Background
C. Emlen Urban was born in 1863 in Conestoga Centre (Lancaster County), Pennsylvania, United States.
C. Emlen Urban was born in 1863 in Conestoga Centre (Lancaster County), Pennsylvania, United States.
Mr. Urban completed a High School education in the city of Lancaster.
After taking up architectural study he acquired a practical training in the office of E. M. Walter at Scranton, and later under the late William Hale of Philadelphia.
Early in this century he opened an office under his own name in Lancaster, and continued in practice more than thirty years, engaged in designing numerous public buildings, banks, stores and private homes. Among his major works was the Y.M.C.A. Building, Science Hall at Franklin and Marshall College; Stevens High School, Asylum for the Insane, City Hospital, Hotel Brunswick, and the new Boy's High School, all in Lancaster. Mr. Urban also designed the Boys’ High School, Auditorium Building, and a number of public schools in Hershey, Pa.