Charles Bulfinch

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Possibly the best known of all American "colonial" architects, Charles Bulfinch (1763-1844) approached design as an 18th-century amateur gentleman of taste rather than as a 19th-century professional architect.

Charles Bulfinch was born into a well-connected and well-to-do Boston family; his father was a physician and a graduate of Harvard College and Edinburg University. Bulfinch took a degree at Harvard in 1781; then, as soon as political conditions permitted, he took the 18th-century gentleman's grand tour of Europe (1785-1787). On his return, according to his autobiography, he "passed a season of leisure, pursuing no business but giving gratuitous advice in architecture, and looking forward to an establishment in life."

In 1788 he married Hannah Apthorp and designed his first building, the Hollis Street Church in Boston. The following year he provided plans for churches in Taunton and Pittsfield and executed a Revolutionary memorial in Boston, a Roman Doric column of stucco-covered brick, 60 feet high, capped with an eagle doubling as a weather vane (it was destroyed when Beacon Hill was cut away in 1811). In 1792 he designed the statehouse in Hartford, Conn. (still extant though changed in function), and several houses for friends.

All these works were in the fashionable rococo version of the 18th-century classical style popularized in Britain by Robert Adam from the 1760s on, which Bulfinch had seen during his travels in England - heavier and more provincial than the originals, but for that very reason all the more acceptable. They were so well received that Bulfinch was encouraged to erect, on speculation, a 16-house block of uniform proportion, scale, and composition in the manner made famous and fashionable by New Town in Edinburgh, Scotland. Eventually this project, named Tontine Crescent and begun in 1793, was an enormous success, and it set a pattern for similar blocks which give the Beacon Hill area of Boston its distinctive character. But Bulfinch was caught in the brief depression following Jay's Treaty in November 1794 and could not raise enough money to finish it immediately; he went bankrupt in January 1796.

The experience had practical results, which Bulfinch records in his autobiography: "My inexperience and that of my agents in conducting business of this nature … led me to surrender all my property… and I found myself reduced to my personal exertions for support…. " He became de pendent on architectural fees for his living. Fortunately, his reputation was unaffected; his friends rallied round, and he soon had plenty of commissions.

Bulfinch had submitted a plan for the proposed new Massachusetts statehouse in 1787, and in 1795 Governor Samuel Adams authorized construction to proceed under Bulfinch's supervision; the building was completed 3 years later. For Boston he also designed an almshouse (1799), churches (Holy Cross, 1803; New North, 1804; Federal Street, 1809; New South, 1814), markets (Faneuil Hall, 1805; Boylston, 1809), five bank buildings (1800-1815), a prison (Charlestown, 1803-1805), a courthouse (1810), a hospital (1818-1820), and residences (the three for Harrison Gray Otis, built in 1796, 1801, and 1805, are still standing). Recognized as a "genius" who had made fashionable Boston over into his own stylistic image, he received commissions from all over the region and inspired followers and imitators, notably Samuel McIntire and Asher Benjamin.

In 1817 Bulfinch was appointed architect of the Capitol in Washington, D.C.. In all his previous work there had been no fundamental change in his style of architecture, and he remained essentially what he had always been, the gentleman amateur designing in a tasteful variant of the classical mode. That is how he approached the U.S. Capitol. But there, on the national scene, he was forced to meet a new concept of architecture, and it frustrated him. On first studying the drawings of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, one of the original designers, he wrote: "My courage almost failed me … the design is in the boldest stile." As he completed the center section of the Capitol, the design was much more traditional than Latrobe and William Thornton, the other original designer, had envisaged. In particular, Bulfinch was criticized for making the dome higher than they had planned. Yet it was his changes that made the design all the more acceptable generally. As far as the contemporary public was concerned, Bulfinch was the "designer of the Capitol" and, though little is left of his work because of later alterations, he still enjoys that reputation.

During the 1820s Bulfinch executed several more important commissions: a Unitarian church in Washington (1822), a prison in Alexandria, Va. (1826), and a capitol for the new state of Maine, at Augusta (1829, remodeled 1911). He effectively retired about 1829 and died in Boston in 1844.

Further Reading

Two early biographies on which most writings about Bulfinch have been based are Ellen S. Bulfinch, ed., Life and Letters of Charles Bulfinch (1896), and Charles A. Place, Charles Bulfinch, Architect and Citizen (1925). Bulfinch's work on the Capitol is described by Talbot F. Hamlin in Greek Revival Architecture (1944) and Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1955). For a general presentation of Bulfinch's place in the evolution of American architecture see Alan Gowans, Images of American Living (1964).

Boston-born, he was one of the USA's first native-born professional architects. His work tended to combine Colonial Georgian and Adam styles in a frugal Neo-Classicism, prompted by his tour of Europe (1785–7). He designed the old State House, Hartford, CT (1793–6), followed by the Massachusetts State House, Boston (1795–7), clearly influenced by Chambers's Somerset House, London (1776–86). He also designed several unified groups of terrace houses and some churches (including the Church of Christ, Lancaster, MA (1816)), but much has been demolished. From 1818 he was architect to the Federal Capitol in Washington, DC, completing his work there in 1830.

Bibliography

• Bulfinch (1973)
• Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, xxix/2 (May 1970), 124–31
• Kirker (1969)
• P&J (1970–86)
• Place (1968)
• Jane Turner (1996)
• W&K (1983)

The full bibliography for this book is available to download as a pdf file.
Download the bibliography for A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (PDF: 1.2MB)

Charles Bulfinch
Personal information
Name	Charles Bulfinch
Nationality	American
Birth date	August 8, 1763(1763-08-08)
Birth place	Boston, Massachusetts
Date of death	April 15, 1844 (aged 80)
Place of death	Boston, Massachusetts
Work
Significant buildings	Massachusetts State House Harrison Gray Otis House Old Connecticut State House Faneuil Hall University Hall, Harvard United States Capitol Maine State House

Charles Bulfinch (August 8, 1763 – April 15, 1844) was an early American architect, and has been regarded by many as the first native-born American to practice architecture as a profession.^[1]

Bulfinch split his career between his native Boston and Washington, D.C., where he served as Commissioner of Public Building and built the intermediate United States Capitol rotunda and dome. His works are notable for their simplicity, balance, and good taste, and as the origin of a distinctive Federal style of classical domes, columns, and ornament that dominated early 19th-century American architecture.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Gallery of designs 4 See also 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links

Early life

Bulfinch was born in Boston to Thomas Bulfinch, a prominent physician, and his wife, Susan Apthorp. He was educated at Boston Latin School and Harvard University, from which he graduated with an AB in 1781 and Master's degree in 1784. He then made a grand tour of Europe from 1785-1787, where he was influenced by the classical architecture in Italy and the neoclassical buildings of Sir Christopher Wren, Robert Adam, William Chambers and others in the United Kingdom. Thomas Jefferson became something of a mentor to him in Europe, as he would later be to Robert Mills.^[2]

Upon his return to the United States in 1787, he became a promoter of the ship Columbia's voyage around the world under command of Captain Robert Gray (1755–1806). It was the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe. In 1788 he married Hannah Apthorp, his first cousin. Their sons include Thomas Bulfinch (1796–1867), author of Bulfinch's Mythology, and Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch (1809–1870), Unitarian clergyman and author.

Career

Massachusetts State House, completed 1798

Old Connecticut State House, built in 1796

Bulfinch's first building was the Hollis Street Church (1788). Among his other early works are a memorial column on Beacon Hill (1789), the first monument to the American Revolution; the Federal Street theater (1793); the "Tontine Crescent" (built 1793–1794, now demolished), fashioned in part after John Wood's Royal Crescent; the Old State House in Hartford, Connecticut (1796); and the Massachusetts State House (1798).

Over the course of ten years, Bulfinch built a remarkable number of private dwellings in Boston, including a series of three houses in Boston for Harrison Gray Otis (1796, 1800, 1806), and the John Phillips House (1804). He built several churches in Boston, of which New North (built 1802–1804) is the last standing.

Serving from 1791 to 1795 on Boston's board of selectmen, he resigned due to business pressures but returned in 1799. From 1799 to 1817 he was the chairman of Boston's board of selectmen continuously, and served as a paid Police Superintendent, improving the city's streets, drains, and lighting. Under his direction, both the infrastructure and civic center of Boston were transformed into a dignified classical style. Bulfinch was responsible for the design of the Boston Common, the remodeling and enlargement of Faneuil Hall (1805), and the construction of India Wharf. In these Boston years he also designed the Massachusetts State Prison (1803); University Hall for Harvard University (1813–1814); the Meeting House in Lancaster, Massachusetts (1815–17); and the Bulfinch Building of Massachusetts General Hospital (1818), its completion overseen by Alexander Parris, who was working in Bulfinch's office at the time the architect was summoned to Washington.

Despite this great activity and civic involvement, Bulfinch was insolvent several times starting in 1796, including at the start of his work on the statehouse, and was jailed for the month of July 1811 for debt (in a prison he had designed himself). There was no payment for his services as selectman, and he received only $1,400 for designing and overseeing the construction of the State House.

In the summer of 1817, Bulfinch's roles as selectman, designer and public official coincided during a visit by President James Monroe. The two men were almost constantly in each other's company for the week-long visit, and a few months later (1818) Monroe appointed Bulfinch the successor to Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764–1820) as Architect of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. (The Capitol Building had been partially burned by the British in 1814.) In this position he was paid a salary of $2,500 per year plus expenses.

As Commissioner of Public Building, Bulfinch completed the Capitol's wings and central portion, designed the western approach and portico, and constructed the Capitol's original low wooden dome to his own design (replaced by the present cast-iron dome in the mid-1850s). In 1829 Bulfinch completed the construction of the Capitol, 36 years after its cornerstone was laid. During his interval in Washington, Bulfinch also drew plans for the State House in Augusta, Maine (1829–32). He returned to Boston in 1830, where he died on April 15, 1844, aged 80, and was buried in King's Chapel Burial Ground in Boston. His tomb was later moved to Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1943, a United States Liberty ship named the SS Charles Bulfinch was launched. The ship was scrapped in 1971.

Gallery of designs

1st Harrison Gray Otis House, 141 Cambridge Street	2nd Harrison Gray Otis House, 85 Mount Vernon Street	Tontine Crescent, Boston	Faneuil Hall expansion.
University Hall (Harvard University)	Massachusetts General Hospital	Tower, Arlington, Massachusetts	Meeting House, Lancaster, Massachusetts
Maine State House, Augusta, Maine	United States Capitol, 1846	Bulfinch's gravemarker, Mount Auburn Cemetery

See also

• Faneuil Hall
• First Church of Christ, Unitarian
• Harrison Gray Otis House
• Massachusetts State House
• Old State House (Hartford)
• Maine State House
• U.S. Capitol Gatehouses and Gateposts

References

1. ^ Baltzell, Edward Digby. Puritan Boston & Quaker Philadelphia. Transaction Publishers (1996), p. 322-24. ISBN 156000830X.
2. ^ Louis Kronenberger (editor), Brief Lives: A Biographical Guide to the Arts (1972 edition), p. 104.

• Charles Bulfinch: Architect and Citizen, C. A. Place, Da Capo Press, 1968
• The Architecture of Charles Bulfinch, H. Kirker, Harvard University Press, 1998

Further reading

• Ellen Susan Bulfinch, Life and Letters of Charles Bulfinch, Architect; Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York 1896

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Category:Charles Bulfinch

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Bulfinch, Charles.

• Charles Bulfinch's Photo & Gravesite
• Walking Tour of Charles Bulfinch's works on Beacon Hill
• Salem Old Town Hall, designed by Charles Bulfinch
• Digital archive of American architecture: Charles Bulfinch

v • d • e Architect of the Capitol Architects William Thornton • Benjamin Latrobe • Charles Bulfinch • Thomas U. Walter • Edward Clark • Elliott Woods • David Lynn • J. George Stewart • George M. White • Alan M. Hantman

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