William Strickland (architect)
William Strickland was a noted architect in 19th century Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is noted as one of the founders of the Gothic revival movement when in 1823 he built Saint Stephen's Church in Philadelphia. Other notable architectural works are the Second Bank of the United States (Philadelphia) and the restoration of the tower of Independence Hall (Philadelphia). He was primarily a Greek Revival architect, using the plates of The Antiquities of Athens for his inspiration, but stylistically he was a revivalist, using Gothic, Egyptian, Saracenic and Italianate. Strickland was also a civil engineer and one of the first to advocate the use of steam locomotives on railways. In his youth he was a landscape painter, illustrator for periodicals, theatrical scene painter, engraver, and pioneer aquatintist. He later moved to Nashville, Tennessee where his Egyptian-influnced design of the First Presbyterian Church (now the Downtown Presbyterian Church) was controversial but today is widely recognized as a masterpiece. He is buried within the walls of his final, arguably greatest, work, the Tennessee State Capitol.
Bibliography: William Strickland: Architect and Engineer, 1788-1854. By Agnes Addison Gilchrist, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 1950.