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Benjamin Franklin’s house to open in 2005
Registered charity, The Friends of Benjamin Franklin, has announced that a London house, which is the only remaining home of the 17th century US statesmen that still exists in the world, will have completed extensive renovation and be open to the public by mid-2005.
The house is located on 36 Craven Street and was home to Benjamin Franklin from 1757 to 1774, where he lodged with a Mrs Stevenson.
The conservation and renovation of the house has been divided into two stages, with the first stage, involving essential structural repairs at a cost of £813,873 completed in December 1998.
The second stage, which is preparing the house for presentation to the public at a cost of £1.5m, is ongoing.
The site should open as a museum and educational centre on Franklin’s 299th birthday.
The Grade I listed Georgian terrace house was given to the Friends charity in the 1970s. The house was the base where Franklin conducted many of his closest friendships and fiercest political negotiations. The charity claims that it served as the first, de facto American embassy, while it was also the site of Franklin’s famous historical meeting with William Pitt, the Elder, on the eve of the American Revolution.
The final sum of money needed to complete the repairs – £900,000 – is currently being raised by the Friends, supported by the Benjamin Franklin House Foundation, alongside a board of trustees. Details: www.thersa.org