Chapter Nine: The Case for the Ingenious A
Table of Contents Rewriting this chapter Chapter Nine: The Case for the Ingenious A 116. Law's 1800 house became the fulcrum of the New Varnum Hotel Today, Thornton is a celebrated architect and his fame is not based solely on his Capitol design. Posthumously, Thornton had a stroke of luck. Historians credit him for designing houses built by John Tayloe III, General Washington and Thomas Law. Thornton never claimed that he designed those houses. No contemporary credited him for designing them. But no one else was credited for designing them. After Law's house was finished and Tayloe's walls were raise, William Lovering advertised that he would share "specimens of buildings" that would fit into lots facing an intersection with streets at an acute angle. However, attributing their design to Thornton serves the agenda of posterity. As a 1925 New York Times' headline attested, legendary houses have a way have getting attached to legendary architects: “Octag...