MS (DLC); entirely in Hoban’s hand; torn at seal; endorsed by TJ as received in July, but recorded in SJL as received 10 July 1793. Enclosed in Tobias Lear to TJ, 15 July 1793.

James Hoban (ca. 1762–1831), architect and builder, was a native of Ireland who moved to Philadelphia after the Revolution, lived for several years in South Carolina, and in 1792 settled and spent the rest of his life at the District of Columbia. In that year he won the competition for the design of the President’s House sponsored by the Commissioners of the Federal District, and later he supervised both its construction and its rebuilding after the British burned it in 1814 (DAB description begins Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, New York, 1928–36, 20 vols. description ends ).

TJ submitted Hoban’s communication to the President on 13 July 1793. These and other criticisms of William Thornton’s prize-winning design for the Capitol soon led to its modification (Washington, Journal description begins Dorothy Twohig, ed., The Journal of the Proceedings of the President, 1793–1797, Charlottesville, 1981 description ends , 195; Washington to TJ, 30 June 1793, and note; TJ to Washington, 17 July 1793, and note).