Edmund Woolley (16951771) was an English-born American

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and master carpenter, best known for building

Independence Hall Independence Hall is a historic civic building in Philadelphia, where both the United States Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were debated and adopted by America's Founding Fathers. The structure forms the centerpi ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, United States.

Biography

Woolley was born in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

around 1695, and emigrated to the

Thirteen Colonies The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Founded in the 17th and 18th cent ...

as a child, around 1705. It is not known with whom he apprenticed or where he learned his trade. He was one of the first members of The

Carpenters' Company of the City and County of Philadelphia The Carpenters’ Company of the City and County of Philadelphia is the oldest extant craft guild in the United States. Founded in 1724, the Company consists of nearly 200 prominent Philadelphia area architects, building contractors and structura ...

.Biography of Edmund Woolley at Philadelphia Architects and Buildings Project
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Independence Hall, 1732–1748 and 1750–1753

He began construction of the Pennsylvania State House (better known today as

) in 1732. Traditionally, credit for the building's design has been given to Andrew Hamilton, but modern scholarship argues that he contributed little to the project. A surviving 1735 receipt lists a £5 payment to Woolley for "drawing drafts," "fronts" (elevations) and "Plans of the first and Second floors of the State House." The building took 16 years for Woolley and his workers, who included Ebenezer Tomlinson and Thomas Nevell, to complete. The interior woodwork was carved by

Samuel Harding Samuel Harding may refer to: * Samuel Harding (American football) (1873–1919), American college football coach * Samuel Harding (cabinetmaker) (died 1758), American craftsman * Sam Harding (rugby union), New Zealand rugby union player {{hndis ...

and Bryan Wilkinson. The second floor featured meeting rooms and a banquet hall the width of the building. The original stairway proved inadequate for so large a building. In 1750, Woolley laid the foundations for a brick tower to house a grand staircase and support a wooden steeple. The tower's exterior was completed in 1753, but Hardings's interior woodwork was not completed until 1756. The bell ordered for the tower in 1751, is now known as the Liberty Bell.

Whitefield Meeting House, 1740

Woolley designed and built the Whitefield Meeting House (1740, demolished), a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

church and

charity school Charity schools, sometimes called blue coat schools, or simply the Blue School, were significant in the history of education in England. They were built and maintained in various parishes by the voluntary contributions of the inhabitants to ...

named for preacher George Whitefield. Its 70-by-100 foot (21 x 30.5 m), -story building at 4th & Arch Streets was the largest building in the American Colonies – larger than the then-under-construction Pennsylvania State House. The charity school struggled financially. On the recommendation of

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

, the building was purchased in 1749 for use by what became the

Academy of Philadelphia The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universi ...

(1751). Several years later, the academy was granted a

Royal charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but s ...

to establish a college, the

College of Philadelphia The Academy and College of Philadelphia (1749-1791) was a boys' school and men's college in Philadelphia, Colony of Pennsylvania. Founded in 1749 by a group of local notables that included Benjamin Franklin, the Academy of Philadelphia began as ...

(1755). The academy and college are predecessors of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. The Whitefield Meeting House was demolished by 1845.

Hope Lodge, 1743–1748

Woolley was responsible for design and construction of the Whitemarsh Estate (today known as Hope Lodge). The

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

country mansion was built by Quaker businessman Samuel Morris in what is now

Fort Washington, Pennsylvania Fort Washington is a census-designated place and suburb of Philadelphia in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 5,446 at the 2010 census. History Prior to the Revolutionary War the Fort Washington area was settle ...

Selected works

File:Independence Hall 1752 Map detail.png, 1752 engraving of the Pennsylvania State House. Image:PA-Philadelphia-Penn.jpg, Academy and College of Philadelphia (ca. 1780). Sketch by Pierre Du Simitière. File:HopeLodge HistoricSite.JPG, Hope Lodge.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woolley, Edmund 1695 births 1771 deaths Architects from Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania people English emigrants