Athenaeum of Philadelphia
- Architect
- John Notman
- Year
- 1814
- Style
- Italianate
- City
- Philadelphia, PA
- Collection
- victorian philadelphia
The Athenaeum of Philadelphia is a special collections membership library and museum founded in 1814 in the Society Hill section of the city, with a mission to collect materials tied to the history of America and the useful arts. Architect John Notman designed the building at 219 S. 6th Street in the Italianate style, and the institution has grown into a major repository for the history of American architecture and building technology.
the building
Architectural archive. The Athenaeum holds architectural archives of 180,000 drawings, more than 350,000 photographs, and manuscript holdings for about 1,000 American architects, with collections concentrated on architecture and interior design history from 1800 to 1945.
the style
Notman designed the building in the Italianate style, one of that style's notable expressions in a city otherwise dominated by Federal and Greek Revival architecture of the period.
More on Italianatesignificance
The Athenaeum is a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Since 1950 it has sponsored the annual Athenaeum Literary Award for works of fiction and nonfiction.
nearby
- Congress Hall
- Independence Hall
- Philosophical Hall
- Second Bank of the United States
- Walnut Street Theatre
- Hill-Physick-Keith House