Who submitted the winning design for the United States Capitol?

William Thornton submitted the winning design for the United States Capitol.

Thornton was a physician, inventor, painter, and architect born in the British Virgin Islands. He entered the Capitol design competition in 1792, even though he had no formal architectural training comparable to many of the other competitors.

President George Washington approved Thornton’s proposal, and Thornton later supervised the Capitol project as one of the commissioners overseeing construction in the federal district. Other architects, including Étienne Sulpice Hallet, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, and Charles Bulfinch, substantially revised or expanded the building over time.

Consequently, Thornton is credited with the original winning design, not with every feature of the Capitol visitors see today. The building’s familiar dome was added and transformed in later decades, especially during the nineteenth century.