author
Henry Pettit
1842–1921
An American architect who also turned to fiction, he is best remembered today for a curious utopian novel, A Twentieth Century Idealist. His life linked Philadelphia architecture, the 1876 Centennial Exhibition, and an imaginative vision of a better future.
1 Audiobook
A Twentieth Century Idealist
by Henry Pettit
About the author
Henry Pettit was a Philadelphia architect and author, born on December 23, 1842, and died on August 11, 1921. Biographical records from Philadelphia architecture sources describe him as the son of Robert and Laura Ellmaker Pettit, and note that he studied at the University of Pennsylvania before later receiving an honorary M.S. from the university.
In architecture, he is associated with major nineteenth-century Philadelphia work, including the Main Exhibition Building for the 1876 Centennial Exposition, designed with Joseph M. Wilson. That connection helps place him in the energetic world of American civic building during a period of rapid growth and public ambition.
As a writer, Pettit is known for A Twentieth Century Idealist (1905). Reference sources on speculative fiction describe the book as a utopian novel centered on a dreamer whose ideals unfold into a transformed society, giving his work an unusual place between practical design and imaginative social thought.