Bulfinch (Charles) is born in Boston.

The son of Dr. Thomas and Susan (Apthorp), Charles Bulfinch is born in Bowdoin Square, graduates from Boston Latin School and Harvard College, studies architecture in Europe, and returns to Boston in 1787.* He marries Hannah Apthorp and designs his first building in 1788,* then designs many more in Boston and throughout New England, all the while serving as a Selectman (1792-1818) and Superintendent of Police. The first important U.S.-born architect, Bulfinch leaves Boston to serve as chief architect for Washington, D.C. in 1818,* returns in 1830, dies at Bowdoin Square on April 4, 1844, and is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery. Douglass Shand-Tucci later writes, “Much as one might like to say something new about Bulfinch here, the old and venerable idea that he virtually created Boston architecturally is more or less true.”