Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology

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Note: This article is about the technology school in Boston. For the Philadelphia museum, see Franklin Institute.

The Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology is a technical school located at 41 Berkeley Street, Boston, Massachusetts, established with funds given in Benjamin Franklin's will.

1 History
2 Academics
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

The institute is best known for being funded by the trust fund set up by Ben Franklin. In an unusual codicil to his will, dated 1789, Franklin established a 200-year plan for a sum totalling £1,000 (about $4400 at the time) that he gave to Boston, his birthplace and death place. For the first hundred years, the money was to serve as principal for loans to young workmen; at the end of that period, the fund's managers would divide the money, using approximately three-fourths for public works and maintaining the rest as a loan fund.

When the hundred-year interval had passed, Boston decided to use the money to establish a technical school. It was opened in 1908 by City of Boston, Massachusetts, in the Franklin Union Building, a four-story steel, concrete, brick, and marble building designed by architect Richard Clipston Sturgis.

[edit] Academics

As of 2006, the school has 388 day students, and offers certificates of proficiency, two-year degrees in the fields of Industrial and Engineering Technologies, and a four-year degree in Automotive Technology Management. Also offered Pharmacy Technician Certificate.