Julian F. Abele

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Julian Abele

Julian Francis Abele (born April 30, 1881 in Philadelphia ; † April 23, 1950 there ) was an American architect . In 1902 he was the first African-American graduate of what is now the University of Pennsylvania School of Design and, for over 30 years, until his death, head designer in the architectural office of Horace Trumbauer (1868–1938) in Philadelphia. To him, the design is attributed to more than 200 buildings, including the Widener Library of Harvard University , the main building of the Free Library of Philadelphia and parts of the West Campus of Duke University , including the Duke Chapel . He is considered to be one of the most important African-American architects of his time in the United States , but his work was only increasingly publicly recognized after his death and the end of racial segregation .

Life

Youth and Studies

Julian Francis Abele was born on April 30, 1881 to Charles and Mary Adelaide Jones Abele. His mother was a milliner and descendant of African-American clergy Absalom Jones (1746-1818), his father was in the customs house hired (US Treasury Custom House). Julian was the eighth of eleven siblings. At the age of twelve he went to the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia, where his aunt Julia Jones taught drawing and encouraged him to pursue a career as an architect. In 1897, at sixteen, he went to the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art and a year later he was accepted into the prestigious School of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania (now the University of Pennsylvania School of Design). In 1902 he was the first African American to graduate in architecture and then attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for a year .

Between 1903 and 1906 he toured Europe, including France and Italy. It is believed that he also attended the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris , but this cannot be confirmed according to the school's documents. Some drawings from that period are now in the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania.

Chief designer at Horace Trumbauer

Gray Towers Castle (now Arcadia University, Glenside, Pennsylvania ) , built by Horace Trumbauer 1893-1897

In 1906, Julian F. Abele was hired by Horace Trumbauer as an architect in his architectural office founded in 1890. He was assistant to the then chief designer Frank Seeburger and, after he left the company in 1909, later took over his position; the exact year is disputed. Trumbauer had made a name for himself in the Gilded Age by building palatial estates for wealthy personalities, such as Gray Towers Castle for William Welsh Harrison or Lynnewood Hall for Peter AB Widener . Since no documents from the company have survived and all designs at that time were only given the name of the architects' office, it is difficult to attribute any work to Abele. Trumbauer, Abele and the architect William O. Frank complemented each other as the main actors in that Trumbauer was the driving force behind the company, Abele, as chief designer, designed the buildings that Frank made technically feasible. The execution as a joint work becomes clear in the fact that up to 30 architects were employed in the architects' office at its heyday. After Trumbauer's death in 1938, Abele and Frank took over the company and they continued it under the name “The Office of Horace Trumbauer”. Abele worked for the architects' office for a total of 44 years until his death in 1950.

family

Julian F. Abele married Marguerite Bulle, France, on June 6, 1925, who was twenty years his junior. Marguerite had studied piano and organ at the Paris Conservatory and Julian, who was fluent in French, had taken piano lessons with her before she married. They had three children: firstborn son Julian F. Abele Jr. and daughters Marguerite Marie and Nadine; Marguerite Marie died of measles at the age of five . In 1936 Marguerite separated from Julian and the children stayed with their father; the marriage was never officially divorced.

plant

Edward T. Stotesbury's Whitemarsh Hall estate in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania designed by Julian F. Abele in 1916 (demolished in 1980)
1966 aerial view of the Philadelphia Museum of Art . The building was created in collaboration between the architects Horace Trumbauer and Zantzinger, Borie & Medary 1919–1928.

Abele designed many estates and public buildings for Trumbauer in the style of Beaux Arts architecture , for example the New York house of James Buchanan Duke on Fifth Avenue (now the New York University Institute of Fine Arts) in 1909 and Whitemarsh Hall in Wyndmoor in 1916 , Pennsylvania for Edward T. Stotesbury, which was demolished in 1980. In 1913 he designed the Widener Memorial Library at Harvard University , which was built in memory of Harry Widener and opened in 1915. Abele made significant contributions in Philadelphia to the Free Library (1917) and the Museum of Art (1919–1928). Abele used the Hôtel de la Marine in Paris (1774) by Ange-Jacques Gabriel , whom he admired, as a template for today's main building of the Free Library of Philadelphia (Parkway Central Library) . The Philadelphia Museum of Art was built in collaboration between Horace Trumbauer's company and Zantzinger, Borie & Medary, and was completed in 1928.

  • James B. Duke House in New York City (now the Institute of Fine Arts)

  • Widener Library opened in 1915.

  • Design attributed to Abele for the Free Library of Philadelphia (Parkway Central Library)

  • The model for the Free Library was the Hôtel de la Marine in Paris (1774) by Ange-Jacques Gabriel

Impressed by the previous work of Horace Trumbauer, in particular by the Widener Library, James B. Duke engaged the company in 1924 for the expansion of Trinity College in Durham, North Carolina into Duke University and the associated construction of the new west campus. This building complex, kept in the neo-Gothic style, occupied Abele for over twenty years until his death. He designed the Perkins Library (1926), the Cameron Indoor Stadium (1939) and the Duke Chapel (1929) , among others . The Allen Administrative Building, designed by Abele, was not built until 1952 after his death. In its foyer, a portrait has been honoring the architect since 1989, the first of an African American on the campus of the university, which only abolished racial segregation in the early 1960s and allowed blacks to study.

  • Duke University's Perkins Library (1926)

  • Duke Chapel , inaugurated in 1935

  • Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke University (1939)

  • Allen Duke University Administrative Building (1952).

Web links

Commons : Julian F. Abele  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Julian Francis Abele (1881–1950). PENN BIOGRAPHIES, University of Pennsylvania University Archives and Records Center, accessed February 15, 2014.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Susan E. Tifft: Out of the Shadows: After decades of obscurity, African-American architect Julian Abele is finally getting recognition for his contributions to some of 20th-century America's most prestigious buildings. In: Smithsonian Magazine . February 2005, accessed February 15, 2014.
  3. ^ A b Josephine Faulkner Webster: Julian Francis Abele (1881–1950). In: Dreck Spurlock Wilson (ed.): African American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945. Routledge Chapman & Hall, 2004, ISBN 0-415-92959-8 , pp. 1-3.
  4. ↑ Sandra L. Tatman: Abele, Julian Francis (1881 to 1950). Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, accessed February 17, 2014.
  5. ↑ European Travel Sketches, approx. 1902-06. Julian Francis Abele Collection, Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania, accessed February 17, 2014.
  6. ↑ a b Rachel Hildebrandt: The Philadelphia Area Architecture of Horace Trumbauer. Arcadia Publishing, 2009, ISBN 978-0-7385-6297-1 , p. 10.
  7. ^ Frederick Platt: Horace Trumbauer: A Life in Architecture. In: Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. Vol. CXXV, No. 4, 2001, pp. 315-349, here p. 338.
  8. ↑ a b c d e f Josephine Faulkner Webster: Julian Francis Abele (1881–1950). In: Dreck Spurlock Wilson (ed.): African American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945. Routledge Chapman & Hall, 2004, ISBN 0-415-92959-8 , pp. 4-8 (Building List).
  9. ^ William E. King: Abele, Julian Francis (1881-1950). North Carolina Architects & Builders, North Carolina State University Libraries, accessed February 16, 2014.
  10. ^ Commemoration 50th Years of Black Students at Duke. Duke University 2013, accessed February 16, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Abele, Julian F.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Abele, Julian Francis (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American architect
DATE OF BIRTH April 30, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia
DATE OF DEATH April 23, 1950
Place of death Philadelphia