fourth generation of the Rose family, Dillon Rose Sr., and Dillon Rose Jr.

Partnering with the region’s best subcontractors, D.J. Rose & Son has completed a vast array of commercial projects including banks, hospitals, schools, churches, shopping centers, and industrial plants; as well as residential projects throughout the eastern United States for over 125 years. The Imperial Tobacco Company of Great Britain and Ireland Processing Plant (1903), the monumental five-story National Bank of Rocky Mount (1918), the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company train station (1903-1916), and the Carolina Telephone and Telegraph three-story brick office building (1948) are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The construction blueprints, tracing papers, and other architectural drawings of these buildings, along with the firm’s other well-known projects, can be found in series 2 of this collection. Series 2 consists of hundreds of blueprints and architectural drawings of building projects in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and others.  Other series include materials documenting the firm's project files, correspondence, financial statements, published materials, product advertisements, and other related office records.

For information related to the collection’s donation, visit Libraries News. To access the firm's complete history, check the timeline on D. J. Rose & Son website.

If you are interested in viewing the materials in this collection, you can access them by scheduling an appointment with the Special Collections Research Center. The Special Collections Research Center is open by appointment only. Appointments are available Monday–Friday, 9am–6pm and Saturday, 1pm–5pm. Requests for a Saturday appointment must be received no later than Tuesday of the same week. If you have any questions or are interested in viewing Special Collections materials, please contact us at library_specialcollections@ncsu.edu or submit a request online.

Special Collections would like to thank Shima as well as Liz Bell, Hannah Chapman, and Isabel Bossing for their work on this collection.