Chapter Ten: The General's House and Plots to Save Dr. T's Reputation

 

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 plan in question was most likely touched on the National University to be sited on Peter’s Hill. In January 1796, Thornton had told White that he was working on a "plan" for the National University and would pass it around to friends for comment. In his October 1797 letter to Dr. Fell, he had mentioned that General Washington asked him for a plan "on a general system of education.... I have begun a piece on the subject, which I hope to mature and finally publish, but the multifarious business I have on hand prevents me from finishing several papers."(1) Why would the General return a house plan to Peter the next day if he thought he might copy that plan for the houses he was thinking of building? He had good reason to immediately return a plan for the National University. Congress had tabled the memorial urging its creation. That setback was arguably the major embarrassment the General endured while he was president.

When the General decided to build the houses, he asked Commissioner White, not Thornton for help. He asked White to send him the prices of available lots on Capitol Hill. On September 6, 1798, White went with the board's surveyor to identify lots, had a map made, checked with his colleagues about prices and reported to the General on the 8th. On September 12, the General wrote back to White, chose the lot he preferred, worried about the price, asked questions about another lot and revealed his project:

As I never require much time to execute any measure after I have resolved upon it; if an Undertaker could be engaged in the City, or its vicinity, to dig the Cellars, & lay the foundation; and the Commissioners would do me the favour to enter into a contract therefor, to the basement story, I could wish it to be set about and executed this fall (and the earlier the better). Any engagement they shall enter into on my behalf, shall be most religiously complied with. If an advance of money to carry on the work is required it may be engaged; and as two houses joined, & carried on together, will look better, & come cheaper than building them seperately or at different times, I have determined to commence two and if I can procure the means, complete both in the course of next summer. 

As I never require much time to execute any measure after I have resolved upon it; if an Undertaker could be engaged in the City, or its vicinity, to dig the Cellars, & lay the foundation; and the Commissioners would do me the favour to enter into a contract therefor, to the basement story, I could wish it to be set about and executed this fall (and the earlier the better). Any engagement they shall enter into on my behalf, shall be most religiously complied with. If an advance of money to carry on the work is required it may be engaged; and as two houses joined, & carried on together, will look better, & come cheaper than building them seperately or at different times, I have determined to commence two and if I can procure the means, complete both in the course of next summer.

I am not skilled in Architecture, and perhaps know as little of planning, but as the houses I mean to build will be plain, and (if placed on lot 16 in sqr. 634) will be adapted to the front of the lot, leaving allies, or entries to the back buildings, I enclose a sketch, to convey my ideas of the size of the houses, rooms, & manner of building them; to enable you to enter into the Contract.

This sketch exhibits a view of the ground floor; the second, & third, if the Walls should be run up three (flush) stories, will be the same; and the Cellars may have a partition in them at the Chimnies—My plan when it comes to be examined, may be radically wrong; if so, I persuade myself that Doctr Thornton (who understands these matters well) will have the goodness to suggest alterations.

I shall make no apology for soliciting this favor of the Commissioners. To promote buildings is desirable; it is an object, under present circumstances, of the first importance to the City. If then they can comply with it conveniently, I persuade myself they will do so; if they cannot, it would be unreasonable in me to ask it, and I wave the request accordingly. (2)

The General's floor plan

The General's parenthetical comment has been taken as a token of his respect for Thornton. But read in the context of the letter, the comment only puts Thornton in his place. The General was giddy with the freedom to build what he wanted and in the way he wanted. He wanted a plain house with foundation and basement done immediately to spread the expense. He did need the commissioners to find, not an architect, but simply an undertaker who would get the job done, "(and the earlier the better)." While he never blamed Thornton specifically, he did fault design changes for delays in building the Capitol. That made clear to White that this project would not wait for dissents to be filed. Then why did he mention Thornton at all? The General enjoyed the traveling English actors who brought tragedy and farce to provincial stages. Farces abound in asides. They are the one liners that double the laughter. White likely got the joke. He had to endure Thornton's pouting about a 50 foot high modallion. His latest was objecting to the board getting around their inability to find mahogany to make doors by giving pine doors a mahogany finish. Thornton insisted that "mahogany is recommended by the best writers in architecture." If the General really wanted Thornton to examine the plan why did he write to White? The general wanted a contractor to examine the plan and fill in the blanks, so to speak, as economically as possible. As it turned out, White immediately gave the floor plan to Thornton. Because his wife refused to move to the city, the president had excused White from having to move to the city. When in the city, he likely stayed in Hoban's Little Hotel near the commissioners' office. Letting contractors examine the General's plan in the commissioners' office would be unseemly. Thornton and his ladies lived near by. There was no better place to leave the General's plan.(3)

Alone with the plan, Thornton did not "suggest alterations." If he saw the General's letter to White, which he likely did given that it explained the General’s intentions, Thornton never revealed his reaction to it. However, it took Thornton only nine days to come up with a way to compensate for the General using White by forcing his colleagues to recognize his talents as an architect. That he had never been fully awarded for winning the Capitol design contest gave him the opportunity. On April 5, 1793, when the old board notified Thornton that the president had "given his formal approbation of your plan," they asked him to "be pleased to grant powers or put the business in a way of being closed on the acknowledgments your success entitles you." According to the prospectus, the winner had to choose between a medal worth $500 or $500, and arrange to be awarded a lot "designated by impartial judges." Thornton took the money and did nothing vis-a-vis the lot. On September 21, 1798, the General chose two lots, one owned by the public and the other by Daniel Carroll of Duddington. He paid $535.70 for the public lot. On the same day, Thornton handed a letter to his colleagues asking that the board finally award him the prize lot. 

He couched his letter to his colleagues in a way that made it seem that he was getting his due for making sure the North Wing conformed to his original design. To do that, he had to imply that the changes Hallet made to the design in July 1793 made his being awarded a lot problematical. So he wrote to the board that  

I have been prevented by motives of delicacy from requesting your attention to a claim which I have from my drawings for the capitol of the United States being approved by the late President of the United States and the commissioners, our predecessors, which plan, though deviated in some respects, I restored and accommodated to my original ideas, and furnished correspondent elevations and sections for the same, which have thus far been carried into execution, and as no material change is now contemplated it is presumed the whole will be completed upon the plan now adopted…. The plan was decided in the year 1793, at which time a very extensive selection of valuable lots gave a great advantage over the present moment; and the numerous sales which are daily making will so far continue to lessen the choice, that I should do myself evident injustice were I to delay any longer a request that you would be pleased to appoint any gentleman you think proper to make a choice of lot for you…..(12)

Scott and White chose Thomas Law and Notley Young, two advocates for the East side of the city, and on October 1, 1798, they awarded Thornton a lot next to the General's.       

With the stone work largely completed on the Capitol, George Blagden partnered with the English carpenter John Lentrall and solicited building contracts. The commissioners recommended Blagden and the General asked the board draw up a contract with Blagden and use their knowledge of suppliers and subcontractors to make sure he wasn't being cheated. Presumably, Blagden or Lenthall drew floor plans based on the General's sketch. The contract would note that that the work would be done agreeably to the ground-plan, Elevation, & the Specification of the particular parts of the said Buildings hereto annexed, signed by the said George Blagdin. Before the contract was signed, the General bristled at Blagden's $12,982.29 estimate of the cost of the houses. He knew that Law had contracted to build a house, "not much if any less than my two," for under $6,000. He had calculated that his houses would cost $8,000, or $10,000 at most. So, he decided "to suspend any final decision until I see Mr Blagdens estimate in detail, with your observations thereupon; and what part of the work I can execute with my own Tradesmen, thereby reducing the advances." In their reply, signed by Thornton, the commissioners admitted that they were not "able to say whether the Estimate on that subject is reasonable or not.... Hoban is confined by indisposition, or we would have taken his opinion on Mr Blagdin’s Estimate."(4) Thornton seemed as clueless as his colleagues and obviously had not designed the General or Law's houses. 

Then thanks to a letter, now lost, that Thornton wrote to the General on October 16, he won the General’s confidence. In his reply the General thanked him "for the details - as I shall do on similar future occasions." He had just sent a letter to the commissioners that marked out his strategy to lower the contract price. He would "take the Painting, Glazing and Iron mongery to myself." What Thornton suggested prompted him to decide to take on all the carpentry, using his own "people," and, as Thornton suggested, order lumber himself from the commissioners' new supplier on the Eastern shore of Maryland, and have it delivered directly to Mount Vernon.  Evidently, rather than play the pompous city planner or the architectural critic, Thornton impressed the General with concrete money saving measures. Then within four days, the General changed his mind: "—yet, to avoid trouble to myself—to avoid disputes between workmen, having no controul over, but acting independently of each other; to avoid sending Negro Carpenters to the City, and having them to provide for there, and above all, taking into consideration what may, eventually, happen next year, and my employment in consequence—I have resolved to agree to Mr Blagdin’s terms." He sent the letter to the commissioners not to Thornton.

Commissioners White and Thornton replied on October 25 and sent a "draft of an agreement to be made, such as appeared to us to correspond with your ideas, but lest any alterations might be wished, we advised Mr Blagdin to wait on you with it, and to take with him the Plans, specifications &c." White likely wrote the letter, because on the same day, Thornton wrote a personal letter to the General. In a long paragraph, he explained that he had meant to get specimens of molding from Blagden to send to Mount Vernon, but he agreed "that it will perhaps give you greater Satisfaction in the end, to form a Contract in the mode you have proposed." Knowing that would cost the General, thanks to owning a lot next to the General’s, he offered him another way to save money.

Evidently, no one had told the General that Thornton was given a lot adjoining his. Thornton got the lot on October 1. Even though he visited Mount Vernon for three days that week, he didn’t inform the General until October 25. In that letter, he modified the explanation he gave his colleagues on September 21. He didn’t claim that he restored his original plan, only that: "the Board allowed me the lot adjoining yours (it being awarded to me by Messrs. Young and Law for the premium which I had not demanded from motives of Delicacy, but which I was entitled to for my plans of Capitol.)" Thus, once he built a house on a similar plan, he would pay half the cost of the wall and chimney. Plus, he offered to get the gentleman who bought the lot on the other side to make the same agreement. However, there a problem, “if I had not suffered by some late heavy losses; not in Speculations, but matters of Confidence, to the amount of between four & five thousand Dollars, I should have been enabled to carry up a House now—I hope, however, to assist in making a respectable Row of Houses.”(14)

Finally, he did what the General feared he would do. He suggested changes to the General’s design. He observed that the houses were too close to the street:

I think five feet areas very narrow: They are damp, and keep the Kitchens so, by excluding the Sun and air; tending thereby to render them unwholesome: Six, seven, or eight Feet, would be better I think; but the Regulations do not at present allow of such extent. In the grand Houses in London they are very wide. Mr Law says as wide as twelve feet. I have seen them, and think he has mistaken; but eight, or perhaps seven would do; so that allowing a Foot for the Copeing, the Pavement would be twelve feet in the Clear. Houses that have the Kitchens behind do not require such wide front areas—but as your Houses will be inaccessible behind, & large Casks must be gotten into the Cellars it will be worthy of consideration. 

In reply the General graciously refused to allow Thornton to assume the cost of a party wall, as “the kindnesses I have received from you greatly overpay any little convenience or benefit you can derive from my Wall.” He agreed that five feet was too narrow, but "If the regulations will not allow more, and cannot be altered, it must be indured.…" As many did, the General sensed that Thornton's heart was in the right place. After asking him to write out and notarize the contract, he sent him $500 and asked him to pay Blagden and others as the need arose. He could be his agent in the city: “as you reside in the City, and [are] always there, and have moreover been so obliging as to offer to receive the Bills and pay their amount (when presented by Mr Blagden) I will avail myself of this kindness."

The General did not react to the way Thornton got the neighboring lot, and perhaps Thornton didn’t mind. However, it would seem that his recalling the “Delicacy” he exhibited when his design was changed and the humble way he finally claimed his prize would elicit, if not an apology, at least an acknowledgment. Also, his colleagues had not responded to his September 21 letter in writing. He got the lot but not an acknowledgment. Because they didn't contradict Thornton, in his 1914 history of the city, W. B. Bryan insisted that proved that Thornton had indeed restored his original design.(13) That is a curious way to sift historical evidence. One could conclude that because Thornton didn’t mention restoring his design in his letter to the General that he shied from making a false claim to one who could contradict him. The General had seen his original design. Scott and White hadn't. 

The only phrase in the General’s letters to Thornton that possibility hints at Thornton having designed the houses is the General’s reference to “the kindnesses” he had received from him. But that likely referred to the gift of cordials from Tortola that Thornton had sent to Mount Vernon. Then in late December, the General mentioned the possibility of changing the design and solicited Thornton's reaction. He wrote that had seen two houses "in Philadelphia of about the same front and elevation that are to be given to my two houses, which pleased me. It consisted also of two houses united - doors in the center - a pediment in the roof and dormer window on each side of it in front - skylights in the rear. If it is not incongruous with rules of architecture, I should be glad to have my two houses executed in this style."

Thornton wrote back: "it is a desideratum in architecture to hide as much as possible the roof - for which reason in London, there is a generally a parapet to hide the dormer windows. The pediment may with propriety be introduced, but I have some doubts with respect to its adding any beauty" Thornton passed on the General’s request to Blagden and on Christmas Day sent, as the General put in his reply, “Messrs. Blagden and Lenthals estimate of the cost of adding a pediment and a parapet…." But, the General continued, “the plan to which it refers, did not accompany it...and Mr. Blagden is under promise to make a copy thereof for his own use, to work by, and to send me the original draft. I pray you to remind him of that promise.” Obviously, Thornton had nothing to do with the designs for the houses, and the General had no inclination to take Thornton's advice: 

Rules of architecture are calculated, I presume, to give symmetry, and just proportion to all the orders, and parts of the building, in order to please the eye. Small departures from strict rules are discoverable only by skilful architects, or by the eye of criticism, while ninety-nine in a hundred - deficient of their knowledge - might be pleased with things not quite orthodox. This, more than probable, would be the case relative to a pediment in the roof over the doors of my houses in the city. That a Parapet in addition (for the reasons you have assigned) would have a pleasing & useful effect, cannot be doubted. When the roof of a building is to be seen, and when it is designed for Chambers it must be seen, something to relieve the view of a plain and dead Surface, is indispensable: for this reason it was, I thought, and still do think, that Dormars are to be prefered....

Then he avowed “his ignorance of Architectural principles," and complimented Thornton: “The freedom with which you have expressed your sentiments on this occasion, is highly pleasing to me. Sorry indeed should I have been on this, as I shall be on any future occurrence, when your opinion may be asked, if they are not rendered with the utmost frankness and candour.(6) 

131. Two houses built by the General on right. Street below had been leveled during construction of the New Capitol. The house on the left was not built by Thornton

But there was no mention of his Capitol design. Were compliments for his opinions enough? It is possible that Thornton anticipated the conclusion of W. B. Bryan that merely his being awarded the prize lot proved that he had restored his design. Evidently not, in an 1802 letter to President Jefferson, Commissioner White recalled that "some years ago both my Colleagues were desirous of getting Hoban out of the way; and amazing exertions were made to find something in his conduct which would justify them in dismissing him."(16) In January 1799, Thornton started a campaign to be the last architect standing when congress came to town.  

He began by moving for an investigation of a charge that Hoban fired a carpenter because he would not join the artillery militia. There was no second. Then Thornton broadened the investigation and Scott joined him. In February 1799, the board asked carpenters and joiners for complaints against both Hoban and Redmund Purcell who played such a large role in getting Hadfield out of the way. Evidently, Scott thought Purcell was the source of a rumor that he stole building materials from the public stores for his own house.

The board soon charged Purcell for not properly supervising the men working under him during the winter. He even paid slave sawyers their shilling a day while doing little work. When Hoban heard that the board had received letters from workers impugning his conduct, he asked the board to share that evidence. The investigation centered on the complaints of an English joiner, Joseph Middleton, who claimed that Hoban did not provide the drawings and materials he needed to build shutters that the board hired him to build. On March 12, Hoban explained that he had given Middleton what he needed to make doors and doubted he had time to make shutters.

There was ample evidence that Purcell and Hoban were not negligent in their work. Both the President's house and the North Wing were almost ready to accommodate the president and congress. Thornton and Scott laid traps for them. They gave Purcell two days to prepare his defense and fired him when he failed to appear. They asked Hoban to prepare a report on the Capitol giving past and estimating future expenses. He had routinely done that for the President's house. If he failed to report on the Capitol, they could fire him for insubordination.

Purcell counter-attacked in the press. He characterized Thornton as "the fribbling quack architect who smuggled his name to the only drawing of sections for the Capitol ever delivered to the commissioners' office, made out by another man." There were also no updated plans based on the work already done, and Thornton should draw them. In his attack, Purcell mentioned Thornton's extant elevation, but it was not in the hands of the superintendent: "The original plan is hung as a trophy to science in his [Thornton's] parlor." The letter was published on April 16.(17)

Hoban also made Thornton’s supposed Capitol design an issue. He claimed that he could not very well estimate expenses at the Capitol for the coming season because he had no "plan or sections of the building to calculate by, nor the parts in detail, all which should be put into the hands of the superintendent." Hoban knew of that requirement because he too had been a design contest winner. White also got the impression that Hoban was talking to a lawyer. In 1802, he suggested to Jefferson that Hoban "would then have disputed their right" to fire him. Perhaps that and White not objecting to firing Purcell persuaded Scott to break with Thornton. On April 15, Hoban wrote a more telling letter to the board. He asked for "drawings necessary for carrying on the following work at the Capitol, viz. 1st. The East entrance and staircase, 2nd. The Elliptic staircase, 3rd. The back staircase, 4. The Representatives Chamber, 5. The Senate Chamber." His colleagues who had not replied to Thornton’s September 21, 1798, letter gave him Hoban’s letter and observed: “We have looked over the original advertisement under which you received the premium for the plan of the Capitol, which evidently requires that the author should furnish the necessary drawings; and your letter of the 17th of November 1795 admits the principle.” That suggests that Thornton had never practiced that principle. If he had, his colleagues could simply ask him to supply the drawings as usual.

Thornton wrote the draft of his reply to his colleagues on April 17. He began by pointing out that he had already made enough drawings and that he was on hand to give advice. He reminded them that the "late Superintendent," meaning Hadfield, was "expressly engaged to furnish the detailed drawings.…" No historian has produced an example of Thornton sketching something for Hadfield to draw. He didn’t, for example, sketch the Capitol roof and relied on forcing Hadfield to stipulate in writing that the roof would not be higher than the balustrade.

Thornton found an ingenious way to split hairs and free himself from any principle that he should make drawings in order to get the Capitol ready for congress. He reminded the board that it "had determined not to finish the rooms in a splendid and expensive style at present but in a plain manner...." He argued that such "plain" expedients to get the building ready for use were not part of his design and not his responsibility. The stairways were to be temporary and made of wood. They were an expedient. Otherwise, he would be anxious to make drawings. He evidently forgot that in his November 1795 letter he had written "...I promise to supply such drawings hereafter, as may be deemed sufficient for the prosecution of the Capitol, and in time to prevent any delay whatever."

Then he launched into a written description of features in each room. For the Senate chamber, he wrote: "I propose that the columns be executed in the ancient Ionic order with the volutes curved in the middle over the column and with an astragal below the volutes to form a neck to the column: the shaft of the column plain - the entablature full but plain and without modillions." That's not exactly from Chambers who described Ionic columns with "angular volutes with an astragal and fillet below the volute." Chambers at least provided a glossary. A volute is a scroll. An astragal is "a small moulding whose profile is semi-circular." Thornton wished marble for the columns but accepted substitutes.  He thought one of the walls of the library, which was to be the House's temporary chamber, "ought to be taken down." He explained how timbers could be supported in another way and where to form an arch to create a "lighted closet," but he offered no drawings. He noted times when the board had asked Hoban for drawings, and suggested that doing drawings had always been Hoban's job. On April 18, Thornton's colleagues asked Hoban to make the necessary drawings "as conveniently you can."(18) 

Not surprisingly, Harris interprets the exchange as a complete victory for Thornton. He claims that “the following day they forwarded to Hoban a copy of this response by WT, directing the superintendent to prepare drawings for the board’s examination. The correctness of these exchanges would seem to reflect the uncertainty of Hoban’s position at that time, charges of negligence against him having been taken up by the board.” However, “as conveniently as you can” is not the language of “correctness.” Thornton completely failed in his effort to get Hoban “out of the way.”

In the continuing correspondence between the General and Thornton, Hoban and the Capitol were never mentioned. As for their on-going project, the General also relied on others to keep an eye on his project.  He worried about site preparation and asked his nephew Lawrence Lewis to check. After getting his report that nothing had been done, the General wrote to his secretary Tobias Lear who was staying with Dr. Thornton to get treatment for a lame leg. He asked Lear to investigate.

At the same time that his fight with Hoban reached a climax, Thornton set out to prove himself a practical architect, as those who superintended house builders were sometimes called.  Thornton filled in for Lear and proved to himself at least that he was better able to do what the General wanted and needed. On April 19, he reported that he talked with Blagden and Lenthall, and then gave the General the impression that he arrived at the building site in the nick of time: “ I visited the workmen the Day before yesterday, & they progress to my Satisfaction. I took the liberty of directing Stone Sills to be laid, instead of wooden ones, to the outer Doors of the Basement, as wood decays very soon, when so much exposed to the damp; but I desired Mr Blagdin would do them with as little expense as possible. If wooden Sills could easily have been renewed I should not have directed them of Stone, but he informed me they could not without much trouble.” In his April 21 reply, the General thanked Thornton but assumed that he rectified a mistake made at the front door. Thornton wrote back correcting him, and never gave another report on the work. Evidently, either Blagden didn't not appreciate his butting in or he realized he was unduly vexing the General or that he really wasn't cut out to be a practical architect. In a 1799 letter to his old Lancashire friend Thomas Wilkinson, Thornton wrote: "The late President General Washington, who appointed me here, continues to honor me with his particular friendship. I frequently visit and am visited by this great and good man, besides corresponding. He is now building two Government Houses in this city, and has confided to me his money transactions here, as a friend...." Wasn't that enough? In June, Thornton sent his jennies to be covered by the General's jacks. He offered to pay but the General refused to take his money as the services were "a feeble effort to repay the kindnesses you have heaped upon me." Thornton replied with a "lament that I have not had it more in my power to shew my Inclination to repay in part your manifold kindness."(9)(8)

The General continued to school Thornton. He reminded him to get the contractors to paint sashes before installing them, instructed him on the proper mixture of sand in the paint for the walls and lectured him on plaster of Paris. After that last lesson, Thornton referred Washington to a pamphlet on the subject written by a Pennsylvania judge. While president, the General had asked the judge to do the research and write the pamphlet.(20)

Thornton tried to school the General after he asked Thornton for his opinion on what the rent should be for the houses. In his reply, Thornton discussed the issue at length, concluded that 10% of the cost of construction would be fair, but he had a better idea: "...preserve them unrented, and keep them for sale, fixing a price on them together or separately; and I have no Doubt you could sell them for nine or ten thousand Dollars each, and if you were inclined to lay out the proceeds again in building other Houses this might be repeated to your Advantage, without any trouble, with perfect safety from risk, and to the great improvement of the City." In reply, other than thanking him "for the information, and sentiments," the General didn't react to Thornton's suggestion that in the waning years of his illustrious life, he become a real estate developer. Then Thornton drove away a boarding house manager who back in September 1798 had expressed an interest in renting the houses. Because the prospective renter wanted to build back buildings, Thornton wrote to the General that he “refused to name any price.” The General was probably not amused. In October, he decided to sell the houses rather than rent them, but not to finance more construction.(21)

Thornton tried to shine in other ways, and sometimes in ways not quite believable. In late May 1799, Thomas Boyleston Adams, the First Family's third son, toured the city. In a June 9, 1799, letter to his mother, that was mostly favorable about the city's site and prospects, Thomas painted a dismissive portrait of Thornton. He was "a democratic, philanthropic, universal benevolence kind of a man—a mere child in politics, and having for exclusive merit a pretty taste in drawing—He makes all the plans of all the public buildings, consisting of two, and a third going up."

In a September 1, 1799, letter to the General in which he updated "Ironmongery wanted for the Houses," he also took the opportunity to react to a letter the General had forwarded giving Secretary of State Pickering offering ideas for the federal city's docks that would prevent yellow fever. Thornton noted that "it is a highly interesting subject and one I have urged, for three years to the board." Then he noted continuing lot sales and added that "the Trustees, of Morris & Nicholson, are going to finish the Houses at the Point." He also had to brag. He noted that "the navy-yard will. be fixed... where I recommended it." He had prevented it from being placed on the square designated for the Marine Hospital. He also had preserved the reservation for "a military academy, for parade-ground, for the exercise of the great guns, for magazines, etc., etc." Then he found even higher ground: "I am jealous of innovations where decisions have been made after mature deliberation, and I yet hope that the city will be preserved from that extensive injury contemplated by some never-to-be-content and covetous individuals." He wrote nothing about the General's houses, Law's house or Tayloe's houses, even after he mentioned spending the day with Tayloe.

While the General didn’t reply to Thornton’s September report on progress in the city, Tobias Lear, the General’s secretary, wrote to Thornton: "I hope the grand and magnificent will be combined with the useful in all the new public undertakings. We are not working for our selves or our children; but for ages to come, and the works should be admired as well as used. Your wharves and the introduction of running water are among the first objects. Let no little mindedness or contracted views of private interest prevent their being accomplished upon the most extensive and beautiful plan that the nature of things will admit of - and - But hold, I am talking to one who has considered and understands these subjects much better than myself, and who, I trust, will exert himself to have everything done in the best manner."

In the summer of 1799, Thornton simply did not seem interested in designing houses. Why should he down size his genius when he was in a position to create the infrastructure to enhance the grandeur of the capital which could only amplify the genius of the Author of the Capitol? How was he to know that history would have no interest in who preserved the “parade-ground, for the exercise of the great guns?” 

It seems that thanks to Thornton’s obsession with the Big Picture, even when he was at the General’s table, house design was not a topic of conversation. In his September 12 letter, Lear mentioned his own fever and that Mrs. Washington was recovering from a serious illness. Thornton rushed to Mount Vernon and spent four nights.(25) Three days after he left, the General advised his nephew Lawrence Lewis, who had lived at Mount Vernon for two years, that in his will he gave the house to another nephew. Lewis had married Mrs. Washington’s the last resident grand child. To salve his surprise, the General revealed that portion of his will that bequeathed 2000 acres of the Mount Vernon estate to Lewis for the express purpose of his building a house. The General advised him that "few better sites for a house than Grays hill, and that range, are to be found in this County, or elsewhere." He also gave Lewis license to immediately "proceed on sure ground with respect to the buildings, I will agree, and this letter shall be an evidence of it, that if, thereafter, I should find cause to make any other disposition of the property here mentioned, I will pay the actual cost of such buildings to you, or yours." He seemed to be prodding Lewis, who had a tendency to sickness and repose, to do something. What better way to prod Lewis then by alerting Thornton that Lewis needed a design for an elegant country house? Instead, the General revealed his gift to Lewis three days after Thornton left Mount Vernon. There is no evidence that Thornton knew anything about it.(26)

The General died on December 14. On January 3, 1800, Lear wrote to Thornton asking for his accounts of the General’s payments to Blagden. In her diary, Mrs. Thornton reacted to Lear’s letter by observing that “the money to the undertaker of them having all gone thro my husband’s hands, he having Superintended them as a Friend.” To Pamela Scott that entry proves that Thornton superintended construction of the houses. The houses were not finished. On January 20, Thornton copied out his receipts, got Blagden’s and sent them to Mount Vernon. He reported to Lear that Blagden thought the houses would be completed by April 1. He claimed that he had Blagden write up a report that had been given to the executors of the General’s estate. He offered “to aid the fulfilment of the objects contemplated by our great and good friend…,” but judging from his wife’s diary, he did nothing more in regard to the houses except on January 21. He “sent Joe very early in the morning," to get receipts from Blagden to be sent to Mount Vernon. Joe Key was the Thorntons’ slave.(10) 

 

 

Thornton tried to shine in other ways, and sometimes in ways not quite believable. In late May 1799, Thomas Boyleston Adams, the First Family's third son, toured the city. In a June 9, 1799, letter to his mother, that was mostly a favorable report on the city's site and prospects, Thomas painted a dismissive portrait of Thornton redeemed by the doctor's bragging. He was "a democratic, philanthropic, universal benevolence kind of a man—a mere child in politics, and having for exclusive merit a pretty taste in drawing—He makes all the plans of all the public buildings, consisting of two, and a third going up."

In a September 1, 1799, letter to the General, Thornton went on at length about plans and improvements, without mentioning Tayloe’s house which was then being built. The General had forwarded a letter to the commissioners from Secretary of State Pickering offering a plan for the federal city's docks that would prevent yellow fever. Thornton noted that "it is a highly interesting subject and one I have urged, for three years to the board." Then he noted continuing lot sales and added that "the Trustees, of Morris & Nicholson, are going to finish the Houses at the Point." He also had to brag. He noted that "the navy-yard will. be fixed... where I recommended it." He had prevented it from being placed on the square designated for the Marine Hospital. He also had preserved the reservation for "a military academy, for parade-ground, for the exercise of the great guns, for magazines, etc., etc." Then he found even higher ground: "I am jealous of innovations where decisions have been made after mature deliberation, and I yet hope that the city will be preserved from that extensive injury contemplated by some never-to-be-content and covetous individuals."(23)

While the General didn’t reply to Thornton’s September report on progress in the city, Tobias Lear, the General’s secretary did: "I hope the grand and magnificent will be combined with the useful in all the new public undertakings. We are not working for our selves or our children; but for ages to come, and the works should be admired as well as used. Your wharves and the introduction of running water are among the first objects. Let no little mindedness or contracted views of private interest prevent their being accomplished upon the most extensive and beautiful plan that the nature of things will admit of - and - But hold, I am talking to one who has considered and understands these subjects much better than myself, and who, I trust, will exert himself to have everything done in the best manner."(24)

In the summer of 1799, Thornton simply did not seem interested in designing houses. Why should he down size his genius when he was in a position to create the infrastructure to enhance the grandeur of the capital which could only amplify the genius of the Author of the Capitol? How was he to know that history would have no interest in who preserved the “parade-ground, for the exercise of the great guns?”

In his September 12 letter, Lear mentioned his own fever and that Mrs. Washington was recovering from a serious illness. Thornton rushed to Mount Vernon and spent four nights.(25) 

Go To Chapter Eleven   

1.  GW to Peter 27 August 1798; Harris pp. 473-4; WT to White 16 January 1796, Harris p. 375.

2. White to GW, 8 September 1798; GW to White, 12 September 1798 

3. On GW's sense of humor see Manca, Joseph, “George Washington’s Use of Humor During the Revolutionary War.” Journal of the American Revolution, February 5, 2015; “Protest..” 10 May 1798, Harris p. 453;  footnote to John Francis to GW, 15 September 1798.

4. Commrs to GW, 3 October 1798, reply 4 October 1798; Commrs. to GW, 4 October 1798.   

5.  GW to WT, 18 October 1798; WT to GW, 25 October ; GW to Commrs. 22 October 1798, 27 October 1798;

6. GW to WT 28 October 1798,; 

7. GW to WT, 20 December 1798, WT to GW 21 December, 1798;  GW to WT 30 December 1798, 

8. GW to WT, 30 January 1799;  GW to Lear 31 March 1799; WT to GW 19 April 1799.

9. Harris did not include the letter in the Papers of William Thornton likely because of the brevity of the quote from it in Mary Carr, Thomas Wilkinson: A Friend of Wordsworth, p. 11; GW to WT 2 July 1799, reply 3 July   

10. Diary pp. 90, 97; Scott, Creating Capitol Hill p. ; see also WT to Lear 20 January 1800, Harris pp. 531-2.

11.White to GW 15 December 1796; 

12. WT to Commrs 21 September 1798, Harris pp. 472, 475;

13. Bryan, p. 316-7.

14. WT to GW, 25 October 

15. WT to Jefferson 8-12 July 1793, Harris pp. 262-6.

16. White to Jefferson, 13 July 1802.

17.  Commrs. Proceedings, 2 and 15 January 1799; Proceedings 18 March 1799; Hoban to Commrs. 12 March 1799; Middleton to Commrs 22 March 1799; Centinel of Liberty 16 April 1799 p. 1. 

18. Hoban to Commrs. 15 April 1799; WT to Commrs. 17 April 1799; Chambers, Treatise, vol. II, pp. 368. 408, 425;  Brown, Capitol in 1800; Commrs to Hoban, 18 April 1799, Commrs. records.

19. Harris p.490; Jefferson to White, 2 July 1802;

20. for instances of GW instructing WT about house building see GW to WT, 30 January, 29 September, 1 October, 1 December 1799; WT to GW, 5 December 1799, Founders online, Harris, p. 515;

21. WT to GW 19 July 1799; GW to WT, 6 October 1799;

22. Thomas Adams to Abigail Adams, 9 June 1799 

23.  WT to GW 1 September 1799; GW to WT 5 September 1799;

24. Lear to WT, 12 September 1799, Harris, pp. 508-9.  

25. Mrs. Thornton's Diary p. 115.

26.  GW to Lewis, 20 September 1799 

27. GW to White 8 December 1799; GW to WT 8 December 1799