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The Academy and College of Philadelphia (1749–1791) was a boys' school and men's college in Philadelphia in the colonial-era Province of Pennsylvania. Founded in 1749 by a group of local notables that included Benjamin Franklin , the Academy of Philadelphia began as a private secondary school, occupying a former religious school building at ...
In 1755, under the terms of the Additional Charter, the academy was granted collegiate rank and became the College, Academy and Charitable School of Philadelphia in the Province of Pennsylvania, otherwise called the College of Philadelphia.
The Academy of Philadelphia was founded to provide a classical education with a modern twist. An advertisement at the time of its opening in January of 1751 offered teaching in the following areas: Writing, arithmetic, and mathematics (merchants’ accounts, geometry, algebra, surveying, gauging, navigation, astronomy, drawing in perspective ...
Fourth Street Campus, College of Philadelphia: Academy/College Building and Dormitory/Charity School, 1918 sketch. Franklin’s Vision. The life-sized, bronze “Ben on the Bench” that sits at 37th Street and Locust Walk was sculpted by George Lundeen.
Eager to create a college to educate future generations of Philadelphians, Benjamin Franklin presented to the men and women of Philadelphia in the fall of 1749 his vision of a school to be known as the “Publick Academy of Philadelphia.”
The Academy established the country's first medical school in 1765 and would also establish the nation's first teaching hospital. By 1792, the Academy was known as the University of Pennsylvania. Penn, as the school is popularly known, is today home to the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce.
History of Penn's 18th Century Campus. The College, Academy, and Charitable School classrooms were housed in the “New Building,” located at Fourth and Arch Streets from 1751 through 1801. This building was even larger in size than the State House (now Independence Hall).
