The peripatetic French architect Joseph Jacques Ramee fled France during the Revolution, living briefly in Hamburg (where he started a furniture factory) and Copenhagen. (His biographer, Paul V. Turner, has noted that "Repeatedly, after he had started an architectural practice somewhere, war, economic collapse, or some other disaster forced him to move on and reestablish his career elsewhere.") In 1812 he arrived in the United States and is listed in Philadelphia city directories for 1813 and 1814, first at a house opposite 40 S. 8th and then at the northeast corner of Chestnut and 10th. No Philadelphia structures have been firmly attributed to Ramee, although he may have designed the early buildings for Union College in Schenectady, NY, and his Washington Monument competition entry for Baltimore while resident here. In 1814 Ramee exhibited several drawings at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts: plans, elevations and sections of town and country houses, a view of a picturesque garden on the River Elbe, a general plan and a front elevation of Union College at Schenectady, NY, a plan for the Washington Monument, and a model of a Russian stove. Ramee left the United States in 1816.

Written by Roger W. Moss, and Sandra L. Tatman.