Benjamin Henry Latrobe
Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe (May 1, 1764 – September 3, 1820) was an Anglo-American
neoclassical architect who immigrated to the
United States. He was one of the first formally trained, professional architects in the new United States, drawing on influences from his travels in Italy, as well as British and
French Neoclassical architects such as
Claude Nicolas Ledoux. In his thirties, he immigrated to the new
United States and designed the
United States Capitol, on "
Capitol Hill" in
Washington, D.C., as well as the
Old Baltimore Cathedral or The Baltimore Basilica, (later renamed the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary). It is the first Cathedral constructed in the United States for any Christian denomination. Latrobe also designed the largest structure in America at the time, the "Merchants' Exchange" in Baltimore. With extensive balconied atriums through the wings and a large central rotunda under a low dome which dominated the city, it was completed in 1820 after five years of work and endured into the early twentieth century.
Latrobe immigrated to America from England in 1796, initially settling in
Virginia where he worked on the
Virginia State Penitentiary in
Richmond. Latrobe then moved to
Philadelphia where he established his practice. In 1803, he was hired as Surveyor of the Public Buildings of the United States, and spent much of the next fourteen years working on projects in the new national capital of
Washington, D.C., (in the newly-laid out Federal capital of the
District of Columbia) where he served as the second
Architect of the Capitol. He also was responsible for the design of the
White House porticos. Latrobe spent the later years of his life in
New Orleans, Louisiana working on a waterworks project, and died there in 1820 from
yellow fever.
Latrobe has been called the "father of American architecture". He was the uncle of
Charles La Trobe, who was the first
Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria in
Australia.
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