Of Mills's entire architectural output the best documented in terms of the evolution of his ideas and the demands of reality is the Baltimore Washington Monument. On January 6, 1810, the Maryland legislature authorized a lottery to raise funds for the monument in response to a citizen's petition circulated in December 1809.

Only three other entries survive, the winning design by Robert Mills and two by unknown architects. Mills's design for the monument went through four distinct phases, a process by which a very complex design and an equally complex iconographical program were gradually simplified.

obert Mills (1781-1855) claimed to be the first native born American to be specifically trained for an architectural career. He took drafting lessons as a youth in Charleston, S. C., and at the age of 19 went to Washington, D. C., to work for James Hoban, who was then directing construction of the White House and US Capitol. While in Washington, Mills was befriended by Thomas Jefferson, who introduced him to Benjamin H. Latrobe. Mills worked for Latrobe from 1803 until 1809, first as an apprentice, or draftsman, and then as a clerk of the works, or job superintendent on many projects, including the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, the Baltimore Cathedral, and the Bank of Philadelphia. Increasing confidence and professional contacts soon led to Mills's own commissions, and by 1810 he and Latrobe drifted apart. In 1812 Mills gained national recognition for a design in Richmond, Virginia that he won over one by Latrobe. The Monumental Church combined features that would become hallmarks of his style--an octagonal plan reflecting a concern for sight lines and acoustics, a daring saucer dome, interior ornament and a principal Doric porch, the latter two especially original, bold and massive in character.

From the beginning Mills's concept was columnar in nature, with a base and a statue of Washington, but the monument that was built was more distinctly "European" than his earlier eclectic designs which Mills perceived as "American." The drawings for six alternative preliminary designs done in 1813 have been lost, but a short essay by Mills describes "an octagonal column divided into four levels."

Mill's design was not received favorably. Maximilian Godefroy denigrated the monument in the final presentation drawing (4) as the pagoda of "Bob the Small," reacting against the six balustraded balconies. Mills may well have had pagodas in mind when adding this feature. The Nanking pagoda (3) had been published in Fischer von Erlach's Entwurf einer historischen Architektur (1721), the first European work in which world architecture was seen on a par with classical tradition. Sir William Chambers' pagoda at Kew Gardens was published in his Plans, Elevations, Sections and Perspective Views of the Gardens and Buildings at Kew in Surrey (1763), thus reinforcing the form as an acceptable architectural prototype.

Mill's column as finally built more closely resembles the Austerlitz Column (1810) at Place Vendome, Paris (2), designed by Denon, Gondouin, and Lepere, which was ultimately derived from Trajan's Column (113 AD) in Rome (1).

Mills characterized his column shaft as Greek Doric, although it was unfluted. Presumably the broad splay of the echinus and its placement directly on the stylobate of the base were the elements that in Mills's eyes distinguished it from Roman columns, although memorial columns were more traditionally Roman. In Mills's original design the column shaft was divided into seven levels by balconies set at decreasing intervals toward the top. Mills had intended that visitors ascend staircases within the double wall and exit onto the six balconies to read historical inscriptions and view the city.

The iconography of this design was formulated around Washington as a military hero. The major sculptural program consisted of a quadriga, or triumphal car, driven by George Washington guided by Liberty at the column's summit, a band of relief sculpture at the bottom, and four large groups of trophies of victory marking each corner of the monument's base. The progress of the Revolution could be followed, starting at the top with 1776 and descending year by year to 1781 at the base of the column. The names of heroes and battles were inscribed on the next top levels; a relief sculpture of Lord Cornwall's surrender at Yorktown encircled the column base, beginning 20 feet above ground level. Mills suggested that Washington's resignation of his commission at Annapolis would provide another appropriate subject for a relief sculpture, since he wished to emphasize the participation of Maryland in revolutionary era events and to laud the patriotism of its citizens in raising the monument.

Mills's final major contributions to the monument's design were the cast-iron fence and the tripods that replaced the earlier trophies and figural sculpture. The fence is perhaps the finest extant American cast-iron fence of the period. Mills transferred to it his desire to ornament the monument and imbue it with appropriate symbolic meaning and, like the column Itself, it went through numerous permutations.

Only a few elements from Mills's November 1813 design were used. The voussoirs in the archways representing each State, and the arms of the United States were sculpted on the keystones. Mills suggested metaphorical symbolism of the four trophies of victory on each corner of the base were not considered acceptable. Numerous other changes were requested.

One major change in the monument was the substitution of a standing figure for the quadriga, since Washington was to be depicted resigning his commission at Annapolis On May 16, 1816. Mills sent the building committee two sheets of drawings indicating several possible ways to vary all the decorations.

Construction of the monument was rapid during the first five years. By the end of 1819 the column was 137 feet 4 inches high; by the end of 1820 it was completed at 140 feet 4 inches. By 1825 the abacus, cornice, parapet, and pedestal for the statue were complete. The total height 165 feet 4 Inches made it the tallest column in the world. The shaft, as completed, was entirely without ornament, and the base carried the simplest of inscriptions in bronze letters, the design and content of which Mills was proud.

In 1829, with the aid of his friend James D, Woodside, Mills undertook to raise Enrico Causici's 14 foot marble statue of Washington to the summit. The final block of the four-part statue was put in place on November 25, 1829, during a grand ceremony.

Mills certainly had very specific symbolic as well as architectural intentions in mind, since his careful planning of the iconographic program of the column indicates that all aspects of his design were purposeful. While still a young pupil of John Hoban, Mills had learned to attach the symbolic meaning of the Freemasons to the motifs he so skillfully learned to copy from his teacher's 18th Century copybooks. Under the tutelage of Hoban, Mills learned that the elements of architecture served ideological as well as structural purposes.

Mills became a Freemason himself when he moved to Baltimore in 1814. Inspired by the mason-builders of history, this secret society was dedicated to personal improvement and social good in the service of the "great Architect and Governor of the Universe." The Masons believed that the three main types of Classical column-- Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian--represented Strength, Grace, and Intellect. In addition, the very tools of architect and mason embodied moral values--as Benjamin French would remind Mills at the laying of the cornerstone of the Washington National Monument in 1848: "The plumb admonishes us to walk uprightly in our several stations before God and man, squaring our actions by the square of virtue, and remembering that we are traveling upon the level of time to that 'undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns'."

Following a depression that disrupted the building trades in Baltimore in 1819 and, finding himself destitute, Mills had accepted an offer to direct public improvements for the state of South Carolina. Throughout the early 1820s he labored in South Carolina, building canals, courthouses, jails, hospitals and offices, always emphasizing utility and sound construction. The state legislature abolished his office in 1823, and, struggling to support his family he produced a detailed, county by county map of the state and an accompanying descriptive volume, both landmarks in the analysis of American topography. Seeking federal employment, he moved to Washington in 1830. Success seemed assured when, in 1836, his design for the Washington Monument (1848-84) was accepted. Mill's fourth public monument, based on an Egyptian obelisk, the Washington National Monument (1848-84,) is undoubtedly among the most impressive achievements of American architecture. The early design, shown at left, reveals the colonnaded building originally intended for the base of the monument. Interrupted by the Civil War, the monument was completed almost 30 years after Mills's death.

Mills worked on the Patent Office (1836-4O) in an uneasy relationship with its designers--William Parker Eliot, Ithiel Town and Alexander J. Davis. He began the Old Post Office (1839-42) and supervised construction of the Smithsonian Institution (1847-55), which had been designed by James Renwick. Congress abolished his office in 1842, but he continued to work on other commissions. Finally in 1851, a controversy concerning work at the Patent Office and Capitol precipitated his departure, at age 70, from federal service. A younger generation of architects took his place, but his legacy has remained a formative influence in American architecture.

For many years the identity of the creator of these important monuments was shrouded in great mystery. Witness the solution of this mystery as it unfolded in the pages of Architectural Record.

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