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America's Architect

Barwicker No. 127
Summer 2018



Benjamin Henry Latrobe

Anyone who attended the society's recent visit to the Moravian Settlement at Fulneck could not t-ail to be impressed by this little gem of a village which overlooks the Tong valley, or be fascinated by the history of its community. Two days after our visit, the Bradford Telegraph and Argus published a poll taken by the pupils and masters of Fulneck School on who they felt was the school's 'greatest ever pupil'; the winner was architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe. The runners up were Dame Diana Rigg, and joint third were Herbert Asquith and social reformer Richard Oastler. so who was Latrobe, who beat a star of the Avengers and a former Prime minister and what connection has he to our part of the world?

Benjamin Henry Latrobe was born on May lst 1764 at the Moravian Settlement in Fulneck near Leeds. His parents were the Reverend Benjamin Latrobe, a leader in the Moravian Church and Anna Margaretta Antes the daughter of a wealthy Pennsylvania landowner. Spending his early years attending Fulneck school. Latrobe, at the age of twelve, was sent to the Moravian school in Niesky Germany (a town founded in 1742 by Moravian immigrants) to further his education. At the age of eighteen Latrobe joined the Prussian army and served briefly in the Austrian army where he suffered some sort of malady. Upon his recovery he embarked on a tour of Europe. taking in the cities of France and Italy, being fluent in multiple languages and possessing a classical education, Latrobe returned home in l784 to take up an apprenticeship with civil engineer John Smeaton.

It is hard to ascertain whether Latrobe spent any time at Austhorpe, or worked with Smeaton on one of his engineering projects. However he stayed about three years with Smeaton before taking up a position with neoclassical designer Samuel Pepys Cockerell (a distant relation to the diarist). In 1790 at the age of twenty six Benjamin Latrobe was appointed Surveyor of Public offices in London. Earlier that year he had also married Lydia Sellon. Starting his own private practice the following year, he soon received his first major commission: the design of Hammerwood Park in Sussex, followed by nearby Ashdown House. In 1793 Latrobe re-joined John Smeaton on the construction of the Basingstoke Canal.

That same year two things occurred that were to change Latrobe's life. First his wife died in childbirth leaving him with two children and he was hired to plan improvements to the River Blackwater, a two year project that brought him close to bankruptcy. (He flirted with insolvency the rest of his life). He suffered a breakdown and drawn t his mother's stories of growing up in Pennsylvania he decided emigrate to the United States.

Latrobe landed in Virginia in mid-March 1796, initially spending time in Norfolk where he designed the William Pennock House before moving to Richmond where he got his first major commission, the State Penitentiary. Other work followed: The Green Spring Mansion near Williamsburg and Virginia's Fort Nelson. After spending a year in Virginia Benjamin moved to Philadelphia making influential friends with the city's financial and business families, and members of The American Philosophical Society. Philadelphia would be the city to relaunch his reputation in America by giving him the commission to design the Bank of Pennsylvania. He also designed the Centre Square Waterworks, and he worked as an engineer on the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. It was while in Philadelphia that Benjamin married Mary Elizabeth Hazelhurst in 1800, the couple had several children together.

Benjamin Latrobe's work in Washington is what he is best known for. In 1803 Thomas Jefferson hired him as Surveyor of Public Buildings and to oversee the construction of the Capitol Building (The White House) which was already underway. He wanted to make changes the original design by Scottish architect Dr William Thornton but Jefferson insisted on the original plans being followed. However during the war with the British in l812 the unfinished building was burnt down. After the war, Latrobe was appointed Architect of the Capitol with the responsibility for rebuilding the Capitol Building. He now implemented his own ideas on the project. Other surviving structures in Washington attributed to Latrobe include the Washington Navy Yard, the National Statuary Hall, the Old Senate Chamber, the Old Supreme Court Chamber and he was chief surveyor on the Washington Canal constructed to improve navigation around the city.

ln l8l0 after being plagued by outbreaks of yellow fever, the city council of New Orleans asked him to design a waterworks system to pipe fresh water to the city. Latrobe sent his son Henry Sellon Boneval Latrobe to submit his plans, to which they agreed. He was ready to start immediately but had financial problems finding enough investors, however the project was finally completed in 1819. The following year Latrobe died in New Orleans, ironically of yellow fever the disease he had done so much to try and eradicate. He is buried in the Protestant section of the city's Saint Louis cemetery next to his son who had died of the same disease three years earlier.

Benjamin Latrobe moved seamlessly from architecture to engineering, and what can't be underestimated is the influence John Smeaton had on his work, particularly his canal and waterway construction. Latrobe's works are too numerous to list here but his major projects apart from The white House include Baltimore Basilica, princeton University Nassau Hall, and The Bank of Louisiana. Hardly known in the place of his birth, Latrobe is recognized in the united states as the father of American architecture, and in the little museum at Fulneck there is a photograph taken in the Map Room of the white House of Benjamin's portrait hanging above the fireplace.

RAY MEDD


Sources:
Bradford Telegraph and Argus;
Wikipedia;
Fulneck Museum; The American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Beniamin Henry Latrobe Bradford Telegraph and Argus; Wikipedia. Fulneck museum; The American Society of Mechanical Engineers.


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