They used architectural pattern books, taught drafting and coloring skills, and conducted grand tours of Italy and Greece, where students could see classical structures firsthand.

These private studio-schools drew from the works of such masters such as the 16th-century Italian Palladio and the classical Roman Vitruvius.

His known works in the British-American colonies are considered to be of the highest quality and the finest examples of Palladianism in his time.

More than 400 buildings in Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Asia have been attributed to Harrison, though only a few are supported with documentary evidence.

He was ruined by this affiliation during the turbulent years of the American Revolutionary War, when Tories were sometimes boycotted as local conditions turned.