Early American Architecture: From the First Colonial Settlements to the National Period(Dover Architecture)

Comprehensive survey of domestic and public architecture ranges from primitive cabins to Greek Revival mansions of the early 1800s. Nearly 500 illustrations. "Entertaining, vigorous, and clearly written." - The New York Times. In this comprehensive, highly praised reconstruction of the nation's architectural past, a distinguished teacher and critic of architecture describes and evaluates a wide variety of building styles - from the primitive dugouts and cabins of the first settlers to the Greek Revival mansions of the early nineteenth century. Moreover, this volume was the first to offer thorough coverage of early architecture throughout the United States, including homes, schools, meeting houses, and commercial buildings in the Northeast; Georgian structures in Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, the Middle Colonies, and New England; the French Colonial style in the Mississippi Valley; the baroque architecture of mission churches and ranch homes in the Southwest and California, and the nationwide growth of Neoclassic and Romantic styles. Nearly 500 line drawings and photographs enhance the text, including reconstruction drawings of buildings long demolished or seriously altered, making this a valuable pictorial repository of the nation's early architectural heritage. In addition to carefully chosen and well-integrated illustrations, the book also contains a number of historical documents, contemporary letters, and travelers' comments that enrich the discussion, as well as account of plans, materials, and methods of construction. For the general reader or nonspecialist, Early American Architecture provides an informative and entertaining survey, written with a minimum of technical jargon, and abundantly supplied with clarifying comments, notes, and diagrams. For the scholar, it brings together in one concise volume the research of leading specialists in the regional period architecture. Students, architects, historians, restorers - anyone interested in American architecture - will delight in this thoughtful and expertly written book, described by Lewis Mumford as "a milestone in American architectural history."

Table of Contents:
FOREWORD ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Part One. Colonial Architecture: The Seventeenth Century 1. THE COLONIAL STYLES Introduction Colonial' and 'Georgian' Colonial styles of the eastern regions Their medieval character The Spanish Colonial style Primitive shelters of the first settlers The log-cabin myth The first frame houses The English architectural background 2. THE COLONIAL HOUSE IN NEW ENGLAND Basic terminology of Colonial plans and construction best studied in New England houses Typical house plans The frame and its parts Wall construction Hewing and sawing lumber Windows Roofs The chimney Front door and porch The hall and its furniture Other rooms in the Colonial house 3. NEW ENGLAND COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE Introduction The New England community Representative frame houses Stone houses Brick houses Garrisons and blockhouses Meeting-houses School and college architecture Boston's first Town-House Commercial buildings Tide mills and windmills Newport Tower The New England Colonial style 4. DUTCH COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE Early settlement Materials and construction Variants of the Dutch Colonial style Early New Amsterdam The Albany region The middle countries Dutch churches Flemish Colonial houses Long Island The eighteenth-century style Northern New Jersey The post-Revolutionary phase of the style 5. SOUTHERN COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE Early Jamestown Frame houses in Virginia Brick houses Typical house plans Important Virginia houses Virginia churches Maryland in the seventeenth century The Carolinas Log cabins Early Charleston The river plantations Part Two. Spanish and French Colonial Architecture 6. FLORIDA AND THE SPANISH SOUTHWEST St. Augustine and its fort Indian pueblos in New Mexico The Governor's Palace at Santa Fe Mission churches of New Mexico Spanish missions in Texas The missions of Arizona 7. MISSIONS AND RANCH HOUSES OF ALTA CALIFORNIA Junipero Serra and the foundation of the California missions Life at the missions The mission builldings San Diego San Carlos Borromeo La Capilla Real at Monterey San Juan Capistrano Santa Barbara San Luis Rey Presidios and pueblos Spanish Colonial domestic architecture 8. FRENCH COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY Historical background Founding of New Orleans The Illinois Country Materials and construction One-story houses Ursuline Convent at New Orleans Plantation houses of Louisiana The Cabildo Part Three. Georgian Architecture: 1700-1780 9. THE EMERGENCE OF GEORGIAN Historical background The Renaissance in Europe The Renaissance in England Elizabethan Early Stuart Late Stuart Early Georgian Building practices in the colonies Architects The use of architectural books Amateurs Materials Plans Sanitation "Heating, cooking, and illumination" 10. THE GEORGIAN STYLE Its formal character Doorways Windows Wall treatments Roof treatments Georgian interiors Entrance hall and stairway Floor and wall treatments Doors and windows Fireplaces and chimneypieces Ceilings Georgian furniture Development of the Georgian style 11. EARLY GEORGIAN ARCHITECTURE IN VIRGINIA Economic basis Typical plantation Williamsburg "The Wren building, Capitol, Palace, Bruton Parish Church" Other buildings at Williamsburg Early Georgian houses Stratford Westover Carter's Grove Richard Taliaferro "Christ Church, Lancaster County" 12. LATE GEORGIAN ARCHITECTURE IN VIRGINIA The architect John Ariss Mount Airy Mount Vernon Pohick Church Late Georgian tendencies The two-story portico Brandon Semple House Jefferson and the first Monticello Jefferson at Williamsburg Jefferson's ideas about architecture 13. GEORGIAN ARCHITECTURE IN MARYLAND AND THE CAROLINAS Eighteenth-century Annapolis County houses and manor houses The architecture of William Buckland South Carolina in the eighteenth century The river plantations Carolina churches Urban Charleston Charleston houses The expanding frontier: Georgia and North Carolina 14. GEORGIAN PUBLIC BUILDINGS IN NEW ENGLAND The seaports Eighteenth-century Boston Early Georgian churches Boston's Town-House Faneuil Hall Newport The architecture of Peter Harrison Late Georgian churches New England colleges in the eighteenth century 15. GEORGIAN HOUSES IN NEW ENGLAND New England house plans Local stylisms The first Georgian house in America Portsmouth The Hancock House Shirley Place Royall House The Lindens Late Georgian houses The Federal style in New England 16. GEORGIAN ARCHITECTURE IN THE MIDDLE COLONIES New Sweden The founding of Philadelphia Early Georgian houses in Pennsylvania Late Georgian houses Public and institutional buildings Pennsylvania Dutch' architecture Eighteenth-century New York Georgian houses in New York 17. TOWARD A NATIONAL STYLE Neoclassicism The rise of scientific