Theophilus Parsons Chandler, Jr.

Theophilus Parsons Chandler Jr. (September 7, 1845 – August 16, 1928) was an American architect of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He spent his career at Philadelphia, and is best remembered for his churches and country houses. He founded the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania (1890), and served as its first head.

Life and career

Born in Boston on September 7, 1845, the son of Theophilus Parsons Chandler and his wife Elizabeth J. Schlatter, Chandler was educated at Harvard University and in the atelier of Joseph Auguste Émile Vaudremer in Paris. Upon returning from France, he was employed by several offices in his native Boston. Under the aegis of noted landscape architect Robert Morris Copeland, he relocated to Philadelphia in 1872, to work on development of the planned community of Ridley Park, Pennsylvania.

Chandler married Sophie Madeleine du Pont (1851–1931) of the distinguished Delaware industrialist family on March 8, 1873. He designed houses or remodeling projects for several of her relatives, including alterations to the mansion that is now the Winterthur Museum.

Chandler designed several of the original buildings for the Philadelphia Zoo, including the temporary North Gatehouse (1874–75, demolished after 1876), the Monkey House (1874–75, demolished 1898), the Eagle House (1874–75, demolished 1905), and the Bear Pits (1874–75, demolished 1977).

Most noted for his ecclesiastical style, Chandler designed major urban churches, including Philadelphia's Church of the New Jerusalem (Swedenborgian), Tabernacle Presbyterian Church, Bethlehem Presbyterian Church; and Pittsburgh's First Presbyterian Church and Third Presbyterian Church. He also designed exquisitely detailed country churches, especially in the Philadelphia suburbs.

As founder and head of the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Architecture, Chandler essentially shaped the architectural climate in Philadelphia. He served as president of the Philadelphia Chapter of the AIA, and sat on the Board of Trustees of the Spring Garden Institute. He persuaded Warren P. Laird to move to Philadelphia to succeed him at Penn and develop a curriculum based on that of the École des Beaux-Arts. French-American architect Paul Cret, in turn, succeeded Laird.

Chandler was an early restoration architect, making often sympathetic additions to historic structures. He designed alterations to Independence Hall (1878, unbuilt), and doubled the width of John Haviland's 1838 Pennsylvania Fire Insurance Company (1902). The latter building was demolished in 1974, but its 4-story white-marble Egyptian-Revival façade stands at 508-10 Walnut Street in Philadelphia.

Chandler's papers, at the University of Pennsylvania Archives, include designs for furniture, a bridge, an elevated wire road (similar to a gondola), and his unsuccessful submission in the 1889 design competition for the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York.

Furniture designed by Chandler was exhibited at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1976. The first retrospective exhibition of his work, ''Theophilus P. Chandler Jr.: Portrait of an American Architect'', was held at the Athenaeum of Philadelphia in 2010.

Personal life

Chandler and his wife did not have any children. He was extremely active in the general Philadelphia community, holding memberships in the Union League, The Philadelphia Club, the Radnor Hunt Club, the Society of Mayflower Descendants, and the Sons of the American Revolution.

He was an accomplished amateur painter. He rendered a self-portrait in 1909, which is in the collection of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia.

Selected works

Churches

* Grace Memorial Church, Main Street, Darlington, Maryland

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