Robert Mills (architect) - Life

Life

Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Mills moved to Philadelphia in 1802 where he became an associate and student of Benjamin Henry Latrobe. A graduate of College of Charleston, Mills gradually became known in his own right. Around the age of 19, Mills left Charleston for Washington, DC, to work with his friend and mentor James Hoban on the construction of the White House. During this time, Robert met Thomas Jefferson, who would become the first full term resident of the new Presidential home. Jefferson befriended Mills and would become his next significant mentor. Some Philadelphia buildings that he designed are Washington Hall, Samson Street Baptist Church, and the Octagon Church for the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia. He also designed the Upper Ferry Bridge covering. He also designed and built the still-original First Presbyterian Church in Augusta, Georgia in 1802. This church later was the home to Woodrow Wilson who grew up in the church while his father, Joseph R. Wilson was Pastor. In 1808 he created blueprints for a prison used mostly for reform. In 1811 the prison was constructed in Mt Holly, New Jersey. "With the possible exception of neighbor, Eastern States Penitentiary, it is the most significant prison building in the United States" says Historic Burlington County Prison Museum Association.

In 1812, Mills designed the Monumental Church in Richmond, Virginia which was built to commemorate the death of 72 people in the Richmond Theatre. This incident sparked (no pun intended) his later interest in fireproofing measures.

Moving to Baltimore, he designed St. John's Episcopal Church, the Maryland House of Industry, and the Maryland Club. He is noted for designing the nation's first Washington Monument, in Baltimore, which began construction in 1815.

In 1820, he was appointed as acting commissioner of the Board of Public Works in South Carolina. In 1823, Mills was the superintendent of public buildings. In the next few years, he designed numerous buildings in South Carolina including court houses, the campus of the University of South Carolina, jails, and the Fireproof Building in Charleston. In 1825, he authored an Atlas of the State of South Carolina. One year later, he published Statistics of South Carolina. He reputedly designed the Old Horry County Courthouse, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.

In 1836 he won the competition for the design of the Washington Monument which is his best known work.

He also designed the Department of Treasury building and several other federal buildings in Washington, D. C. including the U.S. Patent Office Building, patterned after the Parthenon. See Patent Office 1877 fire. In South Carolina, he designed county courthouses in at least 18 counties, some of the public buildings in Columbia, and a few private homes. He also designed portions of the Landsford Canal, Chester County, on the Catawba River in South Carolina.

Mills was an early advocate of buildings designed to include fireproof materials. A fire in Kingstree, South Carolina destroyed much of the upper floor of a courthouse called the Fireproof Building which had been designed by Mills, but the county records on the first floor were protected due to his fireproofing measures. A fire also destroyed much of the Lancaster County, South Carolina Courthouse in August 2008.

He died in Washington, D.C. in 1855 and was buried at the Congressional Cemetery. Robert Mills was officially inducted into the South Carolina Business Hall of Fame in 2007