13 Facts About Ithiel Town

Ithiel Town 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.

Ithiel Town trained with the eminent Asher Benjamin in Boston and began his own professional career with the Asa Gray House.

Ithiel Town 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.

In 1825, Ithiel Town became one of the original members of the National Academy of Design and was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree from Yale University.

On January 28,1820, Ithiel Town was granted a patent for a wooden lattice truss bridge, which became known as the Ithiel Town Bridge.

In 1829, Ithiel Town formed one of the first professional architectural firms in the United States with Alexander Jackson Davis, together producing notable buildings in a range of new Revival styles, including Greek, Gothic, Tuscan, and Egyptian.

Ithiel Town's library contained more than 11,000 volumes 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.

Ithiel Town left many of his books to Yale upon his death; the rest were sold.

In 1839, Ithiel 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.

Ithiel Town's house was later owned by Joseph Earl Sheffield, benefactor of the Sheffield Scientific School and modified by Austin.

Ithiel Town designed a number of other stately homes on Hillhouse.

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