Virginia Architecture in the Seventeenth Century — John Shaqi
Virginia Architecture in the Seventeenth CenturyForman, Henry Chandlee
History
Virginia Architecture in the Seventeenth Century
Forman, Henry Chandlee
Architecture -- Virginia -- History -- 17th century; Architecture, Colonial -- Virginia
Many of the dwellings of this Style were "cell" houses. That is, there
was a "cell" or "aisle" at the rear of the narrow Tudor cottage, one
room deep. In the same way, the English parish church of single nave
sometimes sprouted a side aisle in order to make more space for
parishioners. In the Old Dominion such elongated warts or "outshuts" at
the rear of the homestead afforded additional bedroom space over and
beyond the cramped garret, but at the same time unfortunately threw
off-center the steep medieval gable, thereby causing what the English
have called a "catslide." A catslide roof is one in which the slope at
the rear extends nearly the whole way to the ground. In New England the
"cell" addition became the "lean-to." For such fabrics in Virginia we
have coined the term, the _Early Cell_ type, one which was well
represented by the destroyed "Towles Point," in Lancaster County.
Even so, the Virginian did not long relish an "ugly," though perhaps
picturesque, catslide gable; therefore, he once more began to build
symmetrically, at the same time keeping his little back "cells." When
such gables became symmetrical, we may assign the examples to the _Late
Cell_ type.
[Illustration: A "Late Cell" Transitional House
Richardson House Jas. Cy. Co. Va.]
We find, moreover, that not all Transitional structures had "cells."
Sometimes the mark of experimentation is shown by other building forms,
such as the one-room deep cottage mushrooming upward into a full second
storey and garret; at other times the settler, dissatisfied with his
"knock-head" bed chambers, experimented with the gambrel roof,
frequently but mistakenly called the "Dutch roof." The gambrel, to the
best of our knowledge, was introduced from England into the American
Colonies in the 1680s; but it did not become widespread for almost half
a century. Likewise Transitional are certain early Virginia homes with
hip roofs, perhaps the best example being the brick "Abingdon Glebe" (c.
1700) in Gloucester County, where the one-and-a-half-storey main block
of the house is exactly balanced by low end pavilions--each surmounted
by a hipped roof.
There were other Virginia building experiments in the period covered by
the Transition, but the foregoing is sufficient to summarize the Style,
which paved the way for the Georgian in the eighteenth century.
IV
THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE IN VIRGINIA.
i. THE COTTAGE PERIOD
The thirteen years between the founding of James Fort in 1607 and the
landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth Rock on Christmas Day, 1620,
have been designated by this writer, for the sake of convenience, as the
"Cottage" Period of Virginia architecture. It was in the "Cradle of the
Republic," on James River, that we find the English styles taking root
and flourishing mightily. As a result, the United States of America
became characterized more by these same English styles than by any other
foreign style, such as French or Spanish.
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