Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-04-05
No Memorial to Designer of Capitol

President Washington had warm admiration
for Dr. Thornton and placed great confidence
in him. In September 1894, he appointed him
one of the three Commissioners Of the District
charged with the erection of the public build
ings and the development of the new Federal
City. This position he held for eight years, ana
as such supervised the work on the Capitol until
it was ready for occupancy in 1900. During the
first two years of construction, however. Hal
lette was engaged under him as the practlcaI
architect Hallette was succeeded by George
Hadfield, an Englishman to whom the atten-
ton of Washington and Thornton had been
directed by John Trumball, who had served as
aide de camp to Washington during the Revolu~
ton and who afterward executed four OF the
large paintings now in the rotunda Of the
Capitol
THORNTON also prepared the plans for Tu-
dor Place, in Georgetown, and for sew
eral other houses of lesser importance in
Washington which have long since been
RACED He possessed, in addition to his archi-
tectural abilities, inventive genius, and before
submitting his plans for the Capitol he had
been engaged in an enterprise to build steam
boats on the Mississippi, years prior to the
time when Robert Fulton took out his patents.
The scheme failed, however, through lack Of
financial support. Thornton maintained in
after life that Fulton was indebted to him
for valuable ideas regarding steamboat con-
struction, which he obtained from an exami-
nation of his (Thornton's) drawings when he
visited him in Washington.
Because of his remarkable ability In many
lines of endeavor. his genius and striking per-
sonality, DR.. Thornton enjoyed great popular
ity in Washington. He on terms OF in
innate personal friendship with Washington,
Jefferson, Adams, Madison and Monroe, as
wen as with other high officials of the Gov
eminent, including members of the Senate and
House. While living at 1881 F street he was
for eight years the close neighbor Of Madison.
His contemporaries said Of him that he had
a well earned reputation for letters and taste;
that he was a w.t. a painter and a poet,
scholar and a gentleman full Of talents and
eccentricity, and well acquainted with me-
chanics and the arts. He was Quaker and
it is told of him that his company was COM
plete antidote for dizziness.
Although born on a small island in the
West Indies, he was educated in medicine in
England and in Paris and afterward travelled
extensively in Europe. His wife was an Eng
Ish woman. They left no children. He was
o great lover of blooded animals and, like
jefferson, imported much breeding stock from
England and France. He kept racing stable
and brought over fine horses from Barbary
He is accredited with several Inventions
chiefly relating to steamboats, and engines. He
designed the mace for the State of Virginia
and produced an elaborate scheme for q
monument to Gen. Washington. He was the
originator of the American colonization move
ment for the purpose of enabling Negroes to
establish a self-sustaining government in
Africa. His philanthropies were as large as
his purse would allow. His portrait hangs in
the Office of the Commissioner of Patents, and
q prominent Washington family possesses a
highly priced miniature of him. Aside from
these, there are no known 1ikenesses in wash
ington of this remarkable man.
DR.. Thornton died in Washington, March %,
1928 In a plain and simple brownstone
Sepulcher his remains lie beside those Of his
talented wife in a remote corner of Congress
sional Cemetery, overlooking the Eastern Branch
OF the Potomac. The inscription on his tomb
gives only his name and the dates of his birth
and of his death The tomb is exactly like
more than 200 others in this burial ground,
erected to receive the remains of members of
Congress who died in Washington while in at
tendance upon their legislative duties. Such
as died here in the early days were buried
there because the lack of embalming and trans
portation facilities made it impracticable to re-
turn the bodies Of deceased statesmen to their
homes remote from Washington.
There in rarely frequented grave sleeps the
man who was the first architect of the Nations
Capitol, the organizer of the Patent Office, the
designer of many historic edifices, genius, in
ventor, scholar, philanthropist and for third
Of a century Washington's most distinguished
resident.