Mr. Hoban went to Washington city and submitted to the commissioners a plan for the president’s palace. His plan was accepted immediately and without hesitation after a view of the drawings which were submitted.
Hoban’s plan of the president’s palace being adopted, the selection of the site on which to erect it required the personal attention of Washington himself. So on August 2, 1792, the commissioners and President Washington “viewed the ground, particularly at the place for the palace. It has given him considerable trouble and difficulty to fix his mind,” wrote the commissioners.
Hoban’s design of the president’s house contemplated a central building with wings. The central portion was executed according to his designs and under his supervision (we are told he received 300 guineas a year for his services)—both before and after the damage by the British in 1814. The north portico was not completed until 1820, and then according to Hoban’s plan. Its popular name of the White House is due to his thought of painting the brownstone fronting the exterior walls to conceal the discoloration by smoke and fire.
Cornelius McDermott Roe, Patrick McDermott Roe and John Delahunty had the contract for all the brick and stone work on the president’s house for one season, and John Kearney did all the plastering on the capitol.
Thus far in our investigations we have found that a Catholic was one of the commissioners; that two Catholics planned the city; that a Catholic designed and built the president’s house and also superintended the erection of the capitol, which three Catholics contracted to build, and another did the plastering, while Patrick Whalen dug the cellar. Surely Irish Catholics seem to have had a goodly share in the foundation of the Capital City.
Mr. Hoban died on December 9, 1831, and was buried in St. Patrick’s Cemetery. In May, 1863, his grandson and namesake, James Hoban, Esq., purchased a lot in Mount Olivet Cemetery, near Washington, and the remains of James Hoban and others of the family were removed thereto.
COL. FRANCIS BARBER, A SOLDIER OF THE REVOLUTION.
BY JAMES L. O’NEILL, ELIZABETH, N. J.
Patrick Barber was born in County Longford, Ireland, and was the father of Col. Francis Barber, who was a gallant soldier of the American Revolution. The colonel himself was born (1751) in Princeton, N. J., and long resided in Elizabethtown, N. J.
The father, Patrick, had come over in the same ship with Clinton. They are said to have been kinsmen. After a perilous voyage lasting some four months, they finally reached New York, where Clinton remained, Barber continuing on to Princeton, N. J.