William Nichols (architect)
William Nichols, Sr. was an English-born architect who emigrated to the United States and became most famous for his early Neoclassical-style buildings in the American South. He designed statehouses for North Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi.
Old Mississippi State Capitol building in 2010
Hayes Plantation House, completed in 1817 in Edenton, North Carolina.
The Old Alabama State Capitol building in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Completed during the late-1820s and destroyed in 1923. Stabilized ruins of the central rotunda and architectural fragments remain in situ.
The Mississippi Governors Mansion, completed in 1839. Still used for its intended purpose.
North Carolina State House
The North Carolina State House was built from 1792 to 1796 as the state capitol for North Carolina. It was located at Union Square in the state capital, Raleigh, in Wake County. The building was extensively renovated in the neoclassical style by William Nichols, the state architect, from 1820 to 1824. On December 24, 1821, the statue of George Washington by Antonio Canova was displayed in the rotunda. Both were destroyed by fire in 1831.
Watercolor by William Goodacre
Watercolor by J.S. Glennie of original two-story brick state house, 1811
Watercolor by Jacob Marling depicting renovated state house, 1825
Canova's George Washington in the rotunda
