Page "Classical order" Paragraph 35

In the United States Benjamin Latrobe, the architect of the Capitol building in Washington DC, designed a series of botanically American orders.

Most famous is the order substituting corncobs and their husks, which was executed by Giuseppe Franzoni and employed in the small domed Vestibule of the Supreme Court.

Only the Supreme Court survived the fire of August 24, 1814, nearly intact.

With peace restored, Latrobe designed an American order that substituted for the acanthus tobacco leaves, of which he sent a sketch to Thomas Jefferson in a letter, November 5, 1816.

He was encouraged to send a model of it, which remains at Monticello.

In the 1830s Alexander Jackson Davis admired it enough to make a drawing of it.

In 1809 Latrobe invented a second American order, employing magnolia flowers constrained within the profile of classical mouldings, as his drawing demonstrates.

It was intended for " the Upper Columns in the Gallery of the Entrance of the Chamber of the Senate " ( United States Capitol exhibit ).