The Architecture of Colonial AmericaEberlein, Harold Donaldson
History
The Architecture of Colonial America
Eberlein, Harold Donaldson
Architecture -- United States; Architecture, Colonial
So many people have expressed surprise when told of the unbroken
persistence of the half-timber tradition that it will be in order to
mention specific instances which, however, may be regarded as typical of
many other buildings of contemporary date. For much painstaking and
scholarly investigation in this field, and for much accurate
restoration, the public is indebted to Joseph Everett Chandler, of
Boston, whose restorations of numerous historic buildings have won him
well deserved esteem and confidence.[A]
[Illustration: DOTEN HOUSE, PLYMOUTH, MASS. BUILT 1640.
Very early type with low eaves and central chimney.]
[Illustration: NARBONNE HOUSE, SALEM, MASS.
The long slope of roof on one side shows persistence of old English
tradition.]
[Illustration:
Copyright, J. B. Lippincott Co.
WYNNESTAY, PHILADELPHIA. 1689.
An intact example of Pennsylvania Colonial, of Welsh workmanship.]
[Illustration:
Copyright, J. B. Lippincott Co.
SOUTH FRONT OF WYCK, GERMANTOWN, PHILADELPHIA. 1690.
Pennsylvania Colonial type with German influence apparent.]
It was the writer’s privilege to see the old Bake House in Salem just
after it had been rescued by private generosity from impending
demolition and moved to its present site hard by the House of the Seven
Gables. In the course of making necessary repairs and restorations, the
clapboard casing had been entirely removed and it was possible to see
fully the whole structural scheme. The timbers and pugging were as just
noted. Although the windows were, at that time, of the sash type, with
small panes, the traces were clearly visible of alterations that had
been made at an earlier date, probably somewhere about 1720, when the
sash window rose into high favour and was generally substituted for the
leaded casement with small diamond-shaped panes. The timbers gave
unmistakable evidence that the window apertures in the sides of the
house had originally been wide enough to accommodate a range of
casements and that they had been neither so high nor so low as the sash
or double hung windows that took their places. In other words, the
timbers showed that the apertures had been narrowed to a considerable
extent and, at the same time, extended both upwards and downwards.
Inside the house, the heavy oak studs, when the laths and plaster were
torn off, showed chamfered corners, usually stopped at the ends with a
stop that was thoroughly mediæval in character and might be found
duplicated in the beams of trussed roofs in any old building in England
dating from the sixteenth century or earlier. The tops of the studs, in
some cases, showed a peculiar splay outward at the sides and rough
notching by way of ornament. Surely here were touches of mediæval
English workmanship that had been perpetuated in the new land by a
workman who had served his apprenticeship in an English village where
all the old joinery traditions were preserved intact.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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