Monographs Archives - Page 9 of 13

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: Fences and Fence Posts of Colonial Times

Posted on November 4, 2013October 21, 2021 by Jeff Easterling

Fences generally seem like an afterthought, especially to the architects charged with designing them. Even in Europe, which has always been held up by Americans as the standard against which our own structures should be measured, fences are simply not that interesting. But there’s one notable exception, according to Volume VIII, Issue VII of the historic White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs, written in 1922. The fences and fence posts of colonial times were designed for privacy and looks while still maintaining good relations with the neighbors.

The author of this monograph isn’t a fan of fences in general, noting that they can make a property seem smaller, appear unfriendly, block views and obscure the architecture of the buildings they encircle. But those from the colonial era, which can be seen all over New England and particularly in Salem, Massachusetts, appropriately reflect the architecture of the time while also hitting just the right balance.

While in Europe, many of the fences are actually solid masonry walls, early American fences are lighter, airier, with pillars that often complement the adjacent structure standing between the lengths of wrought iron or wooden bars. Of the fence at the Loring-Emmerton House in Salem, the author writes, “The whole design is of absorbing interest i showing how every part has been treated to conform to the designer’s feeling for lightness and grace. Perhaps his thought was to obstruct the view of the landscape as little as possible.”

Read the whole issue 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.

Architectural Monographs: Colonial Textures in Vermont

Posted on October 11, 2013October 21, 2021 by Jeff Easterling

What is it that draws us to colonial houses, aside from their history as America’s earliest European-built dwellings? The author of this 1922 write-up in The White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs argues that it’s actually an unconscious appreciation of the color and texture as well as the form of these structures. While onlookers often rave about their solid construction, often with comments that people really knew “how to build” in those days, the same results are much more easily and economically achieved through modern construction methods.

What we see when we look at these buildings is a certain charm and simplicity, though there’s no lack of variety in the details. The author notes “the dark roofs with their huge old chimneys, the green shutters, hung against broad white clapboards, shingled or weather-beaten surfaces, as well as the perfect detail of the ornament used on old doorways, cornices, and porches.”

Bennington, Vermont and nearby towns were on the “frontier of colonization,” sheltered from the trends of the coastal towns and developing their own particular architectural quirks. One example is a detailed triple window used over front entrances, with an arrangement of arches and pilasters that isn’t often seen elsewhere.

“The General David Robinson House has the most developed treatment of texture, the strong whites of the porch against the gray of the clapboards, pilasters, and wall, with the exquisitely divided sash softening the dark openings flanked by shutters. The detail throughout is delightful in scale. This house is perhaps one of the most beautiful of the examples in this Monograph.”

White Pine Architectural Monographs: Colonial Houses of Providence

Posted on October 4, 2013October 21, 2021 by Jeff Easterling

The colonial architecture of Providence, Rhode Island, may not be as renowned as that of Salem or Portsmouth, but it’s just as historically important, with seaside dwellings dating to the beginning of the eighteenth century. Written in 1918, Volume IV, Issue III of the historic White Pine Architectural Monographs highlights some of the most important structures that survived into the twentieth century.

One example is the Christopher Arnold House, built about 1735, which features the oldest doorway in Providence with carvings that were likely inspired by those on even older furniture. Likewise, the Crawford House has “a very remarkable door with large, bent-over leaves above the caps of its pilasters, and the curious bending up of the back band in the middle of the lintel… doors like this are rare.”

“The second quarter of the century, especially the years just before 1750, and, of course, even more the years just before the Revolution, when the money from privateering in the Old French War was flowing into the town, saw the rise and spread here, as in the rest of New England, of the central-entry type of plan – that in which a long hall runs through the back, with two rooms on each side.”

“Most of the houses of this kind in Providence are of brick; thew olden house of early date on that plan is not common. At any rate, it has not survived in any numbers. It is to be seen it its glory for Rhode Island, in Newport and not in Providence.” Moving into the nineteenth century, after a period of construction inactivity during the Revolution, three-storied wooden mansions began to spring up. Read more at the White Pine Monograph Library.

Architectural Monographs: Design A Community Center Building

Posted on September 27, 2013October 21, 2021 by Jeff Easterling

In 1919, the fourth annual White Pine Architectural Competition challenged architects to design a community center building and civic center group plan for a small riverside town in New England with a population of about 5,000 people. Designers were asked to design a structure that would harmonize with other public buildings in the area, made of painted white pine “in the character so well developed in that part of our country.”

The community center building was to contain a town council chamber, offices for the town officials, permanent voting booths, and an assembly hall for 700 “equipped with a stage and a motion picture machine.” The contest required it to be finished on the exterior with white pine. Beyond this building, the general civic center plan required a freight depot, an open market, stores, offices, a high school, an art museum and other public buildings.

The judges note that the entries showed ‘a general weakness,’ but that most of them grasped not only the scale of such a building, which was to be a social center for a small village, but the importance that the act of voting should be given within it, and the need for equal accommodations for both sexes in the gender-separated club rooms.

“A few points, however, are evident to any student of the times. One is that women and men must be placed on a practical basis of equality as far as accommodations are concerned, and women must be given absolutely equal rights in and access to such main features as the gymnasium and swimming pool.”