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Table of Contents: Case of the Ingenious A

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"Dr. T-" Examined and the Case of the "Ingenious A" "Saturday, Feby 1st a fine day. The ground covered with the deepest snow we have ever seen here (in 5 yrs.) - river frozen over. Dr. T- engaged in drawing at his plan for a House to build one day or another on Sq. 171."     Or Why William Thornton Didn't Design the Octagon House and Isn't the "First Architect of the Capitol"    By Bob Arnebeck author of Through a Fiery Trial: Building Washington 1790-1800 and Slave Labor in Capitol: Building Washington's Iconic Federal Landmarks Introduction:  How Glenn Brown, an architect of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, helped his own career by making William Thornton the most famous American architect of the 18th century.  Chapter One:   A Tale of Two Properties (1755 to 1786) Lancaster, Tortola and a Scientific Education - The roots of Thornton's wealth, his Quaker education, medical degree and mentors  Chapter Two:   Going ...
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Chapter Ten: The General's House and Plots to Save Dr. T's Reputation

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  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...
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Chapter 13: On those Healthy Hills Near Panama

Table of Contents  I am rewriting this chapter   On those Healthy Hills Near Panama “The weather was very cold, and [the corpse] remained in a frozen state, for several days. I proposed to attempt his resurrection, in the following manner. First to thaw him in cold water, then to lay him in blankets, and by degrees and by friction to give him warmth, and to put into activity the minute blood vessels, at the same time to open a passage to the lungs by the trachea, and to inflate them with air, to produce an artificial respiration, and to transfuse blood into him from a lamb..."1 But, he was "not seconded." What Thornton wrote sometime after 1802 is not true. The General’s corpse was not frozen and Thornton urged its burial to keep it from stinking.2 The most complete description of the death and immediate aftermath was written by Tobias Lear as soon as he had time to do so. Thornton got to Mount Vernon with the Laws a day late. There were already three doctors on the scen...
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