The Architecture of Colonial AmericaEberlein, Harold Donaldson
History
The Architecture of Colonial America
Eberlein, Harold Donaldson
Architecture -- United States; Architecture, Colonial
of the 1754 addition were fetched from England in Colonel Coultas’s
ships. The pilasters and cornices in the hall are exceptionally fine.
Rosettes are carved in the dog ears of the door trims and the cheeks and
soffits of the jambs are set with bevel-flush panels. In the parlour the
carving of the overmantel and the panelling are unsurpassed for either
execution or design. The central panel above the fireplace is three feet
high and nearly six feet wide, and not a joint can be discovered in it.
Below it is a band of exquisitely wrought floriated carving in high
relief. Although it is possible to find more elaborate woodwork, it is
rarely that one meets with a degree of elaboration tempered with such
dignified restraint and consummate good taste.”
Another house of the second Georgian type is Mount Pleasant, or Clunie,
as it was at first called, in Fairmount Park, built in 1761 by Captain
John Macpherson, and in later years the home of Benedict Arnold. Mount
Pleasant is a structure of almost baronial aspect, with east and west
fronts alike of imposing mien. An high foundation of carefully squared
stones is pierced by iron barred basement windows set in stone frames.
Above this massive, grisly base, the thick stone walls are coated with
yellow-grey roughcast. Heavy quoins of brick at the corners and, at the
north and south ends of the building, great quadruple chimneys joined
into one at the top by arches, create an air of more than usual
solidity. A broad flight of stone steps, their iron balustrades
overgrown with a bushy mass of honeysuckle, leads up to a doorway of
generous breadth. The pillars at each side of the door and the
superimposed pediment, the ornate Palladian window immediately above on
the second floor and, above that again, the cornice pediment springing
from the eaves, all contribute to set a stamp of courtly distinction
upon the pile.
Above the second floor the hipped roof springs, pierced east and west by
two graceful dormers and crowned by a well turned balustrade that
traverses nearly the whole distance between the chimneys. The fan light
over the door has remarkably heavy, fluted mullions and much of the
detail throughout the house, though highly wrought, is heavy. The two
flanking outbuildings, set 30 or 40 feet distant from the northeast and
southeast corners of the house, designed for servants’ quarters and
domestic offices, give Mount Pleasant a peculiarly striking appearance.
Without them it would be only an unusually handsome Georgian country
house, with them it at once takes on the manorial port of one of the old
Virginia mansions. The interior woodwork, both upstairs and down, is
rich in elaboration of detail, and the door frames, with their heavily
moulded pediments, are exceptionally fine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account