James Bogardus

James Bogardus (March 14, 1800 – April 13, 1874 ) was an American inventor and architect, the pioneer of American cast-iron architecture, for which he took out a patent in 1850. In the next two decades he demonstrated the use of cast-iron in the construction of building facades, especially in New York City, where he was based, but also in Washington, DC, where three cast-iron structures erected by Bogardus in 1851 were the first such constructions in the capital. The success of the cast-iron exteriors from 1850-1880 led to the adoption of steel-frame construction for entire buildings. Born in Catskill, New York, Bogardus quit school at the age of fourteen to start an apprenticeship at a watchmaker. Bogardus attached plaques to his...