Domestic architecture of the American colonies and of the early republic . rism,tended to reduce the elaboration of wall surface, and to concentrate attention onindividual members, chiefly of a functional character: doorways, windows, chim-neypieces, cornices, the centrepieces of ceilings, the strings and hand-rails of stairs. Panelling, which had been getting less common before the Revolution, soondisappeared entirely in favor of plain surfaces of plaster. In a few houses strippanels were applied to the plastered walls in the Adam manner. Mclntire sketched 239 AMERICAN DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE s
Domestic architecture of the American colonies and of the early republic . rism,tended to reduce the elaboration of wall surface, and to concentrate attention onindividual members, chiefly of a functional character: doorways, windows, chim-neypieces, cornices, the centrepieces of ceilings, the strings and hand-rails of stairs. Panelling, which had been getting less common before the Revolution, soondisappeared entirely in favor of plain surfaces of plaster. In a few houses strippanels were applied to the plastered walls in the Adam manner. Mclntire sketched 239 AMERICAN DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE such a treatment in the Barrell house and employed it in the oval room of theDerby mansion. The profiles of the mouldings he derived from Pains PracticalHouse Carpenter, recently issued. The pedestal-like dado, generally plain, of lateColonial times, persisted very generally down to 1820. Often, however, the plas-ter was carried down to the baseboard, leaving the dado cap or surbase as anisolated band, decorated in many cases with reedings, dentils, interlaces, floral or. Figure 200. Ballroom, Lyman house, Waltham wave motives. No one of these has any general priority in time, and many ofthem appear simultaneously in a single building, as in the Morton house, the surbase was omitted with increasing frequency as the Greek influencegathered strength. Wall-paper continued much in use and silk was occasionallyemployed; but, as on the eve of the Revolution, the most advanced practiceeschewed them. Among houses building in 1800, Monticello, the Octagon, Home-wood, and others have none. In the elegant interior of about 1830—as we see itin a water-color by Alexander Jackson Davis for the Stevens house at CollegePlace and Murray Street, New York (figure 198),1 perfectly plain wall surfaces 1 In the gallery of the New York Historical Society, and reproduced by kind permission of the Society. 24O HOUSES OF THE EARLY REPUBLIC provide a foil for the stately architectural members
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectarchite, bookyear1922
