NOTE: A ten page biography on the life of Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764-1820) with photos is available by contacting Rick Gleason at ricksgenealogy@gmail.com
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Benjamin and his brother Christian‘s birth place of Fulneck is a Moravian Settlement in Pudsey in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire England. Established in 1744 it is named after Fulneck, the German name of a town in Northern Moravia, Czech Republic.

Members of the Moravian Church settled at Fulneck in 1744; they were descendants of the Czech Unity of Brethren, which in 1722 had found refuge in Saxony on the estate of Nicolaus Ludwig Count von Zinzendorf. Within the next few years after settling, housing as well as a school and a chapel were built.1549
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Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe was a distinguished architect who achieved eminence as the first professional architect working in the United States. He was involved in the design of the United States Capitol building as well as the White House in Washington, D. C. and has been called the "Father of American Architecture.”

Following his education in Germany Latrobe traveled extensively in Europe. After suffering bankruptcy, the death of his first wife, and a severe nervous breakdown, on the 25th of November 1795 Latrobe left the country of his birth forever and emigrated to America. Following a four month journey, he arrived in Norfolk, Virginia on March 20, 1796.

Latrobe designed the Bank of Pennsylvania building (1799–1801), which was the first example of Greek Revival architecture in the United States. He was later commissioned to build the Baltimore Basilica the first Roman Catholic Cathedral in the United States. One of the most beautiful architectural structures in all of America it's construction was begun in 1806, and completed in 1821.

Robert Mills as a young architect worked as an assistant and student with Benjamin Latrobe from 1803 until 1808 when he set up his own practice and became known in his own right. Mills went on to design the Washington Monument in Washington D.C.

In 1814 Benjamin partnered with the famous inventor Robert Fulton in a steamship venture based at Pittsburgh. In 1811, the first Mississippi steamboat "New Orleans," built in Pittsburgh, had as passengers Latrobe's daughter [Lydia], and her husband, the steamboat's builder, Nicholas Roosevelt. Roosevelt was the Great Uncle of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.

During his prolific career Benjamin collaborated on several projects with Thomas Jefferson including the rebuilding of the White House after it was burned down by the British as well as the design of the west and east colonnades of the President’s mansion. In addition Latrobe designed everything from penitentiaries, private residences, courthouses, schools and museums, waterworks projects and even furniture.

Latrobe with the assistance of his son Henry worked on the design and construction of steam powered pumps to help de-salt the water for the city of New Orleans, Lousiana. Henry died at the age of 25 while involved in the project from yellow fever. Three years later Benjamin’s life was cut short while still working on the same project when he also contracted yellow fever. He died at the age of 56 on September 3, 1820.

It is a sad ending to his story that there is no grave site for this man of accomplishment. It was reported that a great granddaughter searched nearly her whole life for his grave. Latrobe’s body probably was taken to a common lye pit used in those days of the early 1800's for the mass disposal of yellow fever victims. All that is known is that his body, and that of his son, lies somewhere within the confines of New Orleans’ Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1 where a bronze plaque is dedicated to their memory.

It’s been written of Benjamin Latrobe that “His influence on American architecture and the profession of architect in this country would be difficult to overestimate. While the United States Capitol and the Baltimore Cathedral remain his chief and most readily identified monuments, other of his works--most notably those in Philadelphia--and the careers of native architects that he helped to set into motion, profoundly altered the look of America in the first decades of the nineteenth century.”1554,1437,1555,1553,1552
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LATROBE, Benjamin Henry, architect, born in Yorkshire, England, 1 May, 1764; died in New Orleans, Louisiana, 3 September, 1820. His ancestor, Henry Boneval de la Trobe, emigrated from France to Holland after the revocation of the edict of Nantes*, entered the military service of the Prince of Orange, went with him to England, and was severely wounded in the battle of the Boyne.

At the age of twelve Benjamin was sent to a Moravian seminary in Saxony, and completed his education at the University of Leipzig. In 1785 he entered the Prussian army as a cornet of Hussars, and was twice wounded in severe actions. He resigned his commission in 1788, returned to England, and becoming an architect, was made in 1789 surveyor of the public offices and engineer of London.

Influenced by his political views, he came to this country after declining a crown surveyorship,† and arrived in Norfolk, Virginia, on 20 May, 1796. He was engineer of the James river and Appomattox canal, built the penitentiary in Richmond, and many private mansions. He removed to Philadelphia in 1798, where he designed the Bank of Pennsylvania, the old Academy of art, the Bank of the United States, and other buildings, and was the first to supply Philadelphia with water, pumped by steam from the Schuylkill, in 1800.

In Baltimore he was the architect of the Roman Catholic cathedral and the custom-house. Thomas Jefferson appointed him surveyor of the public buildings in 1803, to follow Thornton, Hatfield, and Hoban, as architect of the Capitol, and he perfected Dr. William Thornton's designs, and altered those for the interior construction of the south wing, with the approval of the president. Of this, the corridors and committee-rooms, the stairs, and the lobby with its paneled dome escaped the flames when the Capitol was burned by the British in 1814, and still remain.

In the reconstruction of the north wing Mr. Latrobe planned a vestibule in which are six columns, each of which is composed of Indian cornstalks bound together, the joints forming a spiral effect, while the capitals are modeled from the ears of the corn. This forms a unique order of architecture, which he regarded as purely American.

Jefferson has been considered by many to be the designer of these pillars, but that Latrobe was their originator is proved by his letter to Jefferson, dated 28 August, 1809, in which he says: "These capitals during the summer session obtained more applause from the members of congress than all the works of magnitude or difficulty that surround them. They christened them ‘the corn-cob capitals’ --whether for the sake of alliteration I cannot tell, but certainly not very appropriately." See illustration. He also designed the tobacco-plant capitals of the columns in the circular colonnade in the north wing, and left drawings of a capital whose ornamentation is designed from the cotton-plant.

He was the first to utilize the Breccia marble of the Potomac in the columns of the house of representatives and the senate chamber. His suggestion as to the use of natural products as a feature of architecture was followed by his successors.

Mr. Latrobe was also engaged as engineer in constructing the original plan of the Chesapeake and Delaware canal, residing alternately in New Castle and Wilmington until 1808, when he removed to Washington with his family. In 1812 he became interested with Fulton in the introduction of steamboats on the western waters, and built the "Buffalo" at Pittsburg, the fourth steamer that descended Ohio river.

After the burning of the Capitol, Mr. Latrobe was called to rebuild it. He resigned this post in 1817, and was succeeded by Charles Bullfinch, who executed Mr. Latrobe's designs in changing the oblong hall of the old Capitol into a semicircle. At the time of his death he was engaged in erecting works to supply New Orleans with water.1556
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Benjamin Henry Latrobe, son of Benjamin and Anna Margaret (Antes) Latrobe, was born in Yorkshire, England, May 1, 1764, died at New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1820, as the result of an attack of yellow fever.

At an early age he was sent to a Moravian seminary in Saxony, Germany, and later became a student at the University of Leipsic.‡ In 1795 he became a soldier in the Prussian army, participated in several battles, was wounded, and resigned in 1786. Returning to England he became in 1789 surveyor of public office, and engineer of London.

After the death of his first wife, the political views he entertained were the cause of his immigration to the United States, for which he sailed November 25, 1795, leaving his two children in England, and after a long and stormy voyage attended with numerous adventures, arrived in America, May 20, 1796. He sent for his children later.

For a time he made his home in Virginia and was the engineer of the James River and Appomattox canal. He also built the Richmond penitentiary and a number of private dwellings. He then removed to Philadelphia and constructed the first waterworks in that city, and was made surveyor of public buildings in Washington in 1803, by President Jefferson.

After the Capitol had been burned by the British in 1814, he designed its restoration, and was succeeded by Charles Bullfinch, in 1817. The plans for the Chesapeake canal, the Baltimore Cathedral and the custom house, were of his designing, and are fair examples of the high standard of his work.

His son by his first marriage, Henry Sellen Latrobe, settled in New Orleans, and while installing waterworks in that city, contracted the yellow fever, from which he died. His father then took up the uncompleted task of his son, and while in the midst of it he. too, was stricken by the fatal disease and died there in 1820.

A valuable and interesting journal, containing his observations as an architect and as a naturalist, and covering the period of his travels through the United States from 1796 to 1820, was published after his death.

Mr. Latrobe married (first) in England, a Miss Sellen, of London, who died in that country, leaving: Henry S., died in New Orleans; and Lydia, married Nicholas Roosevelt, uncle of Colonel Theodore Roosevelt. He married (second) in 1803, Mary Elizabeth, who died in 1841, daughter of Isaac Hazlehurst, of Philadelphia, an Indian merchant, and partner of Robert Morris, the Revolutionary financier and patriot. Children: John H. B., sketch of whom follows; Julia, died unmarried; Benjamin Henry.1557
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Dolley Madison wife of the fourth President of the United States James Madison and First Lady of the United States from 1809-1817 worked with the architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe to furnish as well as design decorations for the Madison’s public rooms at the White House.1558,1559
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Latrobe, Benjamin Henry
(1764–1820)

An architect and engineer, he was born in Fulneck, Yorkshire, England. After receiving his architectural training in London, he immigrated to the United States, leaving behind mounting debt and bankruptcy notices. Latrobe arrived in Virginia and later moved to Philadelphia in 1798, living there until 1808.

His profession and social life thrived in the bustling urban setting, and he married Mary Elizabeth Hazlehurst in 1800. Latrobe’s most significant project during this time was his waterworks for Philadelphia.

In 1803 Thomas Jefferson named Latrobe the country’s first surveyor of public buildings, and the two began collaborating off and on for the next fourteen years redesigning the Capitol. He began working on the furnishing of the Executive Mansion (White House) with DPM in 1808. Latrobe and the First Lady alternately bickered and boasted over their job, with Dolley’s preferences usually prevailing. Latrobe moved with his family to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1814 and died in 1820 while in New Orleans, Louisiana.1560
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Benjamin Henry Latrobe was the founder of the Latrobe family in America, and is considered the father of the American architectural profession. He was architect of the U.S. Capitol under Presidents Jefferson, Madison and Monroe. Other works include the Bank of Philadelphia and the Basilica of the Assumption, the nations first Roman Catholic Cathedral in Baltimore. The cathedral has been restored much in the way Benjamin Henry Latrobe originally designed it.

He also designed the Washington Navy Yard, Main Gate, which since 1973 is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

He designed the nation's first steam-powered waterworks in Philadelphia, PA. He also was a fellow of the American Philosophical Society.

The Maryland Historical Society under the direction of Professor Edward C. Carter II, Editor, has completed The Papers of Benjamin Henry Latrobe which are comprised of the Virginia Journals 1795-1798, writings, watercolors, architectural and engineering drawings. The works took 25 years to complete and is comprised of ten volumes.

[T]he architect, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, then in faraway America, remembered the legend and remarked in a letter to his elder brother, Christian, in England, "From the days of our old grand uncle Count Boneval, Pacha of Belgrade, we have been an eccentric breed."

In a letter dated 20 June 1817 from Benjamin Henry Latrobe to Samuel Hazlehurst, his second wife's brother, in Philadelphia, he writes, "I have a ... letter from my sister, Foster (Anna Louisa Eleanora). Two of her sons are married to two daughters of Sir William Bagshawe, a Yorkshire Baronet of very large fortune, proprietor among other dirty lands, of the Devil's Arse of Peak. It is singular that the estate upon which William and his wife are settled, should be called - Hazlehurst".

He was born in the schoolmaster's house and on the next day he was baptized in the school chapel.

He contracted yellow fever just as his son had in 1817 and died shortly afterward. He was buried in the Protestant Section of Saint Louis Cemetery in New Orleans, where a memorial plaque was placed by Ferdinand Claiborne Latrobe III, John Henry Boneval Latrobe, Virginia Latrobe Ruebensaal and Ellen Latrobe Wilson in 1984. This is the same cemetery where his son had been buried in 1817.1561
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One of the speakers at the re dedication of the Baltimore Basilica in Nov 2006 was Alan M. Hantman, who held the office of “Architect of the U.S. Capitol.” Mr. Hantman said of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, and of his stunning Basilica achievement: “This building ranks first among his works of ecclesiastical architecture. It’s grace, it’s beauty are all the more remarkable when you consider it was designed at the same time he was fully engaged with his work at the United States Capitol.”

Benjamin and his maternal grandfather are the only grandfather/grandson, in the history of the United States, to have buildings they designed registered as National Historic Landmarks.1196
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Latrobe Park, a small recreational area at the uptown end of the French Market, honors Benjamin Latrobe, designer of the city’s first waterworks. A modern fountain evoking a waterworks marks the spot where Latrobe’s steam-powered pumps once stood. Sunken seating, fountains, and greenery make this a lovely place to relax with a drink from one of the nearby kiosks. Decatur St., French Quarter.1562
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Benjamin Latrobe’s portrait is seen hanging in the map room of the White House in an official White House photo of President Barack Obama’s reswearing in ceremony with Chief Justice John Roberts on 21 January 2009.1563
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No grave exists for Latrobe. His great granddaughter searched nearly her whole life for a grave. She believed at last she found one in records of an old cemetery. It was abandoned and in the 1960's leveled to make way for public housing. The cemetery could have been the site of a common lye pit used for disposal of yellow fever victims in 1920. Benjamin Latrobe was disposed of by this method upon his death having died of Yellow Fever.52

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[Benjamin] passed three years at the University of Leipsic, one of the leading Universities of Europe. He subsequently studied architecture and civil engineering and was appointed Surveyor of public build ings in London. He was offered the office of Surveyor to the Crown, with a salary of £1,000 per annum; but the death of his wife and his desire to cast his lot in a new country led him to decline this offer, and ... we find him in Norfolk, Va.

He left Norfolk and went to Richmond, in order to investigate the James River navigation. During his stay in Virginia he made several surveys for the Dismal Swamp Company. He visited President Washington at Mount Vernon. Like his son, John H. B. Latrobe, he was a great admirer of beauty, and his tribute to Miss Custis shows his high appreciation of that lady's good looks. He writes as follows:

"Miss Eleanor Custis, the only one of four sisters who is unmarried, has more perfection of form, of expression, of color, of softness, and of firmness of mind than I have ever seen before, or conceived consistent with mortality."

While in Virginia, he designed the penitentiary, reported on the Appomattox and James Rivers and designed a number of houses in Richmond. He left Virginia in 1798 to live in Philadelphia. There he was employed to build the Bank of Philadelphia; and he also superintended the introduction of the water supply into the city. The Bank of Philadelphia is the work most strongly relied upon to establish Mr. Latrobe's reputation as an architect of high merit. The compliment which he treasured most.

It was in Philadelphia that he met the lady he made his second wife, Mary Elizabeth Hazlehurst, daughter of Isaac Hazlehurst who was the partner in business of Robert Morris, the great financier of the American Revolution. He made his residence in Philadelphia until the year 1807.

He was engaged in 1803 in making a survey and route of a canal to connect the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. He had reported it as feasible in 1799. He was then called to Washington by President Jefferson and employed to complete the Capitol, commenced under the administration of General Washington.

Mr. Latrobe moved among the best people of the day. He was a highly educated man; had command of several languages; was a naturalist of considerable reputation, and, like his son, was a man of many accomplishments.

In a letter written by his son John H. B. Latrobe to his cousin, John Frederick Bateman a description of Benjamin is contained.

"8 June, 1870.

"My dear Cousin

"I have forwarded to your London address a copy which I made of Reinhart Peak's very poor portrait of my father, the only merit of my work being that it is pretty nearly a facsimile.

"My father was 6 feet 2 inches, of erect and military carriage. In repose his face was almost dull. In conversation it was all animated, and his listeners thought him handsome. His hair was very dark, with a slight wavy curl. He spoke most living languages German, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian with fluency, and understood most dead ones, Greek and Latin thoroughly, and knew a good deal of Hebrew; was a clever poet and an accomplished musician."1564
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Latrobe took charge of the building of the [U.S.] Capitol in 1803. He was furnished with a copy of the plan, which was perfectly useless. There were no details whatever, and in the Superintendent's office no drawings existed.

In the United States at this time the functions of an architect were little understood; very little attention was given to the construction or designs of buildings. Mr. Latrobe found himself much harassed by adverse criticism made by persons absolutely ignorant of the duties of his position. In the debates in Congress he was designated as a contractor. He says in one of his letters that he wished that he had been a contractor, then he could have put money in his pocket; for the result of the performance of his duties for the magnificent sum of $1,700.00 per annum had left him poorer than when he undertook the work. This compensation was subsequently increased to $3500.00 per annum.

Mr. Latrobe, while engaged in this work, invented what has been termed a new order of architecture, namely, designs applied to the capital of a column, repre senting corn in one instance and the tobacco plant in the other, which evoked much favorable comment. Mr. Latrobe, in his correspondence with Mr. Jefferson, describes these columns. As an appreciation of their beauty, Mr. Jefferson had several small columns of similar design placed in the portico at [his home] Monticello.

The capital representing corn was introduced in the reconstruction of the Capitol after the fire in the North Wing. This reconstruction was superintended by Mr. Latrobe in 1815 to 1817. The tobacco columns are found in the corridor arcade, North Wing. Mr. Latrobe, in a letter to Mr. Jefferson hi 1809, refers to the capitals representing "Indian Corn", saying that the Congressmen spoke of them as "corn-cob capitals."1565
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The only record of this period [1803-1818] consists of notes made by Mr. Latrobe [John H. B., Benjamin’s son] late in life. His father's [Benjamin] occupation required him to move from place to place. He took up his abode in Washington in 1807, and the house which he first occupied was known as the "Navy House." It was not very far from the Navy Yard.

Subsequently, in 1811, he moved to a house on the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue, about half way between the Capitol and the President's house and ... nearly opposite the house occupied by Paul Hamilton, Secretary of the Navy. The family ... took an active part in society. Mr. Jefferson, the leading members of the Cabinet, and, later, Mr. Madison, were very intimate friends of theirs. They seem to have lived in some style, as they speak of their coach and coachman.

Among other visitors at the house were Mr. and Mrs. Barlow.§ On the eve of their departure they went with my father and mother to Bladensburg, [MD] then a favorite afternoon drive from the City, where there was a spa or mineral spring which was the attraction of the place. It bubbled from the eastern branch of the Potomac, a very small spring shaded by some fine old trees.1566
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Benjamin H. Latrobe had made a contract in 1811 with the city of New Orleans for a water supply. Under the terms of this contract he was to have the right to supply water for twenty years from May 1813, at which time it was presumed the work would be finished, but the war of 1812 interfered with and destroyed all chance of completing the work at that date.

The machinery was built in Washington. It was loaded and shipped to New Orleans. The vessel on board of which it had been shipped was cap tured by the British, which resulted in a great loss to those engaged in the enterprise. It was about this time that the Capitol was partially burned by the British.

Mr. Latrobe removed to Pittsburg in 1812, for the purpose of constructing the machinery which was to be used in the New Orleans water works and which was to be shipped by water to that place. In Pittsburg Mr. Latrobe also constructed a steamer to be used upon the Mississippi River. It is interesting to note that the works, at which Mr. Latrobe built his machinery and his steamboat, are now occupied [1917] as the depot of the Pittsburg and Connellsville Railroad, a Railroad built under the supervision of his son Benjamin as Engineer.

The steamboat built by Mr. Latrobe was the fourth one to be used on the waters of the Mississippi. Chancellor Livingston and Nicholas Roosevelt were interested in the navigation of the Mississippi. The steamboat enterprise being unsuccessful, Mr. Latrobe was very much harassed financially and otherwise and, for he first time in his very active life, appears to have become keenly discouraged.

In 1815, however, he was reappointed the surveyor of Public Buildings of the United States. He returned to Washington to superintend the reconstruction or completion of the Capitol, and he lived in Washington until 1817.

His eldest son, Henry, who was superintending the works at New Orleans, died in 1817 of yellow fever. Mr. Latrobe's interests required him to visit New Orleans from time to time. In 1817 or 1818 he moved to Baltimore with his family. He designed the "Exchange" and the "Cathedral," which latter was under roof in 1818.

General Robert Goodloe Harper was a great friend of his, and during a part of this tune he stayed with him at his house. His interests in New Orleans required him to move to New Orleans, so that in 1820 he took up his residence there with his family. The elder Latrobe died in September of yellow fever at New Orleans.1567
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My father's relations with the authorities in connection with the public buildings in Washington were not agreeable. He was proud, high spirited and a sensitive man, and it was still the day when an architect was regarded as some what of a boss carpenter, on a larger scale.

Under Mr. Madison 's administration, the architect had absolute control. The expenditure of money appropriated by Congress for the building was under his charge; and it used to be my father 's boast that of the enormous sums he had disbursed every cent had been accounted for.

On his return from Pittsburgh he found the system changed. There was a commissioner who had charge and had certain authority, and somehow or other misunderstandings arose that culminated in my father's sending his resignation to Mr. Monroe. Of course there are two sides to this as to every other story, and I do not venture to tell my father's here, because it might affect parties now alive. Suffice it to say that my father ceased to be architect of the Capitol in the early part of 1817.1568
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Mr. [Francis Scott] Key [composer of the Star Spangled Banner] was a friend of my father, and his counsel too. I remember him well. In after life, as a man grown, I saw him often when we were both actively engaged in Coloniza tion. He was of the middle size, was very spare with a slight stoop. His features were aquiline, his eyes deep set, and his face thin and seamed. He spoke quickly and with energy, and no one ever conversed with him without recognizing his ability. He was a gentleman every inch of him, in the best sense of the term.1569
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An event of my West Point life was a visit which my father paid me, bringing with him my brother Ben. They remained a day or two, during which my father, with his wonderful conversational powers, popularized himself with the Professors and those of my friends who were introduced to him.

It was in the fall of 1820 that my father died. After the death of my eldest brother there had been no one to take his place, and being detained no longer by his employment at Washington, while I was at West Point, had gone to New Orleans to attend to his interest there.

He had survived a yellow fever season, during which he had had the disease, and, fancying himself fever proof, had taken my mother, brother and sister there, intending to remain until the water works were completed.

The year 1820 was a year of great fatality, and among other and numerous victims was my father, who was carried off in the month of September of that year. As soon as possible my mother, with Ben and Julia, returned to Baltimore and took a house in Lexington Street, on the Southside, not far from Pine.

With my father died, however, forever all prospects of realizing a dollar from the New Orleans contract, and the family was once more reduced to very narrow straits indeed. Some small sum that had been realized in New Orleans, my father's library, and some woodland that my mother had in New Jersey, were all she had to live upon.1570
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A Chronology of Events in the Life of Benjamin Henry Latrobe

1 May 1764 - Benjamin Henry Latrobe is born in Fulneck, Yorkshire, England

13 June 1767 - Begins school in Yorkshire, England

October 1776 - Leaves England to study in France and Italy

Summer 1784 - Returns to England

27 February 1790 - Benjamin marries first wife Lydia Sellon

23 March 1791 - First child Lydia S. Latrobe is born.

1792 - Designs and builds Hammerwood Park in Sussex, England

1792 - Opens his own architectural office in London

1792 - Appointed Surveyor of the Public Offices in London.

19 July 1793 - Second child Henry S. Latrobe is born.

November 1793 - First wife Lydia Sellon dies while giving birth to their third child.

1793 - Designs and builds Ashburn House in Berkshire, England.

26 November 1795 - Leaves England for America on the Eliza.

[Note: This source indicates Latrobe sailed for America, embarking on Christmas Day, 17951571]

17 March 1796 - Arrives in Norfolk, Virginia.

March 1796 - Designs his first American house, the William Pennock House in Norfolk.

3 April 1796 - Leaves Norfolk and arrives in Richmond, Virginia.

1796-1797 - Appointed as an engineer for navigation companies.

1797 - Commissioned by Virginia Governor James Wood to build the Virginia State Penitentiary.

1798 - Completes his designs for the Richmond Theatre.

December 1798 - Leaves Richmond and arrives in Philadelphia.

1798 - Appointed as the architect for the Bank of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

1799 - Designs Sedgley, a Gothic villa in Philadelphia.

26 January 1800 - Completes his designs for the National Military Academy.

1 May 1800 - Benjamin marries second wife Mary Hazlehurst.

1800 - Designs the Mausuleum/Mational Monument honoring George Washington.

June 1801 - Fourth child Juliana is born.

7 August 1801 - Fourth child Juliana dies as an infant.

August - September 1801 - Appointed commissioner, engineer, and contractor of the Susquehanna River Survey.

4 October 1802 - Loses the competition for the design of New York City Hall.

November 1802 - Invited by President Thomas Jefferson to design the covered dry-docks at the Washington Navy Yard.

6 March 1803 - Appointed Surveyor of Public Buildings of the United States by President Thomas Jefferson.

4 May 1803 - Fifth child John H. Latrobe is born.

25 January 1804 - Appointed Engineer for the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company.

17 July 1804 - Sixth child Julia E. Latrobe is born.

1805 - Completes a proposal for the wings between the President’s House and the Federal office buildings.

5 November 1805 - Seventh child Mary Agnes Latrobe is born.

9 March 1806 - Seventh child Mary Agnes Latrobe dies as an infant.

19 December 1806 - Eighth child Benjamin H. Latrobe is born.

1807 - Moves to Washington, D.C. first occupying the “Navy House” not far from the Navy Yard.1566

1808 - Ninth child Louise is born and dies at birth.

24 January 1810 - Appointed Engineer for the second Washington Canal.

6 June 1810 - Appointed Commissioner for the Columbia Turnpikes in the District of Columbia.

1811 - Moves to a house on Pennsylvania Avenue about half-way between the Capitol and the White House.1566

1811 - Makes a contract with the city of New Orleans for a water supply.1572

1812 - Position as Surveyor of Public Buildings is abolished by Congress due to the expenses of the War of 1812.

1812|1813- Moves the family to Pittsburg, PA for constructing the machinery which was to be used in the New Orleans water works and the construction of a steamer to be used upon the Mississippi River.1572

January 1814 - Completes preliminary designs for the John Peter Van Ness House in Washington.

18 April 1815 - Contracted to rebuild the burned U.S. Capitol Building, moves back to Washington, D.C. The new “Speaks” house is on “the range of hills to the north that overlook the city.1573

Jine 1815 -Sons John H. B. and Benjamin are placed at Georgetown College as boarders.1574

1815 - Designs St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington located across the street from the White House. Benjamin and his wife would attend church there.1575

1816-1820 - Designs and builds the Baltimore Exchange and Customs House.

March 1817 - Is living in Baltimore where he rented a house on the southside of Lexington Street, near Liberty, and opened his office as an architect. Two projects were underway; the Roman Catholic Cathedral and the Baltimore Exchange.1576

20 November 1817 - Resigns as architect of the U.S. Capitol Building.1577

December 1817 - Son John H. B. latrobe is appointed a cadet at West Point.1571

1817 - Begins designing the Stephen Decatur‡ House in Washington.

3 September 1817 - Second child Henry S. Latrobe dies of Yellow Fever while working on the New Orleans Waterworks project.

January 1818 - Moves to Baltimore, Maryland.

28 September 1818 - Son John H. B. Latrobe enters West Point at 15 years and 5 months old.1578

4 October 1818 - Completes the masonry work on the principal dome of the Baltimore Cathedral.

10 January 1819 - Leaves Baltimore and arrives in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1819 - Begins work on the New Orleans Waterworks project in which his son Henry had been working when he died late the year before.

3 September 1820 - Benjamin Henry Latrobe dies of Yellow Fever while working on the New Orleans Waterworks project.1579


*The Edict of Nantes, issued on April 13, 1598, by Henry IV of France, granted the Calvinistic Protestants of France (also known as Huguenots) substantial rights in a nation still considered essentially Catholic. The main concern was civil unity, and the Edict separated civil from religious unity, treated such Protestants for the first time as more than schismatics and heretics, and opened a path for secularism and tolerance.

In October 1685 Louis XIV, the grandson of Henry IV, renounced the Edict and declared Protestantism illegal with the Edict of Fontainebleau. This act, commonly called the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, had very damaging results for France. While the wars of religion did not re-ignite, as many as 400,000 Protestants chose to leave France, most moving to Great Britain, Prussia, the Dutch Republic, Switzerland and the new French colonies in North America.1580


†Benjamin was offered the office of Surveyor to the Crown, with a salary of £1,000 per annum; but the death of his wife and his desire to cast his lot in a new country led him to decline the offer.1581

‡Commodore Stephen Decatur, Jr. (5 January 1779 – 22 March 1820) was an American naval officer notable for his heroism in the Barbary wars and in the War of 1812. He was the youngest man to reach the rank of captain in the history of the United States Navy, and the first American celebrated as a national military hero who had not played a role in the American Revolution.

The Decatur House, prominently located across Lafayette Square from the White House is is one of the oldest surviving homes in Washington, D.C. The Federal Style house is one of only three remaining houses in the country designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe.

Decatur was killed on 20 March 1820 when two of the highest-ranking officers in the United States Navy faced off against each other: Decatur and Commodore James Barron. After harboring ill-will toward one another for years, the two chose the [Bladensburg, MD] dueling grounds as the field of honor for settling their differences. Both men were struck by their opponent's first shot. Barron, though seriously injured, would recover, but Stephen Decatur, one of America's greatest naval heroes, was mortally wounded and died two days later.

After Decatur’s death his home was successively home to Henry Clay, Martin Van Buren and Judah P. Benjamin, who collectively made Decatur House the unofficial residence of the Secretary of State from 1827 to 1833, each renting the house while they served in that post.

The house was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1976.841,1582

NOTE: Latrobe died less than six months after Decatur. The Bladensburg dueling grounds were located a short distance from my boyhood home.3

§Joel Barlow (1754-1812) American Poet, diplomat and politician. Minister of the United States to France, 1811-1812.313,1583
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Note: The previously mentioned Robert Morris was an American merchant and a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution. He was a major financier of the American Revolution. Morris is given credit for the critical role he played in America’s triumph in arms and in the founding of the national government.461,462