Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764-1820), English-born American architect, was the first professionally trained architect to practice in the United States. He worked in a variety of styles.

Benjamin Henry Latrobe was born in England of Moravian parents. He was educated in England, France, and Germany, and as head draftsman in the office of the London architect Samuel Pepys Cockerell he participated in such large projects as the Admiralty Buildings in London. His coming to American was something of an accident; his young wife died, architectural commissions were few because of the Napoleonic Wars, and he had an inheritance to claim in Pennsylvania.

Latrobe arrived in Norfolk, Va., in 1796 and was soon recognized by Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and other prominent people as the ablest architect on the American scene. For the rest of his life he had many commissions in every part of the country.

In his works Latrobe...