London – Benjamin Franklin, Londoner.
The U.S. Founding Father lived in the British capital for almost two decades before the American Revolution, working to bridge the widening gap between the colonies and the crown.
After decades of neglect and a $5.3 million restoration, his house was unveiled to the public Tuesday as a museum dedicated to a revolutionary who spent years trying to keep Britain and its American colonies united.
U.S. Ambassador Robert Tuttle and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw cut a red, white and blue ribbon Tuesday – the 300th anniversary of Franklin’s birth – to open the 18th-century brick home, the Benjamin Franklin House museum.
The house where Franklin worked, conducted scientific experiments and invented bifocal glasses will be open by appointment beginning today. Regular hours start in February.
Franklin lodged in the four- story brick building just off Trafalgar Square from 1757-1762 and from 1764-1775, acting as a diplomat on behalf of American colonists.
He shared the home with landlady Margaret Stevenson, her daughter Polly and, for a time, Polly’s husband, William Hew son, a surgeon who ran an anatomy school at the house.
Temporary residents included Franklin’s niece, his grandson and the economist Adam Smith.
Biographer Carl Van Doren noted that Franklin was less a lodger than the head of the household.
The house – which curators call the “first de facto U.S. Embassy” – was the site of many of Franklin’s scientific experiments, including the invention of a musical instrument called the glass armonica, for which Beethoven and Mozart composed pieces.
The restored rooms include the parlor in which Franklin – a great fan of fresh air – sat “air bathing” naked by the open windows.
