The master builder of St. Peter’s Church, Robert Smith, was born in Scotland on January 14, 1722, so it is timely to share with you some high points in the remarkable story of his life.
Quoting from “St. Peter’s Church: Faith in Action for 250 Years,” published in 2011 by Cordelia Biddle, Alan Heavens, and this author, p. 6: “Scottish master builder and architect Robert Smith arrived in America in 1748 clearly well-versed in the latest London mid-Georgian style. When he was chosen by the Christ Church vestry to build the new Anglican church at Third and Pine Streets, he had recently completed the bell tower of Christ Church, the tallest spire in America, and other important commissions in the colonies. He had been made a member of the Carpenters’ Company and, just before the American Revolution, would be chosen to design their guild house on Chestnut Street.
“Born on January 22, 1722, in Dalkeith, near Edinburgh, Smith became a Quaker, presumably when he married Esther Jones in about 1749. Whether it was his newfound Quaker sensibilities or the fact that many of the members of Christ Church who wanted a new church were former Quakers, he designed a church that was described upon its opening for services in September 1761 as ‘a House decently neat and elegantly plain.’ Whatever the reason or reasons, former Quakers were made to feel at home.” (For a full description of Smith’s design of the church, see the ‘Faith in Action’ first chapter, ‘Let the Building Speak.’)
Smith was noted for designing many public buildings throughout the American colonies during his career, such as, among many others, the original building of Pennsylvania Hospital in 1755 (what became the east wing when the larger building facing Pine Street was built), Nassau Hall at Princeton University in 1756, and (his most important in Philadelphia) Carpenters’ Hall, home of the Carpenters’ Company, in 1773-74.
Smith’s illustrious career was cut short during the American Revolution when in the fall of 1777 he died while installing the “chevaux de frise” he had helped design – iron spikes strung across the Delaware River from Fort Mifflin to Fort Mercer – to prevent General Howe’s ships from reaching Philadelphia. He is buried in the Arch Street Meeting house burial ground.
One interesting St. Peter’s connection: Charles Willson Peale, who is buried in our churchyard, most likely knew Robert Smith. Even though Peale only moved to Philadelphia in June of 1776 and Smith died the following year, they were both ardent Patriots. In Peale’s 1779 portrait of George Washington at the Battle of Princeton, if you look closely, you can see Nassau Hall on the Princeton campus in the distance, perhaps Peale paying homage to its remarkable builder, Robert Smith.
In more recent years, Charles Peterson, the historical architect who was responsible for the restoration of Independence Hall in the 1950s and who was active in the restoration of Society Hill, was the preeminent scholar on Robert Smith’s life. Being of Scottish descent himself, in the 1980s he organized annual celebrations of Smith’s birthday by starting a parade at St. Peter’s with participants marching through the streets of Society Hill led by a bagpiper and ending at Carpenters’ Hall with liberal doses of Scotch – very welcome on a cold January day! He also organized a trip to Scotland in 1982 to honor Smith, with visits to buildings that Smith may have worked on or that influenced him and a parade through the streets of Dalkeith, led by the same bagpiper, to the church where Smith was baptized. He published his exhaustive research on Smith in “Robert Smith: Architect, Builder, Patriot, 1722-1777” in 2000. Another remarkable homage to Robert Smith, the author of our church building.
I will have more on Smith’s design of St. Peter’s in my next article.
A monthly feature brought to you by the St. Peter’s History Committee. This article was written by parishioner Libby Browne.