Girard College on Girard Avenue between North 19th
and North 25th streets, of which Thomas Ustick Walter, a pupil of
Strickland's, was the architect, is one of the finest specimens of pure
Greek architecture in America. Indeed, this imposing Corinthian
structure of stone has been called "the most perfect Greek temple in
existence." Work upon it was begun in 1833, and the college was opened
January 1, 1848. To a sarcophagus in this main building were removed the
remains of Stephen Girard in 1851. The building is 111 feet wide and 169
feet long, and is surrounded by thirty-four fluted columns fifty-six
feet high and seven feet in diameter at the base, which cost thirteen
thousand dollars each. The total height of the building is ninety-seven
feet, and it is arched throughout with brick and stone, and roofed with
marble tiles. The weight of the roof is estimated at nearly one thousand
tons.

The old Stock Exchange at Third and Walnut and Dock streets, facing a
broad open space once an old-time market, is also the work of William
Strickland, who likewise designed St. Paul's Church, St. Stephen's
Church, the almshouse and the United States Naval Asylum. It is an
impressive round-fronted classic structure of gray stone in the
Corinthian order, with a semicircular colonnade above the first story
supporting a handsomely executed entablature with conspicuous antefixes
about the cornice. Instead of a central flight of steps leading to a
main entrance, there were two well-designed flights at each side.
Surmounting the whole is a daring, tall, round cupola, its roof
supported by engaged columns and the spaces between pierced by classic
grilles. The structure is notable throughout for excellence in mass and
detail.

[Illustration: PLATE XCII.--St. Peter's Church, South Third and Pine
Streets. Erected in 1761; Lectern, St. Peter's Church.]

[Illustration: PLATE XCIII.--Interior and Chancel, Christ Church;
Interior and Lectern, St. Peter's Church.]

At Number 116 South Third Street stands the oldest banking building in
America, and withal one of the handsomest of such buildings. Erected in
1795 by the first Bank of the United States, this beautiful stone and
brick structure in the Corinthian order, with its fine pedimental
portico bearing in high relief a modification of the seal of the
United States, was owned and occupied by Stephen Girard from 1812 to
1831, and since 1832 by the Girard Bank and the Girard National Bank. It
is