Dr. Kimball and Mr. Jefferson: Rediscovering the Founding Fathers of American Architecture

One of the best books on Jefferson as an architect, plus a well-crafted account of America's other early architects. Reads like a detective story, which architectural history done well usually is.

I originally decided to read this book because of my deep interest in Jefferson. I expected another recounting of Jefferson's building and rebuilding of Monticello. I was pleasantly surprised that this wonderful book is so very much more. The text intersperses with its discussion of American architecture the fascinating life and career of Dr. Fiske Kimball, who practically invented the discipline of American architectual history. And what a career he had--Michigan, NYU, UVA, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and most prominently as long-time director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He also wrote a number of important pathbreaking books, and worked on the Monticello restoration and the Jefferson Memorial. I had never heard of him; I am glad that deficiency has been remedied. But the author, himself a leading architectual historian with books on Jefferson and the "Colonial Houses" of Williamsburg, also includes discussion of such important early figures as William Buckland, L'Enfant, Charles Bulfinch, James Hoban, and Samuel McIntire. Some 20th architects are included, such as John Russell Pope and Ferdinand C. Latrobe II. But a central theme remains the remarkable contributions that Jefferson made to early American architecture in such endeavors as the Virginia State House, the University of Virginia (see also Gary Wills' fine book on this), and of course Monticello. Ironically, Jefferson submitted an anonymous entry in the competition to design what became the White House--and lost! A very fine and extremely well-written book, with outstanding illustrations, and highly useful bibliographical notes.