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The White House
Washington, D.C. USA
James Hoban
James Hoban, 1762-1831, was born in Desart, near Callan,
County Kilkenny, Ireland. Hoban was raised at Cuff esgrange,
Co Kilkenny where he learned carpentry skills. He studied
architecture at the Royal Dublin Society.
During the American Revolutionary War, Hoban
emigrated to the United States, and established himself as
an architect in Philadelphia in 1781. Hoban moved to South
Carolina in 1787, with his brothers Philip and Joseph; he
lived there for at least six more years.
We know little of Hoban’s life in South Carolina
except that he formed a partnership with carpenter
Pierce Purcell and became well known among the
gentry for his ability as an architect and builder. He
was a founding vestryman in 1791 of Saint Mary’s
Church, the fi rst Catholic church established in the
Carolinas. Among Hoban’s references were some
of the most prominent citizens of Charleston: Henry
Laurens, a close friend of President George Washington;
fellow Irishman Aedanus Burke; and American
Revolutionary War General William Moultrie.
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Hoban’s name has been connected with public buildings
and plantation houses in the Charleston area, most notably
the historic Charleston County Courthouse and the William
Seabrook house. Another prominent building in Charleston,
actually documented as a Hoban design, was a 1,200-seat
theater on Savage’s Green that no longer survives.
The plan of Washington
In 1791 President George Washington appointed Pierre
Charles L’Enfant to design the new capital city. L’Enfant’s
plan was based on a grid, with streets traveling north-
south and east-west. Diagonal avenues, which came to
be named after the states, crossed the grid, intersecting
with the grid to form plazas. The overall eff ect aimed to
establish a city with direction and character.
To be connected in a straight line by an avenue
160 feet wide, L’Enfant selected two high spots – Jenkins Hill
for the “Congress House” and a second hill a mile and a
half away for the “President’s Palace”. The avenue,
though no longer a straight line since an addition
to the Treasury building in 1840 eff ectively blocked it,
became Pennsylvania Avenue.
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As described above, the pattern of radiating
avenues was joined and fi lled by a gridiron matrix
of streets, which were numbered to the east
and west and lettered to the north and south –
excluding J Street, which L’Enfant omitted to avoid
confusion with the letters I and J that were indistinguishable
and often interchangeable at the time, according to a
1994 Washington Post Magazine article.
Although L’Enfant’s design became the basis for land
sales, construction and planning, President Washington
fi red him a year after he was hired because L’Enfant
“forged ahead regardless of his orders, the budget, or
landowners with prior claims”.
stone, so that it would have a more substantial appearance,
much like the most important buildings in Europe. The
young nation had never seen anything like it, and that was
what Washington liked about it. The building was to be
more than the home and o
ce of the president; it was to
be a symbol of the presidency. A republic could not have
a king’s palace, but the building must command respect
from citizens in the United States and, just as importantly,
foreign visitors who came to visit America’s leader.
On July 16, 1792, President Washington examined
at least six designs submitted in the President’s House
architectural competition. The plans were quite varied.
One of the designs was by James Hoban, an Irishman
whom the president had met a year earlier in Charleston. A
second plan was submitted by a mysterious man known
only as “A.Z.”. Historians have speculated that Thomas
Jeff erson was the mystery designer, but records suggest
that the architect in question was more likely John Collins,
a builder from Richmond, Virginia. A third of the six
designs is by James Dimond, a Maryland inventor.
The design competition
In 1792, at Washington’s request, Secretary of State Thomas
Jeff erson announced an architectural competition to
produce design drawings for the President’s House.
Washington insisted that the building should be made of
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President Washington sought out Hoban, conferred with
him, and quickly selected the architect’s proposed de-
sign for the President’s House in July 1792.
Thomas Jeff erson, himself of Irish descent, must
have gained particular pleasure as the second occupant
of the White House in Washington, which was doubtless
inspired by Irish Palladianism. Both Castle Coole and
Leinster House in Dublin claim to have inspired James Hoban.
The Palladianism of the White House is interesting as it
is almost an early form of neoclassicism, especially the
South facade, which closely resembles James Wyatt’s
design for Castle Coole of 1790, also in Ireland. Ironically,
the North facade lacks one of the fl oors from Leinster
House, while the Southern facade is given one fl oor more
than Castle Coole, and has an external staircase more in
the Palladian manner.
Time, and occupants, have altered the White
House in many ways. However, the White House image
is Hoban’s entirely. It is a handsome residence,
embellished with unquestionably the fi nest architectural
stone carving produced in America at that time. And when
Hoban rebuilt it, following the fi re in 1814, he was ordered
to make it as it had been, which he did, perpetuating the
image and his own claim to a place in history.
Hoban died on December 8, 1831. He is buried at
Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
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