<p>Founding and opening are quite different in this case.:</p>
<p>Eager to create a college to educate future generations of Philadelphians, Benjamin Franklin presented to the men and women of Philadelphia in the fall of 1749 his vision of a school to be known as the “Publick Academy of Philadelphia.” Circulating his ideas in a pamphlet titled Proposals for the Education of Youth in Pensilvania, he advocated an innovative concept of higher education, one which simultaneously taught both the ornamental knowledge of the arts and the practical skills necessary for making a living. The four colleges then in existence in the English colonies – Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, and Princeton – were all schools for educating the clergy, rather than preparing their students for lives of business and public service. With his characteristic zeal and intent on seeing his Academy of Philadelphia become a reality, he assembled a board of trustees and looked about for the least costly way to build a campus.
Although one of the trustees offered a well-situated building lot, Franklin focused on the property and unfinished “New Building” of the evangelist George Whitefield. </p>
<p>There, in 1740, a group of working class Philadelphians had decided to erect a great preaching hall, the largest building in the city, which would also serve as a charity school for “the instruction of poor children.” The fundraising, however, for both the building and the school had fallen short and the plans for both chapel and school were suspended. Franklin saw an opportunity to open his Academy quickly and inexpensively and in January 1751 did so, incorporating and also opening a charity school in accordance with the intentions of the original “New Building” donors. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.archives.upenn.edu/histy/genlhistory/brief.html[/url]”>http://www.archives.upenn.edu/histy/genlhistory/brief.html</a></p>