141 - 143 East Clay Street
Lancaster’s most important architect, C. Emlen Urban, designed this double house ca. 1901 in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. The builders were real estate developers Samuel M. Myers and Jacob Rathfon, who also owned Lancaster’s Myers and Rathfon clothing store.
Architect Emlen Urban had previously built the Lancaster family home for this Samuel Myers, at 339 N. Duke St, when the architect was only 22 years old in 1885. Emlen Urban was well acquainted with the Myers family because the Urban family and the Myers associated together at Lancaster’s Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Myers also was a Lancaster County commissioner.
The building features a dramatic pair of quatrefoil windows. The houses are crowned with horticultural festoons which are seemingly attached to the building with cast-stone bows.