Print Size: 24" x 30" (Frame Size: 24" x 30") Architect: John Haviland
At the urging of his friend John Quincy Adams, British-born John Haviland emigrated to Philadelphia in 1816, and quickly became established as one of the city’s few professional architects. In 1818-21 he published "The Builder's Assistant," an extremely influential 3-volume pattern book that first introduced the Greek orders to the United States. Haviland used the new mode of Greek Revival architecture in his austere design for the Franklin Institute, modeling its front on the Choragic Monument of Thrasyllus in Athens (319 b.c.). Inside, the 3-story building housed a museum and classrooms intended to promote cross-fertilization between inventors and scientists, in the tradition of Benjamin Franklin after whom the Institute was named. The first architectural courses in America were given here, taught by architect such as Thomas Ustick Walter and William Strickland; Haviland himself taught drawing here for nearly a decade. In 1933, the Franklin Institute relocated to larger facilities after which Haviland’s building became the Atwater Kent Museum of the history of Philadelphia. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 1, 1979
