ABBOTT, Franklin (fl. 1906-30) was an architect who lived and worked in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and who designed the substantial residence for George A. Howe, King Street East, COBOURG, ONT. (C.H.G., viii, Dec. 1931, 32-3, illus.). He was the son of William Latham Abbott, a prominent Pittsburgh banker who maintained a summer home at Cobourg called ‘Sidbrook’. It is likely that 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 Architectural Record (New York), xxxii, Oct. 1912, 336-48 (inf. from Walter C. Kidney, Pittsburgh)
