Benjamin Franklin Hotel

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The Benjamin Franklin Hotel in Philadelphia , which opened in 1925, is now operated as Franklin Residences , an apartment and office building.
Foyer of today's apartment and office building Franklin Residences 2014.

The Benjamin Franklin Hotel , later the Ben Franklin House , is a former hotel building located at 834 Chestnut Street in Center City, Philadelphia . It is now operated as an apartment house under the name Franklin Residences .

The hotel, which opened in 1925 and has 1200 rooms on 18 floors, was designed by Horace Trumbauer and built on the site of the former Continental Hotel , which was demolished between 1923 and 1924. The Continental Hotel was built by John McArthur, Jr. 1857-1860 and hosted, among others, the American President Abraham Lincoln in February 1861 - on his trip to Washington, DC for his inauguration - from a balcony of the hotel a short address to the thousands of Philadelphians who flocked to greet him. The Benjamin Franklin Hotel existed until 1980. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

After the listed building was sold and converted into an apartment house and office building in the mid-1980s, it was renamed Ben (jamin) Franklin House . It then owned 420 apartments and 125,000 m² of office space. In 2011 it changed hands again and is now operated under the name Franklin Residences .

The historic building has the Crystal Ballroom, one of the largest ballrooms in Philadelphia, which was preserved or restored in its original form and furnishings at the urging of the National Park Service . Today it is used for a variety of events, with a capacity between 150 and 1200 guests depending on the use.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Rachel Hildebrandt: The Philadelphia Area Architecture of Horace Trumbauer. Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, South Carolina 2009, ISBN 978-0-7385-6297-1 , p. 112.
  2. ↑ a b Continental Hotel. Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, The Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  3. ^ Joseph George, Jr .: Philadelphians Greet Their President-Elect - 1861. In: Pennsylvania History. Vol. 29, No. 4, 1962, pp. 381-390.
  4. ^ Benjamin Franklin Hotel, Item No .: 82003808. National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  5. ^ Natalie Kostelni, Staff Writer: Korman Communities buys into the Benjamin Franklin House. Philadelphia Business Journal, June 3, 2011. Retrieved March 9, 2014.
  6. ^ Robbie Whelan, Peter Grant: Deal of the Week: Stealth Buyers Win Prize. The Wall Street Journal, June 8, 2011. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  7. ↑ Rose DeWolf: Ben Franklin Ballroom Restored To Splendor. philly.com, Interstate General Media, December 8, 1988. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  8. ^ Off-Site Venues (Ballroom at the Ben). Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau. Retrieved March 9, 2014.

Coordinates: 39 ° 56 ′ 58.9 ″  N , 75 ° 9 ′ 18.5 ″  W.