William Tatham, an acquaintance of TJ, had recently returned to the United States after spending about nine years in Europe. He was staying in Georgetown and may have shared with the administration some thoughts on navigation of the North Carolina coast. Gallatin was soliciting plans for a lighthouse to be constructed near the mouth of the Mississippi River, and at some point Tatham conveyed his ideas on lighthouse lanterns (G. Melvin Herndon, William Tatham and the Culture of Tobacco [Coral Gables, Fla., 1969], 376-89; Latrobe, Correspondence description begins John C. Van Horne and Lee W. Formwalt, eds., The Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, New Haven, 1984-88, 3 vols. description ends , 2:69-71; Tatham to TJ, 17 May).

William Brown, the collector at New Orleans, enclosed Lafon’s plan in a letter of 14 Jan. to Gallatin, who shared it with Benjamin H. Latrobe. Latrobe’s report on the plan apparently criticized Lafon’s design, which called for a four-sided, open-air structure made from cypress wood. Latrobe favored an octagonal stone structure, the basis for his initial proposal after Gallatin hired him as architect for the project (Gallatin, Papers description begins Carl E. Prince and Helene E. Fineman, eds., The Papers of Albert Gallatin, microfilm edition in 46 reels, Philadelphia, 1969, and Supplement, Barbara B. Oberg, ed., reels 47-51, Wilmington, Del., 1985 description ends , 10:482; Michael W. Fazio, “Benjamin Latrobe’s Designs for a Lighthouse at the Mouth of the Mississippi River,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 48 [1989], 232-4; Latrobe, Correspondence description begins John C. Van Horne and Lee W. Formwalt, eds., The Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, New Haven, 1984-88, 3 vols. description ends , 2:30-1, 69-71).