1. John Notman was a Scottish-born American architect and landscape architect based in Philadelphia.
21 Facts About John Notman
1. 2.
John Notman designed buildings, cemeteries, churches and country estates in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and helped popularize Italianate architecture in the United States.
3.
John Notman spent much of his childhood in Lasswade, south of Edinburgh.
4.
John Notman was educated at the Watt Institution in Edinburgh.
5.
John Notman apprenticed for four years as a carpenter and built country houses in the Scottish highlands and Northern Ireland.
6.
Sometime around 1824, John Notman joined his older cousin, William John Notman to train as an architect in the office of William Henry Playfair in Edinburgh prior to emigrating to the United States in 1831.
7.
John Notman settled in Philadelphia and first appears in the city directory as a carpenter then as an architect.
8.
John Notman returned to Scotland in 1833 to move his mother and siblings to America.
9.
John Notman met John Jay Smith who helped him obtain a contract to construct a building for the Library Company of Philadelphia in 1835.
10.
John Notman was selected to design and build the Roman Doric gatehouse, landscaping, cottage and chapel at Laurel Hill Cemetery.
11.
John Notman opened and operated a successful firm and was a founding member of the American Institute of Architects.
12.
John Notman is credited with introducing the Italianate style to America.
13.
John Notman was briefly employed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Philadelphia during construction of the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul until an argument over the terms of his contract resulted in his dismissal.
14.
In 1845, John Notman designed a three-stepped office wing addition to the north side of the New Jersey State House.
15.
John Notman was the architect of the highly influential New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum in Trenton, New Jersey of 1847.
16.
In 1848, John Notman was selected to design the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.
17.
In 1851, John Notman designed the Prospect House and the Walter Lowrie House on the campus of Princeton University.
18.
John Notman designed and built Ivy Hall for Princeton University in 1847.
19.
John Notman died on October 3,1865 and was interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery.
20.
John Notman became a member of Saint Andrew's Society of Philadelphia in 1837.
21.
John Notman was married to Martha Anners in 1841.