The National Palace in Port-au-Prince was designed by the Haitian architect Georges Baussan, trained at the École d'Architecture in Paris. His classical design took second place in a 1912 competition but was chosen for cost. The government funded construction through a tax on cocoa and other exports, and Simmonds Frères built it. Work began in May 1914 on a $350,000 budget. A mob set the unfinished palace on fire in 1915, and U.S. naval engineers oversaw its completion in 1920.
The infobox lists the style as Victorian, while the text links it to French Renaissance architecture. It was white-painted reinforced concrete, two stories high and shaped like the letter E, with four Ionic columns on the entrance portico and domed, groined pavilions.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake in 2010 collapsed the second floor and central pavilion, and demolition took place from September to December 2012. Reconstruction had not begun as of January 2026.
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