The Donald A. Kimball Architectural Papers are an example of the work of a Michigan Architect practicing largely in mid and northern Michigan during the late 1930s through the mid- 1950s. The papers are comprised wholly of visual architectural material representative of the spirit of the times. The papers include renderings, architectural drawings, specifications and photographs of Kimball’s buildings, and personal papers. Most of the architectural materials are for buildings in Saginaw and Midland, while a few are for buildings in Grand Rapids, Gladwin, and Bay City, Michigan, but there are oversized architectural drawings for buildings in Santa Barbara, California.
An additional Kimball collection is held at the University of Michigan in the Bentley Historical Library.
Biography:
Donald A. Kimball, the eldest son of Eva and Chester Kimball, was born in Saginaw, Michigan, on September 9, 1907. After graduating from Saginaw High School, he studied architecture at the University of Michigan, earning a B.S. degree in Architecture in 1929. After an additional year of graduate studies, he worked briefly for an architectural firm in Saginaw before starting an architectural practice in his home city. Kimball had a distinguished architectural career, designing a wide variety of private and public buildings throughout Michigan in the late 1930s through the early 1950s. In addition, he served on a committee appointed by the Governor of Michigan to write a new building code for the state and was vice-president of the Michigan Society of Architects and president of the American Institute of Architects of the Saginaw Valley.
Kimball married Dorothy Bartlett in 1935, and she became his lifelong partner in both his professional and family life. In 1954, they moved to Hope Ranch in Santa Barbara, California, and in 1973 into a house he built across from the Santa Barbara Mission and Rose Garden. He continued to practice while in California, designing several houses and an addition to the First Congregational Church. Donald Kimball died in 1998 at the age of 90. He had a daughter, Jane, and a son, Andrew. (This information is from his collection at the Bentley Historical Library.)
