Father of the American house

Tapping his skills as both architect and engineer, he devised very different floor plans for first and second floors.

"To beguile visitors during the rather long route from the front door up to the second-story public rooms," Snadon says, Latrobe "introduced a changing, asymmetrical sequence of spaces and turns ... all articulated with different effects of light, shadow, and color."

For visitors accustomed to conventional floor plans, Fazio says, this could could be like a "carnival ride."

Fazio says Latrobe's legacy has come into clearer focus lately because of the work of the Maryland Historical Society, which owns the largest collection of Latrobe's letters, sketches, and designs. The society has made mountains of his materials available to researchers.

Students of his work realize the importance of protecting it, which helps explain why millions are being spent to restore the surviving houses he designed.

Besides Pope Villa, there is Decatur House (across the street from the White House) and Adena, the home of a former senator and governor, Thomas Worthington, in Chillicothe, Ohio.

Although few in number, these survivors are important because they represent Latrobe's major house types: a town house (Decatur), a country house (Adena), and a suburban villa (Pope).

The latter takes its name from John Pope, a Kentucky senator and lawyer. He got to know Latrobe when both worked together on a plan for improving the West with bridges, roads, and canals.

Although Latrobe's work extended far beyond Washington as the result of commissions, he never visited some of the more distant sites, including those in Kentucky and Ohio.

The Ohio home, which serves as a museum of the Ohio Historical Society, is undergoing a $6.6 million renovation tied to the state's 2003 bicentennial.

In Kentucky, the Lexington structure occupied by university students had long been thought to be a Latrobe design.

No one knew for sure, though, because, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, "subsequent owners [of Pope Villa] so extensively altered the house that knowledge of Latrobe's connection with it was almost lost."

Plans for the house were on file at the Library of Congress, but until the building caught fire in 1987, there was no conclusive evidence that these drawings were actually used in its construction.

After the fire, which mostly damaged the roof, the walls were exposed to show how the building's interior matched up with Latrobe's detailed drawings. It was purchased by the Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation, and now a national advisory board is looking at whether the restored home should be used as a museum or as a laboratory for the university's historical preservation program.

Decatur House, which is a public museum, is also getting considerable attention. An advanced air-quality system is being installed to protect the home's period furniture, and a 1960s-era elevator is being removed to expose more of the original architecture.

The home was originally owned by Stephen Decatur, a naval commander and decorated war hero who died in a duel with former mentor Commodore James Barron. Their relationship grew rancorous, it is thought, over a disparaging comment made by Latrobe.

Fazio says that Latrobe had envisioned making a fortune on the project. As it happened, he never never even designed or built a home for himself.

"My guess," Fazio says, "is it's because he never quite had enough money."

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