The Architecture of Colonial AmericaEberlein, Harold Donaldson
History
The Architecture of Colonial America
Eberlein, Harold Donaldson
Architecture -- United States; Architecture, Colonial
Another important reason for the paucity of Georgian domestic structures
within the territory of New York is that, in the Hudson region and in
the valleys abutting upon it, the majority of houses built during the
eighteenth century, houses belonging to those in moderate and
comfortable circumstances and also some belonging to people of great
wealth and social prominence, remained Dutch in type and in their later
architecture borrowed freely from Georgian and Classic Revival sources
and adapted such details as they saw fit to new uses with a considerable
degree of success. The Dutch colonial tradition was exceptionally
strong, virile and intensely characteristic and persisted in spite of
the introduction of the Georgian mode. Curiously enough, notwithstanding
the potent individuality of the Dutch style, none of its significant
peculiarities seems to have been grafted upon the Georgian stock in like
manner with the blending processes and modifications that took place in
New England or in the South.
Finally, a great many houses built about the beginning of the nineteenth
century or at the very end of the eighteenth in the western part of New
York showed a strong Classic Revival influence rather than any
essentially Georgian affinities.
Several of the finest examples of eighteenth century work, which for
lack of further special subdivision of our subject must be included in
the Georgian period, belong to the Queen Anne category under the
strictest classification. These are Fraunce’s Tavern and the Philipse
House in Yonkers. The former was erected during the reign of Queen Anne
and was originally the home of the Van Cortlandts and DeLanceys. It was
not until the middle part of the eighteenth century that it became a
hostelry. So many important events have been closely associated with the
venerable building, among them Washington’s affecting leave-taking of
his officers and troops, that it was both the privilege and duty of
patriotism and a proper national pride to rescue the fabric from neglect
and the
[Illustration: PHILIPSE MANOR HOUSE, YONKERS, N. Y. 1683.]
[Illustration:
Copyright, by International News Service.
FRAUNCE’S TAVERN, BROAD STREET, NEW YORK CITY.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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