The Leland Engineering Records consists of advertisements, account books, architectural drawings, bid documents, clippings, correspondence, daybooks, invoices, ledgers, lists, memoranda, notes, photographs, publications, reports, receipts, shop drawings, sketches, specifications, and other materials.

Materials in this collection cover the period 1939-2013, with the bulk of the collection dating from 1947-2005.

Only projects with architectural drawings—a floor plan with scale at minimum—were retained. Exceptions include projects relating to historic buildings, almost all of which are in Charleston, SC; easily-identifiable African-American schools prior to 1970; textile mills with drawings showing the layout of the mill; and building rehabilitation and repair in the wake of Hurricane Hugo in 1979. Examples of projects for unusual structures (such as communication towers) and of “expert witness” testimony in legal cases were also kept. A list of all projects originally documented in the collection is filed with the other non-project files.

The collection was created as Leland Engineering undertook various electrical, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), mechanical, plumbing, and structural engineering projects for architects, contractors, and other clients, most of them in North and South Carolina but including a few projects in Georgia, Michigan, Virginia and even overseas in Australia, the Ukraine, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. These files document the architecture (especially vernacular architecture) and built environment of the Carolinas, especially Charleston and the Low Country including Beaufort and Myrtle Beach in South Carolina and Fayetteville, Greensboro, Jacksonville-Onslow County, Raleigh, and above all New Hanover County-Wilmington in North Carolina.

The projects encompass churches and related buildings, including Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints chapels; elementary and secondary schools, including West Rowan High School in Salisbury, the first attempt at open planning in North Carolina; government buildings such as courthouses, post offices; hospitals, clinics, and doctor’s offices; and various commercial buildings such as apartments, banks, condominiums, funeral homes, hotels, piers, restaurants, supermarkets, textile mills (mainly North Carolina), and warehouses. There are projects files for university buildings at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC; Wilmington College in Wilmington, NC; Isothermal Community College in Spindale, NC; Rockingham Community College in Wentworth, NC; and Baptist College, The Citadel, and the College of Charleston all in Charleston, SC among others. The firm also was involved in military projects at the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) in Beaufort, SC, the Charleston Naval Shipyard and related facilities in Charleston, SC and the Marine Corps base at Camp Lejeune, NC.

Historic buildings represented in the collection include Ashley Hall, the Charleston County Courthouse, the Dock Street Theater, the Heyward-Washington House, the Old Charleston Jail, St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, and the Waring House, all in Charleston, SC; the Penn Community Center in Frogmore, SC (St. Helena Island); and the Governor’s Mansion in Columbia, SC.

Among the other material in the collection are job/project lists alphabetically by name; lists numerically by job/project number, including what was referred to as the “Cupboard Record;” and lists alphabetically by type of job/project. There is a small amount of financial information about early projects Leland was involved in, although most of this information is in the project files. Also included in the collection are daybooks and accounts relating to the operations of the shrimp boats S.S. Carolina, Finisterre, and Venus from the mid-1940’s to the early 1950’s; some biographical information; and a photograph of Leland with his brother Rutledge in July 2008 about a week before he died.

Correspondents represented in this collection include the following architects/architectural firms: Ballard, McKim, and Sawyer of Wilmington, NC; Read Barnes of Charleston, SC; Leslie N. Boney, of Wilmington, NC later Boney Architects, Inc.; Clark and Poole, Architects of Kingstree, SC; Clark, McCall and Leach, Architects of Charleston, SC ; Augustus E. Constantine of Charleston, SC which later became Constantine and Constantine Architects, Inc.; R. Nelson Crow and R. Edward Marrs, Architects of Myrtle Beach, SC; Cummings and McCrady, Inc. of Charleston, SC; J. Whitney Cunningham of Sumter, SC and also the firm J. Whitney Cunningham, Clark and Poole, Architects of Kingstree, SC; William A. Faust of Myrtle Beach, SC; J. E. [John E.] Gardner & Associates, Architects of Charleston, SC; Hopkins, Baker & Gill, Architects, of Florence, SC which later became Baker & Gill; Demetrios C. Liollio of Charleston, SC which became Liollio Associates, Inc. and later Watson Tate Savory Liollio Architecture, Inc.; Archie B. Myers of Charleston, SC; David LeRoy Parrott of Charleston, SC; and Simons & Lapham of Charleston, SC which later operated under the names Simons, Lapham & Mitchell (1955-1964), Simons, Lapham, Mitchell & Small (1964-circa 1972 or 1973), and Simons, Mitchell, Small & Donahue. There is also a good deal of correspondence with the Charleston County School District; the Medical University of South Carolina’s Physical Plant department; the Officers in Charge of Construction at Camp Lejeune, the Charleston Naval Shipyard, and MCAS Beaufort; Robert A. Shoolbred, Consulting Engineer (later Shoolbred Engineers, Inc.) and The Sheridan Corporation, Structural Engineers, both of Charleston, SC; and the South Carolina State Ports Authority.

A Project Index follows the folder-title list to provide project-level access to the collection.