36 architects to the nation
Figure 2.5
commission in the capital city, William Strickland was nonetheless a
Robert Mills and his wife,
key figure in the development of public architecture in the United
ca. 1851. Courtesy
States during the first half of the nineteenth century. In the early
National Portrait Gallery,
1840s, Strickland s career slipped into a lull, and with the exception of
Smithsonian Institution,
residences for the governor and medical officers on the grounds of
Washington, D.C., gift of
the U.S. Naval Home in Washington, his strenuous lobbying for fed-
Richard Evans.
eral government commissions fell flat. His 1844 report on the War and
Navy Departments building was prophetic. He echoed the senti-
ments of many politicians and citizens who favored buildings that be-
spoke economy over those that could be described as ornamental. In