Lancaster County Courthouse, Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Description

Pencil, pen and ink, watercolor on laid paper drawing of "Lancaster County Courthouse, Lancaster, Pennsylvania", ca. 1802, from the Latrobe Sketchbooks, by Benjamin Henry Latrobe. In 1801, Latrobe was appointed by the Pennsylvania governor to work with the Susquehanna Canal Company of Maryland to make improvements to the Lower Susquehanna River. He surveyed the river with a small crew from October-November of that year and presented his work to the governor in March 1802. At the time, the capitol was located in Lancaster and Latrobe captured this unfinished street scene during or after his visit. The artist faces southeast. The building on the extreme left is the old City Hall building where the State government operated. The family at center is drawn in pencil, but was never completed with watercolor. The middle building is the county courthouse, which then also held the State House of Representatives and Senate. A house and covered wagon on the right side of the drawing were also never completed.