Frank Pierce Milburn
Frank Pierce Milburn was an American prolific architect of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His practice was focused on public buildings courthouses and legislative buildings, although he designed railroad stations, commercial buildings and residences. Milburn was a native of Bowling Green, Kentucky who practiced as an architect in Louisville from 1884 to 1889. C. after 1904. From 1902 Milburn was architect for the Southern Railway. Milburn pioneered a new approach to the marketing of architectural services, publishing sponsored books of his work, placing advertisements in trade publications, entering competitions and moving his office to suit available opportunities; this resulted in work in every Southern state apart from Mississippi. Milburn was successful in obtaining commissions for significant public buildings, ranging from county courthouses to state capitols. Milburn did significant work at the South Carolina State House and the old Florida Capitol, unsuccessfully competed for work on the Arkansas Capitol.
In 1902, Milburn designed the Columbia County Courthouse in Florida. That same year he designed the Blanche Hotel across the street from the courthouse. Milburn won a 1900 competition to complete the South Carolina State House over William Augustus Edwards and Charles Coker Wilson, as well as Gadsen E. Shand, an assistant to former State House architect Frank Niernsee. Milburn's selection was made easier by the fact that the proposed cost for his design was the least expensive of those submitted. Plans and specifications were issued and bids accepted, but a dispute broke out over differences between the competition design and that issued for bidding. Milburn had reduced the number of columns on the north portico by six and had removed a line of columns on the south portico to remain within the appropriated budget. Other changes to the dome and disputes over the quantity and accuracy of details and the quality of the work caused legal and political difficulties, but the project proceeded. Milburn, moved to Washington when his work with the Southern Railway offered the opportunity.
Once in Washington, Milburn teamed with Michael Heister to form the firm of Heister. Milburn's son, Thomas Y. Milburn, joined the firm in 1914 and took over the firm a year before his father's death in 1926. List of buildings by Frank Pierce Milburn, includes buildings by Milburn and Heister until Milburn's retirement in 1925 1901 self-published promotional book by Milburn with illustrations at the Internet Archive
George Washington
George Washington was an American political leader, military general and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. He led Patriot forces to victory in the nation's War of Independence, he presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 which established the new federal government, he has been called the "Father of His Country" for his manifold leadership in the formative days of the new nation. Washington received his initial military training and command with the Virginia Regiment during the French and Indian War, he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses and was named a delegate to the Continental Congress, where he was appointed Commanding General of the nation's Continental Army. Washington allied with France, in the defeat of the British at Yorktown. Once victory for the United States was in hand in 1783, Washington resigned his commission. Washington played a key role in the adoption and ratification of the Constitution and was elected president by the Electoral College in the first two elections.
He implemented a strong, well-financed national government while remaining impartial in a fierce rivalry between cabinet members Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. During the French Revolution, he proclaimed a policy of neutrality while sanctioning the Jay Treaty, he set enduring precedents for the office of president, including the title "President of the United States", his Farewell Address is regarded as a pre-eminent statement on republicanism. Washington utilized slave labor and trading African American slaves, but he became troubled with the institution of slavery and freed them in his 1799 will, he was a member of the Anglican Church and the Freemasons, he urged tolerance for all religions in his roles as general and president. Upon his death, he was eulogized as "first in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen." He has been memorialized by monuments, geographical locations and currency, many scholars and polls rank him among the top American presidents. Washington's great-grandfather John Washington immigrated in 1656 from Sulgrave, England to the British Colony of Virginia where he accumulated 5,000 acres of land, including Little Hunting Creek on the Potomac River.
George Washington was born February 22, 1732 at Popes Creek in Westmoreland County and was the first of six children of Augustine and Mary Ball Washington. His father was a justice of the peace and a prominent public figure who had three additional children from his first marriage to Jane Butler; the family moved to Little Hunting Creek to Ferry Farm near Fredericksburg, Virginia. When Augustine died in 1743, Washington inherited ten slaves. Washington did not have the formal education that his older brothers received at Appleby Grammar School in England, but he did learn mathematics and surveying, he was talented in draftsmanship and map-making. By early adulthood, he was writing with "considerable force" and "precision."Washington visited Mount Vernon and Belvoir, the plantation that belonged to Lawrence's father-in-law William Fairfax, which fueled ambition for the lifestyle of the planter aristocracy. Fairfax became Washington's patron and surrogate father, Washington spent a month in 1748 with a team surveying Fairfax's Shenandoah Valley property.
He received a surveyor's license the following year from the College of Mary. He resigned from the job in 1750 and had bought 1,500 acres in the Valley, he owned 2,315 acres by 1752. In 1751, Washington made his only trip abroad when he accompanied Lawrence to Barbados, hoping that the climate would cure his brother's tuberculosis. Washington contracted smallpox during that trip, which immunized him but left his face scarred. Lawrence died in 1752, Washington leased Mount Vernon from his widow. Lawrence's service as adjutant general of the Virginia militia inspired Washington to seek a commission, Virginia's Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie appointed him as a major in December 1752 and as commander of one of the four militia districts; the British and French were competing for control of the Ohio Valley at the time, the British building forts along the Ohio River and the French doing between Lake Erie and the Ohio River. In October 1753, Dinwiddie appointed Washington as a special envoy to demand that the French vacate territory which the British had claimed.
Dinwiddie appointed him to make peace with the Iroquois Confederacy and to gather intelligence about the French forces. Washington met with Half-King Tanacharison and other Iroquois chiefs at Logstown to secure their promise of support against the French, his party reached the Ohio River in November, they were intercepted by a French patrol and escorted to Fort Le Boeuf where Washington was received in a friendly manner. He delivered the British demand to vacate to French commander Saint-Pierre, but the French refused to leave. Saint-Pierre gave Washington his official answer in a sealed envelope after a few days' delay, he gave Washington's party food and extra winter clothing for the trip back to Virginia. Washington completed the precarious mission in 77 days in difficult winter conditions and achieved a measure of distinction when his report was published in Virginia and London. In February 1754, Dinwiddie promoted Washington to lieutenant colonel and second-in-command of the 300-strong Virginia R
James Hoban
James Hoban was an Irish architect, best known for designing the White House in Washington, D. C. James Hoban was an Irish Catholic raised on an estate belonging to the Earl of Desart in Callan, County Kilkenny, he worked there as a wheelwright and carpenter until his early twenties, when he was given an'advanced student' place in the Dublin Society's Drawing School on Lower Grafton Street. He studied under Thomas Ivory, he excelled in his studies and received the prestigious Duke of Leinster's medal for drawings of "Brackets and Roofs." from the Dublin Society in 1780. Hoban found a position as an apprentice to Ivory, from 1779 to 1785. Following the American Revolutionary War, Hoban emigrated to the United States, established himself as an architect in Philadelphia in 1785. Hoban was in South Carolina by April 1787, where he designed numerous buildings including the Charleston County Courthouse, built on the ruins of the former South Carolina Statehouse. President Washington admired Hoban's work on his Southern Tour, may have met with him in Charleston in May 1791, summoned the architect to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in June 1792.
In July 1792, Hoban was named winner of the design competition for the White House. His initial design seems to have had a 3-story facade, nine bays across. Under Washington's influence, Hoban amended this to a 2-story facade, 11 bays across, and, at Washington's insistence, the whole presidential mansion was faced with stone, it is unclear whether any of Hoban's surviving drawings are from the competition. It is known that Hoban owned at least three slaves who were employed as carpenters in the construction of the White House, their names are recorded as "Ben and Peter" and appear in a James Hoban slave payroll. Hoban was one of the supervising architects who served on the Capitol, carrying out the design of Dr. William Thornton, as well as with The Octagon House. Hoban lived the rest of his life in Washington, D. C. where he worked including roads and bridges. He designed Rossenarra House near the village of Kilmoganny in County Kilkenny, Ireland in 1824. Hoban's wife Susanna Sewall was the daughter of the prominent Georgetown "City Tavern" proprietor.
After the District of Columbia was granted limited home rule in 1802, Hoban served on the twelve-member city council for most of the remainder of his life, except during the years he was rebuilding the White House. Hoban was involved in the development of Catholic institutions in the city, including Georgetown University, St. Patrick's Parish, the Georgetown Visitation Monastery founded by another Kilkenny native, Teresa Lalor of Ballyragget. Hoban died in Washington, D. C. on December 8, 1831. He was buried at Holmead's Burying Ground, but was disinterred and reburied at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D. C, his son James Hoban, Jr. said to be the spitting image of his father, served as district attorney of the District of Columbia. Little has been published to catalogue Hoban's architectural work. Charleston County Courthouse, 82-86 Broad Street, Charleston, SC. Both this building and the White House were modeled on Leinster House, the current Irish Parliament Building, that in the 18th century was the home of the Gaelic Norman Fitzgerald Family, Earls of Kildare.
The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D. C. -. Following the 1814 burning of the White House, Hoban rebuilt the Southern Portico for President James Monroe, the Northern Portico for President Andrew Jackson; the Octagon House, 1799 New York Ave, Washington DC "Prospect Hill", Prospect Hill Plantation, 2695 Laurel Hill Road, Edisto Island, SC 29438 - circa 1790. First Bank of the United States, Third Street, between Chestnut and Walnut Streets, Philadelphia, PA - 1795. McCleery House, 1068 Thirtieth St. NW, Washington, DC, c. 1800. The William Seabrook House, Edisto Island, SC - completed 1810. "Baum-Taft House, 316 Pike Street, Cincinnati, OH - 1820. Oak Hill, in Aldie, Virginia - 1820. Rossenarra House, near the village of Kilmaganny, Ireland - 1824.. Belcamp House - Belcamp College, Malahide road, Dublin 17, Built complete with "oval office"; the college was Established around it in 1893 as a juniorate for the Oblate Fathers, It was built onto the original house but the house still stands intact today.
A mini White House, an overlooked piece of history. Blodget's Union Public Hotel, site of the first General Post Office of the United States, northeast corner of 8th and E Streets, Washington, D. C. - 1783 Wye Hall, Wye Island directly opposite Wye Plantation, Maryland - circa 1787 South Carolina State House, Columbia, S. C. - 1790 The Charleston Theatre and Broad Streets, Charleston, S. C. - 1792 Northeast Executive Building, Fifteenth Street, near The White House Market House, Pennsylvania Avenue and Seventh Street, Washington, D. C. - 1801 St. Patrick’s Church, Corner of 14th and H Streets, NW, Washington, D. C. (Demolished. Now the site of the old Grand Lodge
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the President of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D. C. and has been the residence of every U. S. President since John Adams in 1800; the term "White House" is used as a metonym for the president and his advisers. The residence was designed by Irish-born architect James Hoban in the neoclassical style. Hoban modelled the building on Leinster House in Dublin, a building which today houses the Oireachtas, the Irish legislature. Construction took place between 1800 using Aquia Creek sandstone painted white; when Thomas Jefferson moved into the house in 1801, he added low colonnades on each wing that concealed stables and storage. In 1814, during the War of 1812, the mansion was set ablaze by the British Army in the Burning of Washington, destroying the interior and charring much of the exterior. Reconstruction began immediately, President James Monroe moved into the reconstructed Executive Residence in October 1817.
Exterior construction continued with the addition of the semi-circular South portico in 1824 and the North portico in 1829. Because of crowding within the executive mansion itself, President Theodore Roosevelt had all work offices relocated to the newly constructed West Wing in 1901. Eight years in 1909, President William Howard Taft expanded the West Wing and created the first Oval Office, moved as the section was expanded. In the main mansion, the third-floor attic was converted to living quarters in 1927 by augmenting the existing hip roof with long shed dormers. A newly constructed East Wing was used as a reception area for social events. East Wing alterations were completed in 1946. By 1948, the residence's load-bearing exterior walls and internal wood beams were found to be close to failure. Under Harry S. Truman, the interior rooms were dismantled and a new internal load-bearing steel frame constructed inside the walls. Once this work was completed, the interior rooms were rebuilt; the modern-day White House complex includes the Executive Residence, West Wing, East Wing, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building—the former State Department, which now houses offices for the President's staff and the Vice President—and Blair House, a guest residence.
The Executive Residence is made up of six stories—the Ground Floor, State Floor, Second Floor, Third Floor, as well as a two-story basement. The property is a National Heritage Site owned by the National Park Service and is part of the President's Park. In 2007, it was ranked second on the American Institute of Architects list of "America's Favorite Architecture". Following his April 1789 inauguration, President George Washington occupied two executive mansions in New York City: the Samuel Osgood House at 3 Cherry Street, the Alexander Macomb House at 39–41 Broadway. In May 1790, New York began construction of Government House for his official residence, but he never occupied it; the national capital moved to Philadelphia in December 1790. The July 1790 Residence Act named Philadelphia, Pennsylvania the temporary national capital for a 10-year period while the Federal City was under construction; the City of Philadelphia rented Robert Morris's city house at 190 High Street for Washington's presidential residence.
The first U. S. President occupied the Market Street mansion from November 1790 to March 1797 and altered it in ways that may have influenced the design of the White House; as part of a futile effort to have Philadelphia named the permanent national capital, Pennsylvania built a much grander presidential mansion several blocks away, but Washington declined to occupy it. President John Adams occupied the Market Street mansion from March 1797 to May 1800. On Saturday, November 1, 1800, he became the first president to occupy the White House; the President's House in Philadelphia became a hotel and was demolished in 1832, while the unused presidential mansion became home to the University of Pennsylvania. The President's House was a major feature of Pierre Charles L'Enfant's' plan for the newly established federal city, Washington, D. C.. The architect of the White House was chosen in a design competition which received nine proposals, including one submitted anonymously by Thomas Jefferson. President Washington visited Charleston, South Carolina in May 1791 on his "Southern Tour", saw the under-construction Charleston County Courthouse designed by Irish architect James Hoban.
He is reputed to have met with Hoban then. The following year, he summoned the architect to Philadelphia and met with him in June 1792. On July 16, 1792, the President met with the commissioners of the federal city to make his judgment in the architectural competition, his review is recorded as being brief, he selected Hoban's submission. The building has classical inspiration sources, that could be found directly or indirectly in the Roman architect Vitruvius or in Andrea Palladio styles; the building Hoban designed is verifiably influenced by the upper floors of Leinster House, in Dublin, which became the seat of the Oireachtas. Several other Georgian-era Irish country houses have been suggested as sources of inspiration for the overall floor plan, details like the bow-fronted south front, interior details like the former niches in the present Blue Room; these influences, though undocumented, are cited in the official White House guide, in White
William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman was an American soldier, businessman and author. He served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War, for which he received recognition for his outstanding command of military strategy as well as criticism for the harshness of the scorched earth policies he implemented in conducting total war against the Confederate States. Sherman was born into a prominent political family, he was stationed in California. He married Ellen Ewing Sherman and together they raised eight children. Sherman's wife and children were all devout Catholics, while Sherman was a member of the faith but left it. In 1859, he gained a position as superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy. Living in the South, Sherman grew to respect Southern culture and sympathize with the practice of Southern slavery, although he opposed secession. Sherman began his Civil War career serving with distinction in the First Battle of Bull Run before being transferred to the Western Theater.
He served in Kentucky in 1861, where he acted overly paranoid, exaggerating the presence of spies in the region and providing what seemed to be alarmingly high estimates of the number of troops needed to pacify Kentucky. He was granted leave, fell into depression. Sherman returned to serve under General Ulysses S. Grant in the winter of 1862 during the battles of forts Henry and Donelson. Before the Battle of Shiloh, Sherman commanded a division. Failing to make proper preparations for a Confederate offensive, his men were overrun, he rallied his division and helped drive the Confederates back. Sherman served in the Siege of Corinth and commanded the XV Corps during the Vicksburg Campaign, which led to the fall of the critical Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg on the Mississippi River. After Grant was promoted to command of all Western armies, Sherman took over the Army of the Tennessee and led it during the Chattanooga Campaign, which culminated with the routing of the Confederate armies in the state of Tennessee.
In 1864, Sherman succeeded Grant as the Union commander in the western theater of the war. He proceeded to lead his troops to the capture of the city of Atlanta, a military success that contributed to the re-election of Abraham Lincoln. Sherman's subsequent march through Georgia and the Carolinas further undermined the Confederacy's ability to continue fighting by destroying large amounts of supplies and demoralizing the Southern people; the tactics that he used during this march, though effective, remain a subject of controversy. He accepted the surrender of all the Confederate armies in the Carolinas and Florida in April 1865, after having been present at most major military engagements in the West; when Grant assumed the U. S. presidency in 1869, Sherman succeeded him as Commanding General of the Army, in which capacity he served from 1869 until 1883. As such, he was responsible for the U. S. Army's engagement in the Indian Wars over the next 15 years. Sherman advocated total war against hostile Indians to force them back onto their reservations.
He was skeptical of the Reconstruction era policies of the federal government in the South. Sherman steadfastly refused to be drawn into politics and in 1875 published his Memoirs, one of the best-known first-hand accounts of the Civil War. British military historian B. H. Liddell Hart declared that Sherman was "the first modern general". Sherman was born in 1820 in Lancaster, near the banks of the Hocking River, his father, Charles Robert Sherman, a successful lawyer who sat on the Ohio Supreme Court, died unexpectedly in 1829. He left Mary Hoyt Sherman, with eleven children and no inheritance. After his father's death, the nine-year-old Sherman was raised by a Lancaster neighbor and family friend, attorney Thomas Ewing, Sr. a prominent member of the Whig Party who served as senator from Ohio and as the first Secretary of the Interior. Sherman grew to admire him. Sherman's older brother. One of his younger brothers, John Sherman, served as a U. S. senator and Cabinet secretary. Another younger brother, Hoyt Sherman, was a successful banker.
Two of his foster brothers served as major generals in the Union Army during the Civil War: Hugh Boyle Ewing an ambassador and author, Thomas Ewing, Jr. who would serve as defense attorney in the military trials of the Lincoln conspirators. Sherman would marry his foster sister, Ellen Boyle Ewing, at age 30 and have eight children with her. Sherman's unusual given name has always attracted considerable attention. Sherman reported that his middle name came from his father having "caught a fancy for the great chief of the Shawnees,'Tecumseh'". Since an account in a 1932 biography about Sherman, it has been reported that, as an infant, Sherman was named Tecumseh. According to these accounts, Sherman only acquired the name "William" at age nine or ten, after being taken into the Ewing household, his foster mother, Maria Willis Boyle, was of a devout Roman Catholic. Sherman was raised in a Roman Catholic household, although he left the church, citing the effect of the Civil War on his religious views.
According to a story that may be myth, Sherman was baptized in the Ewing home by a Dominican priest, who named him William for the saint's day: June 25, the feast day of Saint William of Montevergine. The story is contested, however. Sherman wrote in his Memoirs; as a
Christopher Werner
Christopher W. Werner was a nineteenth-century wrought iron manufacturer and entrepreneur based in Charleston, South Carolina, US, he was one of three noted German-American ironworkers in Charleston, who created most of its high-quality wrought iron. He had immigrated from Prussia in his late 20s an accomplished businessman. In Charleston he married a young woman from England, another immigrant, they had a family. Werner is known for crafting the "Iron Palmetto", dedicated to South Carolina's Palmetto Regiment that fought in the Mexican–American War. Erected in 1853, it is the oldest monument on the grounds of the state Capitol, he was influential, completing high-quality iron design and manufacture in Charleston and throughout the state, including gates, architectural ornamentation, balconies. Werner was born in 1805 in the Prussian Westphalia, his father, was a wealthy carriage builder. The young Werner learned his initial blacksmithing skills of iron working in his father's blacksmith shop. Werner became known while still a young man as a carriage maker, wrought iron worker, a businessman.
In Prussia, Werner would have to serve compulsory years in the authoritarian Prussian Army. He decided to emigrate to the United States, he took up residence in Charleston, South Carolina, where he obtained American citizenship by naturalization in 1839. He certainly arrived in America more than five years before that, as the naturalization process at that time took at least five years to complete. In 1841 Werner married Isabella Hanna, an immigrant from Liverpool, England, they had six children, five of whom lived to adulthood, with a son named Bernard dying at the age of six. Their children were literate and some received formal schooling. John Hanna Werner, the youngest son, was sent to Germany for part of his schooling; the children were raised in the Lutheran church. According to the 1850 U. S. Census, in 1850 Werner was 45 years old and his wife about 13 years his junior, with an age of 32; the other family members were Robert H. Werner, Mary Werner, Bernard Werner, Hannah Werner. According to the next census, in 1860 Werner was 55 years old and his wife 14 years his junior, 41 years old, the other family members being Robert Werner, Mary Werner, Jno.
H Werner, Grace Werner, Ann Lee. They lived in Charleston Ward 4, South Carolina. Werner and his wife reared their children in his Lutheran faith. Werner first became a maker of carriages, he added a blacksmith shop, a wheelwright shop, a moulding shop to his business as a carriage maker. His foundry was located in Charleston on the street corner of State, his business soon expanded into a large enterprise throughout the state of South Carolina. Werner had an excellent reputation for quality work, it has been said that his work did not need the modest stamp "Werner, fecit" as the grace and beauty of his work spoke for itself. During the nineteenth-century there was a type of guild of the "mechanic class" in Charleston, a group of men with special skills related to the mechanics of blacksmithing, they constituted a more or less secret society, keeping this "mechanic class" technology information to themselves. It was not shared publicly. Werner liked to remodel older existing buildings; because of this, he was temporarily located at his project while working on the "old house" and the "new house", had his address there.
He moved within different Charleston addresses, but always kept his foundry business address, near State and Cumberland strees, as a permanent one. In 1859 he advertised in one of the Charleston directories, "C. Werner manufacturer of Railings and Fancy Iron Works together with repairing & smithery in all branches... No.17 State, near corner of Cumberland St." Most of his temporary addresses were in the vicinity of his foundry business and located on State Street, Cumberland Street, Meeting Street. Werner strove "to show what could be accomplished in Charleston in the adornment of edifices, to make it worthy of the name of'Queen City of the South.'" He was one of three German immigrants in Charleston who "created an abundance of the mid-nineteenth century ironwork." The other two were Frederick Julius Ortmann. He constructed iron fences and other wrought iron projects all over South Carolina, he was known for his design of business signs, using a wrought iron snake as the figure to hold the sign.
The snake extended in circles from the wall. In the snake's jaws was a sign of the merchant's business. A well-known work of Werner's was the spiral and finial of St. Matthew's Lutheran church on King Street, he made all the wrought ironwork for the Abbeville, South Carolina, county courthouse. He was known for his manufacture in 1853 of the wrought iron Palmetto Monument, located on the Capitol grounds in Columbia. Made of iron and copper, it represented the palmetto tree and commemorated the Palmetto Regiment that had fought in the Mexican–American War; the lifelike tri-colored metal sculpture—"scarcely distinguishable from a real tree"—was designed by Henry Steenken, who worked in Werner's shop. After it was toppled and shattered by a "freak" February 3, 1939, the monument and the plates with the names of the war dead were restored. Werner had made the monument without a commission, as "a speculation." He was relying upon his execution of the sculpture, the tree's importance as a secular and cultural icon, to enable him to be paid for it.
He knew that the state had suffered a l
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