Earle Sumner Draper papers

Earle Sumner Draper was born on October 19, 1893 in Falmouth, Massachusetts and graduated from Massachusetts Agricultural College (now the University of Massachusetts) in 1915. After graduation he worked with John Nolen, a noted city planner, and under Nolen assisted in the development of Myers Park in Charlotte, N.C. He started his own firm in 1917 with offices in Charlotte and Atlanta, and worked on a wide variety of projects, though his specialty was residential housing development. Draper served as a consultant and visiting professor at the Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture in 1931 and at the Harvard School of Landscape Architecture in 1932. In 1933 he joined the Tennessee Valley Authority, and during his seven-year association with the TVA was involved in the improvement of over 100 communities. In 1940, he was appointed as assistant administrator of the Federal Housing Administration by President Roosevelt, and subsequently was promoted as chief administrator of the agency by President Truman. Upon his departure, Draper returned to private practice and retired in 1964 after almost 50 years of professional practice. Draper died in Vero Beach, Florida on July 1, 1994.