Editing United States Capitol (section)

===18th century===
{{Further|United States Capitol cornerstone laying}}
Prior to establishing the nation's capital in [[Washington, D.C.]], the [[United States Congress]] and its predecessors met at [[Independence Hall]] and [[Congress Hall]] in [[Philadelphia]], [[Federal Hall]] in [[New York City]], and five additional locations: [[York, Pennsylvania]], [[Lancaster, Pennsylvania]], the [[Maryland State House]] in [[Annapolis, Maryland]], and [[Nassau Hall]] in [[Princeton, New Jersey]], and [[Trenton, New Jersey]].<ref>See [[List of capitals in the United States]]</ref> In September 1774, the [[First Continental Congress]] brought together delegates from the [[Thirteen Colonies|colonies]] in Philadelphia, followed by the [[Second Continental Congress]], which met from May 1775 to March 1781.

After adopting the [[Articles of Confederation]] in York, Pennsylvania, the [[Congress of the Confederation]] was formed and convened in Philadelphia from March 1781 until June 1783, when a mob of angry soldiers converged upon Independence Hall, demanding payment for their service during the [[American Revolutionary War]]. Congress requested that [[John Dickinson (delegate)|John Dickinson]], the [[Governor of Pennsylvania]], call up the [[Militia (United States)|militia]] to defend Congress from attacks by the protesters. In what became known as the [[Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783]], Dickinson sympathized with the protesters and refused to remove them from Philadelphia. As a result, Congress was forced to flee to [[Princeton, New Jersey]], on June 21, 1783,<ref>{{cite book | last=Crew | first=Harvey W. |author2=William Bensing Webb |author3=John Wooldridge | title=Centennial History of the City of Washington, D. C. | publisher=United Brethren Publishing House | year=1892 | location=[[Dayton, Ohio]] | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_5Q81AAAAIAAJ | page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_5Q81AAAAIAAJ/page/n73 66]}}</ref> and met in [[Annapolis, Maryland]], and [[Trenton, New Jersey]], before ending up in New York City.

The U.S. Congress was established upon [[History of the United States Constitution|ratification]] of the [[United States Constitution|U.S. Constitution]] and formally began on March 4, 1789. New York City remained home to Congress until July 1790,<ref>Allen (2001), p. 4</ref> when the [[Residence Act]] was passed to pave the way for a permanent capital. The decision of where to locate the capital was contentious, but [[Alexander Hamilton]] helped broker a compromise in which the federal government would take on war debt incurred during the American Revolutionary War, in exchange for support from [[Northeastern United States|northern states]] for locating the capital along the [[Potomac River]]. As part of the legislation, Philadelphia was chosen as a temporary capital for ten years (until December 1800), until the nation's capital in Washington, D.C., would be ready.<ref>Allen (2001), p. 4–7</ref>

[[Pierre L'Enfant]] was charged with creating [[L'Enfant Plan|the city plan]] for the new capital city and the major public buildings.<ref>L'Enfant identified himself as "Peter Charles L'Enfant" during most of his life, while residing in the United States. He wrote this name on his [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3850.ct000512 "Plan of the city intended for the permanent seat of the government of t(he) United States ...."] (Washington, D.C.) and on other legal documents. However, during the early 1900s, a French ambassador to the U.S., [[Jean Jules Jusserand]], popularized the use of L'Enfant's birth name, "Pierre Charles L'Enfant". (Reference: Bowling, Kenneth R (2002). ''Peter Charles L'Enfant: vision, honor, and male friendship in the early American Republic.'' George Washington University, Washington, D.C. {{ISBN|978-0-9727611-0-9}}). The [[United States Code]] states in {{USC|40|3309}}: "(a) In General.{{snd}}The purposes of this chapter shall be carried out in the District of Columbia as nearly as may be practicable in harmony with the plan of Peter Charles L'Enfant." The [[National Park Service]] identifies L'Enfant as "[http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/Wash/text.htm#washington Major Peter Charles L'Enfant]" and as "[http://www.nps.gov/history/Nr/travel/presidents/washington_monument.html Major Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant]" on its website.</ref> The Congress House would be built on Jenkins Hill, now known as [[Capitol Hill]], which L'Enfant described as a "pedestal awaiting a monument."<ref>{{cite web | url=http://uschscapitolhistory.uschs.org/articles/uschs_dome-02.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081023082234/http://uschscapitolhistory.uschs.org/articles/uschs_dome-02.htm | archive-date=October 23, 2008 | title=U.S. Capitol Historical Society &#124; CAPITOL HISTORY }}</ref> L'Enfant connected Congress House with the President's House via [[Pennsylvania Avenue]] with a width set at 160 feet, identical to the narrowest points of the [[Champs-Élysées]] in Paris. Westwards was a 400-foot-wide (122 m) garden-lined "grand avenue" containing a public walk (later known as the [[National Mall]]) that would travel for about 1 mile (1.6&nbsp;km) along the east–west line.

The term "Capitol" (from Latin ''Capitolium'') originally denoted the [[Capitoline Hill]] in Rome and the [[Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus|Temple of Jupiter]] that stood on its summit.<ref>{{Cite OED|Capitol|6242540895}}</ref> The Roman Capitol was sometimes misconceived of as a meeting place for senators, and this led the term to be applied to legislative buildings; the first such building was the [[Capitol (Williamsburg, Virginia)|Williamsburg Capitol]] in [[Virginia]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=Naming the Capitol and the Capital |first=George W. |last=Hodgkins |journal=Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C. |volume=60/62 |year=1960 |pages=36–53 |jstor=40067217}}</ref> [[Thomas Jefferson]] had sat here as a member of the [[House of Burgesses]], and it was he who applied the name "Capitol" to what on L'Enfant's plan had been called the "Congress House".<ref name=Kornwolf>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4bHwImC-UOUC&pg=PA1522|page=1552|title=The Creation of the Federal City: Washington|series=Architecture and Town Planning in Colonial North America: Vol. 3|first1=James D|last1=Kornwolf|first2=Georgiana Wallis|last2=Kornwolf|location=Baltimore, Maryland|publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press|year=2002|isbn=0801859867|oclc=45066419|access-date=October 29, 2016|quote=A final legacy of Jefferson's vision of the city is found in correspondence between him and L'Enfant. Jefferson consistently called the building to house Congress, the "Capitol," whereas L'Enfant just as consistently referred to it as "Congress House."}} ''At'' [[Google Books]].</ref> "Capitol" has since become a general term for government buildings, especially in the United States. It is often confused with "capital"; one, however, denotes a building or complex of buildings, while the other denotes a city.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Capitol |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/capitol |dictionary=Merriam-Webster |access-date=July 21, 2022}} and {{cite encyclopedia |title=Capital |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/capital |dictionary=Merriam-Webster |access-date=July 21, 2022}}</ref>

L'Enfant secured the lease of [[Quarry|quarries]] at [[Public Quarry at Government Island|Wigginton Island]] and along [[Aquia Creek]] in [[Virginia]] for use in the [[Foundation (architecture)|foundation]]s and outer walls of the Capitol in November 1791.<ref name="morgan-p120">{{cite journal | author=Morgan, J.D. | title=Maj. Pierre Charles L'Enfant | journal=Records of the Columbia Historical Society | year=1899 | volume=2 | page=120}}</ref> Surveying was under way soon after the Jefferson conference plan for the Capitol was accepted.<ref name="Allen 2001, p. 23"/> On September 18, 1793, President Washington, along with eight other Freemasons dressed in [[Freemasonry|masonic]] regalia, [[United States Capitol cornerstone laying|laid the cornerstone]], which was made by [[silversmith]] [[Caleb Bentley]].<ref>Hazelton (1907), p. 84</ref><ref>{{cite book | last=Allen | first=William C. | title=In the Greatest Solemn Dignity: The Capitol's Four Cornerstones | publisher=Government Printing Office | year=1995 | page=7}}</ref>

In early 1792, after [[Pierre L'Enfant]] was dismissed from the federal city project, Jefferson proposed a design competition to solicit designs for the Capitol and the "President's House", and set a four-month deadline. The prize for the competition was $500 and a lot in the Federal City. At least ten individuals submitted designs for the Capitol; however the drawings were regarded as crude and amateurish, reflecting the level of architectural skill present in the United States at the time.<ref>Allen (2001), p. 13–15</ref> 

The most promising of the submissions was by [[Étienne Sulpice Hallet|Stephen Hallet]], a trained French architect who was a draftsman to Pierre L'Enfant on the city plan.<ref>Frary (1969), p. 28</ref> However, Hallet's designs were overly fancy, with too much French influence, and were deemed too costly.<ref>Allen (2001), p. 18</ref> 
However, the design did incorporate the concept for a "great circular room and dome" which had originated with L'Enfant. [[John Trumbull]] was given a tour of "Jenkins Hill" by L'Enfant himself and confirmed this in his autobiography years later.

[[File:Flickr_-_USCapitol_-_Thornton_Capitol_Winning_Design.jpg|thumb|William Thornton's approved design for the Capitol, 1793]]
On January 31, 1793, a late entry by amateur architect [[William Thornton]] was submitted, and was met with praise for its "Grandeur, Simplicity, and Beauty" by Washington, along with praise from Jefferson. Thornton was inspired by the [[east front of the Louvre]], as well as the [[Pantheon, Paris|Paris Pantheon]] for the center portion of the design.<ref>Allen (2001), p. 19</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/adecenter/essays/B-Thornton.html | title=William Thornton (1759–1828) | publisher=Library of Congress | access-date=July 7, 2007 }}</ref> Thornton's design was officially approved in a letter dated April 5, 1793, from Washington, and Thornton served as the first [[architect of the Capitol]] (and later first superintendent of the [[U.S. Patent and Trademark Office]]).<ref>Frary (1969), p. 33</ref> In an effort to console Hallet, the commissioners appointed him to review Thornton's plans, develop cost estimates, and serve as superintendent of construction. Hallet proceeded to pick apart and make drastic changes to Thornton's design, which he saw as costly to build and problematic.<ref>Frary (1969), p. 34–35</ref> 

In July 1793, Jefferson convened a five-member commission, bringing Hallet and Thornton together, along with [[James Hoban]] (winning architect of the "President's Palace") to address problems with and revise Thornton's plan. Hallet suggested changes to the floor plan, which could be fitted within the exterior design by Thornton.<ref name="Allen 2001, p. 23">Allen (2001), p. 23</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JefThom.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=178&division=div2 | work=Thomas Jefferson and the National Capital | title=Letter: Jefferson to Washington | date=July 17, 1793 | author=Jefferson, Thomas | publisher=University of Virginia | access-date=December 11, 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110221135738/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JefThom.sgm&images=images%2Fmodeng&data=%2Ftexts%2Fenglish%2Fmodeng%2Fparsed&tag=public&part=178&division=div2 | archive-date=February 21, 2011 | url-status=dead | df=mdy-all }}</ref> The revised plan was accepted, except that Secretary Jefferson and President Washington insisted on an open [[Alcove (architecture)|recess]] in the center of the East front, which was part of Thornton's original plan.<ref>Frary (1969), p. 36</ref>

The original design by Thornton was later significantly altered by [[Benjamin Henry Latrobe]], and later [[Charles Bulfinch]].<ref name=WDL1>{{cite web | title=United States Capitol, Washington, D.C.: East Front Elevation, Rendering | url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/17 | publisher=[[World Digital Library]] | access-date=February 13, 2013 }}</ref> The [[United States Capitol dome|current cast-iron dome]] and the House's new southern extension and [[United States Senate|Senate]] new northern wing were designed by [[Thomas Ustick Walter]] and [[August Schoenborn]], a German immigrant, in the 1850s,<ref>{{cite web | last=Woods | first=Robert O. | url=http://www.memagazine.org/contents/current/features/capdome/capdome.html | title=Under the Capitol Dome | work=Mechanical Engineering Magazine | publisher=The American Society of Mechanical Engineers | date=June 2003 | access-date=December 11, 2008 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090126092928/http://www.memagazine.org/contents/current/features/capdome/capdome.html | archive-date=January 26, 2009 | df=mdy-all }}</ref> and were completed under the supervision of [[Edward Clark (architect)|Edward Clark]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.aoc.gov/cc/capitol/capitol_construction.cfm | title=A Brief Construction History of the Capitol | publisher=Architect of the Capitol}}</ref>

Construction proceeded with Hallet working under supervision of [[James Hoban]], who was also busy working on construction of the "President's House" (also later known as the "Executive Mansion"). Despite the wishes of Jefferson and the President, Hallet went ahead anyway and modified Thornton's design for the East Front and created a square central court that projected from the center, with flanking wings which would house the legislative bodies. Hallet was dismissed by Secretary Jefferson on November 15, 1794.<ref>Frary (1969), p. 37–39</ref> [[George Hadfield (architect)|George Hadfield]] was hired on October 15, 1795, as Superintendent of Construction, but resigned three years later in May 1798, because of his dissatisfaction with Thornton's plan and quality of work done thus far.<ref>Frary (1969), p. 44–45</ref>