Robert Mills (architect)

From Freepedia

For other persons of the same name please see Robert Mills (disambiguation).

Robert Mills (1781 - 1855) is sometimes called the first native born American to become a professional architect; Charles Bulfinch perhaps has a clearer claim to this honor. In Charleston, South Carolina, he was student under Irish architect James Hoban, who later designed the White House, which became the official home of US presidents.

He moved to Philadelphia in 1802, where he became an associate and student of Benjamin Henry Latrobe. He gradually became known in his own right. Philadelphia buildings that he designed are Washington Hall, Samson Street Baptist Church, and the Octogon Unitarian Church. He also designed the Upper Ferry Bridge covering.

Moving to Baltimore, he designed St. John's Episcopal Church, the Maryland House of Industry, and the Maryland Club. He is noted for designing the first Washington Monument in Baltimore, which began construction in 1815. In the next few years he designed numerous buildings in South Carolina, Richmond, Virginia and Washington. In 1825 he published an atlas of South Carolina. In 1836 he won the competition for the design of the Washington Monument, his best known work.

He also designed the Department of Treasury building and several other federal buildings in Washington, D. C.. In South Carolina, he designed county courthouses in at least 18 counties, some of the public buildings in Columbia, and a few private homes. He also designed portions of the Landsford Canal, Chester County, on the Catabwa River in SC.

Mills was an early advocate of designing buildings so as to be fireproof. A fire in Kingstree, South Carolina destroyed much of the upper floor of a courthouse that he designed, but the county records on the first floor were protected due to his fireproofing measures.

For further reading

• Robert Mills: America's First Architect, by John Bryan, Princeton Architectural Press.