washington's been doing lately. get behind the curtain and not as well reported in the media, hich is shaking hands on some of the key principles of a state pening up data, encouraging collaboratives who work around standards, issuing challenges, and so forth. opportunity at the to have a more open government starts with a bipartisan that ment to lay foundation. but what's critical and offvative is you're handing to the american people, entrepreneurs and innovators, private, state, local levels of government to take that raw data and build more interesting services. d >> monday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span unicators 2. 200 years ago during the war of 1812, british soldiers invaded washington, d.c. on august 24, 1814. and set fire to the white house and u.s. capitol building. president james madison and lady dolly madison fled

the city. scott, co-author of "buildings of the district of spoke at a e symposium at the white house historical association, u.s. society and rical james madison's montpelier. hour.poke for about an >> thank you. thank you. our next speaker will be pamela scott, and pam is an old friend. i have known her for many, many years, and she is, i think, the authority on the history of public buildings in washington, d.c. she has been an architectural historian here in washington specializing in the architectural landscape and planning histories of the city and i have learned a tremendous amount from her over the years. some of her books include "the temple of liberty," "buildings of the district of columbia,"

"designing the nation's capit capitol", and "the fortress of finance," and pam is going to talk about benjamin henry latrobe's work at the capitol. and, of course, latrobe is also the architect of decatur house and st. john's across the square, and so hopefully you'll learn a great deal about this architectural genius this afternoon and enjoy the house tonight at the reception. thank you. come on, pam. [ applause ]

>> thank you very much, bill. your friendship over the years has meant a great deal to me as well. i want to add my thanks to the many, many thanks to the people who have organized this wonderful symposium. i have learned so much and have enjoyed it so much and i'm sure that we all feel that way about what is almost over but still ongoing. today i'm talking about benjamin henry latrobe's capitol. i am an architectural historian, and i hope that i have watered down a little bit of my rhetoric enough so that i can understandable to you all. the burning of the capitol on august 24th, 1814, was a are

pref rather than a disaster for benjamin henry latrobe. he now had the unexpected opportunity to repair some of his capitol's interiors and rebuild others into exemplars of greek revivala tu architecture. during his first tenure, latrobe was constrained by william thornton's 1792 winning design for the exterior envelope and steven hallot's for the interior's. a succession of short-term architects finished much of the senate wing before latrobe's arrival. the capitol latrobe inherited was that wing and the orven, th oval hall built in 1801 to accommodate the house of representatives. all these designs were a fusion of 18th century ne-yo class simple derived from roman and renaissance architecture as interpreted by italian, french, and english sources, as well as

ancient ones depending on the education and tastes of the various architects involved. latrobe disliked the capitol he inherited. on both aesthetic and ideological grounds. fortunately, its decade long halting construction proved to be poor and he was able to rebuild the senate ring's interiors and to build much of the house wing before construction was halted by the war in 1812. missed one of my slides. this is latrobe -- this is thornton's exterior on your left and then hallot's interior plan. note on the interior plan the oval rooms for both the house and the senate. latrobe soon found himself in 1803 supported and bedeviled in

his collaboration with president thomas jefferson who had been involved with designs for the capitol since 1791. president washington had sanctioned hallots oval so their shapes remained in force when latrobe made this plan for the capitol in 1806. jefferson collaborated in the redesign of the east frond which added a monumental staircase labeled into the rotunda labeled hall of the people in latrobe's plan. in may 1807 while in battle with jefferson over the house chaimer's vaulting, latrobe expressed to the president his fundamental architecture credo. my principles of good taste are rigid. ingretion architecture i am a bigoted greek. so the condemnation of the roman architecture of balba, all the buildings erected subsequent to

hadrian's reign. he admired the bold plans of early romana ter tour but thinks their details absurd beyond tolerance. wherever therefore the style can be copied without impropriety, i love to be a mirror, i would say a slavist copyist but the forms and distribution of the roman and greek buildings which remain are in general inapplicable to the objects and uses of our public buildings. our government, our legislative assemblies, and our courts of justice buildings are based on entirely different principles from their basilicas and our amusements could not possibly be performed in their theaters or amphitheaters. yet despite these caveats, latrobe went on to infuse the capitol's rebuilt interiors and his new ones with direct references to greek architectural forms, greek

architectural orders, and sculptural decorations. he adapted them, however, to his own purposes as he integrated them with other historical traditions. he had pioneered the revival of greek architecture in america in 1798 and even took it upon himself to educate congressmen about correct principles of public architecture. latrobe's 1815 plan that you see here made after the fire depicts his semi circular senate chamber he had built during his first campaign and his new designed semicircular plan for the house of representatives to replace the one destroyed by the british. he conceived both as ancient theaters. the best shape for seeing and hearing in both chambers. in november 1816 latrobe penned a diatribe against those american architects who were

said to be building in a taste. it unites the most elegant proportions with the most severe simplicity. he condemned these architects for being the copyists of the absurdities of the rowman luxury of the age when taste and morals were in the decline. in veiled references to thornton's capitol exterior and the president's house, he noted even our national buildings remind us of the palaces of you're pen kings by the taste of their external decorations rather than of athenian freedom by their beautiful, magnificent, and permanent simplicity. he concluded his essay by defining architecture as combining the most exalted science with the most perfect art to achieve the most perfect record of the public spirit, the wealth, the civilization, and the taste of nations. latrobe hoped the capitol would

be his most lasting architecture legacy in america and wanted to make his position about its architecture hodge gem ni clear for posterity. in 1810, 1811, latrobe redesigned part of the capitol's exteriors to be more in accord with his greek revival interior spaces. he planned a new west entrance in the form of a greek portico based on the entrance to the athenian acropolis but altered its intercolumn nation and added features from other athenian buildings. the main purpose was to provide housing for the door keepers of the senate and the house while freeing up space for the committee rooms but also to improve the pedestrian approach to the capitol from the mall. the massiveness of his six greek doric columns 32 feet high vibed with a slightly taller

corinthian capped columns in the loggia dictated by thornton's original choice. the sandstone walls of the capit capitol's wings were already painted white but latrobe's watercolor depicted his in the stone's natural light brown color. he may have intended it to remain unpainted in order to visually separate the capitol's two distinctly different historical sources, roman and greek. instead of the open bal strayeds atop the house and senate wings, latrobe planned solid ones for his center building. he designed a monumental statue of athena as american liberty for its central stepped podium, a reference to the cult statue of athena in the part none. the greek athena wore a helmet, her left hand resting on her 1450e

right one raised holding a palladium that represented civic power in the greek world. she wears a liberty cap and her awkward stance in this drawing suggests latrobe may have drawn her in reverse to accommodate the sculptor. when cast in bronze, athena liberty would be reversed, that is her left hand resting on a stone tablet signifying the constitution, her right arm raised with palm open and cupped to express the openness of american government. congress itself being the american palladium. athena underwept is sea change in america during the revolutionary era. pierre's 1776 design for the great seal of the united states included a figure of american liberty as athena holding the constitution. when congress chose the eagle, the bird associated with the power of european kings for the great seal's final design, it

was stated specifically that the eagle represented congress as power was passed from kings to the representatives of the people. latrobe's athena liberty was an allegorical reminder of greek democracy, the common heritage of euro americans. latrobe altered thornton's roman pantheon inspired dome to be more greek. one way of achieving an acceptable architectural fusion of greek and reman architecture elements. he added a hexing a nol drum and a series of stepped rings. this perspective from the northeast shows a distinctly greek freis of figures decorating the drum. the timing suggests latrobe celebrated jefferson's retirement in 1809. the architect was now free to express the simplicity of gree a

architectu architecture. these designed were not just wishful thinking. he included them in his estimates until 1816 when he replaced the propalais ya with the west wing to accommodate the library of congress. so much for the introduction. now the details. on april 17, 1815, when latrobe visited the capitol to visit -- view the melancholy spectacle of the ruins, he was encouraged by what remained intact. many important parts are wholly injured. what particularly is gratifying to me, the picturesque entrance of the house of representatives with its handsome columns. the corn capitals of the senate vestibule. the great staircase and all the vaults of the senate chamber are entirely free from any injury

which cannot be easily repaired. in fact, the mischief is much more easily repaired than would appear at first sight and i was less chagrined than i had prepared myself to be. latrobe was mistakenly optimistic as the difficulties of rebuilding became apparent. he wrote jefferson, he wished the british had burned the capitol to the ground so he could have begun anew. his thinking about how to express the capitol's multiple meanings was evolving. latrobe's overarching theme in designing the capitol's interiors during both his ten tours was to combine historical styles of great architecture in the western tradition in such ways as to invent new and meaningful spaces. latrobe's synthesis of these traditions might have been meant to reflect either or both of two broad themes in american

history. america was a nation of immigrants. its colonists large lly drawn fm several european countries, some of whom imported slaves from africa. in addition, the founding fathers examined and debated western systems of governments ancient through modern as they framed the constitution. as a neoclassical architect, latrobe believed abstract representations of ideals rooted in class simple were eternal and appropriate for the new nation of euro americans. like the ancients, latrobe depended on meanings attached to the classical orders to represent the structure of america's new form of government. all three of latrobe's designs for the supreme court chamber was similar in shape and construction. the central space a room within a room, a semi circular arcade

defining it. a screen of columns faced east. those in the second and third iterations separated the main space from the justices' retiring room as you see here. classical architectural rules dictated that as a ground floor room, the supreme court's columns be doric. lat trob chose the earliest known greek doric from italy for his second and third chambers. the doric temples were built near the dawn of greek architecture. latrobe seems to have chosen these columns to reflect the court's purpose al gorically. supreme court justices protected the constitution, the beginning of the united states. skull toural decorations in the first courtroom are unknown but in the second latrobe initially designed two reliefs to decorate the end post blocks of the

columns, a mask of justice alternating with her scales. he finally settled on heads of minerva, wisdom, and blind justice. when latrobe rebuilt the courtroom after the fire, he reengineered the vaults, increased the number of columns to six, and relegated all the symbolic skruculpture to the wa that faced the seated justices. in may 1819 a three part pastor relief was modeled of a seated justice in the central figure. she holds scales in her left hahn and rests her right hand on the handle of the sword of justice. latrobe's former student robert mills later wrote that the sword points down because american justice is not punitive. on justices' left an eagle protects law books and a young

winged eagle is seated in front of a radiant sun. the constitution is a book rather than a charter because the court's laws interpreting the constitution continued to ensure the rights of americans. the eagle and the sun and the sword's positioning were all accepted haern symbols by this time. integrating american symbols with ancient personifications was a hallmark of latrobe's second tenure as the capitol's architect. latrobe's entrance to the senate wing was via his corn capital vestibule finished in 1810. it survived the fire and contains the first of latrobe's famed american orders. they continued a european tradition of newly invented national orders for great buildings. latrobe may have seen or was told about america's first national order invented by peter

charles in 1788 for the senate chamber at federal hall in new york where the first federal congress met. latrobe's column capitals includes stars, rays of the sun, and the cipher u.s., all emblems borrowed from the great seal. latrobe approached his american orders in an entirely different way. he used the flora of native american plants to represent the professions of the nation's population. the six corn stalk shafts topped by corn cob capitals represented america's farmers, represented agricultural, our farmers. latrobe broke from the tradition of the 1790s capitol in other ways. the 1793 drawing for the first senate included paintings of stars and state seals on the

vaulted ceiling to express the chamber's function. the first senate chamber was directly above the courtroom. it was entered in the center of its semi circular side through four of the most elaborate of the greek ionic columns. according to greek historian, it housed several ancient cults. senators then elected by the state legislatures represented america's widely divergent regional histories, cultures, and poll latipulations. six figures of women acting as columns used on the second porch supported the east gallery of latrobe's first senate. they represented art, commerce, agricultural, science, military

force, and civil government. the range of occupations in which americans excelled as an independent nation. neither images or description of them survive so how these -- latrobe designed the room and figures as he said as a theater for the senate and a gallery or galleries supported for the people and a work of art in which the character and taste of architecture is preserved and a work of ration decoration in which that which is reasonable is made to supply the decoration. all lost in the 1814 fire. for his post-fire senate chamber, latrobe's pillars were to stand atop the public

gallery. the librarian of congress later recalled plaster em ble mattic figures of the old 13 states decorated with their peculiar insignia, evidently their state seals, flags, or any emblems commonly associated with individual states. latrobe's son remembered seeing some of these plaster figures. figures of north and south carolina represented as sisters. the arm of one around the neck of the other. also massachusetts and maine, a mother leading her child for maine was yet a district only. we know a codfish long associated with massachusetts was one of its attributes because it was ridiculed. one of these is the shown in profile on latrobe's 1817 section drawing of the north wing. the only surviving visual

depiction of them. even highly educated euro-americans -- backwards, backwards. even myli he had yated euro-americans decried him combining these to personify the states. thomas law's eloquent condemnation was not unique. everybody to whom i have spoken condemns them equally, law informed latrobe. the architect responded with a lengthy essay of how sentiments and abstract ideas are expressed on human faces, heard as human languages, written as records, and depicted in paintings and

sculpture as signs and internal operation of the mind neither audible, visible, nor tangible. and this i'm quoting him now in extent. if then it is the intention of architectural writing to record events or to perpetuate sentiments, national customs, or private matters and it is admitted that such records are worthy of the expense they may occasion, the consideration of the character in which the records shall be written and of the style is the only one before us. it may, indeed, be said that as good laws may be made in a wig wam as in the capital and that all decoration is useless and all history mere idle amusement. the senate by the constitution of our country represents not the majority of the people like the house of representatives but the individual states as corporate bodies.

if their chamber is to be decorated at all, the decoration should have the character consistent with the character of the body for which it was built. their character as the assembly of the states is that which is most prominent. the practice of representing communities by female figures hayes existed since the dawn of hit. an unknown statute without attributes is everwhere received the portrait of an individual. this then remains the only question, it is a question respecting the talents of the architect and of his sculptors. are the attributes intelligible. the chronological state of the agricultural and improvement of the states at the time of building the senate chamber furnish and exuberant choice strongly marking and distinguishing the states from

one another. latrobe's other two american orders are associated with the senate chamber. he designed his magnolia flower order for dwarf columns on the visitor's gallery above the entrance to the first senate. he probably represented -- it probably represented america's arts and sciences. the magnolia was the first native american tree considered to be beautiful enough to be planted at the royal botanical garden at kew gardens in london. he designed his first order, the tobacco leaf rotunda outside the entrance of the senate after the fire. tobacco was america's second largest export product after grain and latrobe probably intended the deg cat flowers and broad leaves to represent american commerce, the nation's merchants. both latrobe's preand

post-firehouse chambers commanded his best architectural efforts. he finished his first house of representatives in 1807 designed in close collaboration with president jefferson. it was intended to be a unique room where the directly elected representatives of the modern world's first system of government by and for the people assembled. the elliptical hip drom footprint on his prefire chamber was predetermined. hallot had chosen the ancient hippo drom shape because of its associations with the seating at versailles. the french national assembly met there to hammer out a peaceful transition from monarchical to democratic government for america's principal ally during the revolution. the central podium surrounded by

tiered seats proved to be good acoustically and visually for a large assembly being addressed by individual orators. washington had sanctioned hallot's design in 1793, so the shape itself remained. latrobe modified the elliptical shape to have semi circular ends to be more in harmony with the pure geometry of the greeks but also because it was cheaper to build in stone than an oval one would have been. latrobe wanted -- jefferson wanted latrobe to build sky loits over this unusual house cha chamber based on some used in paris which had long rectangles down to the base.

after latrobe argued against the inherent problem of sky lights, leaks and much too much heat and light, the president opined, the house's sky lights would make it the chamber the handsomest room in the world without a single exception, in the world. during night sessions, for example, jefferson's house dome would have radiated light like a beacon. latrobe's modification was to light the chamber via 100 sky lights set in rows alternating with rows of coppers here accurately and beautifully reconstructed digitally. this house chamber existed for seven years from 1807 until burned by the british in august 1814 yet no drawings nor paintings of it are known. there's not even a single

description of how people reacted to it. mr. chenoweth has also visually recreate what had latrobe's first house would have been like had the architect not ak wcquied to jefferson's desire for sky lights. it would have been lit by a coupe la flooding the chamber with a large mass of central light. jefferson and latrobe were at odds about the choice of the ancient architectural order for the house chamber. members of congress were elected directly by the people, and thus in jefferson's view its chamber was the capitol's most important room deserving of the stateliest of the classical orders. jefferson preferred the kcorin h corinthi corinthian. perhaps his choice was not just their beauty but the fact that the brothers castor and poll lox

were the sons of zeus, helen of troy their sister. because it was part of rome's foundation rit, jefferson may well have considered their temple's order an appropriate link to america's founding era which was so steeped in the ideals of roman republicanism. at first latrobe favored roman doric columns for the house chamber, but his next choice was the order of the winds -- order of the tower of the winds located in the roman forum on the athenian acropolis. by october 1804 he abandoned the tow tower's order in favor of a more elaborate greek one and by november 7 had convinced jefferson to accept the corinthian order which you see in the center. latrobe offered to marry this order together with the cornice

of the temple of castor and pollux but everyson preferred the roman medallion cornice used in american georgian architecture. latrobe justified this kind of synthesis because he believed the greeks did not have the same rigid rules of the orders that pa trufous and his renaissance followers imposed on antiquity. the greeks knew of no such rules but having established general proportions in-laws of form and arrangement, all matters and detail were left to the talent and taste of individual architects. the total destruction of the 100 skylight house left latrobe now free of jefferson's influence and he built his final house as a semi circular auditorium room. you recognize this as statuary

hall but i just want to point out that along the diameter marked by the columns, those columns are standing on plints that are about five feet tall because when this was in use as the house of representatives, the seating was canted as in the theater but once it became just a passway to the new house chamber, then they had to have a flat roof -- a flat floor to walk across. colorful and monumental potomac columns framed the circumference and diameter of this semi circular awuditorium room. the choice of the order might also have been because of the close association of all the monuments with the nature of greek theater which was song

rather than recited. the house's auditorium form was descended from ancient theaters. an individual greek actor might have been considered and appropriate choice to be remembered in this chamber whose occupants were directly elected by individual americans. once corinthian was selected for the house chamber, latrobe used the tower of winds order for the columns in both vestibules serving the house chamber. british 18th century scholars of greek architecture considered the towers orders as intermediate between ionic and corinthian and called it the attic order. the vestibule between the house and the capitol's central rotunda is a circular tempieto with columns. on the east side that you see looking up on the left are set between two sets of attic columns allowing visitors to look into this brightly lit

adjacent space, the house's second vestibule. so the two vestibules are the upper vestibule behind those columns and then the floor level from which i am taking this picture is the second vestibule. this was a double vestibule beginning at the ground level entrance to the house wing. more complex than the corresponding corn capitol vestibule in the senate wing. visitors to the house chamber entered at ground level, a rectangle the same size and shape as the corn capitol vestibule but light flooding the inner vestibule drew them into a two-story upended double cubed space. all of its upper walls were decorated with two free-standing tower of the winds columns. those on three sides stood in front of walls except those

facing the tempieto vestibule's wind ceo. from the ground floor vestibule one looked up diagonally through the windows into the dome of a circular vestibule outside the house chamber. coupe las lighting both of these house vestibules admitted abundant light and concentrated light in this vertical space. the unity of light latrobe so favored. both are intact but are under the skirting of the cast iron dome erected in the 1850s. but how to ascend to the house chamber? no immediately apparent staircase was in the double cube inner vestibule. rather, it was enclosed in its south wall. an ill lit flight of stairs that ended at the entrance to the

house. those who claimed the staircase emerged from dimness into brilliant light from two directions, the house chamber's coupe la and those of its vestibules. latrobe was employing his version of architecture which speaks, the late 18th century french architectural theater which eschewed decoration to convey meaning in favor of relying on the functions' associated with architectural forms itself. for latrobe it was light that was speaking as those entoo manied in the stair's darkness -- the darkness representing monarchical forms of government rose gradually to the light of democracy. jefferson and latrobe meant the physical light flooding the house chamber and its vestibules to represent the enlightenment ideal of liberty as the new

civic religion. the correction between light and liberty was common in the colonies where enlightenment ideals of liberty and religious tolerance were linked. in 1795 jefferson wrote, light and liberty go together. his most succinct commentary. but on july 12th, 1812, he wrote latrobe that the capitol was the first temple to be dedicated to the so so vin tri of the people. to jefferson's written words we must add his intention to light the house chamber as a kind of light house pinpointing the location of america's representative form of government. latrobe understood jefferson's covert meaning for the house but reversed the flow of light to flow downward to enlighten the deliberations of congressmen.

neither latrobe nor jefferson left a known paper trail discussing the hidden meanings that raise the house of representatives to the pinnacle of what the american revolution had achieved, the truth is in their work. the house's magnificent entrance sequence survived the fire to serve latrobe's second house chamber but was ruined when in the early 1820s congressmen demanded an open staircase were stalled. today one ascends to the house within what was once light and air. latrobe used sculpture to express overt messages. the tradition of a figure of american liberty behind the speaker's chair dates from federal hall in new york and congress hall in philadelphia. the 1792 terra cotta minerva as the patroness of american

liberty who wears a helmet decorated with an eagle and a breast plate decorated with the liberty pike and cap was installed in congress hall but it might have been the one planned for federal hall in new york. minerva was the roman equivalent of the greek athena. for latrobe's first house chamber, there was modeled a seated figure of liberty above the speaker's chair. its appearance reconstructed by chenowitz in two images based on latrobe's description. by her side stands the american eagle supporting her left hand in which is the cap of liberty. her right presents a scroll, the constitution of the united states, her foot treads upon a reversed crown on -- as a footstool and upon other emblels of monarchy and bondage. franzoni also carved a spread winged eagle in the entrance. its wings spread 12 feet, 6

inches in breadth. four relief panels opposite the eagle were personifications representing ag kultsure, art, science and commerce. all were ruined in the fire but some vague outlines of horizontally oriented figures are discernible on latrobe's 1815 sketch of the burnt colonnade. they suggest latrobe designed these based on the tower winds. when latrobe planned the sculpture for the second house chamber, he resurrected his 1810 athena liberty. franzoni made him enlarged in plaster and placed above the speaker's chamber.

latrobe's final figure of liberty holds the unfurled constitution in her hand. the conceit being the constitution protects congress. on her left, a rattlesnake, an american emblel since 1754 is holding together the insignia of ank unit roman senators adopted as an emblel of national union in america's revolutionary era. this group looks across the house chamber toward the chariot of history block. cleo, the muse of history, recorded american events as they occurred. she rides in a vehicle propelled by eagle wings, aka prorks pe, by the house of representatives. the chariot's front decorated by a portrait of washington. the chariot sits astride a globe encircled by a band enscribed with signs of the zodiac. the 12 constellations that

traditionally represent the universe from earth's northern hemisphere. the presence of the zodiac has been noted by others but not explained within the context of american history. a congressional resolution on june 14th, 1777, authorized the design of the flag of the united states. 13 red and white stripes were its major identifying elements, but the resolution concluded that the union be 13 stars, white in a blue field representing a new constellation. both the designer of the american flag and latrobe conceived of the historical importance of america's governing system as extra ter restrial. the great library in alexandria egypt inspired latrobe's choice of the architectural look. it was inspired in 1812.

a u-shaped room across from the senate chamber but sunken five feet to accommodate one full and two half stories. its central reading room overlooked by galleries of book stacks. eight elaborately carved egyptian revival column shafts and capitals carried the section of the lower gallery around the room's semicircular end. plainer dwarf egyptian columns overlooked the reading room from the upper gallery. during the second campaign, latrobe relocated the library to the front of the capitol's new west wing overlooking the mall. now a simple elongated two-story rectangle, latrobe's second library of congress retained its egyptian decoration. some of the new group of european trained sculptors seemed to have carved egyptian columns in capitals for this second library.

the shapes of their bases were egyptian inspired and some of their capitals such as you see here combined egyptian lotus flowers, greek antimia and american tobacco leaves. they were recycled as fireplace surrounds when latrobe's successor charles bullfinch designed his version of the library of congress. in may 1816, samuel lane, a disabled veteran of the war of 1812 was appointed commissioner of public buildings with authority over latrobe. from the outset, la -- lang was antitheical to latrobe and his designs. the warfare between the two becoming so hateful that latrobe resigned in november 1817, leaving most of what he had designed unbuilt, surely a wretching experience for him. latrobe -- bullfinch built

latrobe's design for the crypt. the carvings probably already carved. designed the rotunda above according to his own tastes. after lane died unexpectedly in april 1822, a review of his accounts revealed he had embezzled $25,000 from the capital's accounts. seemingly lane's demeaning treatment of latrobe that had driven him fom his position was designed to force him to quit in order to prevent the architect from discovering this defalcation. the evolution of latrobe's work during his two tenures at the capital was to record america's founding history within the context of the common culture of euro-american inhabitants. in the early 1810s he knew the great cycle of revolutionary war paintings realistically depicting its greatest military and civic events would decorate the walls of the grand vestibule

as latrobe called the rotunda. had latrobe completed the capitol it would have been a different work of architecture than the one designs by charles bullfinch, an adherrent of roman inspired classical. bullfinch chose painting and sculpture that turned back to columbus and the continent's other explorers and the history of early settlers as more meaningful to americans of the 1820s to be in their capitol than latrobe's and to most people, opaque coupling of greek and american democracy. thank you very much. i'm happy to answer anything i'm able to.

patrick is coming. faithful patrick. >> so latrobe when he's working on these buildings, does he appear as just an architect or does he have anything to do with trying to execute the lafont plan for the entire city? >> he has nothing to do with trying to execute during this period the lafont plan, other than his work on the canals, but that basically precedes -- well, it precedes the post-war work. he was involved in many things. in fact, when he is appointed architect to rebuild the capital, he's very disappointed he's not appointed to do the white house as well. he thought he should be. he thought that both buildings should be built the same ethos in mind.

he was your standard genius in that he wrote the deadicatory song for the dedication of st. john's church which he built. he did build that, contemporaneous to his work here. he is the designer of the old brick capitol and an interesting point about these two buildings, concerning what we heard just before lunch is that it was capitol hill residents who bound together and raised the money and paid latrobe to design and build the brick capitol. it was lafayette square residence who hired latrobe to build st. john's church as a much more expensive church than they could ever have built normally. in both cases, their intention was to convince congress they were here to stay.

so there is a continuity throughout all of what we've heard about how the city responded to this event that happened to him so quickly and was over so fast but had lingering effects. don. >> the last image you showed of the section through the rotunda, the images have all been a little extended sideways. is it still a semicircular or a spherical shape? >> it is a circular shape. what is disquieting about this is that it's number two on the bottom, which implies not only number one but maybe number three. and this design is not exactly what bullfinch then went on to

carry out in the rotunda, but it is the only surviving drawing that they have showing it. but you see the difference, this was a cylindrical drum, but latrobe on the right broke that circle up with four circular pieces, which contain staircases that curve down and went down to the crypt because in the first design and then again in 1815, he retains that because it was -- many people still held out the hope that the washington family would allow george washington's remains to be built to be installed in the crypt at the capitol. so latrobe had accounted for that in his design for the

to learn about their history and literary life. this weekend we partnered with for a visit to colorado springs, colorado. montgomery pike was sent into the southwest to region, similar to lewis & clark who were sent to the northwestern part of the newly acquired louisiana territory. southwest nt to this part of the territory. and for his perspective, when he came out here, he really walked off the map. e went to an area that was unknown. >> when pike first seized the grand peak, he thinks they'll each the top of it in a few days. but it takes weeks to approach. what we believe is a lower mountain on the flanks of mt. rosa.k called so he turned around and at that

oint, pike wrote in his journals that given the conditions, given the equipment time, no had at the one could have summited the peak. peak inspired the poem that became "america the eautiful" written by katherine lee bates, who came here to olorado springs to teach a summer course at colorado college in 1893. the view down from the plains to inspiredf the mountain the poetry. arenspired the manuals that capturing that poetry of the united states. > watch all of our events from colorado springs today at 2:00 eastern on american history tv on c-span 3. >> monday night on "the communicators" -- . .