J. Bennett Colesberry was born in Philadelphia and educated at Wyoming Grammar School and the Central Manual Training School. He received his formal architectural education at the Spring Garden Institute and the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, and by 1892 he was employed as a draftsman. While attending Spring Garden he submitted a design for a cottage which was deemed "a very good effort" by T. P. Chandler and John J. Deery, judges for the competition. In September, 1892, the Philadelphia Real Estate Record and Builders Guide reported that Colesberry, formerly associated with Wilson Eyre, had been appointed by an English firm of architects to assist in designing the Virginia State building for the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, IL. Colesberry himself, in completing a WPA form in 1935 in order to qualify for employment, noted that he had worked for Cope & Stewardson from 1904 to 1908, the Philadelphia Board of Education from 1908 to 1916, the City Department of Wharves, Docks and Ferries from 1917 to 1918, Stone & Webster, an engineering firm, from 1919 to 1920, the H. M. Wilson Co. from 1920 to 1922, the Philadelphia Board of Public Education from 1922 to 1934, and the Philadelphia City Planning Commission from January, 1934 to July, 1934.

J. Bennett Colesberry was an active member of the T-Square Club.

Written by Sandra L. Tatman.