In 2016, Charles Barkley marked Black History Month with a daily spotlight on local African-American heroes. Many of them didn’t make it into the history books or even the newspapers of their time. But their stories are inspiring and worth knowing. Here’s another look.
09
Julian Francis Abele
Architect
Julian Francis Abele
Architect
(April 30, 1881 – April 23, 1950)
Julian Francis Abele was the first black graduate of Penn’s architecture school in 1902 and spent most of his career as chief architect of the famed firm of Horace Trumbauer.
He is said to have designed over 400 buildings, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Free Library of Philadelphia, the Land Title Building, Harvard University’s Widener Memorial Library and much of Duke University’s campus.
Still, true to the times he lived in, Abele was not credited for most of his work until after his death.
He was not allowed in Penn’s dorms or cafeterias as a student; and he was not admitted into the American Institute of Architects until 1942.
According to his family, Abele refused to visit the buildings he designed at Duke because “he did not wish to experience the harsh segregated ‘Jim Crow’ laws of the South.”
EDUCATION:
- University of Pennsylvania B.A. in Architecture, 1902
- Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Certificate of Completion in Architectural Design 1903
- École des Beaux-Arts (Abele is said by his descendants to have attended the French university, although there is no record of his enrollment)
ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
- First African American student to graduate from the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania
- Chief designer of 400 buildings, including Philadelphia Museum of Art
- Known for being immaculately dressed—even wearing a suit while on the boardwalk
- In 1989, a painting of Abele in the Duke University administration building was the first African American portrait at the school
FINAL WORD:
Abele famously noted his role in Trumbauer’s designs by saying, “the lines are all Mr. Trumbauer’s, but the shadows are all mine”—a statement that may have been as much about the role his race played in his work as it did about the architecture.
