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William Raymond Yelland Collection, ca. 1917-1956
1982-1
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Collection Title: William Raymond Yelland Collection,
Date (inclusive): ca. 1917-1956
Collection Number: 1982-1
Creator:
Yelland, William Raymond, 1890-1966
Extent: 1 half box, 6 flat file drawers
Repository: Environmental Design Archives. College of Environmental Design. University of California, Berkeley. Berkeley, California
Language:
English.
Collection is open for research.
All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in the collection should be discussed with the
Director.
[Identification of item], William Raymond Yelland Collection, (1982-1), Environmental Design Archives. College of Environmental
Design. University of California, Berkeley. Berkeley, California
Architects--California.
Architecture--California.
Architecture, Domestic.
William Raymond Yelland was born in Saratoga, California in 1890. His father was a prune rancher, and the family lived on
the prune ranch. His mother was a physician who received her degree from the University of California in 1886. Yelland trained
at UC Berkeley, graduating with a B.S. in Architecture in 1913 when John Galen Howard was the program's director. He then
spent a year at the University of Pennsylvania. During World War I, Yelland was stationed in France, and his time spent there
influenced his architectural esthetic. He is believed to have worked in the offices of Bernard Maybeck and Walter Ratcliff
after graduation. Licensed in California in 1916, Yelland joined the Oakland office of Miller and Warnecke in 1920. By 1924
he had set up an independent practice at 1404 Franklin Street in Oakland, where he remained for his career.
In 1930, Yelland married Edna Holroyd, a poet and librarian, and traveled to Europe and Asia. Afterwards, he exhibited his
sketches in local galleries and published them in the San Francisco Chronicle. He and his wife collaborated on Christmas cards
and booklets--he did the illustration and she wrote the poetry.
Yelland's architectural style has been characterized as Medieval Revival, particularly the French Norman Mode. He described
his style as vaguely "rural." Examples of this style can be seen in the Richards House of 1926 (in the Claremont section of
Berkeley) and the Thornburg (or Normandy) Village of 1926-28 (also in Berkeley). After World War II, however, his style broadened
to include California ranch houses and modernism.
In the early 1950s Yelland moved to Milan, and died there in 1966.
Source:
Winter, Robert, ed. "Toward a Simpler Way of Life: The Arts & Crafts Architects of California," Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
Winter, Robert, ed. "Toward a Simpler Way of Life: The Arts & Crafts Architects of California," Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
The William Raymond Yelland collection consists primarily of project records, arranged alphabetically by project. These include
specifications, drawings, correspondence, notes, and a clipping. Drawings, which form the bulk of the collection, largely
relate to residential work, although some commercial and apartment buildings, including Normandy Village, are also included.
The collection also includes an attendance book and other materials from a technical drawing class that Yelland taught at
night for adults through the Oakland Public Schools in 1933.