John Notman (July 22, 1810 – March 3, 1865) was a Scottish-born American architect and landscape architect based in Philadelphia. He designed buildings, cemeteries, churches and country estates in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and helped popularize Italianate architecture in the United States.
Notman was born on July 22, 1810, in The Canongate district of Edinburgh, Scotland,[1] to David and Mary (Christie) Notman.[2] He spent much of his childhood in Lasswade, south of Edinburgh.[3] He was educated at the Watt Institution in Edinburgh.[4] He apprenticed for four years as a carpenter and built country houses in the Scottish highlands and Northern Ireland.[5]
Sometime around 1824, Notman joined his older cousin, William Notman to train as an architect in the office of William Henry PlayfairinEdinburgh prior to emigrating to the United States in 1831. He settled in Philadelphia and first appears in the city directory as a carpenter then as an architect. He returned to Scotland in 1833 to move his mother and siblings to America.[5] He met John Jay Smith who helped him obtain a contract to construct a building for the Library Company of Philadelphia in 1835.[2]
Notman is credited with introducing the Italianate style to America. His design for "Riverside," the house built in Burlington, New Jersey in 1839, for Bishop Doane, was the first Italianate villa built in the United States overlooking the Delaware River.[7] The 1845 Athenaeum of Philadelphia was the first Italianate building in the city.[8]
In 1845, Notman designed a three-stepped office wing addition to the north side of the New Jersey State House.[10] Notman was also the architect of the highly influential New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum in Trenton, New Jersey of 1847. This building was the first example of the Kirkbride Plan in asylum design.[11]
In 1848, Notman was selected to design the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. The success of this project led to additional projects in Virginia including improvements to Richmond's Capitol Square.[5]
Notman died on October 3, 1865[4] and was interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery.[16] His early death was reportedly accelerated by alcoholism.[5] After his death, his architectural firm continued for several years under his protege George Hewitt. A plaque was added near his gravestone in 1998 when Laurel Hill was designated a National Historic Landmark. It reads:
"Laurel Hill stands as a landmark in American social and cultural history... an essay in the evolution of our nation's architecture, landscape design and funerary art."[17]
^ abMoss, Roger W.; Tatman, Sandra L. "Notman, John (1810-1865)". www.philadelphabuildings.org. The Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
