Franklin Slept Here

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Compared to the aristocratic homes of other U.S. founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin's house at 36 Craven Street in London is downright modest. George Washington inhabited a grand estate at Mount Vernon, Virginia, and Thomas Jefferson built Monticello, an elegant mansion, in the same state. But for 15 years, Franklin was a tenant in a simple four-story Georgian brick row house on a street off the Strand near Trafalgar Square. The house's interior is handsome but spare, reflecting the thrifty nature of the man who popularized the proverb, "A penny saved is a penny earned." On Jan. 17, the 300th anniversary of Franklin's birth, the famed inventor-diplomat's sole surviving home will open to the public.

Franklin arrived in London in 1757 as the Pennsylvania Assembly's agent, and apart from a two year gap (during which he returned to Philadelphia) lived there until 1775. During his residence, the house functioned as a de facto U.S. embassy and the center of the American polymath's intellectual and social activities. He entertained Enlightenment thinkers in the sitting room, and in 1775 held negotiations there with William Pitt the Elder. When those failed, he fled London under threat of arrest.

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Time was not kind to the house: it took eight years to repair damage caused by neglect, a fire, shifting foundations and a hole in the roof left by an unexploded World War II German bomb. Today, the structure bears a Grade I listing, Britain's highest designation for historic buildings. A combination of heritage funds, corporate donors and private benefactors paid for the $6 million rehabilitation. "There is not a single level corner in this house,'' director Márcia Balisciano says. But she points proudly to restored features like the paneling, now painted its original pale green color, identified through examination of old paint layers.

Visitors can take a narrated multimedia tour through the basement and first two floors. "This is not a museum with stuff behind glass and people peering over the red ropes,'' Balisciano says, citing the accompanying sound-and-light show that recaps Franklin's London years. After three centuries, the house in which he spent them has been reinvented. benjaminfranklinhouse.org