24 Facts About Frank Furness

Frank Heyling Furness was an American architect of the Victorian era.

Frank Furness designed more than 600 buildings, most in the Philadelphia area, and is remembered for his diverse, muscular, often inordinately scaled buildings, and for his influence on the Chicago-based architect Louis Sullivan.

Frank Furness's father, William Henry Furness, was a prominent Unitarian minister and abolitionist, and his brother, Horace Howard Furness, became America's outstanding Shakespeare scholar.

Frank Furness did not attend a university and apparently did not travel to Europe.

Frank Furness began his architectural training in the office of John Fraser, Philadelphia, in the 1850s.

Frank Furness attended the -inspired atelier of Richard Morris Hunt in New York City, from 1859 to 1861, and again in 1865, following his military service.

Frank Furness considered himself Hunt's apprentice and was influenced by Hunt's dynamic personality and accomplished, elegant buildings.

Frank Furness was influenced by the architectural concepts of the French engineer Viollet-le-Duc and the British critic John Ruskin.

In 1897, Frank Furness designed an addition to the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society 1869 building which has now been incorporated into the St James, a high-rise luxury apartment complex in the city's Washington Square neighborhood.

In 1881, Frank Furness promoted his chief draftsman, Allen Evans, to partner ; and, in 1886, did the same for four other long-time employees.

Frank Furness was one of the most highly paid architects of his era, and a founder of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

Frank Furness broke from dogmatic adherence to European trends, and juxtaposed styles and elements in a forceful manner.

Frank Furness designed custom furniture for a number of his early residences and buildings.

In 1873, Frank Furness designed interiors and furniture for the Manhattan city house of Theodore Roosevelt, Sr.

Frank Furness designed bookcases and a suite of table and armchairs for the boardroom of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, along with the lectern for its auditorium.

Frank Furness received the Medal of Honor for his gallantry at the Battle of Trevilian Station.

The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Captain Frank Furness, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 12 June 1864, while serving with Company F, 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry, in action at Trevilian Station, Virginia.

Captain Frank Furness voluntarily carried a box of ammunition across an open space swept by the enemy's fire to the relief of an outpost whose ammunition had become almost exhausted, but which was thus enabled to hold its important position.

Frank Furness married Fanny Fassit in 1866, and they had four children: Radclyffe, Theodore, James, and Annis Lee.

Frank Furness died on June 27,1912, in Idlewild, Pennsylvania, at his summer house outside Media, Pennsylvania, and was buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.

The most extraordinary of these, and Frank Furness's masterpiece, was the Provident Institution in Walnut [sic Chestnut] Street, built as late as 1879.

Frank Furness' Clearing House, now demolished like many of his best works in Philadelphia, contained an array of violent pressures within a rigid frame.

Frank Furness designed custom interiors and furniture in collaboration with Philadelphia cabinetmaker Daniel Pabst.

The 2012 centenary of Frank Furness's death was observed with exhibitions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Athenaeum of Philadelphia, the Delaware Historical Society, the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia, and elsewhere.