Background
Edward Palmer York was born in 1865 in Wellsville, New York, United States.
Edward Palmer York was born in 1865 in Wellsville, New York, United States.
The youth began architectural study at Cornell University in 1889.
Shortly after graduation he obtained a position as draftsman with the firm of McKim, Mead & White. Through eight years of employment in that busy office, Mr. York was closely associated with Stanford White in designing distinctive homes for clients of the firm Having gained valuable experience during that period Mr. York left the office in 1898 to begin practice in association with Phillip Sawyer under the name of York & Sawyer.
In the course of the following years the partners were awarded many important commissions, gaining a reputation as designers of large office buildings, banking houses and hospitals in New York and other cities. Among their major works were the Guaranty Trust Company Building, Bank at Broadway and 73rd St., Postal Life Insurance Building (1919), Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, #33 Liberty Street, Royal National Bank of Canada Branch Bank in New York, U. S. Assay Office, the Pershing Square Office Building, and numerous buildings for the Rockefeller, Manhattan and Fifth Avenue Hospitals.
York & Sawyer aIso were architects of U.S. Department of Commerce Building in Washington, D. C., the latter a monumental structure of Italian Renaissance design, completed in 1932- Federal Building at Honolulu, Hawaii; the New York Historical Society Building, County Hospital in West Chester, Pa., Brooklyn Trust Company Building; Children's Village, Dobbs Ferry, N. Y„ Rhode Island Hospital Trust Company Building in Providence; and a number of collegiate buildings at Vassar, Smith and Middlebury (Vermont) College, the University of Washington, and Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N. J.
Prominent in professional circles in New York, he was closely identified with the Architectural League, and after being elected to the New York Chapter. A.I.A. in 1902, was advanced to Institute Fellowship in 1920.