Final Beginnings

Chapter 6 covers the last three years of Latrobe’s life. After being released from debtor’s prison, he moved to Baltimore. There he completed two major works—the Catholic Basilica and the Merchants Exchange, the latter the cause of a bitter conflict with another expatriate, fellow architect Maximilian Godefroy. Again lacking sufficient commissions, he moved to New Orleans to complete the municipal waterworks that he expected would make him rich. He died of yellow fever before its completion. His wife Mary discovered that Latrobe had put all his available money into the unfinished waterworks, leaving her and the children destitute. Their son John, in his final year at West Point, left school to support his family