Conclusion

The conclusion covers the life of Latrobe’s widow and children after his death. On the advice of Latrobe’s friend Robert Harper the family settled in Baltimore, where Harper could serve as a surrogate father, giving advice and financial support. In this city, Latrobe’s sons John and Ben became civic leaders, while unmarried Julie stayed at home with her mother. Both sons worked in different capacities with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad; both contributed to the community. The chapter ends with a brief summary of Latrobe’s contributions to the early republic. Benjamin Latrobe left professional legacies, principally his architecture such as the US Capitol, the Bank of Pennsylvania, the Baltimore Basilica, and the Merchants Exchange. His design for nearly seventy private homes established a more rational model for American domestic arrangements. He had adapted the classical style known in Europe to the climate, habits, and political ideals of his new homeland. Latrobe’s buildings and his engineering projects affected every aspect of life in the early republic—its worship, governance, communication, education, and domesticity.

Final Beginnings

Chapter 6 covers the last three years of Latrobe’s life. After being released from debtor’s prison, he moved to Baltimore. There he completed two major works—the Catholic Basilica and the Merchants Exchange, the latter the cause of a bitter conflict with another expatriate, fellow architect Maximilian Godefroy. Again lacking sufficient commissions, he moved to New Orleans to complete the municipal waterworks that he expected would make him rich. He died of yellow fever before its completion. His wife Mary discovered that Latrobe had put all his available money into the unfinished waterworks, leaving her and the children destitute. Their son John, in his final year at West Point, left school to support his family

Breaking Points

Chapter 5 covers Latrobe’s efforts to make money after he lost his job as surveyor of public buildings in Washington. In order to do so, he moved to Pittsburgh and, financed by Robert Fulton, he intended to build a commercial boat powered by steam. But this relationship ended when Fulton cut off his credit. After his return to Washington, Latrobe began rebuilding the Capitol, which had been largely destroyed by the British during the War of 1812. Soon, however, with his expenditures for the building receiving harsh criticism, Latrobe quarrelled with the commissioner of public buildings, resigned, and without any salary was forced to declare bankruptcy.

Beloved Mary and the Little Folks

Chapter 4 covers Latrobe’s home life with his wife and five children; for Latrobe, children removed “the mortification of selflove” and provided solace and recreation from a turbulent professional world. The chapter also explores his interest and ideas about education including that of his own children. He thought that a newly ordered political society without a king or established hierarchy demanded a curriculum with emphasis placed on practical studies in the areas of mathematics, physics, writing, science, and even modern languages. Such schooling should prepare students for the financial arrangements of professions, as he believed his Moravian education had not. Additionally, the chapter discusses his daughter Lydia’s marriage, his chronic “hemicranias,” his growing debt, and his son Henry’s placage arrangement in New Orleans with a mixed-race woman.

This New American

Chapter 2 begins with Latrobe’s emigration to the United States in 1796 and includes his exciting journey on the Eliza. He spent three and a half years in Virginia. After only a few months in Norfolk he moved to Richmond, the capital. There, he met Bushrod Washington, the president’s nephew, who introduced him to George Washington and arranged a visit to Mount Vernon. Socially, Latrobe benefited from his membership in the Freemasons, a connection that helped him in business as well. However, he continued to chafe against the common belief that an architect was an unnecessary expense, with most buildings requiring only skilled carpenters. Seeking more opportunities as an architect, Latrobe moved to Philadelphia. Here he built the Bank of Pennsylvania, a structure that brought him recognition, and the Philadelphia water supply system, a project that was hampered by his inability to match his artistic vision with financial reality. In Philadelphia, Latrobe met and married Mary Elizabeth Hazlehurst: a wife whom he adored, a woman who treated her stepchildren as if they were hers, a physical and intellectual partner who created the nurturing and intimate family he had never known.

Itching Ears

Chapter 1 covers Latrobe’s early life from his birth in 1764 in a Moravian community, his rebellion against the church, and his expulsion from a seminary in Barby, Germany. It describes his thirteen years in London where he studied architecture and engineering and set up his own practice. Latrobe achieved success as an architect in London, but amid the successes there were disturbing signs of his inability to manage his financial affairs, especially when the city experienced an economic downturn. He continually complained that his Moravian background had sheltered him from negotiating the realities of finance. The chapter also describes his marriage and the devastating death of his wife and third child. Suffering from this loss and forced into bankruptcy, Latrobe made the decision to emigrate to the United States.

Introduction

This introduction presents Benjamin Latrobe as a rebel who left the Moravian Church and remade himself as an architect and engineer in the United States. It emphasizes his rapid ascension as an architect and engineer in the new republic as well as his very American penchant for speculation. The themes in this short introduction are his constant moving, his chronic debt, and his commitment to buildings that expressed American exceptionalism and connected the United States to the admired republics of ancient Greece and Rome. The introduction also previews the themes of the book: his life spent in motion, his chronic debilitating headaches along with his optimism and resilience, and his family as a sanctuary. It establishes the six cities he lived in as important background for his struggles and discusses the monumental National Endowment for the Humanities project that published his letters and drawings.

Capital Projects

Chapter 3 covers Latrobe in early Washington, DC, his appointment as surveyor of public buildings, his relationship with Thomas Jefferson, and most importantly, his work on the US Capitol. Latrobe agreed to take over the poorly designed and unfinished Capitol building. During this time, President Jefferson’s practical requirements and artistic preferences collided with Latrobe’s sometimes excessive, expensive perfectionism and his commitment to Greek, not Roman, precedents. These differences in outlook tested but never destroyed their mutual respect because both men agreed on the larger enterprise of creating a heroic structure that would be a focal point of the nation. Throughout, there were constant battles with the budget and Congress. Later, Latrobe’s plans for a Washington Canal and better roads to connect the nation were admired—but never funded—by a fiscally reluctant Congress.