An early American architect best known for designing the White House, James Hoban was trained in Dublin, Ireland, and emigrated to the United States about 1785. Soon after arriving in this country, he was commissioned to design the South Carolina state house in Columbia, SC. That building was finished in 1792 and burned in 1865. In addition to the White House, begun in 1792 and reconstructed in 1829, Hoban built the Great Hotel in Washington, DC, and helped execute William Thornton's plans for the U.S. Capitol Building.