Person:Benjamin Latrobe (1)

Research Notes

• city of Latrobe, Pennsylvania was named after him

Wikipedia

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe (May 1, 1764 – September 3, 1820) was an Anglo-American neoclassical architect who emigrated to the United States. He was one of the first formally trained, professional architects in the new United States, drawing on influences from his travels in Italy, as well as British and French Neoclassical architects such as Claude Nicolas Ledoux. In his thirties, he emigrated to the new United States and designed the United States Capitol, on "Capitol Hill" in Washington, D.C., as well as the Old Baltimore Cathedral or The Baltimore Basilica, (later renamed the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary). It is the first Cathedral constructed in the United States for any Christian denomination. Latrobe also designed the largest structure in America at the time, the "Merchants' Exchange" in Baltimore. With extensive balconied atriums through the wings and a large central rotunda under a low dome which dominated the city, it was completed in 1820 after five years of work and endured into the early twentieth century.

Latrobe emigrated in 1796, initially settling in Virginia where he worked on the Virginia State Penitentiary in Richmond. Latrobe then moved to Philadelphia where he established his practice. In 1803, he was hired as Surveyor of the Public Buildings of the United States, and spent much of the next fourteen years working on projects in the new national capital of Washington, D.C., (in the newly-laid out Federal capital of the District of Columbia) where he served as the second Architect of the Capitol. He also was responsible for the design of the White House porticos. Latrobe spent the later years of his life in New Orleans, Louisiana working on a waterworks project, and died there in 1820 from yellow fever.

Latrobe has been called the "father of American architecture". He was the uncle of Charles La Trobe, who was the first Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria in Australia.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Grave Recorded, in Find A Grave.

   [Includes photos. States his remains were simply picked up from his hotel by the "dead wagon" and taken to a common lye pit for burial. He was (apparently) reinterred, however as a memorial plaque erected by descendants in 1904 states his remains are interred in that cemetery along with those of his son who also died in the yellow fever epidemic.]

2. ↑ Historical Marker, in Kentucky Historical Society. Historical Marker Database [1].

   Pope Villa
   Marker Number 2174
   County Fayette
   Location 326 Grosvenor Ave., Lexington
   Description Built for Senator John and Eliza Pope. Designed by B.H. Latrobe (1764-1820), father of American architectural profession and designer to Thomas Jefferson. The Pope Villa has hidden first-story services, with rotunda and major rooms on second story. Latrobe’s most innovative surviving house. Restoration after a fire in 1987.