Episode 3 of 4

Saving of the Patent Office

When: August 24, 1814
Where: Washington, D.C.
Part of: Event of 1814: Burning of Washington during the War of 1812, British troops set fire to landmar

William Thornton successfully preserved the Patent Office Building from destruction during the burning of Washington.

William Thornton, former architect of the Capitol, gained British cooperation to save the Patent Office Building. It was the only government building left untouched in Washington after the attack, preserving its contents from the fire.

Sources

Burning of Washington Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-01

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.