This collection contains architectural drawings, photographs and a few printed items related to 19 projects by Theophilus P. Chandler and 1 project for Chandler as client. Projects include residential, ecclesiastical and commercial structures and one mechanical invention, a cablecar intended to carry freight and passengers. A number of projects represented are notable for personal associations in Chandler's life, e.g. Chandler's designs for his own country residence at Ithan, Pennsylvania, and his housing development nearby. The collection holds 44 architectural drawings for Chandler's home at Ithan, and a small number of drawings for alterations to his city house and to his office in Philadelphia. Also found is group of drawings and photographs related to several contiguous farms in Chester County, Pennsylvania, which may have been family properties. The housing developments represented in this collection (at Sharon Hill and at Radnor, both in Delaware County, Pennsylvania) are noteworthy in that Chandler was landowner, housing developer and architect. One house in this collection (at Sharon Hill) was designed for Chandler by another architect, J. Harris Reed of Beverly, New Jersey. There are no materials related to Chandler's collaborations with Robert Copeland in the development of Ridley Park. The collection contains original drawings for Tabernacle Presbyterian Church in West Philadelphia and prints for St. Peter's Church Parish House, in Germantown. Also found are two modern blueprints made from Chandler's 1889 competition design for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. Personal materials include a portrait photograph of Chandler by William Shewell Ellis of Philadelphia and five less formal outdoor photographs. Notable also are two travel sketches, a watercolor and gouache rendering of the interior of Salisbury Cathedral and a watercolor view of a lake. The collection contains no office records and no correspondence. Nor does it contain any materials related to the University of Pennsylvania or any of Chandler's other work in architectural education. All holdings related to Chandler's commissions for the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Co. are found in the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Collection.
