James Hoban

James Hoban , c.1762-1831, American architect, b. Ireland. By 1789, Hoban had immigrated to the United States. He designed the South Carolina statehouse, which was burned in 1865. In 1792 he moved to Washington, D.C., and won the competition for the design of a mansion for the President (later called the White House), which he built from 1792 to 1799 and rebuilt after it was burned by the British in 1814. He was one of the supervising architects who served at the Capitol in the execution of Dr. William Thornton's design, and he worked on public buildings for more than 25 years.

Hoban, James (c.1758–1831). Irish-born, he emigrated to America in 1785. He won the competition to design the President's House, Washington, DC, with a proposal (1792) originally based on Leinster House, Dublin, but altered at the request of Washington and Jefferson. As built, the White House, (1793–1801, rebuilt 1814–29) was derived from plate 41 of Gibbs's A Book of Architecture (1728). His other Washington buildings (hotels, houses, and Government buildings) no longer exist.

Bibliography

Architecture, xi (1981), 66–82;
ARe xi (1901), 581–9;
Dictionary of American Biography (1932);
Goode (1979);
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, xxviii/2 (May 1969), 135–6;
Maddex (1973);
Reiff (1977);
Ryan & and Guinness (1980)