In recent weeks, Olov Lindgren AB's archive has delivered to us at the Centre for Business History. It is material that reflects the long history of a family-owned real estate company - and of Stockholm, the city it has worked in for soon 90 years.

The company, founded in 1938 during the construction of the Swedish welfare state, has for two generations built, owned, and managed rental properties in Stockholm. The properties it takes on are retained indefinitely – over the years, only one property has ever been sold. Currently, Olov Lindgren manages 119 rental properties in Stockholm.

The founder Olov Lindgren (1911–2002), an engineer and master builder, laid the foundation for a strong corporate culture, carried on by his descendants. Historically, the company had gathered material in various places within the business – but in 2025, discussions began with us about creating an organized corporate archive that was easy to search. This has now been done: the historical material has been gathered and just moved to our archive premises in Bromma, where it stands as a deposit from the company. In other words, it is still the company’s material; we just take care of it.

Before the delivery, about five tons of material were weeded out, mainly outdated account books. Remaining are key documents of the core business, with many gems especially from the construction of the property portfolio. The building projects have been carefully selected – because as Olov Lindgren put it: “I should be able to live in every apartment I build.”