Editing Frank Furness (section)

== Early Life and Training ==

Frank Heyling Furness was born into one of Philadelphia's most distinguished intellectual families. His father, William Henry Furness, served as minister of the First Unitarian Church for over fifty years and was a prominent abolitionist; his brother Horace Howard Furness became America's foremost Shakespeare scholar. This cultivated environment exposed the young Furness to transcendentalist thought, reform movements, and the intellectual currents that shaped mid-nineteenth-century America. The family's commitment to moral seriousness and honest expression would inform Furness's architectural approach.<ref name="thomas">{{cite book |last=Thomas |first=George E. |title=Frank Furness: The Complete Works |year=1991 |publisher=Princeton Architectural Press |location=New York}}</ref>

Furness trained first with local architect John Fraser before entering the New York atelier of Richard Morris Hunt, who had studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and introduced French academic methods to American architectural education. Under Hunt, Furness learned the Neo-Grec style—a robust version of classicism that emphasized geometric clarity and vigorous ornament. This training provided technical foundation and design vocabulary that Furness would transform into his distinctive approach.<ref name="lewis"/>