McDonald Brothers founded in 1878 was a Louisville-based firm of architects of courthouses and other public buildings.
[2] The McDonald Brothers worked during 1896 on a redesign for the Thomas Jefferson-designed Rotunda at the University of Virginia, after it was destroyed by fire in 1895.
The McDonald Brothers were already at work in Charlottesville, designing Christ Episcopal Church.
The firm was fired from the job, however, after it turned out "they miscalculated the structural stability of the ruined Rotunda."
[4] Many of their works survive and are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.