William Thornton Re-examined by Bob Arnebeck

  Chapter 10: The General’s Houses and Plots to Save Dr. T’s Reputation  Plaque in Upper Senate Park A plaque in Upper Senate Park just north of the Capitol credits Dr. William Thornton for designing George Washington’s “two brick dwellings.” Glenn Brown based that claim and that Thornton superintended their construction on "the letters of Washington." Brown didn't quote or cite any letters. A hundred years late, C. M. Harris did. In August 1798, Thornton gave a "plan" to Thomas Peter who, on August 26, then passed it on to the General who sent it back to Peter the next day with only this comment: "Doctr Thorntons plan is returned with thanks; our love to Patsy." She was the Custis sister who married Peter who was the son of Robert Peter who had owned Peter’s Hill when the General had bought lots there. Harris and the editors of Washington's Papers have deduced that the plan in question was a design for the General’s houses. However, the...

Table of Contents  I am rewriting this chapter    Epilogue: John Quincy Adams' Diary As soon as he had time after the funeral, Tobias Lear wrote a detailed account of the death of the General which proves that what Thornton would write years later was a complete fabrication.  On his death bed, the General had requested that he not be entombed for two days on the odd chance that he wasn't really dead. On the day after his death,  the attending physician and Dr. Thornton vetoed Lear’s suggestion that funeral services be delayed to permit more relatives to attend. They objected because the inflammatory nature of the General's fatal case of croup that stopped his breathing made the corpse susceptible to decay. The funeral had to be held as soon as possible, and he was entombed four days after his death.   Thornton wrote a brief memoir crafted as a medical letter but evidently never sent, and put in the same file as his never submitted dissertation “On...

Table of contents The General Dies and Jefferson Resurrects the Ideas of Dr. Thornton  The North Wing in 1800 As the city came to life with the arrival of the federal government in 1800, Thornton’s reputation as an architect depended solely on the Capitol. He might have been proud that Carroll’s two houses were bigger than the General’s two houses. But when Carroll tried to sell them in 1801, the advertisement described them as “finished in a plain but substantial manner, and built of the best materials...."(1) Despite being one of the commissioners, Thornton was unable to associate his name with the design of the North Wing. On November 18, 1799, Superintendent Hoban handed the commissioners the report that proved that the building was ready to receive congress. The commissioners added  his reports on the other public buildings  and sent them all to Philadelphia where they were printed and submitted to congress along with President Adams' annual message to congress. On ...