Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1909 edition. Excerpt: ... SOUTHERN COLONIAL f I DEGREESHE earliest buildings of architectural importance in -*- the colonies were the old manor-houses in Virginia and Maryland, and up to twenty years before the Civil War the South continued to lead in architecture, as in the fame of their hospitality, among the country houses of the land. The earliest were of brick, imported because -- as their builders thought -- there was no suitable clay in this country, for brickmaking, and in design they followed very closely the English houses of the same period. Piazzas were at first little used, since the English, with all their love of outdoor life have never and do not to-day build porches. The famous old mansion "Westover" on the James River is the best-known example of the period, and is exceedingly close in its resemblance to the work of the English architects who succeeded Sir Christopher Wren. The climate, however, soon convinced the colonists of the necessity of outdoor sitting-rooms, and it was in the South that verandas attained their greatest dignity and importance. Sometimes they were one story in height as at "Homewood," sometimes they extended the full height of the house as at "Mount Vernon," and sometimes they were two-storied, the upper part called, as it is to-day, a "gallery." This two-story porch was probably an importation from the West Indian colonies, where it was a reminiscence of the Spanish "patio" with its two or more stories of galleries surrounding the courtyard. With the growth of plantation life came a corresponding increase in the plan of the house. Elsewhere, the service portion was contained in the main body of the house; and business was rarely transacted at home. Here the heat of the summer made it desirable to remove all fires from the...
