William F. Small, 'Architect of the City'

Abstract

In many of the older American cities a small group of families often held positions of overwhelming social, financial, and political importance.1 Less frequently architectural dynasties were formed, and Baltimore must be unique for the number it nourished. Robert Cary Long, Sr. (1770-1833) spent almost his whole life in Baltimore, while his son, Robert Cary Long, Jr. (1810-1849) worked as much outside as in the city. The English-born Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764-1820) designed works which have given Baltimore a prominent place in American architectural history, and his sons and later descendants, as engineers, lawyers, and politicians, achieved distinction through the nineteenth and into the twentieth centuries. In the eighteenth century Jacob Small, Sr. designed and constructed the still-standing Otterbein Church (1784); Jacob Small, Jr. (1772-1851) amassed a fortune as a builder and lumber dealer, served as mayor from 1826 to 1831, and late in life assumed the title 'architect'; and in the third generation William F. Small (1798-1832) was the first native Baltimorean to receive professional architectural training. Upon his death at the age of thirty-four William Small received a brief obituary in which he was called 'Architect of the city'.2 This was probably not an official position, although he designed several municipal buildings, and the charge of nepotism may be raised because his father was