Colonial architecture Archives

Colonial Classics: Plans for Early 20th Century White Pine Houses

Posted on June 16, 2017October 21, 2021 by Jeff Easterling

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In August 1917, the White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs held its second annual competition to design a family home to be made almost entirely out of white pine, including the siding, window sashes, doors, all exposed porch and balcony lumber, shingles and more. The home would be set on a rectangular lot in West Virginia, with its architectural style and arrangement at the discretion of the architect. So, what kinds of submissions did they receive?

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The judges note that plenty of designs were taken out of consideration for various technical reasons, but also because they weren’t sufficiently “architecturally excellent.” Ultimately, they awarded first through fourth place prizes and eight honorable mentions. With a few exceptions, the architects in the final twelve stuck to classic Colonial designs, with the winner showing “ a combination of imagination and good taste essential to successful country house design in a greater degree than any other competitor.”

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The drawings themselves are really interesting to look at, especially with all the architectural details that are included, and some of them are frame-worthy. Check out this gallery for yourself – and see the rest (or enlarge these pages) in the Volume III, Number 4 issue of The White Pine Architectural Monographs.

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Look At Them Now! Three Well-Preserved Colonial Homes in Virginia & Maryland

Posted on March 1, 2017October 21, 2021 by S.A. Rogers

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Continuing our series looking back at colonial structures that have been featured in NeLMA’s White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs, let’s examine a few of the prominent homes pictured in Volume II, Issue I: Houses of the Middle and Southern Colonies. In February 1916, scholar of historic architecture Frank E. Wallis wrote of the ‘Colonial Renaissance,’ when nineteenth century architects found a new appreciation for some of America’s oldest and grandest homes. A trip to the South to view and sketch them in person led to a lifelong fascination, detailed in this issue.

Among the featured homes are three that are still notable today: Homewood, which is now a musuem on the Johns Hopkins University Campus in Baltimore; Tuckahoe Plantation, the boyhood home of Thomas Jefferson in Virginia, and St. George Tucker House, home to a prominent Williamsburg, Virginia officer and judge.

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Homewood today

The first, Homewood, dates back to 1801, and was offered as a wedding gift by Charles Carroll – the longest surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence – to his son, Charles Jr., whose own son would go on to become Governor of Maryland. The house, and all of its contents, has been meticulously preserved by virtue of having been owned by such a prominent family. Homewood was given to Johns Hopkins University in 1902 and is now open to the public to show off its Federal-style architecture.

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Set on Route 650 near Manakin, Virginia, Tuckahoe Plantation was built in 1712, which makes its current state all the more remarkable, and much of it consists of Eastern White Pine, including panelings, carvings and moldings. It was built and primarily owned by the Randolph family, and Thomas Jefferson’s family lived there for seven years, through 1752. The house has remained under private ownership ever since, and is open to private tours by appointment. It can also be rented for events.

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The St. George Tucker House is one of Historic Williamsburg’s most prominent and beautiful structures, and its property once included the first ever theater in America. The home itself was originally built in 1716 and moved to its present location on Nicholson Street in the 1780s, and it’s been enlarged several times since then. Its owner, judge St. George Tucker, may be best-known for his work editing Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England, but he also constructed Williamsburg’s first-ever bathroom, with a copper tub. His descendants lived in the house until 1993, and was then turned over to Colonial Williamsburg. Its classic 18th century style remains intact all these centuries later.

Look At Them Now! Three Well-Preserved Colonial Homes in Virginia & Maryland

Posted on March 1, 2017October 21, 2021 by Jeff Easterling

tuckahoe plantation

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Homewood today

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Look at Them Now! Farmhouses of the New York City Area, 200+ Years Later

Posted on January 12, 2017October 21, 2021 by Jeff Easterling

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Recently, we took a look at some of the old colonial houses featured in the second-ever issue of the White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs, and investigated how one of them (Massachusetts’ Dalton House) has held up over the years. While some of the nation’s earliest architecture has been lost in the centuries since it was built, many structures are not just still standing, but more beautiful than ever. Painstaking restoration and historical preservation enables us to appreciate their many fine details in person. For virtually every Monograph issue published between 1916 and today, there’s at least one building that can be revisited.

The Monographs didn’t just gift us with rich historical accounts of these structures, they also provide a glimpse at what they looked like in the early 20th century through the photography accompanying each written piece. It’s fun to see how these houses, churches and other structures have changed since then. In a new ongoing series, we’ll examine more of these striking before-and-afters.

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This week, let’s check in with the farm houses featured in Volume I, Issue III of the White Pine Monographs. Built in what was then ‘New Netherlands,’ i.e. New Jersey and New York, these houses date back as far as 1790. While the prominently featured Board Zabriskie House in Paramus, New Jersey was demolished in 2012, the John Peter Westervelt House of Englewood, New Jersey and the Lefferts Historic House of Brooklyn still stand proud.

It’s no real surprise that few of these New Netherlands farmhouses exist today, given what New York City and its surrounding area was set to become. The Westervelt House, pictured top and built in 1808, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and appears to be privately owned, and its facade is immaculately well-maintained.

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The story of the Lefferts Historic House is a particularly interesting one. Before this white Dutch Colonial structure was built in the late 1700s, an earlier home in its place burned down just prior to the start of the Battle of Brooklyn. An heir of the builders, John Lefferts, left the house to the city in 1917 but required that it be moved to city property – and it was. Lefferts Historic House is now a museum situated in the Children’s Corner of Prospect Park, and it’s full of traditional tools, games and toys for visitors to engage with.

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While it’s looking a bit shabbier than the Westervelt House, it’s a wonder that it’s still in place given how much New York City and its boroughs have changed since the 18th century. You can see more historic photos of the house at BrooklynHistory.org, and recent photos at the blog Not Intent On Arriving.

White Pine Monographs: Dalton House and Other Early Massachusetts Treasures

Posted on December 28, 2016October 21, 2021 by Jeff Easterling

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An important stop along the development of New England’s colonial architecture, simple farmhouses of the early to mid 18th Century shed some of the compulsory Gothic trappings carried overseas to the first English American settlements for a more streamlined, humble, fuss-free appearance. The second edition of the White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs ever to be published, written in April 1916, catalogues notable examples across Massachusetts as they stood over a century ago. Some of these homes are still incredibly well-preserved today, including Dalton House, pictured above in recent years and below in the early 20th century.

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These dwellings had uncomplicated pitch or gambrel roofs and were typically one room deep and two stories high, built with one ridge pole and two end gables. In later years, as settlers grew more prosperous, the homes were often altered or expanded, with ‘service ells’ added to the rear or side, or the houses were doubled, with an identical-plan addition set right behind the first.

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The General Putnam House in Danvers, Massachusetts, built around 1744, is an example of a gambrel-style colonial home with a service ell added in the rear. Says the writer of this monograph, “This house presents as much of a contrast as is possible to the Dalton House at Newburyport. While variously dated as being from 1750 to 1760, the photograph of this house speaks for itself, presenting an unusually spacious and generous treatment of the gambrel roof slope (now slated, while the house has a new end bay and suspiciously widely spaced columns at the entrance!) The whole design nevertheless shows much more refinement of handling than is apparent in the other example mentioned.”

Built in 1720, the Dalton House is generally held to be an example of “a plain house of the purest colonial type,” yet it was a mansion in its time (and many of us would still consider it one today.) Visits from George Washington, President Monroe, Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams and John Hancock are among the reasons it’s considered an architectural and historical treasure. Having always been occupied by wealthy people since it was built, it has never deteriorated, and its porch is a particularly fine example of colonial woodworking.

Massachusetts Style, Circa 1916: A Look Back at Farmhouse Architecture

Posted on August 4, 2015October 21, 2021 by Jeff Easterling

As the style of New England Colonial architecture continued to evolve into the eighteenth century, certain settlements made their own modifications, developing variations that are particular to those locations. These shifts in things like materials, window style, roof pitch and overall proportions might be influenced by the local economy, climate or contact with people from other parts of Europe. In Massachusetts, the classic and unpretentious farmhouse outgrew its English Gothic origins and became a vernacular of its own.

Written in April 1916, Volume II, Issue II of the White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs takes a look at how this particular region adapted its farmhouses through the latter part of the 1700s. For example, the authors note that although builders broke from Gothic tradition to pitch roofs at a more Georgian proportion, it wasn’t really a stylistic choice. They needed to ensure that coastal rain was properly deflected from the sides of the houses, and make use of the shortest and smallest rafters they could get away with.

Being purists primarily interested in the least compromised forms of Colonial architecture, the Monograph authors typically turned their noses up at any Greek influence, but here acknowledge that the first blending of Greek revival style with English architectural traditions “produced such beautiful and dignified results.”

This issue explains how factors like growing prosperity caused changes over time, like rapid expansions that led to houses growing until they “ran slam into the big barn itself.” Check it out for lots more details and over a dozen beautiful black-and-white images of historic structures, including some that still stand today.