Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Builders, project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.]]>
Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.]]>

Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.]]>
Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.]]>
Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.]]>
Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Builders, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss.]]>

Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Roger W. Moss, and Sandra L. Tatman.]]>
Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings site, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes.]]>
Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings site, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes]]>
Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings site, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes]]> Finnix Stretcher was a master builder elected to the Carpenters’ Company in 1802. He served as a warden of the Company from 1823-1826. The City Directories from 1805 up to 1845, the year before his death, list him at 129 S. 6th street. By 1840, he had retired from his profession and was listed as a gentleman in the Directory. He was interred in the family vault at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. According to a genealogical study written in 1897, both a portrait of Finnix and his wife Elizabeth descended in the family to a granddaughter, Mrs. David W. Sellers.

Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings site, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes.]]>
Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings site, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes.]]>
Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings site, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes]]>
Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings site, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes.]]>
Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings site, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes]]> William Coles was elected to the Carpenters’ Company of Philadelphia in 1803. In 1810, he resided at 145 N. 8th street. By 1824, he had moved to 237 Race street. He again moved to 207 Sassafras street sometime between 1824 and 1827. In 1820, Coleman made an application to the Company for a loan of $250 to “relieve him from the embarrassment under which he now labors.”

Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings site, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes

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Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings site, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes.]]>
Biography from Philadelphia Architects and Builders site, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes.]]>
Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings site, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes.]]>
Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings site, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes.]]>
Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Builders site, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes.]]>
Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Builders site, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes]]> Henry Hurst was a master builder elected to the Carpenters’ Company in 1807. According to the 1813 City Directory, Hurst resided at 300 Sassafras street (race street) and worked as a carpenter. The 1816 Directory listed a Henry Hurst as a grocer living at 195 North 3rd street. The very close proximity of these two addresses reveals the possibility that Hurst changed professions around this time and lived on the corner of Race and 3rd street. It is also possible that Henry Hurst the grocer was a relative of Henry Hurst the carpenter. Minutes of the Carpenters’ Company mention a financial request from Hurst’s recently widowed wife living in Lancaster city. Henry Hurst disappears from the Philadelphia Directories after 1816 possibly dating his family’s removal to Lancaster. After his death in 1831, the Company heeded his widow’s request for help with the funeral expenses. A Company committee looked into her situation and recommended that she be put on the widows' list at $15 per quarter.

Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings site, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes.

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Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings site, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes.]]>
Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings site, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes.]]>
Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings site, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes.]]>

]]> John G. Hoskins was a master builder born in Chester County in 1786. He was elected to the Carpenters’ Company of Philadelphia in 1809. The City Directory of Philadelphia listed him at 180 Mulberry street beginning in 1814. Initially, he was listed as a carpenter but by 1826, he was listed as a gentleman. Prior, to 1814, Mrs. Hoskins, gentlewoman, occupied 180 Mulberry street. The Mrs. Hoskins in question was John’s widowed mother. The family moved to Philadelphia from Chester shortly after John’s father, Raper Hoskins, had succumbed to the Yellow Plague in 1798. According to a history of the National Bank of Chester, John Hoskins was the superintendent for the construction of a banking building for The Bank of Delaware County, the first bank building in Market Square in Chester. John Hoskins served as president pro tempore of this bank for 6 months in 1815. He was also a lifelong member of the Society of Friends belonging to the Northern District Monthly Meeting. Hoskins served as an overseer for this Meeting. Hoskins spent the last years of his life residing at 238 Filbert street and died there in 1845 at the age of 58.

Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings site, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes.

]]> He was appointed superintendent for the building of the first banking house at Market Square, erected by The Bank of Delaware County, which was removed in 1882 to give place to the present imposing structure. On April 3, 1815, John G. Hoskins was appointed president pro tempore of the bank for a period of six months, to act in the absence of the president. In a copy of the Testaments printed in 1831 by The Bible Association of Friends in America, and now owned by a relative of Mr. Hoskins, in Philadelphia, appears the following: "Presented by the Bible Association of Friends in America to John G. Hoskins as an acknowledgment of his valuable and disinterested services in copying the whole of the marginal notes and references for their Royal Octavo Bible, and subsequently reading the proof sheets of the stereotypic plates, comparing the text with that of the celebrated Oxford edition of 1813."

John G. Hoskins died at Philadelphia, June 20, 1845, aged 58 years, 8 months and 10 days. In an obituary notice of Mr. Hoskins, which appeared in "The Friend," July 5, 1845, it is stated that he was a member and overseer of the Northern District Monthly Meeting, of Philadelphia; had frequently contributed articles to ‘The Friend’, and held several important stations in the Society. The speakers at his funeral based their remarks upon the text: 'Mark the perfect man and behold the upright.’”

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Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes]]>
Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings site, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes.]]>
Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings site, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes]]>
Biography from the Philadephia Architects and Buildings site, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes.]]> Richard Ware was a master builder elected to the Carpenters' Company in 1810. He also opened a shop as an ironmonger. He resided at 67 Locust street. Unfortunately for Ware, his business ventures took a turn for the worse and he ended up in debtors' prison. In 1819, he left Philadelphia and went south to Charlottesville Virginia. Here, he quickly became involved in the construction of Jefferson's University of Virginia. Ware supervised the construction of three of the ten Pavilions, II, IV and VI, flanking the Rotunda and forming the Lawn, the University's oldest and most famous area. He was also responsible for thirteen student rooms and served as the head carpenter for Hotel F. Following his success, Ware once again moved, this time apparently to New York in 1823, and eventually found his way back to Philadelphia by 1830.

Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes.

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Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Tom Stokes]]>
Written by Sandra L. Tatman. Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings site. A project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia.]]>
Written by Tom Stokes. Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings site. A project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia.]]> Born into a Quaker family in Bucks Co., PA, Moses Lancaster came to Philadelphia around 1802. He was elected to the Carpenters' Company in 1811 and served as warden and on the Managing Committee. In her groundbreaking study of early Philadelphia Builders, Donna Rilling uses Lancaster as an example of a successful carpenter/builder. Lancaster retired from active business in 1841 and returned to Bucks County.

Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Written by Sandra Tatman.

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Written By Tom Stokes. Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings site. A Project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia.]]> William Hause was a house carpenter elected to the Carpenters' Company in 1811. He served the Company as Warden and also on the Managing Committee.

Written by Tom Stokes. Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia.

]]> Charles Blain was a house carpenter elected to the Carpenters' Company of Philadelphia in 1812. Earlier, in the Fall of 1797 he had worked on the greenhouse, wings and kitchen of Robert Morris's country seat named "The Hills". This estate was later bought by merchant Henry Pratt who built Lemon Hill, a famous Federal Philadelphia mansion, on the same estate. Blain lived at 98-100 Filbert street until his death in 1817. Following his death, the Carpenters' Company provided financial assistance for his family. His wife received a quarterly allowance and his children received payments for their schooling.

Biography from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia
Written by Tom Stokes.

]]> the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings site, a project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia.]]>