Page:The History of the University of Pennsylvania, Wood.djvu/16

10. Though excluded from the churches of Philadelphia, and compelled to preach in the fields, such was the power of his eloquence, that immense crowds were collected to hear him, and a fervour of religious feeling was excited in the community, of which the annals of the country had afforded no previous example. In this state of the public mind, it was proposed to erect an edifice, which might serve the double purpose of a charity school, and a place of public worship for Whitfield, and other ministers of the gospel, similarly circumstanced. Little difficulty was experienced in obtaining adequate subscriptions; a lot was procured in Fourth, near the corner of Mulberry Street; and a large building was speedily raised, which is still standing, and well known to Philadelphians by the name of the academy. At that time, however, it was called the new building, and as people of almost every religious denomination had been concerned in its erection, it was vested in trustees selected from different sects, among whom were Whitfield and Franklin. But the lot having been purchased on ground rent, and money having been borrowed for the completion of the building, the trustees, after the expiration of a few years, found themselves involved in an increasing debt, which the subsidence of the original enthusiasm left them without the means of discharging. Things were in this condition, when the project of an academy was announced. It was thought that the objects of both establishments might be attained by a combination of their resources; and as Franklin was a member of each body of trustees, an agreement was effected, by his agency, satisfactory to both parties. A conveyance of the new building was made to the trustees