Samuel Yellin

A Samuel Yellin lamp at the Cathedral of Learning in Pittsburgh, PA

Samuel Yellin (1885–1940), was an American master blacksmith, born in Galicia, Poland where at the age of eleven he was apprenticed to an iron master. By the age of sixteen he had completed his apprenticeship. During that period he gained the nickname of "Devil," both for his work habits and his sense of humor. Shortly after this he left Poland, traveling through Europe to England, and from there, in 1906, he departed for America. By 1907 he was taking classes at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art and within a year was teaching classes there, a position that he maintained until 1919.

In 1909 he opened his own shop and in 1915 the firm of Mellor, Meigs and Howe, for whom he designed and created many commissions, designed Yellin a new studio at 5520 Arch Street in Philadelphia where he was to remain until his death in 1940. The building continued to act as a functioning business under Yellin’s son Harvey’s direction. After his demise it served as the Samuel Yellin Museum.

During the building boom of the 1920s Yellin’s studio employed as many as 250 workers, many of them European artisans. Although Yellin appreciated traditional craftsmanship and design, he always championed creativity and the development of new designs. Samuel Yellin’s handiwork can be found on some of the finest buildings in America.

Selected universities, colleges and schools

Selected institutional or commercial works

Selected ecclesiastical works

Selected residential works

Architects whose names appear in Yellin’s job book

Sources

  1. ↑ http://www.friendsofscrippsestate.org/architecture.html
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