John Haviland, Esq - Architect

John Haviland, Esq. (1792-1852)
Philadelphia Architect

John Haviland, Esq., friend of John Quincy Adams, was an architect whose work includes, in Philadelphia, the Eastern State Penitentiary (1821), the Franklin Institute (1825) which is now the Atwater Kent Museum, Old City Hall (1790), the Walnut Street Theater (1828), and Saint Andrews Episcopal Church (1822); and in New York City he designed The Tombs prison (1835-38) and other prisons around the country.

Old City Hall, Philadelphia, PA.
1790-91 alterations and additions by John Haviland.
Building stands near the Liberty Bell beside
Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed.
Old City Hall was Philadelphia's second city hall and served as
the home of the United States Supreme Court between the years
of 1791 and 1800.

Walnut Street Theater, Philadelphia, PA.
1828 interior and exterior renovations designed by
John Haviland. Founded in 1809, this is the oldest
theater in America and the oldest playhouse in
continuous use in the English-speaking world. A
National Historic Landmark. Many of the greatest
actors of America & Europe have appeared on stage here.

GENEALOGY

John Haviland's son John (b. 1819) changed his surname back to De Havilland (by right, alledgedly) which was an older spelling of the name that is still preserved by the Guernsey branch of the family (where actress Olivia De Havilland descended). Major John V.S. De Havilland was the anonymous compiler of the oldest surviving recorded genealogy on the Haviland family, called A Chronicle of the Ancient and Noble Norman Family of De Havilland, originally of Haverland, In the Cotentin Normandy, now of Guernsey (1895), which itself is said to have been based on earlier work by Haviland ancestors.

Also see the biography for John Haviland's nephew, Dr. Alfred Haviland.