William Nichols

William Nichols, Sr. (1780 – December 12, 1853) was an English-born architect who emigrated to the United States and became most famous for his early Neoclassical-style buildings in the American South. He designed statehouses for North Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi.

Biography William Nichols was born in 1780 in Bath, a center for English Palladian and Adam-style architecture in the 18th century. He was brought up in a family of builders, learning the trade through them. Nichols emigrated to North Carolina in 1800, initially settling in the New Bern area. He married Mary Rew in 1805 and had taken his first apprentice by 1806. His earliest commissions in the area remain unclear, although several buildings have been suggested as candidates. He applied for American citizenship in 1813, and in 1815, following the death of his first wife, married Sarah Simons.

The Forks of Cypress began as a Federal-style house in 1820. The peripteral Ionic portico was designed by Nichols in 1830. The house was destroyed by fire in 1966. Ruined columns remain at the site. In 1833, with a letter of recommendation from his friend, Alabama Governor John Gayle, Nichols applied for the post of state architect for Mississippi. Although he didn't receive the job at the time, he was later summoned to Jackson in 1835 to fill the post and assume construction of the new Mississippi capitol. The configuration and ornament on the new building reflected his earlier statehouses in North Carolina and Alabama, on a grander scale. Rosemount (Designed 1832, completed 1835) near Forkland, Alabama. Old Mississippi State Capitol (1839) in Jackson, Mississippi. Mississippi Governor's Mansion (1842) in Jackson, Mississippi. Lyceum (1848) at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi.

Destroyed North Carolina Governor's Palace (1816) in Raleigh, North Carolina North Carolina State House (1820–22) in Raleigh, North Carolina. Guilford County Courthouse (1820s) in Greensboro, North Carolina. Davidson County Courthouse (1824–25) in Lexington, North Carolina. Wake County Jail (1825) in Raleigh, North Carolina. Christ Episcopal Church (1826–29) in Raleigh, North Carolina. George E. Badger House (1827) in Raleigh, North Carolina. Old Alabama State Capitol (1827–29) in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Forks of Cypress (1830) in Florence, Alabama. Original campus of the University of Alabama (1831) in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.