Julian Abele

Who was Julian Abele?

Julian Abele was a prominent African-American architect, and chief designer in the offices of Horace Trumbauer. He was the primary designer of the west campus of Duke University. He contributed to the design of more than 400 buildings, including the Widener Memorial Library at Harvard University, the Central Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Abele's contributions to the Trumbauer firm were great, but the only building for which he claimed authorship during Trumbauer's lifetime was the Duke University Chapel.