Domes, columns, porticos and colonnades, reminiscent of those found on the University of Virginia’s Lawn, rise in government buildings from Virginia to Washington to Michigan to Colorado, reflecting an architectural style that lent a new nation a sense of gravitas and legitimacy.
The style is called Federal, and one of its chief practitioners was Thomas Jefferson.
“The new country needed an image. It needed to have some persona,” said Richard Guy Wilson, a UVA professor emeritus of architectural history. “Jefferson recognized that this young country needed to have some sort of a public presence, and the major architecture that he knew from his experience in Europe was classical.”
Richard Guy Wilson, a UVA professor emeritus of architectural history, says the newly formed United States needed an image, and Jefferson’s classical stylings fit the bill. (Photo by Lathan Goumas, University Communications)
Through the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, the design of the original U.S. Capitol and other public buildings in Washington and elsewhere, Jefferson’s architectural influence on government in the U.S. continued for nearly a century.
“Look at the old Boston City Hall or the old Massachusetts State House, and you can see the influence,” Wilson said. “All of the colonies had some sort of a public building, and even if they are small, they still have some of this impressive character of classical details.”
The design was contemporary at the time, but it was also purposeful.
Two examples of Jeffersonian influence on the fledgling U.S. are still standing in Boston, the Old City Hall on the left and the Old Massachusetts State House on the right. (Photos by Unsplash)
“Public buildings say, ‘This is authority, it’s the government.’ It also carried over into buildings of importance, such as libraries,” Wilson said. “When you think of it, buildings are really a permanent record of a people. How do we know many of the people of the past, but through the buildings they put up?”
Architecture, he said, provides a permanent record of who a people are.
“When we think about Egypt, it’s pyramids. What you know about Greece is the buildings. The same for the Romans. When you go to London, it’s the big dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral or Big Ben,” Wilson said.
Architect Elijah E. Myers drew directly from Jefferson’s influence and that of Federal architecture when he designed the Michigan and Colorado state capitols. Capitols from across the country blend several styles, including neoclassical elements from Jefferson’s designs, such as colonnades and domes.
Over the past 100 years, the focus on Federal architecture has faded as new styles, construction methods and materials have transformed the country’s built environment.
