The Architecture of Colonial America

by Harold Donaldson Eberlein

In the construction of public edifices, the trials and tribulations of the eighteenth century architects could well compare with the difficulties encountered in some instances by their twentieth century successors. Work on the State House was indeed begun and vigorously pushed forward by Hamilton so far as he was able, but there were all sorts of obstructions to be surmounted and drawbacks and hindrances to be set aside. There were grumbles and growls from influential people who were either wholly opposed to the undertaking or else dissatisfied with the site. There were hostile criticisms of the plan adopted, there were strikes among the workmen, there was, at times, a lack of competent labour, there were wranglings about the necessary funds to pay the costs—everything, in short, combined to retard progress and Judge Hamilton died in 1741 before his plans were fully executed. Although the date of the erection of the State House is given as 1733—the greatest portion of it was built then—its completion, as just stated, was not achieved till eight years later.

Another amateur architect of the period, deserving of mention, was Joseph Brown who was born in Providence in 1733 and died there in 1785. After acquiring a comfortable fortune in a manufacturing business, he devoted himself to the pursuits towards which his tastes for science inclined him. He was particularly interested in electricity and had a comprehensive knowledge of the subject; he was likewise proficient in mechanics and astronomy and held a professorship in Brown University, of which institution he was also a trustee. Of his ability in the architectural field, the First Baptist Church in Providence, erected in 1775, and various houses bear witness.

John Smibert, whose name we always associate with early New England portraiture, also extended his activities into the realm of architecture and designed Faneuil Hall whose evidence is a sufficient guarantee of his skill. John Greene, of Providence, Captain Isaac Damon, of Northampton, and many more might readily be added to a list that is dignified by the great names of Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Washington is said to have designed Pohick Church, Virginia, of which parish he was a vestryman. It is certain, at any rate, that he was deeply interested in the supervision of its erection as he also was in the erection of Christ Church, Alexandria, where he was likewise a vestryman. His architectural taste is still further to be seen in the fabric of Mount Vernon. In this connexion it ought to be borne in mind how lively an interest he manifested in the laying-out of the Federal City and the planning of its public buildings according to a worthy and comprehensive scheme. Jefferson’s skill as an architect is evidenced in Monticello and in the buildings of the University of Virginia which are chiefly, if not altogether, attributable to him as their designer.

Dr. John Kearsley and Dr. William Thornton were two busy and intensely active eighteenth century physicians who found time to acquit themselves most creditably in the field of architectural endeavour as well as to do their full share in the discharge of sundry public duties which their fellow citizens entrusted to them. Dr. Kearsley, arriving in Philadelphia in 1711, soon built up an extensive practice and, at the same time, undertook the instruction of a younger generation of medical men whom he is said to have enrolled as apprentices for a seven years’ term of tutelage, a relation that the “apprentice” students apparently found “both onerous and exacting, as it seemed to include the duties of a servant, coachman, messenger-boy, prescription clerk, nurse and assistant surgeon.” Apart from his labours as a physician, he was engaged in civic and Provincial activities of the first order and long occupied a seat in the Assembly of the Province. As an architect, he is entitled to the highest praise for the masterly and surpassingly beautiful design of Christ Church, erected from his plans in 1727, and inspired to some extent, so it appears, by Saint Martin-in-the-Fields, in London.

Dr. William Thornton is to be remembered as the designer of the first Capitol at Washington whose erection he likewise superintended. When Latrobe restored the building, after its partial demolition by the British troops in the War of 1812, he adhered very largely to Dr. Thornton’s plan. During a long residence in Philadelphia, he took an active part in public affairs, was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society and designed the old Philadelphia Library, which was completed in 1790. Many houses are also to be ascribed to Dr. Thornton’s agency. His connexion with the federal buildings necessitated his removal to Washington where he continued to live for the remainder of his life, occupying a position as first head of the Patent Office.

Interesting as it might be to prolong this biographical chronicle of amateur architects of the eighteenth century, it is necessary to pass on to a consideration of the carpenter-architect. Samuel Rhoads, sometime Mayor of Philadelphia, the designer of the Pennsylvania Hospital, a structure of which any architect in any century might well feel proud, occupies a middle ground between the amateur and the carpenter-architect and his history throws valuable light on conditions affecting the methods and practice of both. According to the Quaker theory that every boy should be brought up to a trade, no matter what calling he might afterward intend to pursue, Rhoads “became a carpenter and builder, though he did not confine his attention exclusively to this business, but appears to have branched out into mercantile adventures, speculations in real estate” and the like. “He was an early member of The Carpenters’ Company of Philadelphia, and from 1780 until his decease” was its master. He was exceedingly public-spirited and took an active part in all enterprises for civic betterment. For a number of years he sat in the Provincial Assembly where he served on numerous important committees and was chosen one of the Pennsylvania delegates to the First Continental Congress. A contemporary writer, in describing the members of that body, said of him that “he was a respectable merchant of Philadelphia, belonging to the Society of Friends—without the talent of speaking in public, he possessed much acuteness of mind, his judgment was sound, and his practical information extensive.” In October, 1774, he became Mayor of Philadelphia. When Benjamin Franklin reorganised the American Philosophical Society, in 1743, Rhoads was one of the officers and for several years served as one of the vice-presidents.

From the foregoing memoranda it may be seen what manner of man Samuel Rhoads was and in what esteem he was held by his fellow-citizens. But what chiefly concerns our present purpose is his connexion, in the capacity of “carpenter and builder”, with the designing of an exceptionally fine piece of eighteenth century architecture. When the Assembly of Pennsylvania, in 1751, passed an act founding the Pennsylvania Hospital, he was elected a manager by the contributors and continued on the board for thirty successive years. Ground was secured and “this purchase being made, a complete plan of the buildings was directed to be so prepared that a part might be erected, which could be occupied the ensuing season. [1755.] Samuel Rhoads, one of the managers, was very zealous in the work and, after consulting the physicians in regard to the situation of the cells and other conveniences, he presented a design of the whole building, in such form that one third might first alone be erected with tolerable symmetry. After due consideration,” the plan was adopted and, not many years afterward, the whole design of this carpenter-architect became an accomplished fact to the lasting satisfaction of succeeding generations.

One of the worthiest of the carpenter-architects was Asher Benjamin of Massachusetts. Although his work was almost wholly domestic and many of his commissions would nowadays be classified as “unimportant”, he nevertheless exerted a markedly beneficial influence upon the architecture of his day, an influence for which we have reason to be grateful. He seems to have begun his career as a carpenter in Greenfield, Deerfield and neighbouring Massachusetts towns. While working in Greenfield, he published “The Country Builder’s Assistant”, 1796, a book of “simple and practical” scope, containing much suggestive and useful material. Afterwards, removing to Boston, he published, partly in collaboration with one D. Raynerd, and partly by himself, several architectural works of a more ambitious nature. The trade of carpenter-architect and builder was likewise creditably represented by numerous other eighteenth century mechanics in New England and the other parts of the country who, although they did not essay to publish technical books, were nevertheless far more than mere commercial-minded artisans perfunctrily “doing the jobs” appointed them and they achieved the commissions they were entrusted with in a manner to merit the praise and emulation of modern designers. Nor may we forget the earlier carpenter-architects of the seventeenth century who created standards of excellence as a precedent for their successors of the eighteenth century. Chief among them must be named John Allis of Braintree, born in 1642, who both designed and executed many houses and churches in Massachusetts in the latter part of the seventeenth century; likewise, due acknowledgment must be made to John Elderkin, a contemporary of Allis, who left a deep and beneficial impress upon the architecture of southeastern Connecticut.

It is exceedingly difficult to draw a sharp line of distinction between the carpenter-architects and the earliest representatives of the professionally trained architects whose occupation consisted mainly in designing buildings and supervising their erection. During the greater part of the eighteenth century, the many able amateur architects and the capacity of the carpenter-architects to translate and embody acceptably in tangible form the conceptions supplied by their employers would naturally militate against the success of a numerous class of men whose sole occupation was to design and supervise. It is not at all improbable, therefore, that some of the men, whom we should be disposed to regard as the early representatives of the professional architect class, judging from the importance and visible evidence of the structures attributed to them, played the rôle of contractors as well for the erection of the buildings they designed, even though they did not share in the manual labour. We know, for example, that Richard Munday first appears in active career as the partner of one Wyatt in a building or contracting business. His capacity, however, shown by the Town House or State House in Newport, built from his plans in 1743, entitles him to a high rank among early American architects.

While some of the early professional architects—the term is not altogether felicitous but seems necessary for the sake of differentiating them from the other two classes—were doubtless self-trained to a great degree, a few appear to have had instruction in England under competent masters. Notable among them was Peter Harrison, the architect of the Market or City Hall of Newport, built in 1760, who was sometime an assistant to Sir John Vanbrugh and is said to have been a pupil of James Gibbs. McBean, the designer of St. Paul’s Chapel of Trinity Parish, New York, erected in 1764, is also thought by some to have been a pupil of Gibbs, although there seems to be no trustworthy base for such a supposition.