Julian F. Abele | |
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 Julian Abele (photo Duke University Archives) | |
| Born | Julian Francis Abele[1] April 30, 1881 Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | April 23, 1950(1950-04-23) (aged 68) Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, U.S. |
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| Occupation | architect |
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| Spouse | Marguerite Bulle (m. 1925)[1] |
| Children | 3 |
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Julian Francis Abele (April 30, 1881 – April 23, 1950) was a prominent black Americanarchitect, and chief designer in the offices ofHorace Trumbauer. He contributed to the design of more than 400 buildings, including theWidener Memorial Library atHarvard University (1912–15),Philadelphia'sCentral Library (1917–27),[3] thePhiladelphia Museum of Art (1914–28),[4] and Eisenlohr Hall, home of the presidents of theUniversity of Pennsylvania.[5]
Abele was the primary designer of the west campus ofDuke University (1924–54).[6] His contributions to the Trumbauer firm were great, but the only building for which Abele claimed authorship during Trumbauer's lifetime wasDuke Memorial Chapel (1930-35). Following Trumbauer's 1938 death, Abele co-headed the architectural firm and designed additional buildings at Duke, including Allen Administrative Building andCameron Indoor Stadium.[7]
Abele was born inPhiladelphia to a prominent family. His maternal grandfather was Robert Jones, who in the late 18th century founded the city's Lombard Street Central Presbyterian Church. He was also related toAbsalom Jones, who established theAfrican Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in 1794, the first Black church in Philadelphia.[7] Abele's son, Julian Francis Abele, Jr. was an architectural engineer and his nephew, Julian Abele Cook, worked as the Building Coordinator for Howard University.
Abele worked in many media: watercolor, lithography, etching and pencil, wood, iron, gold and silver. He designed and constructed all of his own furniture, even doing thepetit point himself. While he knew many historic styles, he seemed to loveLouis XIV French most of all.
Abele attended theQuaker-runInstitute for Colored Youth,[8] which later becameCheyney University, where he excelled in mathematics and was chosen to deliver the commencement address.[9] In 1898, he completed a two-year architectural drawing course at thePennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art (PMSIA, nowUniversity of the Arts).
He was the first Black student admitted to the Department of Architecture at theUniversity of Pennsylvania.[9] This achievement was all the more noteworthy for the restrictions Black people faced at the university, including not being able to live in dormitories or dine in the school's cafeteria.[citation needed] On projects assigned to pairs of students, he partnered withLouis Magaziner, the only Jewish student in the department, who also faced discrimination.[10] This was the beginning of a lifelong friendship between the two.
He won a 1901 student competition to design aBeaux Arts pedestrian gateway. His submission was in the form of anexedra – a curved bench flanked by piers, but with steps passing through its center. This became his first commission when it was built on the campus ofHaverford College.[11] The Edward B. Conklin Memorial Gate stands at the Railroad Avenue entrance to the college.[12] He was widely respected among his peers, earning the nickname "Willing and Able",[7] and also won student awards for his designs for a post office and a museum of botany, and he was elected as the president of the university's Architectural Society.[13]
He became the University of Pennsylvania architecture department's first Black graduate in 1902. He worked part-time for a local architect and attend evening classes at thePennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Under the financial sponsorship of Philadelphia architect Horace Trumbauer, he traveled through France and Italy, an experience that was to influence his design work throughout his life.
Between 1903 and his hiring byHorace Trumbauer in 1906, Abele traveled throughout Europe.[14] His descendants contend that he studied at theÉcole des Beaux-Arts in Paris during his stay.[15] But Sandra L. Tatman, co-author ofThe Biographical Dictionary of Philadelphia Architects, 1700-1930, could find no record of his having been enrolled at the École.[16] She allows that he may have been permitted to informally sit in on the school'satelier. She also notes that Abele listed travel to France, Italy, England, Germany, Switzerland, and Spain on his membership application to theAmerican Institute of Architects (AIA), but not study at the École des Beaux-Arts.
Immediately after his graduation from theUniversity of Pennsylvania in 1902, Abele traveled west toSpokane, Washington, where he designed a house for his sister, Elizabeth Abele Cook, before returning east.[17] In 1906, Abele joined the Trumbauer firm as assistant to chief designer Frank Seeburger.[13] When Seeburger left the firm in 1909, Abele advanced to chief designer.[13] Abele's stature within the firm was no secret; he was the second-highest paid employee. He was an architect.
Art historian David B. Brownlee studied the 14-year effort to design and build thePhiladelphia Museum of Art, 1914-28. He credits Trumbauer architect Howell Lewis Shay with the building's plan and massing, but notes that the final perspective drawings are in Abele's distinctive hand.[18] Brownlee credits design of the exterior terracing, including the front steps celebrated in the 1976 filmRocky, to Abele.
Abele was also the architect for Eisenlohr Hall, which functions as the official home of the president of the University of Pennsylvania on the Penn campus.[19]
Following Trumbauer's death in 1938, the firm continued until 1950 under the name "Office of Horace Trumbauer," co-headed by Abele and William O. Frank. Commissions were hard to come by duringThe Depression andWorld War II, but the firm completedDuke Indoor Stadium atDuke University in 1940,[20] and later made additions to Duke's Library (1948) and designed Duke's Allen Administrative Building (1954).
When Abele joined theAmerican Institute of Architects in 1942, Philadelphia Museum of Art directorFiske Kimball called him "one of the most sensitive designers in America".[13]Smithsonian Magazine described him, in a career retrospective, as "probably the most accomplished [Black architect] of his era."[7]
Despite being the primary designer of Duke University, Abele was refused accommodations at aDurham hotel during a visit to campus.[10] Although it was not until 1988 that a portrait of him was displayed at the University, the main quad at Duke University is now officially namedAbele Quad with a dedication plaque prominently placed at the busiest spot on campus.[21]
In 1925, at the age of 44, he married Marguerite Bulle, a French pianist 20 years his junior. They had three children: Julian Abele, Jr., Marguerite Marie Abele (died young), and Nadia Boulanger Abele. Marguerite left him in 1936, to become thecommon-law wife of opera singer Jozef Kowalewski, with whom she had three additional children.[7] Because Abele never took action to divorce his wife, his children and Kowalewski's children shared equally in his estate.[22]
Abele died from a heart attack in 1950, in Philadelphia[23] and is interred atEden Cemetery inCollingdale, Pennsylvania.[24]
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