Building Contracts

Forms part of the repository's County Clerk's Office subgroup. Copies, filed in the county clerk's office, of agreements between owners and architects or general contractors, signed by both parties, including terms, specifications, materials used, and often blueprints; together with indexes (3 v., 1917-1985) containing the file number and other specifics, reflecting growth patterns within the county. Not all contracts deposited with the clerk are in the collection, some being lost and others removed due to poor condition. There are very few contracts for the 1930s, perhaps explained by the Depression.

Transferred to the repository by Jane G. Clayton, Monmouth County Clerk. Finding aid in the repository. A composite collection consisting of single items or small groups of papers listed and described separately by the repository.

I. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

The Building Contract series covers the period 1847 to 1971. According to law, the County Clerk's office is required to hold the contracts/agreements for ten years for private residences and structures. The law also specifies that contracts for township or county municipal buildings or structures, such as schools, auditoriums, and churches, are to be held indefinitely.

For various reasons, over the years, Monmouth County's Clerks had decided not to follow the 10 year building contract destruction timetable for private residences. While many have survived, particularly from the years 1847 to 1939, others have been lost or are extremely deteriorated and are unavailable for research purposes. Due to the growing interest in architecture and research on historic homes in Monmouth County, the County Clerk's Office has decided to retain both private residence and municipal contracts in the Archives and make them available to researchers.

II. SCOPE AND CONTENT

Building Contracts are agreements between owners and architects or general contractors. Once the agreement was signed by both parties, a copy was filed in the County Clerk's office. The agreement states the terms of the contract, such as total cost, a time frame for payments, and a completion date. Specifications were outlined in the agreement detailing room sizes, foundation specifications, types of lumber to be used, or masonry specifications. The agreements, when subcontractors were employed, include additional contracts between the owner and painter, mason, plumber, or electrician. In many cases, blueprints were filed with the agreement.

Each agreement was assigned a number. The file number, owner, architect or contractor, and date filed were recorded in the Index to Building Contract books. The first half of the Building Contract books is an alphabetical listing of owners. The second half is arranged alphabetically by architect or contractor but only gives the file number. Although the books cover the years 1886 to 1979 only the 1939 to 1979 series is in usable condition.

III. USE

There are six computer indexes available to aid the researcher in locating a particular contract, owner, or architect:

	A. Alphabetically by owner and chronologically by year thereunder
	B. Alphabetically by architect/contractor and chronologically by year, and alphabetically by town
	C. Alphabetically by architect/contractor and the total amount of contracts filed under his name
	D. Chronologically by year and alphabetically by town thereunder
	E. Chronologically by year with a total amount of contracts on file for a given year
	F. Alphabetically by town and by year, and by architect/contract

The first index, sorted by owner, contains the owner's name, town where the structure was to be erected, the year, and architect or contractor. A note field contains information relative to the structure such as exact location within a town, or whether the new building was a residence, barn, stable, or an addition to an existing building.

A second index, sorted by architect/contractor and chronologically within each architect/contractor also provides the owner's name, town, and the note field. An additional printout is available listing each architect or contractor and the total number of building contracts recorded under his name. Nearly 2,175 different architects and contractors were used in the 5,599 contracts found in this record series. The exact number is difficult to determine due to variations in name and partnerships. About 81% of the architects/contractors are listed only once or twice. Two are listed more than one hundred times: Warren H. Conover (153), and Ernest A. Arend (119). The architect/contractor is unknown for 85 of the contacts.

Two indexes sorted by year offer a perspective on growth patterns within Monmouth County over 134 years. The first index includes the year and then an alphabetical sort by town within a given year. The second computer generated index provides totals for each year. This data has been analyzed and presented in the accompanying table and graph. To some extent, the data is suggestive of growth cycles in Monmouth County, but it must be used with the following caveats in mind. First, not all contracts deposited with the County Clerk are in the file. Some early ones are certainly lost, as there are none or very few for certain years. Second, the number of building contracts in the series drops off significantly after 1930. While the low number in the 1930s could be explained by the Depression, the reason for the relatively few contracts for the more recent period has not been determined. However, it should be realized that the County Clerk was only required to retain contracts for public buildings. Analysis of the available contracts for the period 1940-1969 indicates that about one-half are for public buildings, suggesting that most of the private contracts were not retained. Third, about 30 contracts from various years were segregated by the Archives due to extremely poor condition and are not included in the series or in the index. Consequently, the data is primarily useful to indicate the amount of material in this series available in different time periods.

A table and graph, located in the Archives, indicate that, from 1847 to 1866, there are only about six contracts per year in the file. Beginning in 1867, however, the volume increases significantly and fairly steadily to about 120 by 1880. After a significant drop to 25 in 1881, there is a gradual increase to 138 in 1886 and a major peak of 217 in 1889. The peak coincides with a boom in development on the Jersey Shore. In the 1890s, the average continues to grow until another peak in 1914, when there are 245 contracts in the file. During this period, there are significant differences from year to year, the meaning of which is unclear. Available contracts for the 1920s are very incomplete, but for the years available, the average is the highest for any decade in the series. As could be expected, volume in the 1930s Depression years is quite low. Thereafter, there are relatively few contracts in the file, for the reasons noted above.

The last index is sorted by town, then by year, and by architect thereunder.

February 1994