ARCHITECTURE IN THE UNITED STATES:GENERAL REMARKS, DWELLINGS

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CHAPTER XXVII.

ARCHITECTURE IN THE UNITED STATES.

BOOKS RECOMMENDED: As before, Fergusson, Statham. Also, Chandler, The Colonial

Architecture of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Cleaveland and Campbell,

American Landmarks. Corner and Soderholz, Colonial Architecture in New England.

Crane and Soderholz, Examples of Colonial Architecture in Charleston and Savannah.

Drake, Historic Fields and Mansions of Middlesex. Everett, Historic Churches of

America. King, Handbook of Boston; Handbook of New York. Little, Early New England

Interiors. Schuyler, American Architecture. Van Rensselaer, H. H. Richardson and His

Works. Wallis, Old Colonial Architecture and Furniture.

GENERAL REMARKS. The colonial architecture of modern times presents a peculiar

phenomenon. The colonizing nation, carrying into its new habitat the tastes and

practices of a long-established civilization, modifies these only with the utmost

reluctance, under the absolute compulsion of new conditions. When the new home is

virgin soil, destitute of cultivation, government, or civilized inhabitants, the

accompaniments and activities of civilization introduced by the colonists manifest

themselves at first in curious contrast to the primitive surroundings. The struggle

between organized life and chaos, the laborious subjugation of nature to the

requirements of our complex modern life, for a considerable period absorb the

energies of the colonists. The amenities of culture, the higher intellectual life, the

refinements of art can, during this period, receive little attention. Meanwhile a new

national character is being formed; the people are undergoing the moral training

upon which their subsequent achievements must depend. With the conquest of brute

nature, however, and the gradual emergence of a more cultivated class, with the

growth of commerce and wealth and the consequent increase of leisure, the

humanities find more place in the colonial life. The fine arts appear in scattered

centres determined by peculiarly favorable conditions. For a long time they retain the

impress, and seek to reproduce the forms, of the art of the mother country. But new

conditions impose a new development. Maturing commerce with other lands brings

in foreign influences, to which the still unformed colonial art is peculiarly

susceptible. Only with political and commercial independence, fully developed

internal resources, and a high national culture do the arts finally attain, as it were,

their majority, and enter upon a truly national growth.

These facts are abundantly illustrated by the architectural history of the United

States. The only one among the British colonies to attain political independence, it is

the only one among them whose architecture has as yet entered upon an independent

course of development, and this only within the last twenty-five or thirty years. Nor

has even this development produced as yet a distinctive local style. It has, however,

originated new constructive methods, new types of buildings, and a distinctively

American treatment of the composition and the masses; the decorative details being

still, for the most part, derived from historic precedents. The architecture of the

other British colonies has retained its provincial character, though producing from

time to time individual works of merit. In South America and Mexico the only

buildings of importance are Spanish, French, or German in style, according to the

nationality of the architects employed. The following sketch of American architecture

refers, therefore, exclusively to its development in the United States.

FORMATIVE PERIOD. Buildings in stone were not undertaken by the early English

colonists. The more important structures in the Southern and Dutch colonies were of

brick imported from Europe. Wood was, however, the material most commonly

employed, especially in New England, and its use determined in large measure the

form and style of the colonial architecture. There was little or no striving for

architectural elegance until well into the eighteenth century, when Wren's influence

asserted itself in a modest way in the Middle and Southern colonies. The very simple

and unpretentious town-hall at Williamsburg, Va., and St. Michael's, Charleston, are

attributed to him; but the most that can be said for these, as for the brick churches

and manors of Virginia previous to 1725, is that they are simple in design and

pleasing in proportion, without special architectural elegance. The same is true of the

wooden houses and churches of New England of the period, except that they are even

simpler in design.

FIG. 218.--CHRIST CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA.

From 1725 to 1775 increased population and wealth along the coast brought about

a great advance in architecture, especially in churches and in the dwellings of the

wealthy. During this period was developed the Colonial style, based on that of the

reigns of Anne and the first two Georges in England, and in church architecture on

the models set by Wren and Gibbs. All the details were, however, freely modified by

the general employment of wood. The scarcity of architects trained in Old World

traditions contributed to this departure from classic precision of form. The style,

especially in interior design, reflected the cultured taste of the colonial aristocracy in

its refined treatment of the woodwork. But there was little or no architecture of a

truly monumental character. Edifices of stone were singularly few, and administrative

buildings were small and modest, owing to insufficient grants from the Crown, as

well as to the poverty of the colonies.

The churches of this period include a number of interesting designs, especially

pleasing in the forms of their steeples. The "Old South" at Boston (now a museum),

Trinity at Newport, and St. Paul's at New York--one of the few built of stone

(1764)--are good examples of the style. Christ Church at Philadelphia (172735,

by Dr. Kearsley) is another example, historically as well as architecturally interesting

(Fig. 218); and there are scores of other churches almost equally noteworthy,

scattered through New England, Maryland, Virginia, and the Middle States.

FIG. 219.--CRAIGIE (LONGFELLOW) HOUSE, CAMBRIDGE.

DWELLINGS. These reflect better than the churches the varying tastes of the

different colonies. Maryland and Virginia abound in fine brick manor-houses, set

amid extensive grounds walled in and entered through iron gates of artistic design.

The interior finish of these houses was often elaborate in conception and admirably

executed. Westover (1737), Carter's Grove (1737) in Virginia, and the Harwood and

Hammond Houses at Annapolis, Md. (1770), are examples. The majority of the New

England houses were of wood, more compact in plan, more varied and picturesque in

design than those of the South, but wanting somewhat of their stateliness. The

interior finish of wainscot, cornices, stairs, and mantelpieces shows, however, the

same general style, in a skilful and artistic adaptation of classic forms to the slender

proportions of wood construction. Externally the orders appear in porches and in

colossal pilasters, with well designed entablatures, and windows of Italian model.

The influence of the Adams and Sheraton furniture is doubtless to be seen in these

quaint and often charming versions of classic motives. The Hancock House, Boston

(of stone, demolished); the Sherburne House, Portsmouth (1730); Craigie House,

Cambridge (1757, Fig. 219); and Rumford House, North Woburn (Mass.), are typical

examples.

In the Middle States architectural activity was chiefly centred in Philadelphia and

New York, and one or two other towns, where a number of manor-houses, still

extant, attest the wealth and taste of the time. It is noticeable that the veranda or

piazza was confined to the Southern States, but that the climate seems to have had

little influence on the forms of roofs. These were gambrelled, hipped, gabled, or flat,

alike in the North and South, according to individual taste.

PUBLIC BUILDINGS. Of public and monumental architecture this period has little

to show. Large cities did not exist; New York, Boston, and Philadelphia were hardly

more than overgrown villages. The public buildings--court-houses and town-halls--

were modest and inexpensive structures. The Old State House and Faneuil Hall at

Boston, the Town Hall at Newport (R.I.), and Independence Hall at Philadelphia, the

best known of those now extant, are not striking architecturally. Monumental design

was beyond the opportunities and means of the colonies. It was in their churches, all

of moderate size, and in their dwellings that the colonial builders achieved their

greatest successes; and these works are quaint, charming, and refined, rather than

impressive or imposing.

FIG. 220.--NATIONAL CAPITOL, WASHINGTON.

To the latter part of the colonial period belong a number of interesting buildings

which remain as monuments of Spanish rule in California, Florida, and the

Southwest. The old Fort S. Marco, now Fort Marion (16561756), and the Catholic

cathedral (1793; after the fire of 1887 rebuilt in its original form with the original

façade uninjured), both at St. Augustine, Fla.; the picturesque buildings of the

California missions (mainly 17691800), the majority of them now in ruins;

scattered Spanish churches in California, Arizona, and New Mexico, and a few

unimportant secular buildings, display among their modern and American settings a

picturesque and interesting Spanish aspect and character, though from the point of

view of architectural detail they represent merely a crude phase of the

Churrigueresque style.

EARLY REPUBLICAN PERIOD. Between the Revolution and the War of 1812,

under the new conditions of independence and self-government, architecture took on

a more monumental character. Buildings for the State and National administrations

were erected with the rapidly increasing resources of the country. Stone was more

generally used; colonnades, domes, and cupolas or bell-towers, were adopted as

indispensable features of civic architecture. In church-building the Wren-Gibbs type

continued to prevail, but with greater correctness of classic forms. The gambrel roof

tended to disappear from the houses of this period, and there was some decline in

the refinement and delicacy of the details of architecture. The influence of the Louis

XVI. style is traceable in many cases, as in the New York City Hall (180312, by

McComb and Mangin), one of the very best designs of the time, and in the delicate

stucco-work and interior finish of many houses, The original Capitol at Washington--

the central portion of the present edifice--by Thornton, Hallet, and B. H. Latrobe

(17931830; Fig. 220), the State House at Boston (1795, by Bulfinch), and the

University of Virginia, at Charlotteville, by Thomas Jefferson (1817; recently

destroyed in part by fire), are the most interesting examples of the classic tendencies

of this period. Their freedom from the rococo vulgarities generally prevalent at the

time in Europe is noticeable.

FIG. 221.--CUSTOM HOUSE, NEW YORK.

THE CLASSIC REVIVAL. The influence of the classic revivals of Europe began to

appear before the close of this period, and reached its culmination about 183040.

It left its impress most strongly on our Federal architecture, although it invaded

domestic architecture, producing countless imitations, in brick and wooden houses,

of Grecian colonnades and porticos. One of its first-fruits was the White House, or

Executive Mansion, at Washington, by Hoban (1792), recalling the large English

country houses of the time. The Treasury and Patent Office buildings at Washington,

the Philadelphia Mint, the Sub-treasury and Custom House at New York (the latter

erected originally for a bank; Fig. 221), and the Boston Custom House are among

the important Federal buildings of this period. Several State capitols were also

erected under the same influence; and the Marine Exchange and Girard College at

Philadelphia should also be mentioned as conspicuous examples of the pseudo-Greek

style. The last-named building is a Corinthian dormitory, its tiers of small windows

contrasting strangely with its white marble columns. These classic buildings were

solidly and carefully constructed, but lacked the grace, cheerfulness, and

appropriateness of earlier buildings. The Capitol at Washington was during this

period greatly enlarged by terminal wings with fine Corinthian porticos, of Roman

rather than Greek design. The Dome, by Walters, was not added until 185873; it is

a successful and harmonious composition, nobly completing the building.

Unfortunately, it is an afterthought, built of iron painted to simulate marble, the

substructure being inadequate to support a dome of masonry. The Italian or Roman

style which it exemplified, in time superseded the less tractable Greek style.

THE WAR PERIOD. The period from 1850 to 1876 was one of intense political

activity and rapid industrial progress. The former culminated in the terrible upheaval

of the civil war; the latter in the completion of the Pacific Railroad (1869) and a

remarkable development of the mining resources and manufactures of the country. It

was a period of feverish commercial activity, but of artistic stagnation, and witnessed

the erection of but few buildings of architectural importance. A number of State

capitols, city halls and churches, of considerable size and cost but of inferior design,

attest the decline of public taste and architectural skill during these years. The huge

Municipal Building at Philadelphia and the still unfinished Capitol at Albany are full

of errors of planning and detail which twenty-five years of elaboration have failed to

correct. Next to the dome of the Capitol at Washington, completed during this

period, of which it is the most signal architectural achievement, its most notable

monument was the St. Patrick's Cathedral at New York, by Renwick; a Gothic

church which, if somewhat cold and mechanical in detail, is a stately and well-

considered design. Its west front and spires (completed 1886) are particularly

successful. Trinity Church (1843, by Upjohn) and Grace Church (1840, by

Renwick), though of earlier date, should be classed with this cathedral as worthy

examples of modern Gothic design. Indeed, the churches designed in this style by a

few thoroughly trained architects during this period are the most creditable and

worthy among its lesser productions. In general an undiscriminating eclecticism of

style prevailed, unregulated by sober taste or technical training. The Federal

buildings by Mullett were monuments of perverted design in a heavy and inartistic

rendering of French Renaissance motives. The New York Post Office and the State,

Army and Navy Department building at Washington are examples of this style.

FIG. 222.--TRINITY CHURCH, BOSTON.

THE ARTISTIC AWAKENING. Between 1870 and 1880 a remarkable series of

events exercised a powerful influence on the artistic life of the United States. Two

terrible conflagrations in Chicago (1871) and Boston (1872) gave unexampled

opportunities for architectural improvement and greatly stimulated the public interest

in the art. The feverish and abnormal industrial activity which followed the war and

the rapid growth of the parvenu spirit were checked by the disastrous "panic" of

1873. With the completion of the Pacific railways and the settlement of new

communities in the West, industrial prosperity, when it returned, was established on

a firmer basis. An extraordinary expansion of travel to Europe began to disseminate

the seeds of artistic culture throughout the country. The successful establishment of

schools of architecture in Boston (1866) and other cities, and the opening or

enlargement of art museums in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Detroit,

Milwaukee, and elsewhere, stimulated the artistic awakening which now manifested

itself. In architecture the personal influence of two men, trained in the Paris École

des Beaux-Arts, was especially felt--of R. M. Hunt (182795) through his words and

deeds quite as much as through his works; and of H. H. Richardson (182886)

predominantly through his works. These two men, with others of less fame but of

high ideals and thorough culture, did much to elevate architecture as an art in the

public esteem. To all these influences new force was added by the Centennial

Exhibition at Philadelphia (1876). Here for the first time the American people were

brought into contact, in their own land, with the products of European and Oriental

art. It was to them an artistic revelation, whose results were prompt and far-

reaching. Beginning first in the domain of industrial and decorative art, its

stimulating influence rapidly extended to painting and architecture, and with

permanent consequences. American students began to throng the centres of Old

World art, while the setting of higher standards of artistic excellence at home, and

the development of important art-industries, were other fruits of this artistic

awakening. The recent Columbian Exhibition at Chicago (1893), its latest and most

important manifestation, has added a new impulse to the movement, especially in

architecture.

FIG. 223.--LIBRARY AT WOBURN, MASS.

STYLE IN RECENT ARCHITECTURE. The rapid increase in the number of

American architects trained in Paris or under the indirect influence of the École des

Beaux-Arts has been an important factor in recent architectural progress. Yet it has

by no means imposed the French academic formulæ upon American architecture. The

conditions, materials, and constructive processes here prevailing, and above all the

eclecticism of the public taste, have prevented this. The French influence is perceived

rather in a growing appreciation of monumental design in the planning, composition,

and setting of buildings, than in any direct imitation of French models. The Gothic

revival which prevailed more or less widely from 1840 to 1875, as already noticed,

and of which the State Capitol at Hartford (Conn.; 187578), and the Fine Arts

Museum at Boston, were among the last important products, was generally confined

to church architecture, for which Gothic forms are still largely employed, as in the

Protestant Cathedral of All Saints now building at Albany (N.Y.), by an English

architect. For the most part the works of the last twenty years show a more or less

judicious eclecticism, the choice of style being determined partly by the person and

training of the designer, partly by the nature of the building. The powerfully

conceived works of Richardson, in a free version of the French Romanesque, for a

time exercised a wide influence, especially among the younger architects. Trinity

Church, Boston (Fig. 222), his earliest important work; many public libraries and

business buildings, and finally the impressive County Buildings at Pittsburgh (Pa.),

all treated in this style, are admirable rather for the strong individuality of their

designer, displayed in their vigorous composition, than on account of the historic

style he employed (Fig. 223). Yet it appeared in his hands so flexible and effective

that it was widely imitated. But if easy to use, it is most difficult to use well; its

forms are too massive for ordinary purposes, and in the hands of inferior designers it

was so often travestied that it has now lost its wide popularity. While a number of

able architects have continued to use it effectively in ecclesiastical, civic, and even

commercial architecture, it is being generally superseded by various forms of the

Renaissance. Here also a wide eclecticism prevails, the works of the same architect

often varying from the gayest Francis I. designs in domestic architecture, or free

adaptations of Quattrocento details for theatres and street architecture, to the most

formal classicism in colossal exhibition-buildings, museums, libraries, and the like.

Meanwhile there are many more or less successful ventures in other historic styles

applied to public and private edifices. Underlying this apparent confusion, almost

anarchy in the use of historic styles, the careful observer may detect certain

tendencies crystallizing into definite form. New materials and methods of

construction, increased attention to detail, a growing sense of monumental

requirements, even the development of the elevator as a substitute for the grand

staircase, are leaving their mark on the planning, the proportions, and the artistic

composition of American buildings, irrespective of the styles used. The art is with us

in a state of transition, and open to criticism in many respects; but it appears to be

full of life and promise for the future.

FIG. 224.--"TIMES" BUILDING, NEW YORK.

COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS. This class of edifices has in our great cities developed

wholly new types, which have taken shape under four imperative influences. These

are the demand for fire-proof construction, the demand for well-lighted offices, the

introduction of elevators, and the concentration of business into limited areas, within

which land has become inordinately costly. These causes have led to the erection of

buildings of excessive height (Fig. 224); the more recent among them constructed

with a framework of iron or steel columns and beams, the visible walls being a mere

filling-in. To render a building of twenty stories attractive to the eye, especially when

built on an irregular site, is a difficult problem, of which a wholly satisfactory

solution has yet to be found. There have been, however, some notable achievements

in this line, in most of which the principle has been clearly recognized that a lofty

building should have a well-marked basement or pedestal and a somewhat ornate

crowning portion or capital, the intervening stories serving as a die or shaft and

being treated with comparative simplicity. The difficulties of scale and of handling

one hundred and fifty to three hundred windows of uniform style have been

surmounted with conspicuous skill (American Surety Building and Broadway

Chambers, New York; Ames Building, Boston; Carnegie Building, Pittsburgh; Union

Trust, St. Louis).

FIG. 225.--COUNTRY HOUSE, MASSACHUSETTS.

In some cases, especially in Chicago and the Middle West, the metallic framework is

suggested by slender piers between the windows, rising uninterrupted from the

basement to the top story. In others, especially in New York and the East, the walls

are treated as in ordinary masonry buildings. The Chicago school is marked by a

more utilitarian and unconventional treatment, with results which are often

extremely bold and effective, but rarely as pleasing to the eye as those attained by

the more conservative Eastern school. In the details of American office-buildings

every variety of style is to be met with; but the Romanesque and the Renaissance,

freely modified, predominate. The tendency towards two or three well-marked types

in the external composition of these buildings, as above suggested, promises,

however, the evolution of a style in which the historic origin of the details will be a

secondary matter. Certain Chicago architects have developed an original treatment of

architectural forms by exaggerating some of the structural lines, by suppressing the

mouldings and more familiar historic forms, and by the free use of flat surface

ornament. The Schiller, Auditorium, and Fisher Buildings, all at Chicago, Guaranty

Building, Buffalo, and Majestic Building, Detroit, are examples of this personal style,

which illustrates the untrammelled freedom of the art in a land without traditions.27

DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. It is in this field that the most characteristic and

original phases of American architecture are to be met with, particularly in rural and

suburban residences. In these the peculiar requirements of our varying climates and

of American domestic life have been studied and in large measure met with great

frankness and artistic appreciation. The broad staircase-hall, serving often as a sort

of family sitting-room, the piazza, and a picturesque massing of steep roofs, have

been the controlling factors in the evolution of two or three general types which

appear in infinite variations. The material most used is wood, but this has had less

influence in the determination of form than might have been expected. The

artlessness of the planning, which is arranged to afford the maximum of convenience

rather than to conform to any traditional type, has been the element of greatest

artistic success. It has resulted in exteriors which are the natural outgrowth of the

interior arrangements, frankly expressed, without affectation of style (Fig. 225). The

resulting picturesqueness has, however, in many cases been treated as an end instead

of an incidental result, and the affectation of picturesqueness has in such designs

become as detrimental as any affectation of style. In the internal treatment of

American houses there has also been a notable artistic advance, harmony of color

and domestic comfort and luxury being sought after rather than monumental effects.

A number of large city and country houses designed on a palatial scale have,

however, given opportunity for a more elaborate architecture; notably the Vanderbilt,

Villard, and Huntington residences at New York, the great country-seat of Biltmore,

near Asheville (N.C.), in the Francis I. style (by R. M. Hunt), and many others.

OTHER BUILDINGS. American architects have generally been less successful in

public, administrative, and ecclesiastical architecture than in commercial and

domestic work. The preference for small parish churches, treated as audience-rooms

rather than as places of worship, has interfered with the development of noble types

of church-buildings. Yet there are signs of improvement; and the new Cathedral of

St. John the Divine at New York, in a modified Romanesque style, promises to be a

worthy and monumental building. In semi-public architecture, such as hotels,

theatres, clubs, and libraries, there are many notable examples of successful design.

The Ponce de Leon Hotel at St. Augustine, a sumptuous and imposing pile in a free

version of the Spanish Plateresco; the Auditorium Theatre at Chicago, the Madison

Square Garden and the Casino at New York, may be cited as excellent in general

conception and well carried out in detail, externally and internally. The Century and

Metropolitan Clubs at New York, the Boston Public Library, the Carnegie Library at

Pittsburgh, the Congressional Library at Washington, and the recently completed

Minnesota State Capitol at St. Paul, exemplify in varying degrees of excellence the

increasing capacity of American architects for monumental design. This was further

shown in the buildings of the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893. These, in

spite of many faults of detail, constituted an aggregate of architectural splendor such

as had never before been seen or been possible on this side the Atlantic. They further

brought architecture into closer union with the allied arts and formed an object

lesson in the value of appropriate landscape gardening as a setting to monumental

structures.

It should be said, in conclusion, that with the advances of recent years in artistic

design in the United States there has been at least as great improvement in scientific

construction. The sham and flimsiness of the Civil War period are passing away, and

solid and durable building is becoming more general throughout the country, but

especially in the Northeast and in some of the great Western cities, notably in

Chicago. In this onward movement the Federal buildings--post-offices, custom-

houses, and other governmental edifices--have not, till lately, taken high rank.

Although solidly and carefully constructed, those built during the period 18751895

were generally inferior to the best work produced by private enterprise, or by State

and municipal governments. This was in large part due to enactments devolving upon

the supervising architect at Washington the planning of all Federal buildings, as well

as a burden of supervisory and clerical duties incompatible with the highest artistic

results. Since 1898, however, a more enlightened policy has prevailed, and a number

of notable designs for Federal buildings have been secured by carefully-conducted

competitions.

27. See Appendix, D and E.

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