Benjamin Latrobe

Benjamin Henry Latrobe (May 1, 1764 - September 3, 1820) was an architect best known for his design of the United States Capitol.

Related Topics:
May 1 - 1764 - September 3 - 1820 - Architect - United States Capitol

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He was born in England at the Moravian community at Fulneck in Yorkshire and, at the age of 7, sent away to the Moravian School at Niesky in Silesia on the borders of Saxony and Poland. After a continental Grand Tour he returned to England in 1784 and entered apprenticeship to John Smeaton the engineer (of Eddystone Lighthouse fame), and later, the eminent architect C.R. Cockerell. In the early 1790s he entered private practice and Hammerwood Park (link below) near East Grinstead in Sussex was his first independent work in 1792. In 1793 Ashdown House was built nearby. Both houses still stand. In 1795 he emigrated to America where he soon achieved eminence as the first professional architect working in the country.

Related Topics:
England - Moravian - Yorkshire - Silesia - Saxony - Poland - John Smeaton - Eddystone Lighthouse - C.R. Cockerell - Sussex - America

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As an engineer, he was responsible for the water supply to Philadelphia and, with his son, New Orleans, where he died. His many architectural triumphs include:

Related Topics:
Philadelphia - New Orleans

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• the Capitol, Washington, DC
• Baltimore Cathedral, Baltimore, Maryland
• the building known today as Davidge Hall, completed in 1812 in Baltimore, Maryland, part of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, the oldest building in the Northern Hemisphere in continuous use for medical education http://medschool.umaryland.edu/davidge.asp
• The Pope House (Lexington, Kentucky)
• Chillicothe (Ohio)
• St John's Church and Decatur House (Washington)
• the White House Porticos

Principally, he was responsible for setting public architecture in the United States in the Greek Revival style. He complained in jest that after building just the Philadelphia Waterworks and the Bank of Pennsylvania, the whole town copied him, and his influence on public architecture endures.

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Benjamin Latrobe: External links ►