John Tayloe, the wealthiest man in the Virginia of the late eighteenth century, had his summer home at Mt. Airy. His plantation, the largest in the State, was worked by more than five hundred slaves. When he wanted a winter home, he thought of building at Philadelphia. But George Washington, eager to secure him as a resident of the young Federal City on the Potomac, asked him to consider the erection of a house there. So Mr. Tayloe made an investigation of Washington as a site for a residence, bought a lot for one thousand dollars, and in 1798 commissioned Dr. William Thornton to make the plans for a palatial house. During the construction of the building Washington several times rode by and from the saddle inspected the progress of the work. Thornton was at the time a well-known man, though he had been born in the West Indies and was for many years a resident there. After receiving his education in Europe, he lived for several years in the United States. During this period he was a partner of John Fitch in the building and trial of the steamboat that for a time ran successfully on the Delaware River, more than twenty years before Fulton built the _Clermont_. He was himself something of an inventor; he secured a number of patents for a device to move a vessel by applying steam to a wheel at the side of the hull. He had returned to the West Indies when he read that a prize was to be given for the best plan submitted for the Capitol to be built at Washington. At once he wrote for particulars, and in due time he presented his plans. He was then living in the United States. The plans were considered the best that had been offered. Jefferson said that they "captivated the eyes and judgment of all," while Washington spoke of their "grandeur, simplicity, and convenience." While these plans were later modified by others, certain features of the Capitol as it appears to-day are to be traced directly to Dr. Thornton's plans. At the time of the award he was but thirty-one years old, and had already won a place as a physician, an inventor, and a man of science. He was a friend of Benjamin Franklin, and had received the prize offered for the design for the new building of the Library Company of Philadelphia, in which Franklin was especially interested. Later he was awarded a gold medal by the American Philosophical Society for a paper in which he outlined the method of the oral teaching of deaf and dumb children which is still in use in many institutions. [Illustration: OCTAGON HOUSE, WASHINGTON, D. C. _Photo by Frank Cousins Art Company from the Monograph on the Octagon House by the American Institute of Architects_ See page 234] The building planned by Dr. Thornton for Mr. Tayloe, at the northeast corner of New York Avenue and Eighteenth Street, was completed in 1801. At the time it was the best house in Washington. At once, as the Octagon House, it became famous for the lavish hospitality of its owner.