Episode 1 of 2
Thornton's design approved for the Capitol
- When
- April 5, 1793
- Where
- The planned United States Capitol in the federal city
Washington's letter of April 5, 1793 officially approved Thornton's design, making him the Capitol's first architect, months before the cornerstone laying.
Thornton's design for the Capitol was officially approved in a letter dated April 5, 1793, from President Washington. Thornton thereby served as the first architect of the Capitol. The approval followed the 1792 design competition proposed by Jefferson after L'Enfant's dismissal, and it set the stage for the cornerstone ceremony later that year.
Sources
- United States Capitol Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-29
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.