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Jefferson's architectural influence extended to his recruiting of George Hadfield, brother of Maria Cosway whom Jefferson so much admired. Among America's first professional architects, Hadfield was arguably the most highly trained and most talented designer in the country after Latrobe.26 While Latrobe had met Hadfield in England,27 their careers first intersected in America when both men submitted competition entries for the Virginia State Penitentiary in Richmond. Latrobe appreciated Hadfield's talents and eventually employed him in his office.28 However, he initially concluded that Hadfield was "too young to possess experience, and educated more in the room of design, than in the practical execution of great works" and, therefore, was ill-prepared for the "rogues . . . employed in the construction of the public buildings, or for the charlatans in architecture who . . . designed them," a not inaccurate assessment of Latrobe's own situation in Washington.29 In a poignant act, Latrobe returned to Hadfield the Royal Society medal with which he had apparently parted as a result of financial difficulties. Latrobe wrote: "In losing the prospect of an independence arising from your professional talents, it would be too much were you also to part with the honors you have so deservedly obtained."30

Born in Italy to English parents, Hadfield returned to England in 1779 where he studied architecture at the Royal Academy then worked six years for James Wyatt until he won the first Royal Academy traveling fellowship, which sent him back to Italy in 1790. He produced a series of spectacular drawings while in Rome and exhibited his work in London, which Latrobe probably saw. However, when his career was stymied by a failure to be voted into the London Architect's Club, he took advantage of Maria Cosway's connections to Jefferson and accepted an invitation to superintend construction of the Capitol. After assuming this position in October, 1795, he resigned the following month, but, once reinstated, remained at work until June, 1798.

In 1796-97, while superintending work on the Capitol, Hadfield designed an executive office building for the Treasury Department on a site east of the President's House, then a similar structure west of the President's House to house the War Department in 1798-1800. Hadfield's original facade design for the Treasury Department remains today only in a drawing retained by Jefferson. Hadfield intended its central feature to be a portico, without pediment, with four Ionic columns inspired by those on the Erectheion--an order eventually seized upon by numerous American architects but one not erected in America until Latrobe built his Bank of Pennsylvania in 1798-1800. Both of Hadfield's office buildings were constructed under the supervision of James Hoban, but in a modified form.

Hadfield dated "1798" his house design long identified as being for Commodore David Porter (Figure 14), an comrade of Stephen Decatur; however, Porter would have been only 18 at the time and had just entered the navy as a midshipman. Regardless of the attribution, the plan, notable for its almost complete lack of poché, is organized by a variable grid, with some grid lines dissolved into files of columns. It is remarkably similar to the typical Jeffersonian domestic formula, with linked public spaces arrayed along a central, longitudinal axis (but with a monumental stair, which Jefferson would never have sanctioned), a service stair in a transverse corridor, and projecting bays in the lateral endwalls. Externally, it can also be interpreted as a much more sophisticated version of Hoban's original design for the President's House, including, as it does, a central pedimented portico on the front facade and a full-width portico to the rear.
The front-facade composition includes a giant Ionic Order, comparable to those Hadfield proposed for his executive office buildings. Its concessions to domesticity are the elimination of a basement level, the proliferation of arched openings, and the addition of roundel panels and a recess-paneled door.

William Thornton, eventually became the nemesis of both Hadfield and of Latrobe.31 Latrobe became aware of Thornton while still in Virginia and anticipated making his acquaintance.32 However, once made responsible for Capitol construction, Latrobe found himself in conflict with Thornton, conflict that eventually escalated to public accusations and a libel suit won by Latrobe.33

Thornton earned his medical degree in Scotland and traveled in England and Europe, including time spent in Paris, before he appeared in Philadelphia by 1786. In 1789 he won the design competition for the Philadelphia Library Company's headquarters, which provided him with both experience and credibility. Though he claimed only seven weeks of study among the Library Company's architectural books, his extant artwork reveals an already adept hand.

Back on the island of Tortolla by 1790, he married Anna Marie Brodeau and attempted to settle down. However, realizing that plantation management hardly suited his restless nature, he seized the opportunity offered by the Capitol competition to relocate in the Federal City.

Thornton's reputation rests largely on three commissions: his designs for the national Capitol, the John Tayloe House in Washington D.C., now known as The Octagon, and Tudor Place in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. A ca. 1793 sketch for the west front of the Capitol (Figure 15) ,attributed by some to Thornton, is quite French, particularly in its monumentality and prominent use of the orders. NEXT PAGE>>

FIGURE 14: Commodore David Porter House, Washington, D.C. (1798). First-floor plan. Latrobe thought highly enough of the professionally-trained Englishman George Hadfield, the brother of Maria Cosway whom Jefferson also admired, to employ him in his office. In fact, late in his career, at a time when Hadfield was experiencing financial difficulties, Latrobe obtained and returned to him the Royal Society medal with which he had been forced to part.

Little of Hadfield’s work remains intact, and most of what he did execute was institutional. The site for this domestic project is unknown and the plan is notable for its almost complete lack of poché. Hadfield organized it by means of a variable grid, with some grid lines dissolved into files of columns. The result is not unlike Bulfinch’s Barrell and Swan houses and is remarkably similar to Jefferson’s parti at Monticello, but with a monumental stair, which Jefferson would never have sanctioned. It is also similar to Latrobe’s work in its use of multiple classical prototypes: a rotunda with portico flanked by two, double-apsidal basilicas. back

FIGURE 15: U.S. Capitol. Design for the west front (ca. 1793) (Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress). William Thornton eventually became the nemesis of both Hadfield and Latrobe. A Tortolla plantation owner trained as a medical doctor in Scotland, he grew restless in the Caribbean. His next stop was Philadelphia in 1786 where he became an instant winner in architectural competitions, culminating with his circuitously premiated design for the U. S. Capitol. Latrobe reached such a level of animosity with Thornton that he filed and won a slander suit against him.

Thornton’s reputation as an architectural designer rests largely on three commissions: his designs for the national Capitol, the John Tayloe House in Washington, D. C., now known as the Octagon, and Tudor Place in Georgetown, Washington, D. C. All have the same parti, one which had appeared on the published plan for the Federal City as L’Enfant’s diagrammatic indication of the Capitol. It consists of a circular temple embedded in a rectangular block formed of receding masses. One of Thornton’s interpretations of this configuration at the Capitol can be seen in this perspective sketch made by in ca. 1793. The form is quite French, particularly in its monumentality and prominent use of the orders. back

26 No one has brought forth a monograph on Hadfield. At present the best single source is George S. Hunsberger, "The Architectural Career of George Hadfield," RCHS, Vols. 51-52 (1951-52), 46-65. Also see entries in Daniel Reiff, Washington Architecture, 1791-1861, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, 1971 and Diane Maddex, Historic Buildings of Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh: Ober Park Associates, 1973. back

27 BHL to Thomas Jefferson, 28 Feb 1804 (C1). back

28 BHL to Hadfield, 28 April 1804 (C1) and BHL to Hadfield, 12 July 1812 and BHL to Hadfield, 19 August 1812. back

29 Journals, Vol. 3, 12 August 1806, 72. back

30 BHL to Hadfield, 19 August 1812. back

31 Thornton has not yet received satisfactory, comprehensive treatment. The only general monograph is Elinor Stearns and David N. Yerkes, William Thornton: a Renaissance Man in the Federal City, Washington, D.C.: American Institute of Architects, 1976. The Octagon has been well covered in George McCue, The Octagon: Being an Account of a Famous Washington Residence: Its Great Years, Decline, and Restoration, Washington, D.C.: American Institute of Architects, 1976 and more recently by Orlando Ridout, V, Building the Octagon, Washington, D.C.: The American Institute of Architects Press, 1989. For Tudor Place, see the idiosyncratic Peter Armistead III, Tudor Place, Designed by Dr. William Thornton . . ., Washington, D.C.: privately printed, 1970, which offers little insight into the architecture but reproduces Thornton's various studies for the house. back

32 BHL to Dr. Joseph Scandella, 24 January 1798 (C1). back

33 Correspondence, Vol. 2, 939, n.3. back