Sir, – Denis Bergin writes that unnamed American authorities are "of one mind" in holding that Leinster House was the most important influence on James Hoban's design for the White House (Letters, May 6th).
To my eyes the differences between the White House and Leinster House are more obvious than the similarities.
The former has two storeys, the latter three; one has a projecting portico, the other does not, one has Ionic capitals on its columns, the other Corinthian; one has a bow on its rear elevation, the other does not. The sole obvious similarity is the alternation of segmental and triangular pediments over windows.
There is, however, an Irish mansion which does more closely resemble the White House, although it is one which has never (to my knowledge at least) been linked with the home of the American president.
That house is Castle Coole in Co Fermanagh. Like the White House it has two storeys and a projecting portico with Ionic columns matched by a bow, also with Ionic columns, on its rear elevation. These features are to be found both in the drawings for the house submitted by Richard Johnston and in the revised version by the London architect James Wyatt (although the former scheme had pilasters rather than columns on the bow).
According to Peter Marston’s book on Castle Coole and its owners, Johnston’s drawings were submitted in October 1789 and Wyatt’s in May 1790, two years before Hoban was selected to design the White House. But the similarities do not by themselves prove that the earlier building influenced the later. Hoban and Richard Johnston (brother of the more famous Francis) were both in Dublin in the early 1780s but there is no evidence that I know of that they were in contact after the latter left Ireland; nor am I aware of a connection between Wyatt and Hoban (although the former had designed at least one Irish house before Castle Coole).
Nevertheless, if there is an Irish model for the White House, Castle Coole would seem more a more plausible candidate than Leinster House.
I might add than the Fermanagh building is more elegant than the one in Washington. – Yours, etc,
CDC ARMSTRONG,
Belfast.