Artist Birthday: William Thornton (1759-1828 US)

William Thornton was once called “First Architect” because his design for the US Capitol building was accepted by America’s first president. He is one of the architects responsible for the popularity of Roman and Greek Classical Revival during the first half of the 1800s in the US.

Artist Birthday for 20 May: William Thornton (1759-1828 US)

William Thornton, Octagon House, 1799-1800, Washington, DC  Image © 2026 James Coberle / Davis Art Images   (8s-28552)

The Octagon House in Washington DC is also known as the Colonel John Tayloe III House for whom it was designed. Not an octagon at all, the house is an irregular hexagon with a projecting semicircular bay that contains the circular entrance hall on the main floor. At the time Thornton designed it, American architects were trying to break with the dominant Georgian (late British Baroque) and Roman Revival styles. This new direction in architecture was based on a design philosophy that sought to combine simple, basic geometrical shapes (the influence of Neoclassicism) while using a minimum of unnecessary decoration. Thornton, the Octagon’s architect, traveled extensively in both England and in France and was no doubt into this philosophy. Presented with a building site that did not lend itself readily to a standard solution, Thornton took full advantage of his opportunity and brought to the new Federal City a building of startling freshness and originality. After the burning of the White House during the War of 1812 (1812-1814), President James Madison and his wife lived in the Octagon for several months.

Background 

In Western architecture, the last innovative style was the Gothic (flourished ca. 1200s-1400s).  The discovery of the well-preserved ruins of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii in the mid-1700s excited a revival of designing buildings in the "classical" style (Neoclassicism). This marked the beginning of the revival of almost every major western building style since ancient Egypt. These styles were applied to both public and domestic architecture, with certain styles deemed "appropriate" for certain types of buildings.

The Octagon House was an American invention of the 1800s in domestic architecture. Domestic architecture could take on any of the current revival styles of the time. It was totally dependent on the owner of the house what was considered the most up-to-date or fashionable style. It was often the case that some homeowners, not particularly well-versed in historic architecture, would combine multiple period revival styles in one house.

Although credited as his "invention", octagon houses existed in the US before Thornton came along, but they were few and far between. An outstanding example is Thomas Jefferson’s summer residence Poplar Hill near Lynchburg, VA. Also, there were many octagonal schoolhouses in Pennsylvania built between 1790 and 1840, many of them converted to residences. Architect and author Orson Fowler (1809-1887) promoted the octagonal house into a national fad, started by his 1848 book The Octagon House -- A Home for All.

William Thornton was born in the British West Indies. He received a medical degree from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, but it was his work as an architect for which he is most well known. Becoming an American citizen in 1787, he moved to Washington DC in 1794. He was an amateur architect, who however became known as the "first architect" because his design for the US Capitol was accepted by President George Washington in 1793, who also made Thornton one of the city commissioners.