Chapter Nine: The Case of the Ingenious A
Chapter Nine: The Case of the Ingenious A 116. Law's 1800 house became the fulcrum of the New Varnum Hotel Historians credit Thornton for designing the houses built by Thomas Law, General Washington and John Tayloe for which ground was broken in 1799. Thornton never claimed that he designed those houses. No contemporary credited him for designing those houses. But no one else claimed credit or was credited for designing those houses. Attributing them to Thornton serves the agenda of posterity. Legendary houses have a way have getting attached to legendary architects. Schools of architecture form around the great personalities and that shapes the future. But, so the story goes, a presidential call to another duty stunted Thornton’s career as an architect. Save for drawing a plan for Tudor Place in Georgetown in 1808 and for the university of Virginia in 1817, from 1802 to 1828 Thornton headed the Patent Office and supposedly fostered the mechanical genius of his countrymen. Thorn...