William L. Johnston
William L. Johnston (1811–1849) was a carpenter-architect who taught architectural drawing at the Carpenters' Company of Philadelphia, and won a number of important Philadelphia commissions. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 38 after a trip abroad for his health. Philadelphia buildings. BANK OF COMMERCE, formerly the Moyamensing Bank. Incorporated in the year 1832, with a capital of $250,000. The present banking-house of this institution, located in Chestnut west of Second Street, is constructed of brown stone. In the design of this building, the architect, the late Mr. JOHNSTON, has evidently studied utility  more than display; yet the genius of the true artist manifests itself throughout, and few of our public buildings of this order, surpass it as an imposing piece of architecture. Other buildings. In addition to his Philadelphia buildings, Johnston was commissioned in 1847 to design the Orange Grove Plantation House in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. Intended for Thomas A. Morgan, a descendant of the prominent Morgan family of Pennsylvania, the house was the last Gothic revival mansion built in antebellum Louisiana. It featured Tudor elements and meticulous hand-crafted details that were built in Philadelphia and transported to Louisiana to be  assembled there. Publications. William Johnson Architect published with Peter Nicholson the Thirteenth Edition of The Carpenter's New Guide Being a Complete Book of Lines for Carpentry and Joinery; Grigg, Elliot and Co., Philadelphia, 1848. The printers were T. K. and P. G. Collins, Printers of Philadelphia. The book is listed as number 835 in Henry-Russell Hitchcock's American Architectural Books published in American before 1895.