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Charles Bulfinch

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Charles Bulfinch
Architect of the Capitol
In office
January 6, 1818 – June 25, 1829
PresidentJames Monroe
John Quincy Adams
Andrew Jackson
Preceded byBenjamin Henry Latrobe
Succeeded byThomas U. Walter
Personal details
Born(1763-08-08)August 8, 1763
Boston,Massachusetts Bay Colony
DiedApril 15, 1844(1844-04-15)(aged 80)
Boston,Massachusetts,U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Parents
  • Thomas Bulfinch (father)
  • Susan Apthorp (mother)
ProfessionCivil Engineer

Charles Bulfinch(August 8, 1763 – April 15, 1844) was an earlyAmericanarchitect,and has been regarded by many as the first American-born professionalarchitectto practice.[1]

Life

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Bulfinch split his career between his nativeBoston,Massachusetts,andWashington, D.C.,where he served as Commissioner of Public Building and built the intermediateUnited States Capitol rotundaanddome.His works are notable for their simplicity, balance, and good taste, and as the origin of a distinctiveFederal styleof classical domes, columns, and ornament that dominated early 19th-centuryAmerican architecture.

Early life

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Bulfinch was born in Boston to Thomas Bulfinch, a prominent physician, and his wife, Susan Apthorp, daughter ofCharles Apthorp.At the age of 12, he watched theBattle of Bunker Hillfrom this home on the Boston side of the Charles River.[2]Charles himself was married to Hannah Apthorp on 20 November 1788 in Boston.[3]

He was educated atBoston Latin SchoolandHarvard University,from which he graduated with an AB in 1781 and master's degree in 1784.

He then made agrand tourofEuropefrom 1785 to 1788, traveling to London, Paris, and the major cities of Italy. Bulfinch was greatly influenced by Renaissance architectAndrea Palladio.[2]He was also influenced by the classical architecture inItalyand theneoclassicalbuildings ofSir Christopher Wren,Robert Adam,William Chambers,and others in theUnited Kingdom.Thomas Jeffersonbecame something of amentorto him in Europe, as he would later be toRobert Mills.[4]

Upon his return to the United States in 1787, he became a promoter of the shipColumbia Rediviva'svoyage around the world under command of CaptainRobert Gray(1755–1806). It was the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe. In 1788, he married Hannah Apthorp, his first cousin. Their sons includeThomas Bulfinch(1796–1867), author ofBulfinch's Mythology,andStephen Greenleaf Bulfinch(1809–1870), Unitarian clergyman and author.

Career

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Massachusetts State House,completed 1798
Old Connecticut State House,built in 1796

Bulfinch's first building was theHollis Street Church(1788). Among his other early works are a memorial column onBeacon Hill(1789), the first monument to theAmerican Revolution;theFederal Street theater(1793); the "Tontine Crescent"(built 1793–1794, now demolished), fashioned in part afterJohn Wood'sRoyal Crescent;theOld State HouseinHartford, Connecticut(1796); and theMassachusetts State House(1798). He was elected a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciencesin 1791.[5]

Over the course of ten years, Bulfinch built a remarkable number of private dwellings in the Boston area, includingJoseph Barrell's Pleasant Hill (1793), a series of threehouses in BostonforHarrison Gray Otis(1796, 1800, 1806), and the John Phillips House (1804). He built several churches in Boston, of whichNew North(built 1802–1804) is the last standing.

Serving from 1791 to 1795 onBoston's board of selectmen,he resigned due to business pressures but returned in 1799. From 1799 to 1817, he was the chairman of Boston's board of selectmen continuously, and served as a paid police superintendent, improving the city's streets, drains, and lighting. Under his direction, both theinfrastructureand civic center of Boston were transformed into a dignified, classical style. Bulfinch was responsible for the design of theBoston Common,the remodeling and enlargement ofFaneuil Hall(1805), and the construction ofIndia Wharf.In these Boston years, he also designed the Massachusetts State Prison (1803);Boylston Market(1810);University Hallfor Harvard University (1813–1814);First Church of Christ, UnitarianinLancaster, Massachusetts(1815–1817); and the Bulfinch Building, home of theEther DomeatMassachusetts General Hospital(1818), its completion overseen byAlexander Parris,who was working in Bulfinch's office at the time the architect was summoned to Washington.

Despite this great activity and civic involvement, Bulfinch wasinsolventseveral times starting in 1796, including at the start of his work on the statehouse, and was jailed for the month of July 1811 for debt (in a prison he had designed himself). There was no payment for his services as selectman, and he received only $1,400 for designing and overseeing the construction of the State House.

In the summer of 1817, Bulfinch's roles as selectman, designer, and public official coincided during a visit by PresidentJames Monroe.The two men were almost constantly in each other's company for the week-long visit, and a few months later (1818), Monroe appointed Bulfinch the successor toBenjamin Henry Latrobe(1764–1820) asArchitect of the Capitolin Washington, DC (the Capitol Building had been partially burned by the British in 1814.) In this position, he was paid a salary of $2,500 per year plus expenses.

He was also a founding member ofThe Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture(M.S.P.A.), one of the earliest agricultural societies in the United States. The Society was incorporated by an act of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on March 7, 1792.

As Commissioner of Public Building, Bulfinch completed theCapitol's wings and central portion, designed the western approach andportico,and constructed the Capitol's original low woodendometo his own design (replaced by the present cast-iron dome completed in the mid-1860s). In 1829 Bulfinch completed the construction of the Capitol, 36 years after itscornerstonewas laid. During his interval in Washington, Bulfinch also drew plans for the State House inAugusta, Maine(1829–1832), a Unitarian Church and prison in Washington, D.C.. In 1827, he was elected into theNational Academy of Designas an Honorary member. He returned to Boston in 1830, where he died on April 15, 1844, aged 80, and was buried inKing's ChapelBurial Ground in Boston. His tomb was later moved toMount Auburn CemeteryinCambridge, Massachusetts.In 1943, aUnited StatesLiberty shipnamed theSSCharles Bulfinchwas launched. The ship was scrapped in 1971.

Designs

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Designs marked with an asterisk (*) have been attributed to Bulfinch, though are not confirmed to have been designed by the architect

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References

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  1. ^Baltzell, Edward Digby.Puritan Boston & Quaker Philadelphia.Transaction Publishers (1996), p. 322-24.ISBN1-56000-830-X.
  2. ^ab"Architect Charles Bulfinch Obtains Mortgage".Mass Moments.Mass Humanities.Retrieved2018-12-18.
  3. ^"Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988".
  4. ^Louis Kronenberger (editor),Brief Lives: A Biographical Guide to the Arts(1972 edition), p. 104.
  5. ^"Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B"(PDF).American Academy of Arts and Sciences.RetrievedAugust 7,2014.
  6. ^Bryan, John M.; Mills, Robert (2001).Robert Mills: America's First Architect.Princeton Architectural Press. p. 160.ISBN978-1-56898-296-0.
  7. ^Dan (6 May 2008)."55-57 Mount Vernon Street, Boston (1804) – Historic Buildings of Massachusetts".Retrieved2021-01-14.
  8. ^"Otis House".Retrieved2021-01-14.
  9. ^Wilson, Susan (2004-05-15).Boston Sites and Insights: An Essential Guide to Historic Landmarks in and Around Boston.Beacon Press. p. 83.ISBN978-0-8070-7135-9.
  10. ^"87 Mount Vernon Street".Colonial Society of Massachusetts.Retrieved2021-01-14.
  11. ^Hafertepe, Kenneth (2000)."Banking Houses in the United States: The First Generation, 1781-1811".Winterthur Portfolio.35(1): 1–52.doi:10.1086/496804.ISSN0084-0416.JSTOR1215273.S2CID154089588.
  12. ^Kirker, Harold (1973)."Charles Bulfinch and the Washington Unitarian Community, 1818-1830".Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C.49:61–77.ISSN0897-9049.JSTOR40067735.

Further reading

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Wikimedia Commons has media related toCharles Bulfinch.
Wikisourcehas the text of the1911Encyclopædia Britannicaarticle "Bulfinch, Charles".
Political offices
Preceded by Architect of the Capitol
1818–1829 		Succeeded by
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