George Hadfield

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George Hadfield (* 1763 in Florence or Livorno , Grand Duchy of Tuscany ; † February 6, 1826 in Washington, DC , United States ) was an Italian-British-American architect of classicism .

Life

Building of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals , formerly District of Columbia City Hall , built in 1822-1849
Arlington House , built 1802–1804, photo 1900

Hadfield was born into a large family as the son of the English-born innkeeper Charles Hadfield († 1776) and his wife Isabella De Kock († 1810). The father had achieved considerable wealth through several restaurants in Livorno. In Florence the family ran three hotels, in which British aristocrats in particular stayed on their Grand Tour . A tragic accident overshadowed his childhood when a mentally ill nanny killed four of his siblings. One of the siblings who survived the insane act of domestic servants was his sister Maria , who later became an important painter, etcher and teacher.

After his father died in 1776, the mother moved with his siblings to London in 1779 . There he trained as an architect at the Royal Academy of Arts and from James Wyatt , with whom he worked for about six years. In 1784 the Royal Academy of Arts honored him with a gold medal. After a few years, which he spent in Italy, among other places, he emigrated to the United States, where he took part in the construction of the Capitol in Washington, DC - recommended by Benjamin West and John Trumbull - from 1795 by supervising the construction of the Capitol . In the following years he designed several neo-classical buildings there, such as the City Hall (1820) and the Fuller's Hotel and the Arlington House in Arlington County (1802).

literature

  • Julia King: George Hadfield. Architect of the Federal City . Routledge, New York / NY 2016, ISBN 978-1-4724-1274-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hadfield, George , entry in the portal congessionalcemetery.com ( PDF )
personal data
SURNAME Hadfield, George
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian-British-American architect
DATE OF BIRTH 1763
PLACE OF BIRTH Florence or Livorno , Grand Duchy of Tuscany
DATE OF DEATH February 6, 1826
Place of death Washington, DC