Итхиэл Таун: Америкалық сәулетшінің өмірі мен еңбектері

American architect

Ithiel Town (October 3, 1784 – June 13, 1844) was an American architect and civil engineer. One of the first generation of professional architects in the United States, Town made significant contributions to American architecture in the first half of the 19th century. His work, in the Federal and revivalist Greek and Gothic revival architectural styles, was influential and widely copied.

Town was born in Thompson, Connecticut, to Archelaus Town, a farmer, and Martha (Johnson) Town. He trained with the eminent Asher Benjamin in Boston and began his own professional career with the Asa Gray House (1810). His earliest important architectural works include Center Church (1812–1815), and Trinity Church (1813–1816), both on the New Haven Green in New Haven, Connecticut. He demonstrated his virtuosity as an engineer by constructing the spire for Center Church inside the tower and then raising it into place in less than three hours using a special windlass. Trinity Church, built from local seam faced trap rock and topped with a square tower, was one of the earliest Gothic Revival churches in America. of architecture books and prints and was far larger than any other personal collection anywhere at the time, including that of Sir John Soane in London. The library was amassed at a time when only a handful of significant architecture books had been published in America. Town left many of his books to Yale upon his death; the rest were sold. In 1839, Town commissioned noted American painter Thomas Cole to execute a painting called The Architect's Dream, which now hangs in the Toledo Museum of Art. Town's house was later owned by Joseph Earl Sheffield, benefactor of the Sheffield Scientific School and modified by Austin. Town designed a number of other stately homes on Hillhouse.

Town died in New Haven on June 13, 1844, and is interred in Grove Street Cemetery, New Haven, Connecticut.