Joseph-François Mangin

Joseph-François Mangin was born on June 10, 1758 in Dompaire, in the Vosges region of France. He was a French-American architect who is noted for designing New York City Hall and St. Patrick's Old Cathedral in New York City.

He died in 1818 in Madrid, St Lawrence County, New York.

Early life

Joseph François Mangin was born in 1758 in the Vosges region of France, the son of Jean-Baptiste François Mangin (1724-1772), the king's surgeon, and Marie Anne Milot (1731-1804), both from Dompaire. He left Dompaire around 1773 to study at a high school in Nancy, where he graduated in 1777. He then studied law at the University of Nancy, where he graduated in 1781. After spending a few years near Nancy as a lawyer, he decided to move to St Domingue (today Haiti) to make a fortune. He left France from Nantes on Oct, 25th 1784 and arrived in St Domingue on Dec, 7th 1784. Joseph François Mangin and his brother Charles had to flee Saint Domingue in 1793 as a consequence of the slave revolt which started in 1792. They arrived in New York City in December 1793. He became a surveyor for NYC. He and John McComb, Jr. together won the design competition to build the new New York City Hall (1803), and Mangin later designed the first St Patrick's Cathedral (1809-15). He became a naturalized American citizen in 1796.

Career

In New York, Mangin became a protégé of Alexander Hamilton, and, as a result of Hamilton's influence, Mangin was hired by the federal government to design fortifications for New York harbor. He also designed the city's first theatre in 1795, and the first prison for New York state, in the village of Greenwich on the Hudson River, which would, when subsumed by the growth of the city, become Greenwich Village.Koeppel (2015), pp.29-30

Mangin was appointed to be one of the handful of official recognized "city surveyors", he was a Military Engineer during the war of 1812 the United States. Mangin was at pains to point out to Hamilton his love for and allegiance to his adopted country: "I am an American, and the last drop of my blood will be shed in the service of my country."

Prior to the New York City Commissioner’ Plan of 1811, the city's Common Council in 1797 commissioned city surveyors Casimir Goerck and Mangin to survey the streets of the city; Goerck and Mangin had each submitted individual proposals to the council, but then decided to team up. Goerck died of yellow fever during the course of the surveying, but Mangin completed it and delivered the draft of the Mangin–Goerck Plan to the Council in 1799 for correction of street names; the final engraved version would be presented to the Council in 1803. Unfortunately, Mangin had gone beyond the terms of the commission, and the map not only showed the existing streets of the city, but also, in Mangin's words, "the City ... such as it is to be..." In other words, the plan was a guide to where Mangin believed future streets should be laid out.

The Council accepted the Mangin–Goerck Plan as "the new Map of the City" for four years, and even published it by subscription, until political machinations perhaps organized by Aaron Burr, the political enemy of Mangin's mentor Alexander Hamilton, brought the plan into disrepute, and the Council ordered that copies which had already been sold be bought back, and that a label warning of "inaccuracies" be placed on any additional copies sold.Koeppel (2015), pp.37-41;51-56 Nevertheless, as the city grew, the Mangin–Goerck Plan became the ''de facto'' reference for where new streets would be built, and when the Commissioners' Plan was revealed in 1811, the area of the plan which the public had been warned was inaccurate and speculative, had been accepted wholesale by the commission, their plan being almost identical to Mangin's in that area.Koeppel (2015), p.60

In 1802, Mangin and John McComb Jr. won a design contest to build New York's City Hall. The design won out over a field of twenty-five other entries, including one from Benjamin Henry Latrobe – a protegé of Alexander Hamilton's political enemy, Aaron Burr – who would go on to be known as the "Father of American Architecture," but would never design a building in New York City.Koeppel (2015), pp.41-42 Historian Gerard Koeppel speculates that it this snubbing of an architect from his circle for one from Hamilton's circle which was the cause of the downfall of the Mangin–Goerck Plan.Koeppel (2015), pp.51-52

In 1803, the Common Council ordered some changes in the design. McComb supervised the construction of the building and the alternations made to the original design. The original cornerstone only listed McComb's name. Then in the 1890s, a descendant of McComb erased Mangin's name from the drawing they had submitted for the competition, so as to increase their value. In 2003, Mangin's name was added to the cornerstone of City Hall.Koeppel (2015), p.62

In Spring 1807, Mangin sold his property in New York City and purchased a tract of land -square in upstate New York, in Madrid in St. Lawrence County. He went to live there, intending it to be his lifelong residence, but returned to the city before the winter was out, getting back his old position as a city surveyor. He sought out military contracts, but did not get any.

After his return to New York City, Mangin designed the First Presbyterian Church on Wall Street (1810), which was rebuilt twice before being taken apart and moved to Jersey City

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