Domestic architecture of the American colonies and of the early republic . —the steep mediaeval gable?—appears in the Warren house, in Bacons Castle, and in the Usher (Royall) house, 1 Gervase Markham, The English Husbandman (1613, often reprinted), figures and recommends thisplan, pp. 23 and 24. 2 S. Smith, History of New Jersey (1765), p. 184. 3 Yonge, James Towne, p. 95. 4 Bruce, Economic History of Virginia, vol. 2, p. 159. 5 Quoted in Westcott, Historic Mansions of Philadelphia, p. 38. 44 THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY spanning at least from 1650 to 1680. In Bacons Castle, unique in America, the
Domestic architecture of the American colonies and of the early republic . —the steep mediaeval gable?—appears in the Warren house, in Bacons Castle, and in the Usher (Royall) house, 1 Gervase Markham, The English Husbandman (1613, often reprinted), figures and recommends thisplan, pp. 23 and 24. 2 S. Smith, History of New Jersey (1765), p. 184. 3 Yonge, James Towne, p. 95. 4 Bruce, Economic History of Virginia, vol. 2, p. 159. 5 Quoted in Westcott, Historic Mansions of Philadelphia, p. 38. 44 THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY spanning at least from 1650 to 1680. In Bacons Castle, unique in America, thegables have the steps and cuspings of Jacobean In several of thehouses, however, forms prophetic of a coming day make their first , in the Tufts house the main slopes of fifty-one degrees are sharply truncatedat the top—producing our earliest example of the so-called gambrel or curbroof (figure 26). Much time has been wasted in seeking the origin of the gambrelroof of the English colonies elsewhere, for instance among the Dutch about New. Figure 24. The Province House. Boston. 1676 to 1679From S. A. Drake: Old Landmarks of Boston (1873) This example should demonstrate, to all who know the history of Euro-pean architecture, that the form originated in the desire to reduce the height ofthe mediaeval roof, especially over buildings of a double file of rooms. Althoughknown, when used on all four slopes with a level cornice, by the name of theFrench architect, Mansart, it was by no means confined to France, many exam-ples appearing in England in the later seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Theuse of the curb roof while retaining the gable was a compromise, which we see inan early English example over the great hall at Hampton Court, and which re- 1 A late English example, dated 1678, is in a building at Carleton St. Peters, Norfolk. B. Oliver, Old Housesin East Anglia, pi. 73. Medway in South Carolina, Landgrave Smiths house, has a stepped ga
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