at the entrance of Ash Lawn, the home of James Monroe, near
Charlottesville. An interesting fact about this statue is that,
after the government of Venezuela had commissioned Piccirilli to
create this statue of Monroe, a revolution occurred in Venezuela
which caused a new slate of officials to succeed in office. Since
some of these officials were not pro-Monroe in their regard for the
Monroe Doctrine, the statue remained in a studio in New York City
from the latter part of the 1800's until 1931. Sievers also designed
the bronze figure of "Stonewall" Jackson astride his horse, Little
Sorrel, for the "Stonewall" Jackson Monument on Monument Avenue in
Richmond.
Sculptural contributions of Thomas Crawford and Randolph Rogers,
both New Yorkers, may be found in Capitol Square, Richmond. The
Washington Monument here is considered an outstanding sculptural
group. Robert Mills designed the base and pedestal. The monument
depicts a bronze equestrian statue of George Washington on a stone
base surrounded by huge figures of Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson,
General Andrew Lewis, John Marshall, George Mason and Thomas Nelson.
Female figures are seated on trophies of victory around the base of
the monument. All the figures were created by Crawford except Lewis
and Nelson which were created by Rogers after Crawford had died.
Virginians were encouraged to appreciate the Fine Arts even as
early as 1786 when a Frenchman, Chevalier de Beaurepaire, founded
in Richmond the Academy of Sciences and Fine Arts of the United
States of America. This organization marked the formal beginning of
Richmond as a cultural center in Virginia. In 1936, the Virginia
Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond became the first state-supported
art museum in the United States. At present, the Museum Building,
its equipment and the salaries of the staff are provided by the
Commonwealth; other sources of revenue come from endowments, gifts,
membership, rental and admission fees. There are numerous traveling
exhibitions, slide sets, films and filmstrips, permanent famous art
collections, temporary loan exhibits and an Art-mobile equipped with
a comprehensive art display which travels to specific areas on a
scheduled basis. There is also a Museum Theater where a variety of
performances in the Fine Arts including the dance, music, drama and
motion pictures is presented.
In 1913, the Battle Abbey was constructed in Richmond. It is noted
for its large wall murals painted by the French artist, Charles
Hoffbauer and portraying the key battles of the War between the
States. Battle Abbey also includes valuable collections of paintings
of Confederate leaders, of battle flags and of military weapons used
during the War between the States.
The White House of the Confederacy in Richmond, known also as the
Confederate Museum, is the beautiful old Brockenbrough Mansion
leased for the home of Jefferson Davis and his family during the
War between the States. In 1893, the Confederate Memorial Literary
Society established the house as a Confederate historical museum.
Such historical treasures as the sword of Robert E. Lee, military
equipment of "J. E. B." Stuart, T. J. Jackson and Joseph E. Johnston
and individual sections housing battle mementoes of each Confederate
State are located in this structure.
The Valentine house in Richmond, bequeathed to the city by Mann S.
Valentine in 1892, was opened to the public as a museum in 1930.
In addition to its specialized exhibits on Richmond historical
treasures, this museum has some of the original casts of Edward V.
Valentine (the sculptor), several rare books concerning Virginia
and exhibits on world history and civilizations. Another famous
museum which was constructed in 1930 is the Mariners' Museum at
Newport News. A personal comprehensive collection of over 45,000
nautical articles (including ship models, figureheads and pictorial
material) owned by Archer M. Huntington is housed in this museum.
The skills and techniques of painting are currently taught in the
schools, colleges and art clubs, as well as by private tutors,
throughout Virginia. Thus, the Commonwealth offers excellent
opportunities for the encouragement of, and appreciation for,
meaningful art and sculpture.
_Architecture_
Architecture is often defined as the science and art of designing
and constructing buildings or structures. Historically, architecture
in Virginia is considered to have begun in 1611-1615 with the
building of the first frame row houses at Jamestown and at Henrico.
Previous to this period, only crude dwellings had been constructed.
The typical early row house, however, was a timber structure usually
two stories high with an upper garret often included. Some of the
early colonists were bricklayers, brickmakers and carpenters. Often,
the Virginia colonists built a typical English timber cottage as
similar as possible to those in their homeland insofar as the
availability of materials in Virginia would allow. A gabled shingled
roof was commonly used; wherever they could be afforded, dormer
windows were added. Such a frame house usually measured one room
deep and two rooms wide or two rooms deep and a passage-way wide. In
the latter type, huge chimneys were usually constructed at each end.
One of the first types of Seventeenth Century brick houses is
exemplified by the "Adam Thoroughgood" House built between 1636
and 1640 in Princess Anne County near Cape Henry. It has one
complete story topped by a steep gabled roof with dormers and with
two T-shaped chimneys. Like many of the early houses in Virginia,
its interior is finished in pine paneling. Winona, in Northampton
County, is another illustration of the early architectural house in
Virginia. It consists of a story and a half structure with brick
walls. One of the unique features of the house has been hidden from
public view by a frame addition: a buttressed chimney surpassed by
three extremely tall stacks.
The houses in Virginia whose construction is believed to have been
directly affected by the English Renaissance or Georgian Period of
architecture were built after 1720. Since the College of William
and Mary had been established at Williamsburg and the colonial
capital had been changed from Jamestown to Williamsburg, this area
had become the greatest cultural center as well as the seat of
government of Virginia. It is commonly believed that the important
buildings in Williamsburg in 1720--namely, the Wren Building at
the College of William and Mary, the Governor's Palace and the
Capitol--actually set the pattern for architectural designs for
private homes and public buildings throughout the colony.
The Wren Building is the only structure in America designed by
the great Sir Christopher Wren and is the oldest academic hall in
the United States. The original design of Wren had to be altered
slightly because of the terrain of the country-side. The building,
consisting of the commonly used sandy pink brick foundation
material, is a two-and-one-half storied rectangular building with a
steep roof which includes twelve dormer windows. The roof is topped
by a plain cupola in the center with two huge chimneys on either
side. Although the Wren Building was burned and rebuilt on three
different occasions, in 1928 some of the original walls were used
as the basis for the restoration and repair of the Wren Building as
part of the Williamsburg Restoration Project.
The Governor's Palace illustrates another Georgian architectural
design in Williamsburg. It consists of two stories rising to a
cornice topped by a steep, many-dormered roof. Atop the roof is
a platform with a lantern-cupola. There are narrow sash windows
on the façade and a plain square-transomed doorway with a center
wrought-iron balcony overhead. There are separate buildings for
the smokehouse, dairy, kitchen and laundry. Above the doorway of
the Governor's Palace is the carved coat of arms of George II and
Britain's Royal Lion and Unicorn. The fine paneled woodwork in the
interior of the palace and the antique tooled leather walls of the
library are also noteworthy.
The Capitol at Williamsburg, originally completed in 1704 and
later reconstructed on the original foundations, is a two-storied
H-shaped brick structure with semicircular bays on either end and
a connecting gallery in the center over an arched porch. The roof
of the gallery is topped with a cupola which has the arms of Queen
Anne, a clock and the Union Jack, one above the other. The Capitol
was restored in 1920.
The George Wythe House in Williamsburg is considered one of the
purest Georgian Colonial architectural structures in America.
George Wythe was the first law professor at the College of
William and Mary. The house was a gift from his father-in-law.
Although this structure was a town house, it had numerous separate
buildings--kitchen, smokehouse, laundry, stable--similar to a
plantation. The house is rectangular in shape, constructed of brick
and has two built-in chimneys. Under the restoration project, the
original paint colors in many of the rooms have been matched, and
it is now furnished with appropriate furniture of that period.
Other houses built about this time reveal the similarity of designs
of private estates to the Governor's Palace. Westover (1733), home
of Colonel William Byrd II on the James River, is considered by many
historians and architects as the finest example of colonial grandeur
and Georgian stateliness in Virginia. English wrought-iron gates are
fastened to posts at the top of which are two leaden eagles with
half-spread wings. The mansion house is constructed of red brick
with a center section two stories high. On either side of the center
section is a wing a story and a half high connected by passageways.
At both ends of the house are pairs of tall chimneys. Elaborate
entrances, paneled walls, an open-string staircase and black and
white marble mantels imported from Italy are some of the elegant
features still found in the mansion at the present time.
Christ Church in Lancaster County was erected about the same time as
Westover. This structure is an example of a Greek-cruciform colonial
church. The church is constructed of brick, has three wide brick
doors, oval windows and has the unusual history of having been built
solely with funds furnished by one individual, the wealthy "King"
Carter.
Stratford Hall (1725-1730) in Westmoreland County, the home of
Thomas Lee and the birthplace of Robert E. Lee, exemplifies another
H-shaped house of beauty and grandeur. Constructed of brick and
dominated by two groups of four chimneys, Stratford consists of the
H-plan with four large attached buildings at the corners. A unique
feature of this house is its exceptionally long flight of stairs
which one must ascend before reaching the main floor. The main floor
consists of five large rooms with a huge hall which forms the bar of
the "H." Each wing also has a pair of rooms connected by passages.
Carter's Grove (1751) in James City County is another Georgian
type house, planned and partially constructed by Carter Burwell in
1751. The main unit of the mansion was constructed by the English
builder, Richard Bayliss, and another Britisher, David Minitree. The
mansion consists of two-and-a-half stories with wings on each side
of one story. It is particularly noteworthy for its almost perfect
symmetry. The main unit has a very high roof with a pair of large
square chimneys. There are several dormer windows and the entire
structure is 200 feet long. The interior as well as the exterior
is beautiful with extensive pine paneling, a graceful arch across
the middle of the main hall and exquisitely carved walnut railings
along the stairway. Some officers of Lt. Col. Banaster Tarleton's
troops used this place as headquarters in 1781. When Tarleton
suddenly needed his troops, he rode horseback up the beautiful
carved stairway. The horse's hoofprints are still observable on the
stairway steps.
Mount Airy in Richmond County was constructed by Colonel John Tayloe
in 1758. This house is unusual because it was built entirely of
stone, a rarity because the Tidewater area did not have an extensive
amount of stone. Mount Airy is built of brown stone and trimmed with
light stone furnishing a colorful contrast.
The architecture of churches in Virginia is likewise varied. St.
Luke's Church, originally known as the Brick Church in Isle of Wight
County, is believed to be the oldest church still in existence in
the original thirteen colonies. It is easily recognizable from its
square tower and gabled nave. The brick Jamestown Church Tower
(1639) is a Gothic structure also. The famous Bruton Parish Church
in Williamsburg (1715) is an example of the change in architecture
due to Governor Spottswood's planned improvement program for
Williamsburg. This is the oldest Episcopal Church continuously
in use in Virginia. Its cruciform construction of red brick is
unusual with its numerous high, white shuttered windows. The square
tower was built at a later date and seems to add dignity to the
structure. Christ Church in Alexandria, constructed in 1767-1772,
has characteristics of the late Georgian Colonial Period: red brick,
a square tower with an octagonal-shaped belfry having a dome cupola,
a trimming of white stone and a crown of Wrennish pepperpots.
Thomas Jefferson contributed much to original Virginia architecture.
Jefferson was devoted to the classical style, yet followed new
trends of his own. For example, the Capitol at Richmond was planned
by Jefferson. Jefferson used the famous Roman temple at Nîmes in
southern France, the Maison Carrée, as the basic design and modified
it according to his wishes. He had a plaster model of it made in
Paris and sent to Virginia to be used as the pattern for the new
Capitol. The original building is the central building which was
constructed from 1785 to 1788. Later, the brick was covered with
stucco and the wings and the long flight of steps were added in
1904-1906. The revival of classicism in architecture is traced to
the individual efforts of Thomas Jefferson. His contacts with many
of the outstanding architects of the time, including Robert Mills,
helped spread the classic ideas throughout the nation. Thus, the
dignity of the great plantation houses constructed during this
period is attributed to the style advocated by Jefferson. He not
only favored this style but proceeded to utilize the style which
he advocated. Monticello, Jefferson's home at Charlottesville, was
built of red brick. Its dome, its Doric columns, its symmetrical
arrangement, its circular windows, its octagonal bay and stately
porticos, its wedgewood mantelpiece--all characterize the Early
Republican type of architecture in Virginia.
Jefferson carried out a similar classical style when he founded the
University of Virginia. The Serpentine Walls of red brick which
surround most of the gardens were designed and built by Jefferson,
following a type he had seen in France. The walls are approximately
six feet high and one brick thick and constructed on a wavelike
plan for added strength. Jefferson also designed the five two-story
temple-like pavilions including porticos and had them constructed of
red brick walls with white trim and white classic columns. Bremo,
near Fork Union, and Poplar Forest, near Lynchburg (where Jefferson
used to spend quiet weekends in retreat) are two other houses
designed and built by Jefferson.
Robert Mills, who received architectural instruction from Jefferson
and whose name is associated with the colonnade of the Treasury
Building in Washington and with the Washington Monuments in
Washington and in Baltimore, also contributed to the development of
architecture in Virginia. Mills designed the Monumental Episcopal
Church in Richmond with its structure of stuccoed brick and brown
sandstone, its octagonal domes and its columns. Mills' stuccoed
houses in Richmond are considered most unique. The front of this
type of house which faced the street is comparatively plain and
simple, but the back of the house which faced the river usually
had a graceful, tall, columned portico with a hanging balcony.
Thus, Mills' houses had the appearance of a regular city house
in the front and a country house in the back. The Valentine
Museum, formerly the John Wickham House, and the White House of
the Confederacy, formerly the Jefferson Davis Mansion, located in
Richmond were both designed by Robert Mills.
Sherwood Forest, located on the James River, was the home of John
Tyler, tenth President of the United States, after he retired from
the Presidency. He enlarged the originally-built dwelling twofold
and also had a closed-in colonnade constructed to connect the main
house with the kitchen and the laundry. After a ballroom and an
office had also been added, the entire structure was 300 feet long,
one of the longest houses in the country. The original house was
built in 1780 with additions made in 1845.
When Jefferson with his great fervor for originality died, Virginia
architecture seemed to lose its original character. For many years
afterwards, Virginia tended to follow the architecture fashion
of the nation rather than to create any particular architectural
characteristics of its own. Following the War between the States and
its resulting poverty, many of the skills of the earlier craftsmen
seemed to disappear. There was a lack of artistic brickwork and
handcarved woodwork; imitation and copying of designs throughout the
nation seemed to dominate the architectural scene. The influence of
much of the foreign architecture of this period seemed to crowd the
American scene and to stifle American originality. Experimentation,
not often beautiful in appearance or graceful in lines, resulted
in an era of architecture with mediocre dwellings and a lack of
symmetry and of balanced proportions in design.
Near the close of the Nineteenth Century, an event occurred which
influenced American architecture to a great extent. When the Chicago
World's Fair was held in 1893, visitors suddenly became reminiscent
about the numerous reconstructed American architectural designs
of colonial buildings: the rich-looking red brick buildings with
graceful, tall white columns and with porticos and pediments.
Architects in the United States as well as the American public in
general found a new interest in the construction designs, techniques
and materials of the Colonial Era. Several visits were made to
Virginia and other southern states in an attempt to rediscover the
true Colonial style which still has so much to offer in the way of
beauty, simplicity and grandeur.
As in the other states, Virginia architects have been busy recently
drawing up plans to meet the ever-increasing demand for private
dwellings as well as for public buildings. Some of the structures
in Virginia which have received nationwide attention are the
five-sided, five-floored Pentagon Building in Arlington with 17½
miles of corridors, the Iwo Jima Memorials--one at Quantico and
one in Arlington County--and numerous houses, apartment buildings,
schools, churches and business establishments.
The greatest architectural restoration project in the United States
is the Restoration of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. Intense,
careful research has made this restoration authentic and appealing
to the American public. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. made the project
possible through financial backing and, to date, over 400 colonial
public buildings, homes, shops and taverns have been restored or
reconstructed on a 216 acre section of land. Many of the restored
buildings--the Capitol, the Governor's Palace, the George Wythe
House, the Raleigh Tavern, the Public Gaol, the Ludwell-Paradise
House, the Brush-Everard House and the Magazine and Guardhouse--are
now furnished properly according to the Eighteenth Century style.
Additional atmosphere is created by the colorful, colonial costumes
worn by the guides themselves. The restoration continues, and
visitors from various parts of the world, as well as from all of the
fifty states, delight in viewing authentic colonial architecture.
The Williamsburg Project has had, and will continue to have, a
definite influence upon American architecture.
In retrospect, Virginia is usually accredited professionally with
two distinct types of individual architecture: the Colonial type
brought directly from England and adapted to American surroundings
(with a slight variation in Early Colonial and Late Colonial due to
the results of the European Renaissance) and the Jeffersonian type
distinguished by the creativeness and superb artistic traits of
Thomas Jefferson.
_Music and Drama_
Music--The early Jamestown settlers left no record of their music.
They apparently sang the same songs current in England at the
time of their departure and probably made up verses pertaining to
their environment as time passed. There is evidence that unusual
instruments were occasionally used. Even though organs were very
expensive in colonial days, by 1700 the Episcopal Church at Port
Royal owned the first pipe organ brought to America from Europe. By
1755, the Bruton Parish Church at Williamsburg had also received one.
The wealthy inhabitants usually paid instrumentalists, often foreign
musicians, to play at various social functions. String players
were particularly popular, not only for chamber music concerts but
also for private balls. In 1788, Francis Hopkinson, considered by
many historians as the first American composer, dedicated his most
ambitious published work, "Seven Songs," for the harpsichord or
forte piano to George Washington, his personal friend. Although
Washington himself did not play an instrument he was an active
patron of the arts including music. The harpsichord which he bought
for Nellie Custis is still at Mount Vernon. Hopkinson also had
written in 1778 a musical manuscript called "Toast" commemorating
Washington's position as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental
Army. After Hopkinson had made improvements on the harpsichord, he
contacted Thomas Jefferson, beseeching him to acquaint craftsmen
with his new, musical instrumental idea. Jefferson was a great
devotee to music and was considered by many as an accomplished
violin player as was Patrick Henry before him.
The musical talents of the Negroes are usually associated with
Southern music. From time to time, collections of slave songs,
plantation and cabin songs and religious spirituals have been
published by William F. Allen, Lucy M. Garrison, Charles P. Ware,
Natalie Burlin and Thomas Fenner. The Hampton Singers from Hampton
Institute still preserve the musical beauty of such Negro Spirituals
as "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "Go Down Moses," "Deep River," "Steal
Away to Jesus" and "O'er the Crossing." Reverend James P. Carrell
of Harrisonburg and Lebanon published two spiritual song books:
"Songs of Zion" and "Virginia Harmony." James A. Bland, a Negro
originally from South Carolina but educated in Washington, wrote
the song: "Carry Me Back to Ole Virginny." This song was adopted
by the legislature as the official state song in 1940. Two other
famous songs written by Bland were "Dem Golden Slippers" and "In the
Evening by the Moonlight."