The surviving records of the Commissioner's Office in the Department of Public Property are limited to a single register book and a series of correspondence/subject files. Records of the Division of Public Buildings, the Division of Public Works, and the City Engineer's Office are described separately.

The register records documents received by the Commission and referred to the Commissioner of Public Property for action. Documents are listed by date of receipt and numerically under each date. Each document is described in some detail and is accompanied in most cases by a record of its disposition (e.g., forwarded favorably (date)). In some cases the dispositions are described in more detail.

The correspondence/subject files include files that survived intact as well as "fragments" that were recovered from the "Official Vertical File" portion of the City Archives collection. Most of the records are incoming letters to the Commissioner arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent (corporate or individual). Where only one or two items exist for a given correspondent, those items are filed in alphabetical miscellaneous folders. Intact subject files were kept together and an attempt was also made to reconstruct additional subject files using filing notes written on the documents.

The correspondence/subject files document most activities falling under the supervision of the Commissioner of Public Property. Among the more extensive files are those made up of letters and reports from the Public Buildings Division and the City Engineer, including annual (with monthly breakdowns) statistical reports of building permits issued in the city. Other city agencies that are particularly well represented include the City Attorney, the House of Detention, and the Isaac Delgado Central Trades School. The Board of Commissioners of the Orleans Levee District, on which body the Commissioner of Public Property sat ex-officio, is represented by several file folders, as is the New Orleans Association of Commerce.

Although the records as a whole span almost the entire 1912-1950 period their bulk is concentrated between the years 1925 and 1929. The Commissioner whose work is most fully documented is thus John Klorer. Since the Commissioner also sat as a member of the Commission Council, additional documents relating to his activities are in the Official Proceedings and other records of that body.

Flood control is one subject area that is well documented by these records, both in general files and in files on individual agencies such as the Safe River Committee of 100 and the Chicago Flood Control Conference. On the great Mississippi River flood of 1927 there is some documentation of the Caernarvon Crevasse in St. Bernard Parish (including photographs of the explosion to create the break) and the relief effort on behalf of its victims.

Among other noteworthy files are the following:

• the Community Chest file contains a pamphlet detailing the programs of the various agencies deriving benefits from the organization
• the New Orleans and Ouachita River Packet file includes communications from Capt. L.V. Cooley relative to the condition of the Mississippi River in the vicinity of Old River
• the St. Vincent DePaul Cemetery Association file contains a list of the owners of lots and vaults in at least a portion of Cemetery #2
• the files on Specifications/Estimates for Repairs to various Fire Department properties include blueprints and photographs of the several buildings
• the United States Public Health Service file includes a record of bubonic plague-infected rats captured in New Orleans during 1919-1920
• the Petitions--Xavier University file includes documentation relative to the institution's unsuccessful attempt to expand its the United States Community Improvement Appraisal for New Orleans, 1938 (see folder with that title) was conducted "to determine the value of the federal work relief program in New Orleans." Prepared by the Commission Council (with the lead role apparently taken by the Dept. of Public Property) for transmission to the Louisiana State Planning Commission, the survey lists and evaluates the projects undertaken by the city under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration. Another copy of this document in filed under call number KD202 1938 in the City Archives Document Collectionoriginal uptown campus into the vicinity of State and Tchoupitoulas Sts