Joseph Horatio Anderson

Joseph Horatio Anderson
Diedbefore 1778
Annapolis, Maryland
OccupationArchitect
BuildingsMaryland State House

Joseph Horatio Anderson was a British-born Colonial American architect active in Annapolis, Province of Maryland, in the late 18th century.

He designed Whitehall (1764), a plantation house in Anne Arundel County, outside Annapolis. He was the likely designer of the third (and current) Maryland State House (1772).[1][2] He designed the second St. Anne's Church (designed 1775, completed 1792),[1] also in Annapolis, although the church was not completed until more than a decade after his death.

Quite few details are known of Anderson's life.[3]

Though Anderson boasted he was "regularly bread to those Sciences architectural design and construction & the only one upon the Continant [sic]," his octagonal design for the dome of the Maryland State House was found to be "contrary to all rules of architecture," and later replaced.[4]

In 1770, Anderson sent a letter to Rhode Island College offering his architectural services to the newly established institution. The correspondence, however, arrived only after construction on the college's new building had already begun.[5]

  1. ^ a b Radoff, Morris (1972). The State House At Annapolis. Annapolis: Hall of Records Commission, State of Maryland. pp. 2–3.
  2. ^ McWilliams, Jane W. (2011-06-15). Annapolis, City on the Severn: A History. JHU Press. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-8018-9659-0.
  3. ^ Browne, William Hand; Dielman, Louis Henry; Maryland Historical Society (1906). Maryland Historical Magazine. Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. Baltimore, Maryland Historical Society.
  4. ^ Whiffen, Marcus; Koeper, Frederick (1983). American Architecture: 1607-1860. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-73069-3.
  5. ^ "Encyclopedia Brunoniana | University Hall". www.brown.edu. Retrieved 2021-01-07.