Among institutions are the Battersea Polytechnic, the Royal Masonic Institution for girls, founded in 1788, and Church of England and Wesleyan Training Colleges.
The chief buildings are the town-hall, Anglican church, Masonic temple, and hospital.
It contains the barracks and the commissariat stores, the Protestant church, orphanage, Masonic lodge, post-office and numerous private dwellings.
Masons' Hall, whose corner-stone was laid in 1785, is said to be the oldest exclusively Masonic building in the United States.
Prominent among its buildings are the federal building, the auditorium, the public library and the Masonic library, which contains one of the best collections of Masonic literature in the world.
