The Life of Peter Harrison, First Architect of Palladian America

By John Fitzhugh Millar

The Life of Peter Harison, First Architect of Palladian America

Part 1: How Harrison started his career as a precocious teenager. 

Peter Harrison was born in York, England, and when he was twelve years old he was apprenticed to William Etty, a local builder-architect, whose best-known design is the York Mansion House of 1725, that was influenced by Somerset House, London. It seems that Harrison was already very interested in architecture and regarded as a prodigy in the field, akin to Mozart in his field, because only a few months into the apprenticeship, still at age twelve, Etty arranged for Harrison to design the exterior of Saint Peter’s Church, Gayhurst, Buckinghamshire. Incidentally, Mozart wrote his Symphony No. 7 at this age. The following year, Harrison at age thirteen designed Saint Margaret’s Church, Biddlesden, Buckinghamshire.

St. Peter’s Church, Gayhurst

Since Etty was supervising Harrison’s work, all the clients no doubt assumed that Etty was providing the designs, for if they had known that a teenager was producing their designs, surely many of the clients would have not wanted anything to do with the young architect. At age fourteen in 1730, Harrison designed the Town Hall for Derby (destroyed in 1828 in order to build a larger structure), and the stately Rokeby Park House, County Durham for Sir Thomas Robinson. Harrison gave the house twin towers in the rear. The house has since been enlarged.

In 1731 at age fifteen, Harrison designed the home of the Bank of England in London for George Sampson to build. The design was influenced by Elizabeth Wilbraham’s 1662 Somerset House in London. The Bank had a single square tower in the rear. It was eventually destroyed in order to build a much larger structure. Also influenced by Somerset House was a part of Magdalen College (pronounced Maudlin), Oxford that Harrison designed for Edward Holdsworth to build, but the College ran out of money and failed to build the structure after all.

At age sixteen in 1732, Harrison designed the east fronts of two churches built by Edward and Thomas Woodward, Saint John the Baptist in Gloucester, and Saint Swithun’s in Worcester. The following year at age seventeen, Harrison and his family were invited to lunch with Lord Wentworth the Marquess of Rockingham, a family friend, and after lunch Wentworth set Harrison an exam: if I wanted a country house 600 feet long, what would it look like? Wentworth liked the design so much that he decided to build it; Wentworth-Woodhouse is still the longest private house in Europe, and it is open to the public. Well-known architect Henry Flitcroft was hired to supervise construction, and he was rather miffed at not having been asked to design it himself.

That same year, the nearby Winn family requested, through their agent James Moyser, another large country house. Harrison drew it, and its construction was supervised by James Paine. It is now open to the public through the National Trust. He also designed the Church of Saint Michael and All Angels, Great Witley, Worcestershire that same year. Incidentally, Mozart wrote his first piano concerto (actually numbered No. 5) at that age.

In 1734, when Harrison was eighteen, Etty died suddenly, a few months before the apprenticeship was expected to end. That year, Harrison designed the elegant Palladian Butter Market at Pontefract in West Yorkshire, as well as two works for builders John and William Bastard at Blandford Forum, Dorset, the Market/Town Hall/Courthouse, and the Church of Saints Peter and Paul. Mozart wrote his bassoon concerto at this age.

When he was nineteen in 1735, Harrison designed Saint Mary’s Church, Ealing, London for builder James Horne, and he offered two alternative interior designs (Horne or the client selected the less expensive one). That church was destroyed in 1865 in order to build a bigger one. Harrison then set his sights on Ireland, where he designed the Dunlavin Market House in County Wicklow (now somewhat altered), and Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral in Cork, which was also destroyed in 1865 in order to build a larger one. Mozart wrote his first violin concerto at this age.

At age twenty in 1736, Harrison designed three churches for builder Francis Smith: All Saints Church, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire (interior now altered), Saint Mary’s Church, Monmouth, Wales (replaced by a larger structure in 1882), and Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Norton-le-Moors, Staffordshire, now somewhat enlarged. He also designed his first building in Scotland, the Market/Town Hall at Glasgow for builder Allan Dreghorn, which was unfortunately destroyed in 1911; this was another design influenced by Somerset House.

Two of the three major rules that Etty had taught him seemed to work for him: never allow yourself to be hired to supervise construction, as that is a waste of time; always commission a network of builders who will specify you as their architect. The third rule will be examined in a later post.