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THE ARCHITECTURE OF
COLONIAL AMERICA
[Illustration: DOORWAY OF WYCK, GERMANTOWN, PHILADELPHIA.
An excellent example of the Pennsylvania Colonial type. Built 1690.
_Frontispiece._]
THE ARCHITECTURE OF
COLONIAL AMERICA
BY
HAROLD DONALDSON EBERLEIN
ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
BY MARY H. NORTHEND
AND OTHERS
[Illustration: colophon]
BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1915
_Copyright, 1915_,
BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
_All rights reserved_
Published, October, 1915
Norwood Press
Set up and electrotyped by J. S. Cushing Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
FOREWORD
It is the purpose of this volume to set forth a brief history and an
analysis of the architecture of Colonial America, in such wise that they
may be of interest and value both to the general reader and to the
architect.
The subject will be treated with reference to the close connexion
existing between architecture and the social and economic circumstances
of the period, so that some additional light may fall upon the daily
conditions of life among our forefathers. At the same time, there will
be a careful critical analysis of the origin and development of the
several seventeenth and eighteenth century styles that have left us so
wealthy an architectural heritage, an heritage based upon a groundwork
of traditions brought across the Atlantic by the early craftsmen and
artisans.
Such an analysis, it is hoped, will materially contribute to a broader
appreciation of our possessions and will not be without value in the
interpretation of modern buildings in which the traditions of the past
have been perpetuated. Perhaps it is not too much to hope that a more
exact knowledge of early achievements may even supply a measure of
inspiration and guidance to those who purpose building homes for
themselves.
In thanking those who have so courteously assisted in the preparation of
this book, acknowledgment must first of all be made to Miss Mary Harrod
Northend, to whose suggestion the undertaking was entirely due, and
whose illustrations have, in large measure, made it possible of
realisation. The author gratefully records his indebtedness also to
Messrs. J. B. Lippincott Company, of Philadelphia, for permission to use
a number of illustrations of Pennsylvania houses that appeared in “The
Colonial Homes of Philadelphia and its Neighbourhood”, by H. D. Eberlein
and H. M. Lippincott, and likewise for permission to reproduce an
illustration of the Adam Thoroughgood house from “Historic Virginia
Homes and Churches”, by Robert A. Lancaster, Jr.; to the _Architectural
Record_ for permission to incorporate, in chapters IV, VIII and XI,
parts of papers contributed to that magazine; to Dr. George W. Nash of
Old Hurley, for generous assistance in supplying many illustrations
drawn from a wide geographical area; to H. L. Duhring, Jr., of
Philadelphia, for suggestions that bore important fruit in the progress
of the work and for the illustration of the Saal at Ephrata; to Messrs.
R. A. Lancaster, Jr., G. C. Callahan and Joseph Everett Chandler for
sundry items of assistance; to the Librarian and staff of the Library
Company of Philadelphia, and to the Librarian and staff of the
Pennsylvania Historical Society for continued courtesies while the
following pages were in course of preparation, to the _Brickbuilder_, to
Mr. Edmund C. Evans and, finally, to Messrs. Horace Mather Lippincott
and Philip B. Wallace for valuable help in the matter of photographs.
HAROLD DONALDSON EBERLEIN.
PHILADELPHIA, August, 1915.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. INTRODUCTORY 1
II. THE DUTCH COLONIAL TYPE, 1613-1820 14
III. THE COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE OF NEW ENGLAND 38
IV. PRE-GEORGIAN ARCHITECTURE IN THE MIDDLE COLONIES 57
V. THE COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE OF THE SOUTH 77
VI. THE GEORGIAN MODE IN NEW ENGLAND 99
VII. GEORGIAN ARCHITECTURE IN NEW YORK 113
VIII. PENNSYLVANIA, NEW JERSEY AND DELAWARE GEORGIAN, 1720-1805 120
IX. THE GEORGIAN ARCHITECTURE OF THE SOUTH 156
X. THE POST-COLONIAL PERIOD AND THE CLASSIC REVIVAL 166
XI. PUBLIC BUILDINGS OF THE COLONIAL AND POST-COLONIAL PERIODS 182
XII. CHURCHES OF THE COLONIAL PERIOD 205
XIII. MATERIALS AND TEXTURES 236
XIV. EARLY AMERICAN ARCHITECTS AND THEIR RESOURCES 252
INDEX 275
LIST OF PLATES
Doorway of Wyck, Germantown, Philadelphia. 1690 _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
Senate House, Kingston-on-Hudson, N.Y. 1676 4
Ward House, near Salem, Mass. 4
House at Yorktown, Va. 5
Exterior of the Lee House, Marblehead, Mass. 1768 5
Laurel Hill, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. 1762 10
Pingree or White Portico, Salem, Mass. 10
Typical Houses, Old Hurley, N.Y. 11
Elmendorf House, Old Hurley, N.Y. 11
Van Deusen House, Old Hurley, N.Y. 16
Hallway, Van Deusen House 16
Hoffman House, Kingston-on-Hudson, N.Y. 17
Characteristic Old Dutch House, Kingston-on-Hudson, N.Y. 17
Ackerman (Brinckerhoff) House, Hackensack, N.J. 1704 24
Verplanck House, near Fishkill Landing, N.Y. 24
Hall, Bowne House, Flushing, Long Island, N.Y. 25
Dining Room, Van Cortlandt Manor House, Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y. 25
House of Seven Gables, Salem, Mass. 1669 40
Fairbanks House, Dedham, Mass. 1636 40
Whipple House, Ipswich, Mass. 41
Paul Revere House, Street Front, after Restoration. 1676 46
Paul Revere House. Great Room, Ground Floor 47
Doten House, Plymouth, Mass. 1640 52
Narbonne House, Salem, Mass. 52
Wynnestay, Philadelphia. 1689 53
South Front of Wyck, Germantown, Philadelphia. 1690 53
Little Tavern at Ionic and American Streets, Philadelphia. 1692 60
William Penn House, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia 60
Gloria Dei Glebe House 61
Oldest House in Dover, Dela. 61
Quaker Alms House, Philadelphia 66
London (Bradford’s) Coffee House, Philadelphia. 1702 66
Old Philadelphia Court House. 1707 67
Merion Meeting House, Pennsylvania. 1695 74
Moravian Sisters’ House, Bethlehem, Pa. c. 1748 75
The Saal, Ephrata, Pa. 75
Adam Thoroughgood House, Princess Anne County, Va. c. 1740 88
Governour Eden House, Edenton, N.C. 88
House at Yorktown, Va. 89
“Hospital” House, Yorktown, Va. 89
House of Hon. John Blair, Williamsburg, Va. 98
Carey House, Williamsburg, Va. 98
Royall House, Medford, Mass. 1732 99
Lee House, Marblehead, Mass. 1768 99
Royall House. West Doorway 100
Royall House. Doorway in West Parlour 100
Lee House. Banquet Room 101
Lee House. Stairway 101
Lee House. Fireplace 104
Lee House. Wall Paper 104
Macphaedris-Warner House, Portsmouth, N.H. 1723 105
Dummer Mansion, Byfield, Mass. _c._ 1715 105
Doorway, Dummer House 108
The Lindens. Stair and Hall. _c._ 1770 109
Wentworth House. Hall and Stair 109
Parson Williams House, Deerfield, Mass. 1707 112
Van Cortlandt House, Van Cortlandt Park, N.Y. 113
Philipse Manor House, Yonkers, N.Y. 1683 116
Fraunce’s Tavern, Broad Street, New York City 117
Window Detail, Van Cortlandt House 118
Philipse House, near Tarrytown, N.Y. 118
Waynesborough, Paoli, Pa. 1724 119
Graeme Park, Horsham, Pa. 1721 119
Graeme Park, South Front 120
Hope Lodge, Whitemarsh Valley. 1723 120
Great Parlour, Graeme Park 121
Hallway, Hope Lodge 121
Whitby Hall, North Front, Kingsessing, Philadelphia. 1754 128
Stairway, Whitby Hall 128
Whitby Hall, South Front 129
Mantel Detail, Whitby Hall 129
Cliveden, Germantown, Philadelphia. 1761 140
Mantel in Parlour, Mount Pleasant, Philadelphia. 1761 141
The Woodlands, South Front. Philadelphia, _c._ 1770 141
The Woodlands, North Front 146
The Highlands, Whitemarsh Valley, Pa. 1796 146
Homewood, near Baltimore 147
Harwood, Annapolis. 1774 160
Brice House, Annapolis. 1740 160
Shirley, James River, Va. 161
Westover, James River, Va. 161
Carter’s Grove, Va. 1728 164
Andalusia on the Delaware, Pennsylvania. 1794-1832 165
Old Maritime Exchange, Philadelphia 165
Andrew Safford Porch, Salem, Mass. 176
Interior Doorway, Nichols House, Salem, Mass. 176
The Capitol at Washington 177
Girard College, Philadelphia 177
Window Detail, House in Philadelphia 180
Door Detail, House in Philadelphia 180
State House, Philadelphia, South Front. 1733 181
Hallway, State House, Philadelphia 181
Faneuil Hall, Boston. 1741 188
Independence Room, State House, Philadelphia 188
Old State House, Boston 189
Bulfinch State House, Boston 194
New York City Hall 194
Old Pine Street Market, Philadelphia 195
Carpenters’ Hall, Philadelphia 195
Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia 204
Black Horse Inn Yard, Philadelphia 204
Bruton Parish Church, Williamsburg, Va. 1714 205
Old South Church, Boston. 1730 210
King’s Chapel, Boston 210
Christ Church, Philadelphia. 1727 211
St. Peter’s Church, Philadelphia. 1761 211
Gloria Dei (Old Swedes), Philadelphia. 1700 220
St. Luke’s Church, Smithfield, Va. 1632 220
Old Ship Church, Hingham, Mass. 221
Sleepy Hollow Church, Irvington, N.Y. 221
THE ARCHITECTURE OF COLONIAL AMERICA
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
Architecture is crystallised history. Not only does it represent the
life of the past in visible and enduring form, but it also represents
one of the most agreeable sides of man’s creative activity. Furthermore,
if we read a little between the lines, the buildings of former days tell
us what manner of men and women lived in them. Indeed, some ancient
structures are so invested with the lingering personality of their
erstwhile occupants that it is well nigh impossible to dissociate the
two.
But it is rather as a revelation of the social and domestic habits of
our forebears that the story of architecture in Colonial America
concerns us immediately at this point. As the naturalist can reconstruct
the likeness of some extinct animal from a handful of bones or tell the
age and aspect of a sea creature that once tenanted a now empty shell,
so can the architectural historian discover much concerning the quality
and mode of life of those who dwelt aforetime in the houses that form
his theme. The indisputable evidence is there in bricks and stone, in
timber and mortar, for us to read if we will.
What can be more convincing than an early New England kitchen in whose
broad fireplace still hang the cranes and trammels and where all the
full complement of culinary paraphernalia incident to the art of
open-fire cookery has been preserved? The fashion of the oven attests
the method of baking bread. A mere glance at these things brings up a
faithful and vivid picture of an important aspect of domestic life. Or,
turning to another page in this book of the past, we read another tale
in the glazed lookout cupolas--“captains’ walks” they were called--atop
the splendid mansions of portly and prosperous mien in the old seaport
towns. Thither the merchant princes and shipowners of a by-gone day were
wont to repair and scan the offing for the sails of their returning
argosies, laden with East Indian riches or cruder wares from Jamaica or
Barbadoes.
The old Dutch houses of the Hudson River towns reflect an wholly
different mode of life. The living rooms, in many instances, were all
on the ground floor and the low, dark, unwindowed attics proclaim the
custom of laying up therein bountiful stores of grain and other products
of their fruitful farms. In the same region the manors and other great
houses bespeak a fashion of life that cannot be surpassed for
picturesque interest in the annals of Colonial America.
The spacious country houses in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, with
their stately box gardens and ample grounds, tell of the leisurely
affluence and open hospitality of their builders whose style of life
often rivalled in elegance, and sometimes surpassed, that of the country
gentry in England. In the city houses there were the same unmistakable
evidences of the courtly social life that ruled in the metropolis of the
Colonies. Round about the city, and throughout the Province of
Pennsylvania, were substantial stone and brick farmhouses that fully
attested the prosperity of the yeoman class and also indicated some
striking peculiarities in their habits and customs.
Going still farther to the South, we read in the noble houses that
graced the broad manorial estates of Virginia and Maryland of a mode of
existence, socially resplendent at times and almost patriarchal in
character, which had not its like elsewhere.
So it goes. One might multiply instances indefinitely to show how
architecture was a faithful mirror of contemporary life and manners and
how the public buildings of the day represented the classic elegance of
taste, then prevalent, that found expression in a thousand other ways.
We shall also learn why it was that New England, with all its ready
abundance of stone, preferred to rear structures of combustible wood
while Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, with all their vast
and varied wealth of timber, chose to build of brick or stone, often at
the cost of great inconvenience and expense.
Our patriotic, historical and genealogical societies have done much to
make us regard the men and women of by-gone years with a keener
veneration than we, perhaps, formerly paid them. This book, it is hoped,
in the same way, will be of some avail to increase our appreciation of
the architectural wealth back of us. We have a history of which we may
well feel proud and we have an architectural heritage, dating from the
time when that history was in the making, which we may view with deep
and just satisfaction.
The worthy record of structural achievement during our Colonial period
ought to fill us with high respect for the ability and energy of the men
who, while they were building a nation and subduing a wilderness, found
time also to rear
[Illustration: SENATE HOUSE, KINGSTON-ON-HUDSON, N. Y.
Exemplifying early Dutch peculiarities. Built 1676.]
[Illustration:
Copyright, 1912, by Baldwin Coolidge.
WARD HOUSE, NEAR SALEM, MASS.
Characteristic of seventeenth century New England type.]
[Illustration: HOUSE AT YORKTOWN, VA.
Showing steep pitch roof and outside chimneys proper to the Southern
Colonial style.]
[Illustration: EXTERIOR OF THE LEE HOUSE, MARBLEHEAD, MASS.
Representative of the second phase of New England Georgian. Built
1768.]
a vast aggregate of structures, both domestic and public, that to-day
command our unfeigned admiration and are fit to afford us no small
degree of inspiration for our own architectural guidance.
But we must turn also to another aspect of the subject and consider the
architecture of Colonial America from a more purely technical point of
view as well. The historical side of the question, embracing social and
economic relations, it must be remembered, however, is vastly important
and will conduce to a more intelligent grasp of the whole situation.
Indeed, without adequate historical knowledge, many architectural phases
will be inexplicable of character or origin. As an example we may cite
the New England frame tradition. Blood tells in architecture quite as
much as it does anywhere else and unless we know the history of the
early colonists, unless, in fact, we know their historical antecedents
in England, we cannot expect to understand fully their hereditary
preference for timber buildings. Thus we see that history and
architectural expression go hand in hand and one must study both to have
a full comprehension of either.
Keeping ever before us, then, the full significance of history, we shall
examine the architecture of the Colonial period in a far more
sympathetic and intelligent spirit than we could possibly expect to do
if we were to eliminate the historical background. Of course, in the
present volume the historical background must be a background,
architectural matters must have the preponderance of attention and
history, however fascinating it may be, must be referred to only to
elucidate architectural phases.
Near akin and closely linked to understanding is the quality of
appreciation and it is necessary for us to understand our architectural
past that we may fully appreciate it. It is likewise absolutely
essential for us to understand and appreciate our architectural past in
order that we may appreciate our architectural present. A thorough
acquaintance with the work and ability of the architect who reared the
buildings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries will give us a
truer perspective and better enable us to judge the merits of
contemporary performances. Widespread intelligent appreciation
inevitably leads to the betterment of public taste, so that our study of
the past is bound to have a favourable reflex action upon the
architectural activities of our own day.
Twin sister to appreciation is discrimination and as we appreciate the
architecture of Colonial America we shall also learn to discriminate
between the different local manifestations and attribute each to its
proper origins. In this connexion a word of explanation should be
offered in answer to a question that some readers, no doubt, have
already asked themselves regarding the title chosen for this
volume--“Why was it not called Colonial Architecture in America?” Solely
because such a title would have been misleading. Indeed, there is no
more commonly misapplied term than “Colonial Architecture.” Colonial
America had two varieties of architecture, one of which is correctly
called Colonial and the other is not. The one is entirely distinct from
the other and it is mischievous to confound them. The second variety is
Georgian and it is illogical and indefensible to call it anything but
Georgian. The Colonial architecture evolved its distinctive forms in
America subject to the dictates of local necessity while the Georgian
was directly transplanted from England and, although it showed marked
tendencies to differentiation in the several parts of the Colonies,
preserved its unmistakable likeness in every instance to the parent
stock from which it sprang.
The Colonial architecture which is really Colonial presents several
distinctly different forms of local manifestation, each of them
pronouncedly characteristic. One form is to be found in New England, and
outside of New England it is not to be met with. Another type, of
wholly diverse aspect, is peculiar to the parts of New York State
settled at an early period by the Dutch colonists and to the parts of
Long Island and northern New Jersey where Dutch influence was paramount.
Still another and altogether distinct Colonial type of architecture is
to be seen in numerous examples in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and
Delaware. A fourth type, with yet other clearly defined peculiarities,
may occasionally be discovered in Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas.
The scarcity of examples of true Colonial architecture in the last-named
section is explicable by the fact that the southern planter, when his
wealth increased, chose to live in more sumptuous manner than his first
built dwelling permitted. He therefore built himself a stately Georgian
house, better suited to the more elegant style and equipage he now found
himself able to maintain. The “fair brick house” in Georgian mode, with
porticoes and pillars, often stood upon the site of the earlier house,
which was either partially incorporated with it or demolished to make
way for it because the first chosen location was the most eligible on
the estate and best suited the fancy of the owner.
All these types of Colonial architecture possess an healthy, indigenous
flavour that smacks of the manly vigour and robust hardihood of the
pioneers who had the courage and the initiative to forsake their wonted
paths of comfort and known conditions at home and face unflinchingly the
dangers and difficulties of an untamed wilderness as the founders of a
settlement whose future was by no means assured and of whose ultimate
greatness they little dreamed. This tone of staunch, native originality
was due to the local forms, evolved in response to local exigencies,
dictated by resourceful motherwit and engrafted upon an inherited stock
of architectural traditions which the first settlers, hailing from this
or that part of the old world, had brought hither with them. In other
words, it was the logical and necessary outcome of architectural
precedent, modified by contact with a new environment, and all its forms
are clearly traceable to typical antecedents on the other side of the
Atlantic. Edward Eggleston has somewhere said that “it is difficult for
the mind of man to originate, even in a new hemisphere.” He is
oftentimes coerced into originality by force of circumstances. So it was
in our early architectural efforts. The first settlers followed
tradition so far as they could and essayed original departures only
under stress of necessity or expediency.
While the several forms were full of the grace that was inherent in the
early builders’ spirit of construction and design, they were also
strong because they were so thoroughly utilitarian and because nearly
every feature was produced in response to some specific local need. The
vital quality of the early and truly Colonial architecture has not been
exhausted and after nearly three hundred years we turn to it to find it
still rich in adaptability to many of our present requirements. Owing to
its essentially utilitarian characteristics, Colonial architecture in
all its forms is wholly unpretentious, informal, and, one might almost
say, fortuitous, but it suited the manners and estate of the majority of
the people for whom it was devised.
On the other hand, formality, as an element in American architecture,
came in with the advent of the Georgian influence. For the most part it
was not a chilling, hard, rigid formality but rather the formality of
ordered symmetry and concurrence with the elegant genius and refinement
of classic architectural conventions. It was, if one chooses so to put
it, formality tempered with domesticity and common sense. The American
colonists of the eighteenth century adopted the Georgian style, when
they were able to afford it and had acquired the desire for it, and
adapted it to their own ends. These adaptations took shape in divergent
forms in the several parts of the Colonies, exhibiting certain local
peculiarities in New England and others quite as distinct
[Illustration: PINGREE OR WHITE PORTICO. SALEM, MASS.
Showing the delicate detail and attenuation that came with the last
Georgian phase.]
[Illustration:
Copyright. J. B. Lippincott Co.
LAUREL HILL, FAIRMOUNT PARK, PHILADELPHIA.
Belonging to the second type of Middle Colonies Georgian. Built 1762.]
[Illustration: TYPICAL HOUSES. OLD HURLEY, N. Y.
With thick walls and small eaves.]
[Illustration: ELMENDORF HOUSE, OLD HURLEY, N. Y.
Early Dutch type before local modification.]
in the Middle Colonies or the South. Notwithstanding their minor
differences, however, the specimens of Georgian work in America all bear
an unmistakable family resemblance which proclaims their common ancestry
from a British classic origin. The later Georgian work in America
followed the later phases of the style as they developed in England and
hence we find a great many variations attributable to differences in
date as well as to differences in locality, but in all its divers
manifestations, whether temporal or local, American Georgian is true to
the spirit and traditions of its strongly individual parent stock of
inspiration.
Economic and social conditions made possible the introduction and
development of the Georgian style in America and the same conditions
nurtured and kept it alive so long as its influence continued to
dominate the public taste. When its latest phase passed over into the
forms of the Classic Revival, a new order of society, actuated by
different ideals, had arisen. An era of general peace and growing
prosperity in the early years of the eighteenth century permitted and
encouraged the colonists to pay more heed to the material amenities of
life than had previously been their wont and it was but natural that,
with favourable domestic conditions, they should seek to emulate the
luxury and more polished manner of life obtaining in the mother
country, and the adoption of contemporary British architectural modes
was one way in which that filial emulation found expression. When the
period of Georgian influence came to an end and the Classic Revival type
held the first place in popular esteem, new economic, social and
political circumstances existed with which the prevailing architectural
mode was more in keeping. Widely distributed affluence, coupled with a
general spirit of independent self-sufficiency and a disposition to
follow French inspiration, found fit environment in the pomposity of
neo-classic settings whose vogue is mainly attributable to influences
that arose in the train of the French Revolution, the same influences
that gave us the Empire type of furniture so largely copied in both
England and America.
Surveying thus the history of architecture in America, from the
beginning of the Colonial period down to the end of post-Colonial
activity, a continuous and logical process of development can be traced
of which each succeeding phase was a faithful exponent of contemporary
local manners and modes of life. Truly indigenous architecture was
non-existent. Architectural derivations, modified and often obscured as
they were by force of circumstances, are not always obvious and
occasionally, in order to detect them, careful analysis and some
knowledge of history are necessary. Nor need the student of American
architecture be perplexed at discovering certain hybrid types. It is but
natural that such should be evolved by a resourceful people with a
genius for adaptations and possessed of a variety of models, a
combination of whose features expediency suggested. In spite of all the
bewildering multiplicity of manifestations which the architecture of
Colonial America affords, the derivations from hereditary European
sources may be identified by the expenditure of a little effort and the
threads of continuity and growth then become clearly apparent. A
detailed elucidation of the genesis and progressive stages of the
several types will be the content of the ensuing chapters.