ABSTRACT
Benjamin Henry Latrobe, a young English architect and engineer, immigrated to the United States in 1796. After working in this country for ten years, he wrote to a former student:
Latrobe expected deference, not competition, from the gentlemen and building mechanics he encountered in the United States. He introduced and championed English ideas of professionalism and often claimed the distinction of being the first professional architect and engineer to practice in the United States. Only a professional architect’s design, Latrobe explained to Thomas Jefferson, was a “simultaneous consideration of the purpose, the connection and the construction of his work.”2 The professional alone combined theoretical knowledge with a practical understanding of building.
