Nations are known by their monuments... Big Ben in London, the Eiffel Tower of Paris, the Colosseum of Rome, and our own Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.

It's very interesting and rather sad that here in a quiet, very old, crowded, almost forgotten cemetery in Washington, D.C., we have an extremely simple monument, erected obviously, a hundred years after his death, to the architect who gave many of these symbols to our country, the forgotten South Carolinian Robert Mills.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Robert Mills had a wonderful childhood growing up in the busy port city of Charleston, where ships from around the world would dock at the wharves visited by Robert and his five brothers and sisters.

They roamed streets with many types of architecture, visited the sea islands by boat.

He was born August 12, 1781, about the time of the Battle of Yorktown.

His mother was descended from a governor of the colonial council whose land had been granted through the Lords Proprietors.

His father had emigrated from Dundee, Scotland, in 1770, and became a very successful tailor.

The family was somewhat affluent, and the father was determined that Robert, the youngest of his four sons, would have the best education possible.

♪ Robert Mills once walked these paths here at the College of Charleston, as the students do today.

He received a classical education in Latin and Greek and was particularly fascinated by his courses under James Hoban.

After Mills graduated in 1800, he went with Hoban to help create the new federal city in Washington, D.C.

He was a draftsman for the plans for first the Capitol and then the federal mansion.

His enthusiasm and cleverness caught the eye of Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson found his great interest of Mills' life would be that of architecture and so invited Mills to live at Monticello for two years where Mills could study all of the books in Jefferson's library, this being the most extensive private library in architecture in the United States at that time.

In 1803, Mills received a job with Benjamin Latrobe, who was working not only in Washington, but also in Philadelphia on many, many projects, but after a while, Mills decided to go into private business for himself because it was necessary that he make a great deal of money... he had fallen in love and wanted to be married.

♪ Thomas Jefferson introduced Mills to Eliza Barnwell Stuart of Frederick County, Virginia.

They were married in 1808, and she understood this eccentric gentleman who left us little in the way of personal memorabilia but such a wealth from his creative genius.

While in Philadelphia, he designed the wings for Independence Hall.

He designed the longest bridge in the world for that time and also received a commission to design a prison.

He had firm ideas about how prisoners should be cared for.

He was against chaining anyone and was strongly opposed to the death penalty.

He was opposed to slavery.

He favored abolition, even sending Black people to Africa if they so chose.

He felt that the Native Americans needed better care than was given at that time by the government.

In Fairfield County, he found that the children of the poor were being given a free education, and of this he highly approved.

In Edgefield County, he found that poor people were being given jobs rather than just handed the money.

In all his life, a tremendous sense of conservation was with him, and he strongly believed in controlling and bettering the use of the land.

♪ Here in busy Mount Vernon Place in the heart of the city of Baltimore, we have one of the earliest and indeed one of the most beautiful monuments created by Robert Mills.

In 1810, the legislature of Maryland voted $100,000 to erect a monument to the father of our country.

Through open competition, Robert Mills' design won, and July 4, 1815, the cornerstone was laid for this magnificent monument.

Unfortunately, 14 years were required for its completion, so in 1820 Mills moved his wife and by then three daughters to Baltimore to live here until this beautiful monument had been finished.

It is 50 feet square at the base and rises 25 feet square to su pport the large Doric column, which rises 175 feet into the air.

Such a high monument had never before been created.

On the top of the monument, the statue of George Washington is 17 feet high and weighs 30 tons.

It was carved by the Italian sculptor Causici from Maryland marble.

The question arose in everyone's mind... How will they get the statue on top of the column?, but a sea captain friend helped Mills design a pair of timber shears which with a capstan easily raised the 30-ton statue to the point where it rests at the moment.

Here we see Washington saying farewell to the troops of the Continental Army.

Our statue was built on a hill outside the busy section for fear that it might topple over and destroy the existing buildings.

Here Mills made two of his usual errors.

The poor man was very improvident about money.

He never knew exactly how much to charge for his work or what the final cost of a building or a monument would be.

So, to raise the statue cost $522.66 more than he had estimated.

Unfortunately, this had to come from his own pocket.

Again, he did not sign this beautiful monument, and a hundred years later, July 4, 1915, ceremonies were held, and a bronze plaque was placed on the interior of the monument stating that the architect was Robert Mills.

While in Maryland waiting for completion of the statue, Mills concerned himself with a safe water supply for the city.

To increase transportation to the Port of Baltimore, he designed a series of canals which would connect Baltimore with the Ohio River.

This was never done, but he did write a monograph called "A Treatise on Inland Navigation" in order to improve the facilities of this wonderful city.

♪ In 1820, Mills returned to Charleston with his family of seven, which included an adopted son.

He returned as our first American-born and American-educated architect because at this time there were no schools of architecture in this country, but he had been fortunate in being able to study the classical designs of the Palladian, Greek, and Roman so beloved by Thomas Jefferson and given to Mills through the use of his library.

Like Jefferson, Mills believed that the architecture of the Old World needed to be adapted to the uses of a new, vibrant country.

There was no nonsense about Mills' buildings.

They were very practical, adapted to the use for which they were intended, and as such we continue to appreciate them today.

Mills accepted a position on the newly formed Board of Public Works.

At this time, cotton was the great money crop, and it was difficult to get the cotton crop to market over the consisting roads of the time.

So Mills' expertise was greatly needed to help develop new forms of transportation to aid the agricultural development of the state.

♪ In 1821 the Mills family, now numbering seven, moved from Charleston to Columbia.

Mills most enthusiastically began his job as Surveyor General for the state of South Carolina.

He traveled to all 28 districts, assessing the needs of each community and making his own pertinent observations upon the political and social life of the times.

While in each district, he took maps made by local surveyors and added to them, and eventually compiled a huge atlas of South Carolina in which every tiny detail is noted, and this he published privately.

Let's follow him in some of his travels, because he saw to it that he designed 16 courthouses.

Every district had a courthouse, and a jail, and many, many other interesting items.

♪ The lovely courthouse in Lancaster is typical of the many courthouses designed by Robert Mills.

As a member of the Board of Public Works, he traveled to all 28 districts and made sure each had a courthouse and a jail.

Frequently, the courthouse was the first and most imposing edifice within a small community.

He adapted the size to the economics of the times and to the location in which it was placed.

The Lancaster Courthouse has the basic features of a Mills design.

The ground floor, instead of holding the courtroom, was designed for offices.

These offices had been carefully built to be as completely fireproof, as possible.

The courtroom is on the second floor, which is reached by a double stairway leading to a porch.

From there, one goes directly into the courtroom.

From the porch we see the four Doric columns, which were greatly favored by Mills as a student of both Thomas Jefferson and the written works of Italian architect Palladio, because Mills much preferred the Gr eek and Roman temple form, as you can see from the pediment above the columns which support the carefully slanted roof.

This is a beautiful building, indeed, and as all of the Mills buildings which are extant, it is on the National Register of Historic Sites.

♪ This jail in Union is an excellent example of Robert Mills' design.

It was built in 1823.

Modern additions have been made in this century, and as you can see, the building is still in use.

Like his courthouses, Mills designed his jails with a central walkway with rooms on either side on the ground floor.

The more dangerous criminals were kept upstairs where communication and escape was very difficult.

The building is made of granite quarry from a local quarry, and the brickwork inside made the building almost completely fireproof.

Mills believed in security and humanity.

For the first time, the debtors' prison was downstairs with a fireplace and a fireplace in the jailer's qu arters across the hall.

Upstairs the more dangerous criminals were separated... the men in one room, the women in another.

This, according to some of our sources, is a very interesting design... medieval in the fact that the openings are very small in very thick walls, and yet the design, functional enough as it is in the 20th century.

This design for jails was copied in the nearby states of Georgia, North Carolina, and we find it frequently in the American Southwest where it was taken by South Carolinians emigrating from their native state.

♪ Here at Landsford Canal in Chester County, we see Robert Mills, the engineer.

As a member of the South Carolina Board of Public Works, he was very interested in improving inland navigation.

He had written a treatise upon it while a resident in Baltimore.

The crop of cotton had to be taken from all parts of South Carolina to the port city of Charleston, and the roads at that time were not adequate for the needs of the transportation.

So, under Robert Mills, a series of inland transportation was developed, which eventually covered 2,370 miles.

At the end of his term of office, there were 25 canals within the state and 59 locks.

Landsford Canal bypasses th e shoals on the Catawba River linking the upper Piedmont to the broader waters due southward.

This particular canal was under the engineering guidance of Robert Leckie, a Scotsman who brought Scottish stonemasons with him to construct the canal.

Mills himself designed the gatekeeper's house, and here we have a beautiful example of the masonry of the 1820s.

Leckie lost his family and many of his workers in a terrible epidemic of typhoid fever, but he himself went on later to work on the courthouse in York County.

Unfortunately, better transportation was finally developed, unfortunately for the inland navigation, and the canals fell into decay due to lack of use.

No one bought them privately, and finally they disintegrated into the spot of beauty that we see here today.

We know that Robert Mills visited here, as recorded in his diary, to inspect the canal and see how things were going.

♪ Robert Mills designed very few private buildings, but here in the heart of Columbia, we find the lovely home he designed for his friend Ainsley Hall.

Mr. Hall was a merchant who felt that someday soon Columbia would rival Charleston as a mercantile and industrial city.

This house was never lived in as a home.

From 1830 to 1927, it was the home of the Columbia Th eological Seminary... after that, the home of the Columbia Bible College.

Then it was neglected-- fell into great disrepair-- until in the 1960s, reconstruction was begun.

The extra buildings added for the colleges had been removed, and we find outbuildings, the kitchen, and the office had been placed on the original foundations.

The home has been beautifully refurnished as a museum, and you will enjoy a visit here.

The house itself is typical of a Robert Mills design.

It's a lovely building wi th the arches, the porticoes, and the Greco-Roman pediment, plus the granite windowsills, which he insisted upon for fireproofing.

Also, when the building was being reconstructed, between the sills of each room, cedar shavings were found, which had been placed there in the late 1820s to prevent the ravages of insects as well as to provide insulation, and the cedar shavings are as fresh today as they were 150 years ago.

One building on the grounds of the Ainsley Hall estate which you will not find is the former carriage house, because in 1886 the carriage house was used for the very first state college for women within South Carolina.

Later the carriage house was moved carefully brick by brick to the campus in Rock Hill, where it is now the Little Chapel of Winthrop College.

While living in Columbia and working for the state, Mills worked as a private architect, also, and designed a number of buildings in Charleston.

Most of these no longer exist, due largely to the terrible fires that have swept Charleston in the past century and a half.

There are two remaining today that are notable.

The First Baptist Church at 61 Church Street is noted for its classical exterior.

Mills was extremely satisfied wi th the design of this church, and he described it as the "best specimen of correct taste in architecture" of the modern buildings of this city.

The Fireproof Building at 100 Meeting Street stood for years as the most fire-protected building in the country.

Mills was concerned for the safety of the public records housed in this building, and in his design he was determined to make the building fi reproof and earthquake-proof.

It's notable that during the earthquake of 1886, this building stood unharmed while those around it were totally destroyed.

Before we leave Columbia, there is another Mills building we would like you to see.

This building is on the grounds of our state mental hospital.

It's beautiful for the large central portion from which curved wings have been added.

It's a moment of great beauty, but it is also a tribute to Robert Mills the humanitarian, who felt that people with mental illness deserved better accommodation and better treatment than they had been receiving during his lifetime.

♪ In 1830, due to economic reasons, Robert Mills moved his family back to the city of Washington, where his career had begun.

In fact, he was always plagued by money troubles.

His wife, Eliza, was forced to open an academy for young ladies in order to supplement the family income.

President Andrew Jackson made him federal architect and engineer, and under his guidance and through the job, he presented the United States with many magnificent buildings which we use today.

He designed the Treasury Building, the old Patent Office, the old Post Office, and several times he was consulted about improving the acoustics on the dome of the national Capitol.

He wrote a monograph concerning his opinions about how the new Smithsonian Institute should be built.

He was fascinated by railroads, and he felt that at one time possibly railroads might be able to achieve a speed of 100 miles an hour.

Mills was a visionary, very far ahead of his time, and his love of the Greek and Roman temple design can be seen today as we admire the modern buildings here in Washington, particularly those of the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials.

In 1833, Robert Mills began his greatest monument, one that was to be his crowning artistic achievement, yet he didn't live to see it completed.

♪ As early as 1783, the Continental Congress decided that a monument should be built to honor the father of our country.

However, congressional funds were never allocated for such a project, and it was 1833 before the idea surfaced again.

A committee was formed, the national monument association, of interested public citizens who began to raise money-- nickels, dimes, and quarters-- from people throughout the entire United States.

Plans were submitted for designs, and those of Robert Mills were accepted.

Mills' design envisioned a single obelisk on a base.

According to the traditional configuration, the obelisk would be ten times the width of the base itself.

It wasn't until 1848 that the cornerstone of this was laid.

Bit by bit, the building would progress and then would halt due to lack of money.

Stones were sent from throughout all the states and foreign countries.

The stone from South Carolina is on the interior, is 30 feet up, facing the Potomac River, and it was quarried from Limestone College.

In 1848, its prospects were very bright, but on a cold spring day in 1855, Robert Mills, on his deathbed on Capitol Hill, looked out at what should have been, in his opinion, his most gorgeous and glorious artistic success, only to find it dilapidated, the buildings of the workers falling down.

He felt at the end of his life that he had become a complete failure and that never would his beautiful vision ever come to be, but four years after his death, work was started again, and it was found that the foundations had sunk only 4 and 1/2 inches from their inception in 1848.

Finally in 1884, the monument was dedicated.

The Washington Monument as we know it today is not only a landmark of our nation, but one of the most beautiful spots in our country.

There is a story which best affirms how most of us feel.

After a dinner given by President and Mrs. Herbert Hoover, a lady told the story of her son being expelled from school because his description of the Washington Monument was entirely too short.

The principal saw it, was very pleased with it, reinstated the child, and I would like to read to you this little boy's essay.

"The Washington Monument was built "with stones contributed by the nations of the world "to honor the founder of the Republic.

"In it's shadow, it seems the Creator's finger pointing to the stars.

"From Arlington where sleep the men who loved freedom more than life, "it looks like a giant spike God might have driven into the earth and said, 'Here I stake a claim fo r the home of liberty.'"

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