Pennsylvania Hospital Architecture Analysis

In its architecture, Pennsylvania Hospital follows closely the lines of the important buildings erected during our Colonial period. Founded by Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Thomas Bond in 1751, Pennsylvania Hospital is the first hospital in the United States, and was actually present in America long before the colonies had declared their independence. Designed mainly by a master-builder of the time, Samuel Rhoads, a Carpenters’ Company member, the architecture gets much of its inspiration from the “Hospital of Saint Mary of Bethlehem in London and the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary” (Moss 55). The Pine Building, which originally housed Pennsylvania Hospital, is located on 8th and Spruce Street. It was built in “three sections” (Pennsylvania Hospital

Georgian architecture made refinements, adapted, and evolved into the Federal style by the late 1700s, around the time after the Revolutionary War. Having emerged from the Georgian style, Federal architecture “elements are notably [more] understated” (Wentworth). Differing from Georgian architecture, Federal “columns and moldings are narrow and rather simple” (Wentworth) in comparison. There was also a shift away from symmetry in Federal design favoring more functional asymmetrical arrangements to buildings. Since Georgian and Federal architecture are so closely intertwined it can be difficult to identify the differences in styles in the design of Pennsylvania Hospital. Components with a common thread between the styles are easier to pick out. “The entire edifice was to consist of three parts, two symmetrical wings connected by a central building. Only the east wing was built prior to the Revolution, but David Evans, Sr. and David Evans, Jr. followed the basic Rhoads design when they later completed the structure [west wing, 1795-96; central pavilion, 1796-99]” (Philadelphia

The “hipped roof with dormers” (Moss 56) has a three-story central pavilion with a flat roof and cupola. The west wing stayed close to Rhoads original plan though a bit wider with a slightly different cupola. The central building, designed by David Evans, Jr., is a masterful specimen of early Federal architectural design. Though the front was constructed in the five-bay, three-story manner of Rhoads original plan, the facade is flat without any projecting pavilion. The first story is covered with white marble surrounding four arched windows flanking an arched center door with a semicircular fanlight. The second and third stories of the hospital center building are red brick, against which six white marble pilasters with Corinthian capitals are set in high relief. The central pediment has an oval window which exemplifies an important Federal design element as geometric components were often featured. This window extends over four of the pilasters behind which rises the skylight dome of the surgical amphitheater (the first in the nation). Pennsylvania Hospital being the first of its kind in America, showed innovation not only in architecture but in layout design for the benefit of its patients. Furthermore, It is special in that Pennsylvania Hospital is live documentation of the progression of colonial America, albeit in one aspect: architecture, during and after its independence.