The Architecture of Horace Trumbauer: "The Standard, Metropolitan and Authoritative Thing”
presented by David Brownlee, Ph.D., FSAH
Horace Trumbauer of Philadelphia was the most enigmatic architect of America’s “Gilded Age.” Although he left school when he was 14, by the time he was thirty, he had built palatial homes for some of the nation’s wealthiest families, and his office would produce more than 800 designs over the next forty years. In addition to great houses, this included important public buildings such as the Widener Library at Harvard, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Free Library of Philadelphia, and the two campuses of Duke University.
His versatility and quiet competence led the author of a long, admiring review in Architectural Record in 1904 to call his work "the standard, metropolitan and authoritative thing.” But Trumbauer never discussed his work or explained his thinking, and his design methods and the precise authorship of the buildings created in his thirty-person office have been difficult to discover.
Recent research, has begun to cast light on Trumbauer’s artistry and the complex collaborations that he orchestrated. Among the important aspects of this teamwork was the key role played by Julian Abele, the first African-American graduate of the architecture program at the University of Pennsylvania and the chief designer in Trumbauer’s office. Abele’s artistry was a vital ingredient in many of the firm’s most significant buildings, and despite racial prejudice and Jim Crow restrictions, his role was clearly visible and appreciated by clients and fellow architects.
David Brownlee is a historian of modern architecture and urbanism in Europe and America who taught for more than forty years at the University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia has been an important focus of his scholarship. His Philadelphia books include histories of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the Penn campus, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Barnes Foundation and studies of the architects Louis Kahn, Robert Venturi, and Denise Scott Brown. Active in civic affairs, Brownlee has served on the Philadelphia Historical Commission and the boards of the Preservation Alliance, the Athenaeum, the Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks, Global Philadelphia’s World Heritage City project, the Beth Sholom Preservation Foundation, and the Design Advocacy Group.
This presentation is part of the Preservation Alliance's Fall Speaker Series, Preserving Philadelphia, and will be in-person, hosted by the Cosmopolitan Club on 1616 Latimer Street, Philadelphia PA 19103. Refreshments will be served.
Seating is limited. Pre-registration is required.
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