Abbott, Franklin

ABBOTT, Franklin Taylor (1880-1965) was an architect who lived and worked in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and was the designer of the substantial residence for George A. Howe, King Street East, COBOURG, ONT., 1929-30 (C.H.G., viii, Dec. 1931, 32-3, illus.; Robert Mikel, "Saving Sidbrook Private Hospital" in ACORN [Toronto], Vol. 46 No. 1, Spring 2021, 14-15, illus. & descrip.). Born in Pittsburgh, Penn. on 24 August 1880, he graduated from the Faculty of Art at Yale University in 1902. He was the son of William Latham Abbott, a prominent Pittsburgh banker who maintained a summer home at Cobourg, Ontario called 'Sidbrook'. It is likely that his client G.A. Howe, another Pittsburgh native, was very familiar with the important commissions that Abbott had executed in that city in partnership with Benno Janssen (1874-1964). Formed in 1906, the firm of Janssen & Abbott is best known for their monumental Beaux-Arts works in Pittsburgh including the Athletic Club (1911), the Masonic Temple (1914) and the William Penn Hotel (1914-16). An illustrated dossier of domestic designs by Janssen & Abbott can be found in the American journal called Architectural Record [New York], xxxii, Oct. 1912, 336-48 (inf. from Walter C. Kidney, Pittsburgh). Abbott died in Pittsburgh on 11 February 1965 and was buried at Homewood Cemetery in that city.