The Architecture of Colonial AmericaEberlein, Harold Donaldson
History
The Architecture of Colonial America
Eberlein, Harold Donaldson
Architecture -- United States; Architecture, Colonial
At the Highlands, in the Whitemarsh Valley, we see the front of the
house adorned with tall Ionic pilasters rising from base course to
cornice, which is itself elaborately wrought. The woodwork inside is
excellent, but unfortunately the Adam mantels with their compo
decoration have been removed and now grace another house some miles
distant. At Upsala, in Germantown, however, we are in better luck, for
there the Adam mantels have remained untouched. The illustrations show
the rest of the house and make further specific comment unnecessary,
save to remark, regarding the windows, that here, as in other houses of
this latest type, larger panes of glass than in the two earlier types
are met with in not a few instances.
Before proceeding further in the course of comparison, a word ought to
be said about the colour of the paint used for interior woodwork of the
Georgian houses of all three types. For some reason there seems to be an
impression abroad that white was employed to the exclusion of everything
else. There was, it is true, a preponderance of white but its use was by
no means universal. A close examination of successive layers of paint on
some old woodwork reveals various shades of greys, blues, drabs,
brownish yellows and other hues beneath one or more coats of white. Grey
seems to have been one of the earliest variants from white and, in some
places, nothing else was ever used. At Graeme Park, for instance, the
first coat of paint was grey, and no other colour ever adorned its
panelling and door and window trims. At Stenton, on the other hand, the
taste of the occupants dictated a change of colour from time to time and
we find a good deal of variety in the successive coats. During the
prevalence of the second Georgian type white seems to have found more
general favour. With our last type, delicate colours again began to be
used.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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