It appears that James Hoban (circa 1760–1831) was born with a gift for architecture. Born in Kilkenny, Ireland, he grew up on the estate of the Earl of Desart. His family didn’t own the estate, rather, they were tenant farmers or laborers there. His upbringing was very modest, and he seems to have received an equally modest education. His ability as a young apprentice carpenter, however, brought him some local notoriety, ultimately landing him a seat to study at the Dublin Society’s School of Architectural Design in the late 1770s.
The mission of the Dublin Society was “to encourage husbandry, manufactures and other useful arts.” The “useful art” Hoban gravitated toward was architecture. For one of his drawings, he was awarded the Duke of Leinster medal in 1780. Noting Hoban’s talent, Thomas Ivory, the architectural design school’s principal, hired the young artisan as an apprentice.
Coming to America
In the spring of 1785, Hoban arrived in Philadelphia. He began work as a carpenter, but his time in Philadelphia was brief. He moved to Charleston in the spring of 1787 and began a working partnership with Pierce Purcell, a master carpenter and a fellow Irishman. Hoban and Purcell opened a drawing school in Charleston, and one of their students was Robert Mills, who designed the Washington Monument.
The year before Washington visited Charleston, the president signed the Residence Act of 1790. The act established Philadelphia as the temporary capital of the nation from 1790 to 1800, while construction would begin for the nation’s new capital: Washington.
Hoban’s Design
Pierre Charles L‘Enfant was hired to design the capital city. L’Enfant envisioned “a grand capital of wide avenues, public squares and inspiring buildings in what was then a district of hills, forests, marshes and plantations.” He laid the groundwork for how the city would be laid out, but his refusal to comply with building commissioners, specifically regarding his design of the U.S. Capitol—a design he kept “in his head”—resulted in his dismissal (or resignation) in 1792.
Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson suggested to the commissioners a design competition for the capitol building and the executive mansion. Although no one won the competition for the capitol building, Hoban’s design of the executive mansion (“President’s House” or “President’s Palace”) was selected. The prize for winning the competition, aside from the honor of having one’s design selected, was $500 (about $16,500 today), or a medal of equal value, and a lot in Washington.
Hoban’s design appears to reflect a building he would have known quite well: the Leinster House in Dublin. Hoban preferred the Georgian style, and this would leave a lasting legacy on his new home country.
More Than the Mansion
While working to construct the President’s House, Hoban was selected as a member of a new commission, established to oversee the design of the capitol building (a design by Scottish-trained William Thornton that had been at least partially accepted after the expiration of the competition). He supervised the construction of the capitol’s North Wing completed in 1800.Although the interior of the executive mansion was far from complete, the building itself was completed in November 1800. John and Abigail Adams, the second president and first lady, were the first to make the mansion the president’s residence. About a dozen years later, during the War of 1812, the British set ablaze the President’s House, along with many buildings in Washington. Hoban was commissioned to rebuild the mansion according to his original design, along with other executive office buildings.
Hoban didn’t just design and build public buildings. He also designed Washington’s Great Hotel, owned by Samuel Blodget Jr. and the “largest privately owned building in Washington, D.C.” He was also the architect behind the second construction of Saint Patrick Catholic Church in Washington, which stood from 1809 to 1870. Lastly, he was the architect for James Monroe’s retirement home, Oak Hill, in Loudon County, Virginia.
The reason there is much supposition about all that Hoban designed and built is because most of his records were destroyed in a fire in the 1880s. In fact, there’s no surviving portrait of Hoban. The closest image of Hoban’s likeness available is the wax bas-relief on glass portrait by the German sculptor, John Christian Rauschner. The image was acquired in 1976 by the White House Historical Association.
One-hundred and fifty years after his death, the U.S. Postal Service and the Irish Post Office coordinated to create a “James Hoban Commemoration Stamp.”
