cut-out figure portrait of Robert Mills
link to planning and interior space topic
   
 
 
 
 
 

“The author [has] the honor of being the first native [born] American who directed his studies to architecture as a profession.”

 ~Robert Mills

engraving of profile of Robert Mills Born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1781, Robert Mills’ industrious spirit and his pursuit of architecture that earned him the title of the first American-born professional architect benefited from training by the most prominent architects in America in the early nineteenth century. Library of Congress
James Hoban, architect of the White House, Thomas Jefferson, a Gentleman Architect who deemed architecture as the noblest of the arts, and Benjamin Latrobe, a prominent British-born architect who ran a flourishing practice out of Philadelphia, each granted Mills with a sophisticated, singular approach to classical design and structural principles.

After opening his own office in 1808, Mills built himself a reputation for sound engineering methods combined with a new approach to a Classical style. From that time until his retirement in 1852, Mills’ geographical scope spanned the East Coast, culminating in projects for public buildings and monuments in Charleston, Baltimore, and most prominently, Washington, DC.
Built 1812-1817, the Monumental Church, with its 70-foot dome, was one of three centralized churches designed by Mills around 1812. Engraving by William Goodacre.
Virginia Historical Society.
black and white rendering of church with dome and steeple
Among the 160 architecture and engineering projects to his name, Mills’ most important projects include the Monumental Church, Richmond, Virginia, 1812, the Washington Monument, Baltimore, Maryland, 1815, the County Records Office (Fireproof Building), Charleston, South Carolina, 1822-27, and his federal buildings in Washington, DC that brought his career to its paramount between 1836-1842.

color rendering of a tall tiered tower monument

A rendering by Mills in 1815 for a proposed Washington Monument 		The rendering at the left won Mills the competition for the Washington Monument in Baltimore in 1815, the first memorial monument to George Washington.
Maryland Historical Society

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black and white rendering of large building with colonnaded portico

The South Carolina Asylum, 1822-1828, seen below, is among Mills’ largest and most prominent public building projects in South Carolina. Historic American Buildings Survey.

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