On this day in 1794, Boston architect Charles Bulfinch obtained a mortgage for the house he had recently designed and built for his family. The 31-year-old Bulfinch had donated so many plans for city churches, monuments, and public buildings that the architect seemed to be single-handedly re-creating his hometown as a place of classical beauty. A bad investment eventually sent Bulfinch to debtors' prison. The city responded by offering him a salary; for the next 20 years Bulfinch served as a city administrator, planner, and master designer. Boston was the beneficiary of the nation's first native-born professional architect. "Bulfinch's Boston" includes the State House, India Wharf, the Otis House Museum, and the Ether Dome at Massachusetts General Hospital.