John McArthur Jr. (1823–1890) was a prominent 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 ...

based in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. Best remembered as the architect of the landmark

Philadelphia City Hall Philadelphia City Hall is the seat of the municipal government of the City of Philadelphia in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Built in the ornate Second Empire style, City Hall houses the chambers of the Philadelphia City Council and the office ...

, McArthur also designed some of the city's most ambitious buildings of the Civil War era. Few of his buildings survive.

Career

John McArthur Jr. was born in Bladenock,

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, on 13 May 1823, and came to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

with his family when he was ten years old. Much of his mature style was characterized by

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

and Second Empire forms and several of his best-known buildings feature mansard roofs, which he helped to introduce and popularize in the United States. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, McArthur planned 24 temporary war hospitals, including Fort Delaware's 600-bed hospital on Pea Patch Island. Philadelphia has looked up to McArthur's architecture for more than a century. The 250-foot-tall tower-and-spire of his Tenth Presbyterian Church (1854) was the tallest structure in the city when built. (Its 150-foot wooden spire was removed in 1912.) Later, this was surpassed by the tower of City Hall (1874–1901), whose made it the tallest occupied building in the world when completed. Until the late 20th century, an unwritten agreement among Philadelphia architects kept all buildings shorter than the top of the statue of

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer, religious thinker, and influential Quakers, Quaker who founded the Province of Pennsylvania during the British colonization of the Americas, British colonial era. An advocate of democracy and religi ...

atop McArthur's tower.

Personal life

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

and a member of Tenth Church, McArthur was married to Matilda Prevost; they had two sons and two daughters.

Death

McArthur died in

on January 8, 1890.

Architectural work

This is a partial list. Wagnerfreeinstitute

CHF P1000360 First National Bank Exterior

Philadelphia buildings

* Tenth Presbyterian Church, 17th & Spruce Sts., Philadelphia (1854, altered by Frank Miles Day 1893) * Wagner Free Institute of Science, 1700 W. Montgomery Ave., Philadelphia (1859–65) * First National Bank Building, 315 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia (1865–67). Now the Science History Institute. *

, Penn Square, Philadelphia (1874–1901) (with Thomas U. Walter)

Demolished Philadelphia buildings

* Assembly Building, 10th & Chestnut Sts. Philadelphia (1851, rebuilt 1852 possibly by McArthur, demolished) * Girard House Hotel, n. side of Chestnut St. at 9th St., Philadelphia (1852, demolished) * La Pierre House, South Broad St., Philadelphia (1856, demolished) * Continental Hotel, SE corner 9th & Chestnut Sts., Philadelphia (1857–1860, demolished) * American Sunday School Union building, 316-320 Chestnut St., Philadelphia (1858, demolished) * Franklin Farmers' Market, 100 block of Market St., Philadelphia (1859, demolished) * Mikveh Israel Synagogue, 117 N. 7th St., Philadelphia (1860, demolished) * Mower Hospital (temporary Civil War hospital), Wyndmoor, Philadelphia (1863, demolished) * Residence for Dr. David Jayne, 19th & Chestnut Sts., Philadelphia (1865, demolished) * Public Ledger Building, SW corner 6th & Chestnut Sts., Philadelphia (1867, demolished) * John McArthur Jr. Residence, 4203 Walnut St., Philadelphia (1881, demolished). * Children's Ward, Presbyterian Hospital, 39th & Filbert Sts., Philadelphia (1881–88, demolished). * Entrance, The Woodlands, Philadelphia (1936, demolished)

Buildings elsewhere

* First Presbyterian Church, Capitol Square, 10th & Capitol Sts., Richmond, Virginia (1852-3) * Media Presbyterian Church, Media, Pennsylvania (1853-1854) * U.S. Naval Hospital,

Mare Island Mare Island (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Isla de la Yegua'') is a peninsula in the United States in the city of Vallejo, California, about northeast of San Francisco. The Napa River forms its eastern side as it enters the Carquinez Strait junc ...

, California (1870) * U.S. Army Hospital, Fort Delaware, Pea Patch Island, Delaware. (1863, demolished) * State Hospital for the Insane, Danville, Pennsylvania (1869). Still in use as Danville State Hospital. * Pardee Hall,

Lafayette College Lafayette College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter and other citizens in Easton, the college first held classes in 18 ...

, Easton, Pennsylvania (1873). * Hospital for the Insane, Warren, Pennsylvania (1874) (a

Kirkbride Plan The Kirkbride Plan was a system of mental asylum design advocated by American psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride (1809–1883) in the mid-19th century. The asylums built in the Kirkbride design, often referred to as Kirkbride Buildings (or simp ...

building). Still in use as Warren State Hospital.Warren State Hospital * Asylum Architecture, History, Preservation * Kirkbride Buildings
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Gallery

File:La Pierre House, Academy of Natural Science, and Union League, Broad Street, below Chestnut, by Bartlett & French.jpg, La Pierre House, 100 block of South Broad St., Philadelphia (1856, demolished) File:Continental Hotel. (March, 1868), by Bartlett & French.jpg, Continental Hotel, SE corner 9th & Chestnut Sts., Philadelphia (1857–1860, demolished). File:Farmers' Market, Philadelphia, by Cremer, James, 1821-1893.jpg, Franklin Farmers' Market, 100 block Market St., Philadelphia (1859, demolished). File:WagnerFreeInstitute.jpg, Wagner Free Institute of Science (1859–65), second-floor Hall and galleries. File:Mickve.jpg, Mikveh Israel Synagogue, 117 N. 17th St., Philadelphia (1860, demolished). File:Fort Delaware main hospital.jpg, U.S. Hospital, Fort Delaware, Pea Patch Island, DE (1863, demolished). File:First National Bank, Philadelphia, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.jpg, First National Bank, 315 Chestnut St., Philadelphia (1865–67). Now Science History Institute. File:Philadelphia Public Ledger Building 1868.jpg, Public Ledger Building, SW corner 6th & Chestnut Sts., Philadelphia (1867, demolished). File:Court House. Public Ledger building, by Christopher Bell.jpg, Congress Hall and Public Ledger Building. File:View from the State House, by Simons, M. P. (Montgomery P.).jpg, Public Ledger Building from Independence Hall tower. File:Pardee Hall, Lafayette College, by R. Knecht.jpg, Pardee Hall,

, Easton, PA (1873). File:Phila CityHall90.jpg,

cornerstone. Laid July 4, 1874. File:City Hall and Market Street, Philadelphia, Pa, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.jpg,

Tower under construction, 1890s? File:Presbyterian Hospital Childrens Ward.jpg, Children's Ward, Presbyterian Hospital, Philadelphia (1881–88, demolished). File:Tenth pres 17-spruce.jpg, Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia (1854) File:McArthur Architectural Drawing.jpg, Naval Hospital at Mare Island, California.

Descendants

A descendant, David Paul McArthur, works as an architect out of the Fishtown section of

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McArthur, John Jr. 1823 births 1890 deaths 19th-century American architects Architects from Philadelphia British emigrants to the United States People from Badenoch and Strathspey