William Thornton

From an early age, William Thornton displayed interest and discernible talent in "the arts of design," to employ an 18th-century term that is particularly useful in assessing his career. Thornton was born on Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands, West Indies, in a Quaker community. where he was heir to sugar plantations. He was sent to England at age five to be educated. ==Architect==

United States Capitol is from a laser scan project conducted by nonprofit CyArk. The circular Te Portico that extends into the space of the Saloon is a prominent architectural feature of the house, and one of Thornton's trademarks In 1789, after briefly practicing medicine and pursuing an interest in steamboats, Thornton submitted a design to the architectural competition for the Library Company of Philadelphia's new hall. After more drawings were prepared, enthusiastic praise of Thornton's design was echoed by Secretary of State Jefferson: "simple, noble, beautiful, excellently distributed." For his winning design, Thornton received a prize of $500 and a city lot. The execution of the design was entrusted to the supervision of Étienne Sulpice Hallet and James Hoban, (1758-1831), (who had also submitted designs for the "President's House - later the White House). Hallet proceeded to make numerous revisions, including removing the rotunda under which Washington was to be enshrined upon his death. So, on September 12, 1794 the President appointed Thornton as one of the three "Commissioners of the Federal District" in charge of laying out the new federal city and overseeing construction of the first government buildings, including the Capitol of which he became supervisor and remained in charge until 1802. Despite important changes and additions, (especially the substitution of a lower copper-clad wooden dome during the 1820s to 1856, for Thornton's original design), especially by second Architect of the Capitol, Latrobe and third Architect Bulfinch, much of the design of the façade of the central portion of the Capitol is his. Other works (1800), Washington, DC , Fairfax County, Virginia (1805) (c.1808), Georgetown, Washington, DC (1789, replica constructed 1954), now Library Hall, American Philosophical Society As a consequence of winning the Capitol competition, Thornton was frequently asked to give ideas for public and residential buildings in the Federal City. He responded with designs on several occasions during his tenure as a commissioner, less so after 1802 when he took on the superintendency of the Patent Office. It was during this time he was asked to design a mansion for Colonel John Tayloe. The Tayloe House, also known as The Octagon House, in Washington, D.C., was erected between 1799 and 1800. It served as a temporary "Executive Mansion" after the 1814 burning of the White House by the British and the house's study was where President Madison signed the Treaty of Ghent ending the War of 1812. In 1899, the building was acquired by the American Institute of Architects, whose national headquarters now nestles behind it. Around 1800, he designed Woodlawn for Major Lawrence Lewis (nephew of George Washington) and his wife, Eleanor (Nelly) Parke Custis (granddaughter of Martha Washington), on of Mount Vernon land. Sometime around 1808, he designed Tudor Place for Thomas Peter and his wife, Martha Parke Custis Peter (another granddaughter of Martha Washington). National Register Many buildings designed by Thornton have been added to the National Register of Historic Places including: • Library Company of Philadelphia, 5th & Chestnut Sts., Philadelphia, PA; 1789 (demolished 1887; recreated as Library Hall, American Philosophical Society, 1954) • United States Capitol, Washington, D.C.; 1793 - exempt • Prospect Hill, NE of Long Green on Kanes Road, Baltimore, MD; 1796-1798 - added to registry in 1973 • Prospect House, 3508 Prospect Street NW, Washington, D.C. - added in 1972 • Octagon House, 1741 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C.; 1799 - added in 1966 • Woodlawn, W of jct. of U.S. 1 and Rte. 235, Fairfax, VA, 1800-05 - added in 1970 • Tudor Place, 1644 31st Street, NW, Washington, D.C.; 1816 - added in 1966 ==Founding of the Washington Jockey Club==

In 1802, the Club sought a new site for its track, which at the time lay at the rear of what is now the site of Decatur House at H Street and Jackson Place, crossing Seventeenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue to Twentieth Street (today the Eisenhower Executive Office Building) was being overtaken by the growth of the Federal City. With the leadership of John Tayloe III and Charles Carnan Ridgely and support of Gen. John Peter Van Ness, William Thornton, G.W. P. Custis, John D. Threlkeld of Georgetown and George Calvert of Riversdale, Bladensburg, Maryland, the contests were moved to a new site near Meridian Hill, north of Columbia Road at Fourteenth Street, between present-day Eleventh and Sixteenth Streets. Thornton designed this new track, one mile in circumference, and named it the Washington City Race Course. It sat on land leased from the Holmead family, and lasted until the mid-1840s. ==Superintendent of the Patent Office==

Upon the abolition of the board of Commissioners of the Federal City in 1802, President Jefferson appointed Thornton the first Superintendent of the Patent Office. When Washington was burned by the British in 1814, Thornton convinced them not to burn the Patent Office because of its importance to mankind. He held the position from June 1, 1802, until his death in 1828 in Washington, DC. During his tenure, he introduced innovations including the patent reissue practice, which survives to this day. Some of Thornton's reputation as an inventor is due to abuse of his position in the Patent Office. His improvements to John Fitch's 1788 steamboat are patented but didn't work. When John Hall applied for a patent on a new breech-loading rifle in 1811, Thornton claimed he had also invented it. As proof, he showed Hall a Ferguson rifle, a British gun dating from 1776, refusing to issue the patent unless it was in his name as well as Hall's name. ==Societies==

In 1787, Thornton was elected to the American Philosophical Society. During the 1820s, Thornton was a member of the prestigious society, Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences, who counted among their members former presidents Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams and many prominent men of the day, including well-known representatives of the military, government service, medical and other professions. ==Later life==

In the 1820s, Thornton wrote of having been summoned to Mount Vernon in December 1799, in the hopes that he would be able to treat George Washington, but of having arrived after Washington's death; as a result, he devised a plan to resurrect Washington's frozen corpse by (f)irst to thaw him in cold water, then to lay him in blankets, & by degrees & by friction to give him warmth, and to put into activity the minute blood vessels, at the same time to open a passage to the Lungs by the Trachaea, and to inflate them with air, to produce an artificial respiration, and to transfuse blood into him from a lamb. Thornton's plan was rejected, however, despite "there (being) no doubt in (Thornton's) mind that (Washington's) restoration was possible." Thornton died in 1828 and was buried in Congressional Cemetery in eastern Washington, DC. ==See also==