The "Architect of the Red Rose City: Part II" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Trying to decide which buildings I should post today to give you an idea of just how prolific architect C. Emlen Urban really was when it came to designing the city of Lancaster, PA.  Yesterday's story featured a few private residences as well as the parish house of my church, St. James Episcopal and Lancaster's iconic Griest Building which stands on center city square.  Urban has been credited with many great works and is said to have created many more buildings that he was never given credit for designing.  As you view the following structures you will see just how important Urban was to the designing of the Red Rose City.  It was another ordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Every time I drive by this location at 100 South Queen Street in downtown Lancaster I am more and more amazed that it was designed by a kid who was 25 years old.  You may not classify 25 years old as I kid, but then you aren't as old as I am.  Urban got his first commission for a large-scale building, the Southern Market, in 1888.  Just before the markethouse opened, an article appeared in the local newspaper calling it "one of the grandest in size and appearance in this city."  And ....... the kid was 25 years old!  The building is of Queen Anne style with three floors, 90 foot wide headhouse on the east side of the building facing South Queen, and a two-story market house extending west 250 feet along West Vine Street.  The corner towers define the building's Victorian character.  The market was eventually purchased by the City of Lancaster in 1951 who closed it as a markethouse in 1986, ending 98 years of market operation.  I can remember going to market as a child and my mother telling me tales of her pushing me to market in a baby buggy in the mid-1940s.  

This building was originally the Post Office of Lancaster when Urban designed it in 1891.  He redesigned it in 1931 to serve as City Hall.  It is located in the heart of Lancaster at 120 North Duke Street.  The building was built of Indiana limestone in a modified Venetian Renaissance style.  When Urban redesigned the building he only changed the interior of it.

This Gothic style church, Grace Lutheran, was built of dark brown sandstone and features a prominent square tower at the corner of East James and North Queen Streets, five blocks north from center city square.  It was designed in 1906 and when the cornerstone was laid a newspaper article said: The new Grace Church will be an imposing structure, 80 feet in width and 132 feet in depth.  The church auditorium will seat 850 and the Sunday school 900. 

The Stevens School is located at 355 West Chestnut Street at North Charlotte Street and was designed in 1906.  The school was built in the Beaux style with details inspired by the French Renaissance.  The building opened in '06 as the Girls' High School, but when the new J.P. McCaskey High School was opened in 1938, Stevens became an elementary school.  As you can see by my photo, the building is now a series of apartments.

Standing tall in the first block of North Queen Street at 44-46 is the 1911 Reilly Brothers & Raub Building.  The Beaux Arts style building is the only downtown commercial building to use Indiana limestone and copper as the primary materials.  Above the large three-part transom is the original metal signage reading "Reilly Bros. & Raub."  This building served as one of Lancaster's most prominent hardware stores.  This building replaced the former hardware store that was destroyed by fire the previous year.

This is the Hager Building at 25 West King Street and was designed in 1910.  It shows signs of the Beaux Arts influence, referred to as French Renaissance in contemporary descriptions.  It measured 64 feet on West King Street and wrapped around onto Market Alley for 100 feet.  The store was one of my mother's three favorite department stores in center city Lancaster along with Garvin's and Watt & Shand.  Today the store is lined with smaller establishments inside of it with a restaurant at the rear of the building.

Harold's Furniture Store was designed in 1921 and is located at 4-6 West King Street.  It reflects Urban's interpretation of the Perpendicular Gothic Revival style.  The six-stories tall building has a first-floor facade that features plate-glass display windows resting on a granite base.  The sign which you see at the top of the first floor arched window is in gold-colored metal letters.  The original owner was the Keystone Furniture Company which was purchased in 1945 by Harold's.

Another of the many schools that Urban designed is the 1929 West Junior High School at 605 West Walnut St.    It was built in the Gothic Revival style using light gold-colored brick with patterned brick panels.  This was Urban's last major public building that he designed by himself.  It is known now as Reynold's Middle School.  

This is an old postcard that I found of the Woolworth Building located at 21 North Queen Street.  Urban designed it in 1900.  The building was constructed of steel, iron, stone and brick and was five stories tall with a roof garden and two gold-domed towers that rose 45 feet into the sky.  Urban maintained an office in the building along with someone named Jennie, as shown above.  The store closed in 1949 and was torn down to make way for the 5 & 10 cent Woolworth store.  Recently torn down again and is now part of the Fulton Bank building.  

Other buildings of importance that I have not shown are: The Unitarian Church, Buehrle Elementary School, F&M Stager Hall, North Market Street Quilt Museum, Gunzenhauser Bakery, Darmstaetter Building, Keppel's Candy Store, Garvin's Department, Demuth's Tobacco Store, The Heritage Center, Kirk Johnson Building, Fulton Market and Hotel, Lancaster Press Building, Darmstaetter Building, Weber Store, Lancaster Storage Company, St. Paul's Church, Strawberry St. School and too many residences to list.  I believe you get the width and breadth of C. Emlen Urban's importance to the city of Lancaster, PA.  One of his most famous commercial properties was the Watt & Shand Building in center square where my mother would take me to buy shoes and clothes for school, to eat lunch in the basement cafeteria, and to watch Santa arrive at Christmas.  There will be more to follow in a later story about Watt & Shand.  Priceless memories created by Mr. Urban.  And .... the kid started it all at the age of 25!! 

PS - a few of the photos and some of the information for my stories on Mr. Urban came from the booklet "To build Strong and Substantial.": The career of architect C. Emlen Urban which was produced by the city of Lancaster, PA and the Lancaster County Historical Society.