I'm going to post this work even if reduplicative and incomplete, add photographs and links anon. That will make me finish. It has lain fallow for years. Maybe though somebody will quarrel with the assertions and require adjustment or even retraction. One can only hope.
Cardinality
I yet dream of my grandfather,
Edwin Arthur Yeo, his works and person, with wonder, as if to say we must bear
prejudices made clear, for from him I inherited the principle of
cardinality, so conceived, since the dreams of his work continue to the
present, maybe start there. It was even more unforgivable in that era
for an artist to be poor, unknown and fail at his fame. Even though he
put both his children through Penn and Penn State, he was unable to
pay his dues to the AIA and had to surrender membership.21 Oct 2009 Woke up 11 pm at door slamming from the wind in the middle of a dream with brother Robert about the cathedral structure of the Browns Mills house, wood paneling rising high several stories, like a music auditorium rich light browns mixed hues, then to a slide show granddad had made from sketches, pastels, prints of his life. These passed in front of our eyes. I guess his artistic genes were strong, for these dreams continue, but there is no artifact except blue prints and memories of the wood and air.
6 Feb 2010 Saw them again,
whole rooms of statuary, stone lions, balustrades, stone entrances. The carved
heads of You and Sorrow in the ends of the beams where they scroll down in the
music room.
8/19/2010 dreamed before
waking that Good Will held title to the house, to be disposed, auction for parts.
Method Outh, author of a book on herbs, was the contact. Then I went to file and found
instantly Ed Yeo’s will and old deeds.
The tax records state that
Stone lions, balustrades,
stone entrances, whole rooms of statuary, the carved heads in the beams of
Browns Mills of Joy and Sorrow.
26 Feb Maps in the
Smithsonian with hand notations by Edwin Yeo. Topographical.
So he acquired that land
24 July 1918
Cardinal means Of fundamental importance; crucial, pivotal. A cardinal rule.
Nautical: Of or relating to the cardinal directions.
Cardinal means Of fundamental importance; crucial, pivotal. A cardinal rule.
Nautical: Of or relating to the cardinal directions.
A cardinal mark. Describing a "natural" number used to indicate quantity as opposed to relative position.
--A bright red color.
26 July 2012
 |
| EAY and Rena K. Yeo |
Edwin Yeo, A. I. A. ( 23 Apr. 1877 - 17 Nov. 1957)
Blanche Edna Wilkins ( 8 Aug 1879 - 3 Dec. 1946)
Rena K. Yeo
Rena K. Yeo
Edwin Yeo could not pay
his AIA dues in 1936 and had to withdraw. He had joined in 1921 but had
difficulty with the dues from 1930 on: He
did put his two children through college, Penn State
and U of Penn though. This was yet the depression. His daughter Beatrice loaned him the
money to give her husband to be, Howard, the wedding present of the maple desk at which Howard worked
for years. I sit at this desk today, especially when I inscribe notes in a journal written to Teddy, of the early life of his family. This is the desk Bea insisted be mine, but Anne wanted, however since she kept Rena’s desk Mom insisted I
take this one.I have EAY’s ledger from those years from Rena and his AIA stamp, so he was making money. Where was it going?
 |
| Beatrice and Ed, 1927 |
Another complication from the point of view of her daughter Beatrice is that Blanche and her family got religion in the Billy Sunday campaigns. “They stopped playing cards,” Bea said, as if this were the worst thing anyone could do. Blanche insisted on reading the Bible to Ed Jr. and Bea as children. By her daughter's implicit account Blanche took on a severity from religion as some do, or many, perhaps amplified by poverty and isolation. They also lost a third child, Donald, but that was 1924. Bea felt deeply all her life about this and often took me to his grave in Laurel Hill. This would have deepened the severity, isolation and blame and post partum depression untreated in that day could go for many years with various effects. The implication from Donna's contact with the Wilkins is that E. A. didn’t care enough or that she thought he didn’t care enough. When Elizabeth Reiff visited at Browns Mills 5 May 1934 she said that after the dinner Blanche disappeared on the lake in the canoe without a word of explanation, while EAY continued a perfect host. Many of these things are read between the lines of the Logbook.There is little concrete evidence of Blanche's difficulty except Bea once said she had tried to burn their house down. I imagine a ring of fire on the outside from that, for Bea also said that Blanche disliked living in Chestnut Hill where EAY built by hand in 1904 in the arts and crafts style, that cottage now in the historical register. Blanche was a milliner, wanted to live in the city I was told, near people. Chestnut Hill was then in the wild.
That E.A. was impecunious is so contrary to the beauty and family environment he created there. People of all sorts, church groups, family, ice skating, swimming often gathered and left glowing testimony in the Log Book. Ed Jr’s wife Danj, who came with upper class attitudes against the vulgar and the plebeian, with tongue in cheek, as was her way, referred to Browns Mills as a “shack,” for it was rustic, no wall board or linoleum. But other comments over and over praise the hospitality and the extraordinary building, "we doff our hats to the Artist-Architect…." So on the one hand he scraped to make ends meet but on the other he made this huge statement of architectural beauty. Cousin Donna was in touch with Blanche’s family somewhat in the 80’s and says that they reported Blanche as a bright person of enthusiasm. What happened to her, to us all, is a story of existence.
From 1931-33 EAY owed $25. and $15 each from 1934-5. In Jan
1936 he pays $7 on account leaving a balance of $48 for which they give him
until the end of 1936 to pay. However he cannot so they extend to him a note for
the amount and carry it without interest. “As a reminder” in Oct 1937 they send
him a letter that the note is past due and again in 1938. Finally 26 Dec 1939
he “forfeits” his membership in AIA. In that handwritten letter he states that
“the last two years have been a financial nightmare and that besides his dues
he has “many unpaid financial obligations.” Neither did he reveal the depth of
these circumstances to his children. The Ledger only accounts 1921 to 1930, but
it seems to have been continuous work. Probably there is another book.
There are no entries in the Log from May 30, 1935 until
October 16, 1948, which may generally delineate Blanch’s long illness. Elizabeth Reiff knew of the Lodge from her girlhood days at a Mennonite camp
on the other side of the big lake, the fireplace was legendary. Her first, or
last visit there was May 5, 1934,
according to the Log. That is the time from which she recalls Blanch leaving
the table and going canoeing by herself, something I used to do as often as possible
after dinners there. Many of the remarks in the Log are jocular, referencing
football and other inanities. There was no sense of poverty about the place,
quite the opposite. Perhaps the entertainment costs were a drain on finances.
Samuel P. Yeo’s Company.
Stotesbury Club House
7830 Eastern Ave Wyndmoor
Montgomery Co Pa
Listed 3/7/1985
The chief joy of Edwin Yeo besides his family was
his vision as an architect. The examples that best illuminate this vision are
the homes he built for himself. A few sources for these are available, an
account book of projects dating from 21 May 1921 to May, 1930, his Pennsylvania
license as a registered architect dated 30 June 1921, a taped conversation with
BYR in 1994, Elizabeth Reiff Young's memories, some photographs, the Logbook of
Brown's Mills from 1929 forward and the Inquirer
article.
He was much loved by by his
immediate family and friends. There is a photo of him as a first grader, arms crossed, seated
on the first row, third from left, a tolerant, approachable, bemused person. In
1902 a young man of 25, prior to marriage (1904), coat, tie and vest, wire rim
spectacles without arms looks rather as if he had sustained a shock. If we have
to pick an epithet of his appearance it might be reflective.
His wife, Blanche Yeo was the daughter of Charles Wilkins (a housepainter)
and Clara Taylor, She came of a large family of 5 daughters and one son.
Laura married Ashton Tullis, died young,
no children.
Edith married Edward Wolf.
Ada (1886-1969), married William Schwartz. They lived
in Brooklawn, N.J. and often visited with her children,
Virginia, Clara, William Jr., Ashton and Charles.
Clara, married Carl Seitz (1892-1987). They lived on Godfrey Ave. in Philadelphia and likewise visited with her
children, Marion, Anna May, Lois Eleanor (twins), John Christian and Carl
Daniel.
Russell
married Anna Schmidt.
The first drawing extant, signed EA Yeo and dated Feb. '97
is of the old tower of the Tioga Presbyterian Church, detailed, in perspective
pen and ink with much detail.
Photo
Roughly about the time EAY was building the Browns Mills
lodge the Mennonite church Campfire Girls operated a camp on the other side of
the large Mirror Lake from his house. Lib went to this
camp as a girl of 13, 14, 15 (1923-26). She has said that the other side of the
lake from the house was considered the poorer side. Here Lib learned to row a
boat, but more importantly knew of the House on the other side of the lake, for
its renowned fireplace. She knew EAY’s children, Ed and Bea from Philadelphia where they
lived in proximity to 18th
street. In her early girlhood Lib would go to the
Mennonite Sunday School at 9:15, church at 11 and Christian Endeavor at night,
but after dinner at midday she would go to the Tioga Presbyterian Church Sunday
school where she knew Ed and Bea in a cursory fashion. Obviously her brother Larry
knew them too, but in a noncommittal
fashion. He dated at the same time a girl in the Mennonite congregation,
Catherine Smith, as well as Bea in the Presbyterian. The sons of the Reiff and
Yeo families roomed together at Penn
State.
Howard
R. Reiff at that time had a seven passenger touring car and on at least one
occasion took Ed and Blanche Yeo with Anna and Lib up to Penn State
to visit their sons, who were roommates.
William Yeo, Edwin's father, had come as a small boy
from Calm, England with his father Samuel.
When the father died early William practically brought up his brothers and
sisters. He had a stationary store in Philadelphia,
called Yeo and Lukens (with his cousin) .The Yeos were fixtures in the Tioga
Presbyterian Church. Edwin's younger brother, Samuel P. Yeo (b. 21 Nov. 1879),
was an Elder there. His name is listed as such in the 95th
anniversary bulletin, where he is designated as Chairman. His assignment at
this service was to give the closing prayer.
Edwin designed the plans for the building of the new church in 1922 and also
served as treasurer and deacon. Regarding Edwin’s love of architecture, in
1904, toward the beginning of the arts and crafts style of home building, he
built a house with his own hands in Chestnut Hill, while he lived with Blanche
in nearby rented rooms until completion. This house is now in the national
register as the earliest instance of this style in Philadelphia. But after its completion Blanche disliked the remoteness from the city
and they sold the house and moved into town. She was a milliner by trade.
This first
house of 1904 is the more remarkable because the architect did all the work
himself. When it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in
April 1985 the event was reported in the real estate section of The Philadelphia Inquirer (4/22/1985) by
Sandra Long. The remarks of Martin Feldman, who bought the house and had it
registered however are obtuse. The article also misses the point because the
connection with Stotesbury is superfluous. Edwin Yeo built it for himself over
a period of two or more years, lavishing on it all his own designs and doing
the work himself. That it embodies the arts and crafts style is no surprise to
anyone who knew his later work. That this style appealed to him is evident from
these significant examples. The article points out the two views that may be
expressed about any artist’s work, for the audacity of even having a body of
work enrages the plebian mind, which has no work, only a little money.
A photographic record of the building of the house at BM allows the major turning points to be understood. According to a tax notice he first bought the land on 7/24/1918.Taking the photographs in apparent chronological order, there are two large tents on the site. 1922 is written in pencil on the back with a question mark. Also the phrase in Bea’s hand, "no T.V. but happy days even so."
Two large connected tents appear in the first photograph, a wood stove inside where the vent of its chimney emerges from the top of the center of the tent. Of these tents, the largest, is circular, the other rectangular. Around the circular one facing the entrance to the site is an elevated planter box with tree seedlings inside. Outside this is a reinforced rail to which the tarp cover is tied. This rail goes around all the sides. The door is open. Canvas, wood & rope and scrub pine.
In
the second of "Linford Carmen and Edwin Yeo”? 1922 with the same
"happy days" quote, the two men are standing under a trellis at the
entrance to the property, the tents in the background, possibly near where the
road enters now. It is winter; they wear heavy overcoats, hands in pockets,
Carmen jovial, EAY reflective. Only the top button of their overcoats is
fastened. Linford Carmen, who lived in Elkins Park,
was Edwin's best friend.
A
Log Book of visitors to Pine Cove Lodge kept beginning New Year's Day 1929,
breaks into two parts, the first from its inception until May 30, 1935, the second
from October 16,
1948 until December 26. 1959. There are no entries between 1935 and 1948, implying a turning point in
the family. Visitors recorded their names, addresses, the date and any comments
they had.
If
he was a taskmaster on the job, he was not such at home as a father. EAY 's
children did about what they wanted. It is another aspect of his daughter's
love of his "kindness." In the early Log many of the comments seem to
be by partiers led by son Ed Jr. Many of these seem penned by the ice skating,
sometimes inebriate, flapper crowd, friends of Bea and Ed Yeo, "bruised
but happy," "fell hard," "such skating," interspersed
with fatuous "Big Game!" remarks and multiple scores of different
games. Along the way remarks from older family members creep in like
"enjoying fireplace," and in summer, "deep water," and the
frequent "Good time." On 12/5/193l a "Larry" Reiff records
"the first visit!!!-???"
One of the most egregious examples of pleasure
seeking occurs on September 1932, signed by the "Sunday Guzzlers,"
the "Thursday Guzzlers," "Guzzle Mop"" (Larry Reiff),
"Guzzle Slop" (Dan Ort), "Guzzle Pop" (Al Zink),
"Guzzle Cop" (Grace Hodges) and unfortunately, "Guzzle
Flop" (Bee Yeo). Related comments are sometimes recorded in phonetic
intoxications. The chief of these frivolities is Ed Yeo Jr., jesting, drinking,
fooling: "probably the most pleasant NY Eve in my life-far ahead of last year
and totally eclipsing 2 years ago."
"wonderful weather-undoubtedly the most
congenial & successful party yet! (even with several of the "old
faithfuls" missing."
"Penn-Penn
State Game 11/18/33 Contribution to municipality
of Mt Holly-we went in style
but returned with caution!"
There seems to have been a ritual gathering of
family and friends during the holidays, especially at the New Year which was
when the Log was begun. Among the guests on these occasions were Blanche's
younger sisters Edith with her husband Ed Wolf, Ada and her husband William Schwartz and five
children and Clara with her husband Carl Seitz (1892-1987) and their five
children.
Sometimes in the early 30's we get a comment like
Edith Wolf's on Thanksgiving Day, 1933 that "all is quiet & peaceful,
moon shining brightly, not a cloud in sky. Guests all gone, after a delightful
day. They all join me in thanking Mr. & Mrs. Yeo for making this
possible."
Ice Skating is a continual Christmas- New Year's
theme (1934), "neat skating,” wonderful skating," "skated till ankles hurt." The
Seitz family began the year somewhat differently from the college crowd:
"Happy
New Year. Since this life is not all, why not be certain of Eternal Life. John 3:16. Start the New Year right with
Christ."
There is evidence, some 40 signatures, of further
sobriety in the "Pre-Rally Get Together of the First Brethren S.S."
in September 1934, celebrating canoeing and hiking.
Bea and Larry married in October 1934. By then the
guzzlers had replaced by hikers and naturalists and Samuel P. Yeo playing ping
pong (March 30,1935). A more serious affair is implied by a hiatus of 13 years in
the Log, for, following the 1935 entry, the next occurs in October 1948, as if
the book had been lost. The very last before this halt occurs 5/30/35, made by
Pauline Seitz, "when you need a nurse, give me a call." This at first
reads by someone seeking work or help but it hides the issue already revealed
of Blanche's illness. This is literally the last entry in the Log Book until after
her death.
Looking back,
the chief of the crowd is Ed Yeo Jr. His last entries occur 1/26/35 and 3/17/35. The last entry of J. Howard Reiff is May 5, 1934 when he
brings his mother and two sisters to visit, which visit Elizabeth spoke of in her oral memoirs.
Beatrice's last entry is New Year's Day, 1934 where her name is entered
following "Cannon-Ball" J. Howard Reiff and Edwin A. Yeo Jr.
A David P. Challenger in 19 notes, "your house is out of this
world." The same H. Seitz of Godfrey
Ave. who had invoked eternal life now says,
"We doff our hats to the Artist-Architect." "beautiful
environment.”
In those days people didn't talk about personal
problems, so it is difficult to learn much about Blanche Yeo. Lib calls her a
"shadowy figure." On the aforemention above in May 1934, after
greeting the guests, she remembers Blanche paddled away in the canoe and did
not return till they had left. The suggestion Lib remembers is that she had
suffered post-partum depression after the death of her infant Donald, in 1924.
From photo albums annotated by Bea, the Reiff family never visited at BM until
after her death in 1946, but they visited every summer thereafter for about 10
years. Prior to this there were summer vacations at Ocean City.
Bea remembers that Blanche had regularly read the
Bible to Ed and herself in the afternoons as children, but that this was
disagreeably remembered and associated with naps. Tellingly, she says that she
thought herself to be smarter than her mother, for she had gone to college, but
she had not gone to college at the time she had that thought. Bea was very
attached to her father, who in her eyes could do no wrong. She emphasized how
kind he was again and again. Lib says on her visit that when Blanche sailed away
Ed was gracious and amiable.
During some later stage of her illness, as a
symbolic act, Bea once revealed that Blanche tried to burn down the house they
were living in in Philadelphia.
That Feldman thought the Chestnut Hill home
"seedy" echoes what EA Jr.'s wife Danj used to say when she called
Browns Mills a "shack." The audience is too dull or too hip. At that
it is not a case of being damned with faint praise. Most often mentioned were
his diminished pecuniary circumstances. Outside the family and among his own
circle it was a different story.
Do we chafe at calling EAY, the “artist-architect,”
a genius? Why? Because he confronts in being such, the bourgouis protocols. The
standard fit. Standard size, appearance. Daring to be wealthy is not in fact
anything at all. Who are more circumscribed than the rich and the relatively
rich? Who live on surfaces and appearances. Luxury is the abortionist of
invention.
And
later when there is a change to profit the Feldmans will be dishonored. Even
tho he is the reason the article appears and this recognition occurs, that does
not excuse his "borrowed" photos of the place never to be returned.
My point is that genius and achievement may seldom reap a reward in the present
time.
I am horribly biased. I named both my sons
Edwin Arthur. Before I was 5 years old my grandfather had made such an
indelible impression on my character that it long since has become my own
nature. In a word, positivity, in another, cardinality. Preserving the body of
work would be a proper thank you. So give Feldman credit with his tax break.
But don't ever go back except in memory.
In
the 20's Ed Yeo felt compelled to lessen his age by 10 years in order to
complete successfully with the youth movement produced by all the veterans home
from WWI. This gave him a little trouble getting social security and pension.
Donna
(Yeo) Earhart was in touch with some of Blanche's family and reports that she
was thought to be bright and well read and that she felt abandoned by her
husband on the occasion of the death of their son. Bea, on the other hand,
being asked many times, would only say in the tape of 1994 that her mother's
family got religion during the Billy Sunday meetings and stopped playing cards.
Samuel Yellin (1885–1940), American master
blacksmith, was born in Galicia Poland where at the age of eleven he was
apprenticed to an iron master. By the age of sixteen had 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, where, in 1906, he departed for America.
Yellin’s Workshop, c.1912
By 1907 he was taking
classes at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art (now the Philadelphia College of 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. He
was no slave to the past. Samuel Yellin’s handiwork can be found on some of the
finest buildings in America
above-BM 1926, Ed, Blanch, e maccauleys, ed b
