Colonial architecture Archives - Page 5 of 5

Architectural Monographs: A Pre-Revolutionary Annapolis House

Posted on December 30, 2013October 21, 2021 by Jeff Easterling

There’s no place in America that offered a more English lifestyle before the Revolutionary War than Annapolis, Maryland, which at the time was fully of wealthy, aristocratic people enjoying the fruits of pioneer labor. As such, it has some of the most English architecture of that time period, with one building standing out in particular: the Matthias Hammond house, which is the focus of this issue of the historic White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs.

Built in 1770, the Hammond House was designed by Philadelphia architect Matthew Buckland and “stands today as one of the finest, if not the finest, example of the work of the Colonial Period.” In the 1920s, when this issue was written, it was purchased by St. Johns College and turned into a colonial museum, with all of the furnishings restored.

This monograph presents photographs and information about the house as it was nearly a century ago, and today it’s almost exactly the same thanks to these preservation efforts. Visitors can still enjoy stepping through its doorway and into the past. Now known as the Hammond-Harwood House, it’s been called the “Jewel of Annapolis,” and it’s a popular tourist destination in the city.

Architectural Monographs: Old Woodbury in Connecticut

Posted on November 8, 2013October 21, 2021 by Jeff Easterling

Architect Wesley S. Bessel clearly didn’t think much of contemporary architecture back in 1916, calling it “a conglomerate mass of uninteresting work.” In fact, Bessel wrote in this issue of the White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs, “Why this unfortunate development should have been permitted to take place when so many examples of the best of our seventeenth and eighteenth century dwellings remain all about us for our guidance and emulation is a source of wonderment to all thinking persons.”

Volume II, Issue V of the Monographs delves into the colonial architecture of Old Woodbury and adjacent areas of Connecticut. Bessel credits ‘Revolutionary spirit’ for the dignified and inspired buildings of this particular time and place. Located along the Post Road in the Northeast, an important travel route, Woodbury is home to houses that are modest, yet well-thought-out and built to the highest standards of craftsmanship.

Though many modern homes were, by 1916, quickly and shoddily built with little care for a cohesive architectural style, there was somewhat of a revival of the colonial ways. “There is aversion to a consideration of those subtle qualities which produced the many homes of past centuries that possess a charm that age alone cannot give, but which is the result of that true art of the Colonial builders whose lives were expressed in the design of their dwellings.”

Read more at the White Pine Monograph Library.

Architectural Monographs: The Eastern End of Long Island, NY

Posted on October 25, 2013October 21, 2021 by Jeff Easterling

The remaining colonial architecture of the eastern end of Long Island, New York, may not be grand and impressive, but it represents some of the oldest structures on the island, and many bear a quiet charm. Most were built almost entirely of wood, with brick chimneys, since stone was notably lacking on this narrow island stretching out between the Sound and the Atlantic Ocean. The oldest date back to about 1660.

Watermill, Patchogue, Easthampton and Southampton are among the towns in which colonial houses still stand. This issue of the White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs, written in 1919, explores the architectural styles that make these buildings stand apart from other colonial structures, and provides a number of examples.

“The unstudied relation of openings to wall-surface and story heights of most of these simple houses seems to make them perfect examples of wooden design. The great simplicity which is their main feature, combined with a naivete in design, adds to their charm. In no case do we find very grand houses, even the neo-classic examples being human in scale, and it is their utilization as ‘partis’ which is the chief architectural characteristic, giving value to these houses in a work of this kind.”

Read more at the White Pine Monograph Library.