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and as superintendent of construction of the Capitol. Latrobe brought architectural expertise as well as experience on the design and construction of several major projects in Virginia and Philadelphia. In addition to his responsibilities as architect, Latrobe’s duties included the coordination of the design of the building with the multitude of paintings, sculpture, and artifacts that would be displayed at the Capitol. Latrobe embarked on an exhaustive inspection of the completed portions of the Capitol building and, within a year of his appointment, reported a number of significant design problems and the generally poor quality of the existing construction. As a result, part of the work completed under the supervision of Hoban was dismantled. In August 1805, nearly twelve years after the start of construction, Latrobe recommended the interior of the Senate wing be demolished (“compleatly gutted” he wrote) and rebuilt.

During this period the program for the Capitol expanded many times; one example is the addition of the Library of Congress. The project was star-crossed: in 1808, John Lenthall, Latrobe’s Clerk of the Works, was killed when a section of an arch in the Supreme Court collapsed. And, in June 1812, construction ground to a halt due to failure of the First Bank of the United States and the outbreak of hostilities with Great Britain.

Yet that was not the worst. In August 1814, British troops under the command of Major General Robert Ross burned the public buildings of Washington, DC, including the unfinished Capitol. Heavy rains from a hurricane quenched the flames but damage to the building was extensive. Nearly twenty-one years after Washington presided at the ceremony to mark the laying of the cornerstone, the unfinished U.S. Capitol was reduced to a few fire-scarred exterior walls.

Image 01_Freedom Triumphant, Thomas Crawford,