Robert Mills Robert Mills, an architect from South Carolina, <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/280">won the competition to design the Washington Monument</a> in 1836. Although construction began under his supervision, work stopped in 1854, a year before he died, and the monument was not completed for another thirty years. <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/355">Mills was also the architect of other prominent Washington buildings</a>, including the central and eastern wings of the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/337">Treasury Department building</a>. <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Robert+Mills">Robert Mills</a> Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. <a href="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2005693087/">View original image</a>. <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1830-1859">1830-1859</a>