After spending a year in Virginia, the novelty of being in a new place wore off, and Latrobe was lonely and restless in Virginia. Giambattista Scandella, a friend, suggested Philadelphia as an ideal location for him. In April 1798, Latrobe visited Philadelphia for the first time, meeting with Bank of Pennsylvania president Samuel J. Fox, and presented to him a design for a new bank building. At the time, the political climate in Philadelphia was quite different than Virginia, with a strong division between the Federalists and Jefferson's Democratic-Republicans, along with anti-French sentiment, thus the city was not entirely welcoming for Latrobe. On his way to Philadelphia, Latrobe passed through the national capital city of Washington, D.C., then under construction (congress and the president would not arrive until the year 1800), where he met with the first architect of the capitol, William Thornton, and viewed the United States Capitol for the first time. He stopped by Washington again on his way back to Richmond. Latrobe remained in Richmond, Virginia, until November 1798, when his design was selected for the Bank of Pennsylvania. He moved to Philadelphia, so that he could supervise the construction, although he continued to do occasional projects for clients in Virginia.