Girard College is an independent college preparatory five-day boarding school located on a 43-acre campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The school was founded and permanently endowed from the shipping and banking fortune of Stephen Girard upon his death in 1831.
Girard College
Founders Hall (1897)
Stephen Girard was a French-born American banker, philanthropist and slave owner. Born in Bordeaux, Girard subsequently immigrated to the United States where he established himself in the American banking industry. During the War of 1812, Girard single-handedly saved the federal government of the United States from bankruptcy by personally financing the American war effort.
Stephen Girard
North America, a barque built by Stephen Girard (circa 1816)
Steel engraving of Stephen Girard by Alonzo Chappel
Statue in Stephen Girard Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania