American colonial architecture, its origin & development

Foreword

Some European writers on architecture have declared that the single contribution of the United States to the history of architectural design was the “skyscraper,” as our tall office buildings have been rather happily and suggestively termed. But it is believed that as time wears on it will be recognized that the interpretative expression given in the American Colonies to the classic revival in the eighteenth century, which is rather loosely called Colonial Architecture, has resulted in the formation of a native style just as individual to this country as is the “‘skyscraper.”’

In an effort to show the origin of this style and the circumstances under which it was developed—not by trained and talented architects, but by hard-working carpenters—this book was written.

It is in brief a rapid survey of the manners of the Colonists, rather than a work on architectural designing, and was intended to show the causes which led to the adoption of what we call the Colonial Style.

No similar work seen by the writer has given any attention to the French Colonial design in America. To include this it has of course been necessary to pass the national boundary of the United States and enter Canada, where part of the French Colonies lay.

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IV FOREWORD

Naturally, the small size of this book precludes any claim to exhaustive treatment of the subject; and instead of being definitive in character, it has only been designed to be suggestive.

Finally it should be stated that the following chapters were first printed in the magazine, Building, of which the writer is editor.

JOSEPH JACKSON

Philadelphia, May, 1924

Contents

PAGE I RO ey es fb wis wd'd devia Cae cwdevaes iil Ne shin es ah ea disy sins G de ele odie ee ss ws ee Vv MIMIUIISETAISONG fo ec. cle boa ka Saggy es cee ee eee cee vi CHAPTER IE aes TIaN (8S cad os Fg oe lw =! tig aise aces 0 ok pe cere 1 Semrtrey eciniaerore 1700 02. 6 os pgs eae ce ee eens 19 Pameenew england Prior to 1700. ................-- 37 ein Now york Betore 1700... 2.4 ek eee ee 55 V_ In Pennsylvania and Delaware Valley Before 1700.. 72 peeeeeemevivanio, 1700 10 1750 2... ee ee ees 91 mabieeeimitne Prenen Colonies... .. 66 eee cect ees ees 109 re peetn ner rench Colonies. ©... 2... ee eee 126 IX In the South in the Eighteenth Century........... 142 Poerremetneimnd Alter 1750. 2... ce ce ek eee 159 Peer onteviveniawaiter 1750... 0. cece ee ee ee dees 175 Peeercers iss and GOOkS., ...2...06- 6. ens bese ees 193 EME) ME ay pak sive vss we as eae ee 213 ee HE Fie cys hc ede enn Wie ate eee eae 217

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Chapter I

MERICAN Colonial Architecture in the JAN average mind describes a style of building with which it is more or less familiar, yet

that term should be used with more discrimination, because Colonial Architecture existed in what is now the United States before the Tudors as a dynasty, passed in England, and that style which is now so popular for certain types of buildings, did not make its advent until nearly a century and a half later. >

In this review of the rise of Colonial building, we shall go back to the beginning. It should be understood that the first settlers in this country did not come over armed with architectural plans, er have any high idealistic schemes for beautifying their new home. It was a hard existence, such as pioneers in all lands in all times have encountered; it differed only in degree from the experiences of other adventurers in new lands.

In even more recent times we have had something of the same kind of history in the building of the West. No one will believe that the hardy men and women who crossed the great Plains in the “Prairie Schooners,” and had to occasionally fight pugnacious Indians on the way, took with them any volumes on architectural styles to be used in building their homes. As a matter of fact, they did not always know where they would locate their homes, and local conditions, availability of materials, together with their fitness for the struggle, and other things contributed a great deal towards influencing their decision.

Going back three centuries or thereabouts, we find settlers from the other side of the Atlantic erecting for themselves the crudest sort of dwellings. Usually they were constructed of logs, which the country afforded by its boundless forests. This kind of building also was strong enough to withstand the onslaughts of the savages, who did not add anything to the enjoyment of the newcomers. Even a century later, settlers in Pennsylvania, landing in a so-called city, which was being rapidly built on a real plan, were content to live for a time in caves dug out of the side of the embankment bordering the Delaware River.

In nearly all of the early voyages of settlers to this country from England, there came out with the ships, artisans of various kinds. Naturally there was a goodly representation of housewrights, for the immigrants had to have houses in which to live, and could not take them along in sections as settlers today may, if they so desire.

HOW HISTORY IS MADE

This building, which was in Appletree Street, west of

Fourth, was neither the first brick house in Philadelphia

nor were its bricks brought from England. It is now removed, but dated from about 1715

The ships were small ones, and consequently could not take either large cargoes or many passengers. This fact should be sufficient answer to those persons who have a lingering belief that bricks for the houses in the new land were brought from England. As there was to be found here ample materials for the manufacture of brick, and they could be made as satisfactorily as they could be had in the motherland, it would have been little less than folly and reckless expenditure, to have attempted to import this kind of building material from the other side of the Atlantic. It might be added by way of comment that there are no indications that the settlers in any of the colonies were foolish or extravagant in matters of this kind. vIn seeking the origin of the styles of buildings and of the manner of their construction, it is found that in the colonies the differences in construction is traceable to the parts of the old country from which the majority of the immigrants came. It was the most natural thing in the world for them to bring with them impressions of their native places, and on the part of the workmen it was just as natural for them to erect dwellings more or less in the same way they had been accustomed to do in their old homes. Always to be taken into consideration, however, was the factor of the availability of materials and tools necessary for the operations.

In the majority of books dealing with so-called Colonial architecture, more attention is paid to the genealogy of the families occupying the houses regarded as historic, than to the history of the building of these houses. In many instances these records appear to be lost. At the same time there prevails an impression that all Colonial architecture is English in origin, because of a more or less narrow interpetation of the word Colonial. It is true that in the English colonies on the Atlantic seaboard, English manners, styles and customs prevailed, but there was another part of the present territory along the same seaboard that was not English, at the time it was settled, nor until many years afterward.

Thus we have in Florida Some Atenas of Spanish architecture. Most of it, however, is admittedly not so old as it looks. There are, nevertheless, evidences of the Spanish buildings in St. Augustine, and it will be shown later that some of this building in the peninsula actually had an influence on some northern architecture.

In Louisiana, especially in New Orleans, there are examples of French, and Spanish Architecture, dating back to the days when that great territory was a colony first of France, then of Spain, and again of France.

From these statements it will be seen that when we discuss American Colonial Architecture we should be comprehensive enough to include the styles prevailing in the colonies of Spain and France in this country. The Spanish architecture on the Pacific coast, while also American Colonial in the same sense, was so isolated that it really, until more recent years, had no appreciable influence upon architectural design in the United States. P aS

There are several clearly defined periods of American Colonial architecture. Roughly these may be said to be, a, that of the original settlers, and for the first fifty years of colonization; b, the next half century, or until the advent of the House of Hanover to the British throne, and c, that which had its development during the reigns of the first three Georges. The last, naturally, showed the most regard for classic taste, and is the period generally studied by all who go in for Colonial Architecture.

These same periods may again be defined as being the period of the pioneers, the period of building from books, and the period of both books and Americanization of the styles.

As we have seen, the original settlers had something else to think of than the erection of handsome mansions. Indeed, they were supremely happy if they could build a comfortable dwelling, which would keep out savages and the cold winters, and permit its residents to improve their lot. Conditions, as was to be expected, differed in various parts of the country. Some colonies were begun with more care, and upon more of a plan than others. Thus, we see the Pilgrims landing on shores. they knew little or nothing of. They were true, hardy adventurers. They had faith, and a burning desire for freedom of thought. Their creature comforts were few, and not given a very prominent place in their philosophy.

The entire lack of precautions, planning, and management which the first English settlers displayed at Roanoke, Island, is one of the tragedies of history, and the settlement at Jamestown was little better. On the other hand, the settlement of Pennsylvania was the only one that was deliberately planned, and planted in a more or less happy situation. The colony of New York, by reason of its Dutch origin, fared almost as well. It must be remembered, however, that Pennsyl-

TYPE OF WIGWAM COPIED BY EARLIEST SETTLERS IN THE COLONIES From Description of New Sweden by Thos. Campanius Holm vania had been settled successfully by the English after part of it had been a backward colony of Sweden. The Swedes were thrifty as a people, but not so enterprising as the English of their day, and we do not find many traces of their architecture in any building today, although the Old Swedes’ Churches in Wilmington and Philadelphia, both built long after English occupation, and said to be copies of edifices to be found in Sweden, were not constructed by Swedes, and display as much English as they do Swedish in their design.

When colonists did begin to build permanent homes for themselves, they invariably and rather naturally, followed the styles prevalent in their native lands. To this it should be understood that they were, of course, influenced by their environment. In other words, they Americanized their architecture. This deviation was virtually forced upon them by reason of the changed conditions, the handiness of building materials, the kind of place in which they settled, and the kind and supply of labor for the purpose. While they had no architectural ideals to voice or to give materialization to dreams of improvement, they will be found to have met the problem that presented itself to them and to have solved it admirably.

It cost a great deal of money for the times for an emigrant to take his family to the New World; the voyage was both long and dangerous, and as a consequence we find that the original settlers, excepting those who were experienced tradesmen and mechanics, some of whom were given inducements to emigrate, were all persons of substance; some of them were of good family, and accustomed to the small comforts which the early centuries afforded. Understanding this then we are able to reconstruct in our minds the kind of habitations they erected for their shelter and their homes.

Many of the immigants were persons of education, and even accomplishment, and all of them were persons of intelligence, determination and courage. It is only to quote from experience to infer that persons of this character had the fortitude necessary to temporarily put up with the inconveniences their new situation placed them in.

We read in contemporary works that the early settlers in Virginia lived in wigwams, undoubtedly fashioned more or less like those of the Indians they found there; in New England they built themselves rough log huts, close to fortifications to protect themselves from attack by savage Indians; in Pennsylvania, the Swedes built themselves log cabins, and the English and Germans when they arrived were content to live in caves until their houses were erected.

All these circumstances had a great deal to do with the formation of a distinctive style of architecture; a style that was indigenous, and Colonial in the broadest sense of the term.

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There were in existence at the time of the settlement, at least of the Middle Colonies, books intended to guide the home builder and carpenter, and at the beginning of the desire for better houses, and more modern comforts, these books played a larger part than probably is realized today.

We are able to make a statement of this kind from a study of some of the buildings of the Eighteenth, or even the Seventeenth century which remain. For instance, we can within a reasonable margin for error, maintain that the original plan of the Slate Roof House, which was erected for Samuel Carpenter in Philadelphia, and which obtained its fame from having once been the residence of William Penn, the founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, was based upon a design shown in one of these volumes. Also, from the same sort of evidence, we are able to point to the original of the State House group of buildings, in Philadelphia, that are now known as Independence Hall. Buildings in other sections of the country may also be traced back in the same manner to plans to be found in some of these ancient volumes.

Books were fairly plentiful in the New England and Middle Colonies before they were easily available in the South. In Virginia, for instance, education was very meagre, and it is generally known that Washington, himself, a son of a rich family, had very few educational advantages. Some of the planters in the South sent their sons to England, and these, of course, were very highly educated. William Byrd, of Westover, Virginia, is a brilliant example of this European education. He was called to the bar in Middle Temple while quite a young man, or shortly before 1700.

During the reign of George I, the Bishop of London, in the course of gathering data regarding the Colonies, sent a questionnaire to the clergy in Virginia. He received answers to his paper that must have been far from convincing of the high character of the intelligence of this part of the world. To his question, ‘‘Are there any schools in your parish?” only two answered in the affirmative. To the question, “Is there a parish library?” the universal reply was, “None.” One clergyman, probably more ashamed than the others, explained that they had “‘The Book of Homilies, The Whole Duty of Man, and the Singing Psalms.”

While it may be true that the questionnaire does not prove that there was no education or books in Virginia at the time, it does show that, generally speaking, the inhabitants were ignorant of either advantages. It will be shown that it was not until architectural books of ambitious character had been imported that the Georgian houses which we so properly admire today, were built.

Probably no incident had more influence upon the modernizing of architecture in England and, in due course, that of the American Colonies, than the Great Fire of London, which occurred in 1666, when thirteen thousand houses, and _ ninety churches were destroyed, the whole City of London, from the Temple to the Tower being laid waste.

As might be imagined the rebuilding of so vast a section in a metropolis called for architects. The situation also called for something better than had been destroyed, and under this inspiration came forth Sir Christopher Wren, and numerous others not so well recalled to this generation. It should not be inferred that Wren was unknown until after the Fire, for at the time he was the leading figure in architecture in England, but the Fire did inspire him to do some of the master-

‘LUO4 HSINVdS dO YOIMALNI pieces, especially in church architecture, connected with his name, and these had an immense bearing upon the whole school of English architectural design, and naturally influenced work done in the Colonies, although not immediately.

London had to be rebuilt, and all architects and builders in the city or close to it were called upon to assist in the immense work. Now there appeared more numerous than ever publications intended for the instruction of builders and owners. There had, of course, been in existence folios, especially the works of Vitruvius, and Palladio, and one of Inigo Jones, one of the earliest followers of Palladio in England. Some of John Webb’s work, the pupil and successor of Jones, also was known, but the rebuilding of London after the fire inspired a whole library of little volumes intended to be helpful to the city and country builder.

Some of these volumes evidently found their way across the Atlantic, but the one which seems to have left the largest impression was “The City and Country Purchaser and Builder,” by Stephen Primatt. The first edition appeared soon after the Fire ,in 1667, and the second edition, whose title page announced that it was “Much Enlarged, by William Leybourne,” was published in 1680. As the important plates are identical in both editions, that reproduced here is from the second edition.

This “Platform” shows the ground layout of a “Mansion House,” and, as we shall explain further along, this design appears to have been the ground work for several large houses in Philadelphia, and probably in some other sections of the country. Slightly modified, it seems to have been a popular design.

Before the Great Fire, there had appeared “The First Book of Architecture by Andrea Palladio.” This was translated by Godfrey Richards, and he added to it an “Appendix Touching Doors and Windows by Pr. Le Muet.”’ This work, a small quarto, was issued in 1663, and contained designs of floors and the manner of framing houses after the best manner of English building. The designs of doors and windows copied from the French, do not appear to have been adopted in any early design for houses in the Colonies. Indeed, for the great part, they were too ambitious for any mere colonial local carpenter or carver to attempt. The framing, however, seems to have been influential in the construction of some early buildings in the Colonies. |

This little volume of Palladio about half a century after it was published, and at a time when the leading men in the Colonies had begun to accumulate fortunes, was of value to the carvers and joiners who were responsible for some of the lovely wood work that has survived.

A volume which probably had a greater influence on much of the woodwork to be found in the Georgian houses still standing, was John Wood’s “Dissertation upon the Orders of Columns, and their Appendages,” etc. To this was added a brief account of the various kinds of Intercolumnation. Wood was a Bath architect, and has

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to his credit several very showy houses in the neighborhood of fashionable Bath.

Wood’s plates give measured details of columns, with their bases and capitals, and generally wrote a useful and interesting book. His Dissertation is interesting, especially for his view that the Grecian Orders of Columns were derived from the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. He insisted that the Greeks copied their architecture after the Israelites had adapted the styles of the more ancient wooden columns to stone ones.

Some little pocket books for the use of builders, and treating of the science of measuring or estimating work, were more or less plentiful in the later Seventeenth and through the Eighteenth centuries. William Salmon, Jr., of Colchester, in Essex, published ‘“‘The Country Builder’s Estimator, or, the Architect’s Companion.” This volume, first issued early in the Eighteenth century, ran through many editions. The elder William Salmon, published a work that was not unknown in the Colonies: ‘‘Palladio Londinensis,” 1743. This quarto contains many plates that proved useful to the Colonial builder. One of the earliest “Measurer’s Guides,” was that published by John Barker. The second edition, the only one the writer has seen, bears the date of 1718. From the elementary character of the book, which was devised as a popular work by Barker, who was an engineer, one judges that it must have met a real want in a country that was undergoing the first stages of development. A more business-like book on the subject was that of William Salmon, the author of ‘‘Palladio Londinensis.” His book was entitled, ‘The London and Country Builder’s Vade Mecum: or, The Compleat and Universal Architect’s Assistant.” It bears the date of 1745.

These volumes detail not only the current prices for materials and labor, but the manner of estimating each mechanic’s work, for all were not paid on the same basis. Thus glaziers worked by the superficial foot, masons by foot measure, either lineal, square, or cubical, as the author explains; plasterers by the square yard; bricklayers, on a wall, were paid by the square rod, or sixteen feet and a half squared; while carpenters on surface work, paid by the “square,” or 100 square feet. There were, of course, detailed charges for joining, carving, making doors, windows, frontispieces, over doorways, etc. The same method of estimating or calculating housewright’s work was followed in this country, only the price paid differing from that of London, or in the English provinces.

Those were before the days of blueprints, and while the principal designs for a building were drawn upon vellum or parchment, the working drawings to be handed to the mechanics were of paper, but occasionally, for the purpose of conserving them better, these, too, may have been drawn upon parchment.

The first Colonists to arrive did not need glaziers, because glass was so high and scarce that there even were houses in England that were lighted in the daytime by means of oiled linen. This was the first material used in windows in the Colonies, but it should be explained that this was merely a stopgap, a temporary expedient, and probably no ancient house now standing in this country was so lighted when it was erected. In the Middle Colonies, at least, glass works were among the early industries to be started, and, until they were fairly well begun glass was imported from Europe. Some other essential features of a dwelling house were imported from time to time, but the often repeated tradition that bricks were brought from England is based upon no known facts, and, on the whole is not entitled to attention. Some Dutch tiles may have found their way to this country, and some similar terra cotta work may have been imported, but bricks sufficient in quantity to build a large house of the period, certainly never were part of the cargo of any ship that came across the Atlantic in Colonial days.

Chapter II In Virginia Before 1700

IRGINIA, at the time when the American V territories were being parceled out to colonization companies by the British king, ex- © tended from what is now Cape Fear, in North Carolina, to Eastport, Maine. As a matter of fact this region was divided into the domains of two Virginia companies—the London, or first Virginia Company, which was assigned to the country between the 34th and the 41st degrees of North Latitude, and the Second, or Plymouth Virginia Company, which was given the territory between the 38th and the 45th degrees. This was done under charters signed in April, 1606, and this little discrepancy, which allowed of the overlapping of three degrees, or between the 38th and the 41st meridians which seemed to pass unnoticed at the time when all the coast was a wilderness, was the origin of a century of dispute over boundaries. | As the London Virginia Company, which sent out Captain John Smith, a real adventurer, got under way long before the other had even looked over the ground, as is very well known, Jamestown was founded long before the first Pilgrim ship landed at Plymouth.

This first serious venture at colonization in North America by the English was not altogether a success. The first colonists were not really colonists, but adventurers pure and simple, who came out to find gold, make themselves rich and return to London to spend it.

William Byrd, of Westover, reviewing the origins of Virginia, speaks of the early attempts to settle it in a rather humorous manner. He said the first colony consisted of “‘about a hundred men, most of them reprobates of good families,’ and that at Jamestown, “like true Englishmen, they built a church that cost no more than fifty pounds and a tavern that cost five hundred.”

He thought the colonists should have married Indian women, contending, “morals and all considered, I can’t think the Indians much greater heathens than the first adventurers, who, had they been good Christians, would have had the charity to take this only method of converting the natives to Christianity.” Byrd jokes about attempting to start a colony with “a hundred bachelors.”

It is not at all strange that during the first year at Jamestown very few houses were erected. In the first place, as has been related, perhaps few of the colonists intended to remain any longer than was necessary to make their fortunes. They a “POWHATAN ae ere

INTERIOR OF A WIGWAM, SHOWING CONSTRUCTION, 1607 From Smith’s General History generally adopted the style of habitation they found in use among the Indians, a house called a wigwam, sometimes referred to as tents, although they in no manner resembled what then or even en now are so called. It is true that the ship that brought over the adventurers did carry in its hold lumber properly cut for the erection of a fort, because the newcomers did not know what they would find for building material in the new world.

The fact that this timber was brought is an indication that there were persons among the colonists to erect the structure, although the workers who came in the first ship were not all of them useful, for only twelve of the party were set down as laborers, and of the artisans, we learn that they included jewelers, gold refiners and a perfumer.

All of the party did not even have wigwams at first, for we learn from Strachey that “by many occasions, ill lodging at the first (the poorer on the bare ground, and the best in such miserable cottages at best as through which the fervent piercing heat of the sun, which there (it is true) in the first cause, creating such sommer fevers amongst them, found never resistaunce), hard fare, and their owne judgments and saffeties instructing them to worke hard in the faint tyme of sommer (the better to be accommodated and fitted for the wynter), they have fallen sick, yet have they recovered agayne by the very small meanes.”

William Strachey, who was Secretary and Recorder for the colony, and described conditions as he found them in 1618, or more than ten years after Smith and his band arrived, is next to Smith one of our best sources of information about the state of things in Virginia at its founding. He gives us a word-picture of the average Indian wigwam, and, as it was the type of house the more fortunate of the colonists enjoyed, it may be repeated here. For the sake of convenience the narrator’s seventeenth century orthography may be changed.

“As for their [the Indians’] houses,” he relates, “who knoweth one of them knoweth them all, even the chief king’s house itself, for they be all alike builded one to the other. They are like garden arbors, at best like our shepherds’ cottages, made yet handsomely enough, though without strength or gayness, of such plants as they can pluck up, bow and make the green tops meet together, in fashion of a round roof, which they thatch with mats thrown over. The walls are made of barks of trees, but then those be prin- - cipal houses, for so many barks which go in the making up of a house are long time of purchasing. In the midst of the house there is a lover [opening in the roof], out of which the smoke issueth, the fire being kept tight under. Every house commonly has two doors, one before and a postern. The doors be hung with mats, never locked nor bolted, but only those mats be to turn up, or let fall at pleasure; and their houses are so commonly placed under the covert of trees, that the violence of foul weather, snow, or rain, cannot assault them nor the sun in summer annoy them; and the roof being covered, as I say, the wind is easily kept out, insomuch as they are aS warm as stoves, although very smoky. Windows they have none, but the light comes in at the door and at the lover; for should they have broad and open windows in the quarters of their houses, they know not well how, upon any occasion, to make them close and let in the light, too, for glass they know not.