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. 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.