James Hoban

James Hoban (c. 1758 – December 8, 1831) was an Irish architect, best known for designing the White House in Washington, D.C. James Hoban was born and raised in a thatched cottage on the Earl of Desart's estate in Cuffesgrange, near Callan in Co. Kilkenny. He worked there as a wheelwright and carpenter until his early twenties, when he was given an 'advanced student' place in the Dublin Society's Drawing School on Lower Grafton Street. He excelled in his studies and received the prestigious Duke of Leinster's medal for drawings of "Brackets, Stairs, and Roofs." from the Dublin Society in 1780. Later Hoban found a position as an apprentice to the headmaster of the Dublin Society School the Cork-born architect Thomas Ivory from 1759 to 1785 . Following the American Revolutionary War, Hoban immigrated to the United States, and established himself as an architect in Philadelphia in 1785. Hoban was in South Carolina by April 1787, where he designed numerous buildings including the...