Frank Miles Day


Frank Miles Day was an American architect who designed several buildings in Philadelphia, including the Art Club of Philadelphia, the American Baptist Publication Building, and the Wetherill mansion.
Outside of Philadelphia, he also designed several buildings for universities, including those at Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University, New York University, Pennsylvania State University, Princeton University, University of Colorado, University of Delaware, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University. His university buildings were not designed in the Gothic Revival, Georgian Revival, and Collegiate Gothic, which were then frequently used.
He founded the architectural firm Frank Miles Day & Bro. with his brother and added Charles Zeller Klauder to create the firms Day Bros. & Klauder and Day & Klauder. He lectured on architecture at the University of Pennsylvania from 1890 to 1904. He taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, and was a visiting lecturer at Harvard University. He served twice as the president of the American Institute of Architects and was the co-founding editor of House and Garden magazine.

Early life and education

Day was born in Philadelphia, on April 5, 1861, to Charles Day and Anna Rebecca Day. He attended the Rittenhouse Academy in Philadelphia but was mainly educated at home by his father. In 1883, he graduated from the Towne School of the University of Pennsylvania as valedictorian and class president. He traveled in Europe and took classes at the Royal College of Art and the Royal Academy of Arts in London. He apprenticed in the atelier of Walter Millard and worked with Basil Champneys.
He received an honorary masters of arts degree from Yale University in 1916 and an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1918.

Career

He worked with George T. Pearson and Addison Hutton in Philadelphia prior to opening his own office in 1887. He was joined by his brother Henry Kent Day and they founded Frank Miles Day & Bro. in 1893. Charles Zeller Klauder became a partner in 1911, and the firm name was changed to Day Brothers & Klauder. From 1912 to 1927, even after Day's 1918 death, the firm was known as Day & Klauder.
He was responsible for several commissions in Philadelphia including the Art Club of Philadelphia in 1888, the American Baptist Publication Society building in 1896, the Free Museum of Science and Art at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Wetherill mansion. He designed numerous buildings for universities including at Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University, New York University, Pennsylvania State University, Princeton University, University of Colorado, University of Delaware, University of Pennsylvania, Wellesley College, and Yale University. The collegiate work did not favor one architectural style and Gothic Revival, Georgian Revival, and Collegiate Gothic were frequently used. Day's 1917 master plan for the University of Delaware was inspired by Thomas Jefferson's plan for the University of Virginia.
Day was a lecturer in architecture at the University of Pennsylvania from 1890 to 1904. He taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, and was a visiting lecturer at Harvard University.
He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1899. Day was national president of the American Institute of Architects twice and a member of the Imperial Society of Russian Architects, the National Academy of Design, the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and the Royal Institute of British Architects. He was a co-founding editor of House & Garden magazine along with Wilson Eyre and Herbert Clifton Wise. He was a contributing author to American Country Houses of Today, published in 1917.
Day died June 15, 1918, and was interred at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

Selected works

Philadelphia buildings

University of Pennsylvania

Princeton University

  • Dormitory group, undergraduate, built 1908-1913
  • Cuyler Hall Dormitories, built 1913
  • Madison Hall Dormitories, built 1911

Pennsylvania State University

University of Delaware

Other buildings