Architecture in Colonial and Post-

Colonial America
Clint Jun A. Maturan
Influences
The study of the progress of architecture in new country, untrammeled with
precedent and lacking the conditions obtaining in Europe, is interesting; but
room is not available for more than cursory glance.

During the eighteenth century (1725-1775) buildings were erected which have
been termed “colonial” in style, corresponding to what is understood in
England as “Queen Anne” or “Georgian”.

In the “New England” States wood was the material principally employed, and
largely affected the detail. Craigie House, Cambridge (1757), is typical of the
symmetrical buildings. It has elongated Ionic half-columns to its façade,
shuttered sash windows the hipped roof and the dentil cornice of the “Queen
Anne” period; the internal fittings resembling those of Adam and Sheraton.

Economically and Socially the most advanced nation of the continent was the
U.S.A., where a sense of national identity had been reinforced by the war with
Britain of 1812-14. By 1840 the country’s trade was worth 250 million dollars
per year, almost half being earned by New York. Cotton of Louisana and
extensive coal and iron resources of Pennsylvania.
Influences

The presidency of Andre Jackson

gave impetus to wider democratic
ideals and greatly encouraged
individual enterprise. The westward
movement being dramatically
accelerated by the discovery of
gold in California in 1848.

Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United

States.
Influences
The coming to power in 1861 of an anti-slavery government under Abraham
Lincoln (1809-65) brought to a head the rivalry between the more dynamic
Northern States and cotton producing Southern States, with their long-
established plantation system based on slavery, and kindled the tragic civil war
(1861-65), during the course of which, in 1863, slavery was abolished. The
victory of the Northern States, and of the union, was decisive for the future of
the country and encourage industrial development, which in turn greatly
increased the rate of immigration generally, the period following the civil war
was one of continuing commercial expansion, an age offering great
opportunities and high material rewards to individual industrialist, bankers,
farmers, and railway owners. This situation, clearly reflected in the architecture
of the time, continued until the financial crash of 1929 and ensuing
depression. The opening up of the country by railways was essential to
development, and the continent was finally transverse by rail from coast to
coast in 1869. Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone in 1876
further facilitated communications across the vast country which, in 1865, had
been linked to Europe by trans-Atlantic cable. Finally the mass production of
the motor car between the two world wars further extended communications
and movement.
Influences

As far as industry is concerned, Canada’s development was much less

rapid, her economy being based almost entirely on the export of lumber
and wheat.

Like Canada, the countries of South America relied on the export of natural
products rather than on manufacturing, and opening of the Panama Canal
in 1914 was great significance in the development of the countries of the
Pacific Coast.
Character
European influence in both North and South America remained strong
throughout the period, although materials, local skills, social customs and
especially climatic conditions played their part, and buildings continued to
posses strong regional characteristics.

In the U.S.A. itself, a conscious striving for a truly ‘national’ architecture

became evident soon after the war of independence, and architecture in
that country can be considered as passing through three broad and
loosely phases:

a.) Post-Colonial
b.) First Eclectic Phase
c.) Second Eclectic Phase
Character
a.)Post-Colonial (1790-1820)
Architecture of this period moved away from the English Georgian idiom which
had become established along the eastern seaboard of the country Neo-classic
elements were introduced.

b.) First Eclectic Phase (1820-1869)

During this period the revived Greek style was predominant receiving a more
whole-hearted acceptance that it did in England and developing specifically
American characteristics. The Gothic and Egyptian styles found some popularity
but compared with the Greek revival, these were minor streams.

The type of timber – framing known as the ‘baloon – frame’ came into use
during this period and revolutionized timber construction. As its name suggest,
rather than relying on an essentially post-and-lintel construction, the ‘baloon-
frame owes its strength to the walls, roofs, etc., acting as diaphragms.
Comparatively light timber sections are employed which are nailed together,
floor, and ceiling joist, forming ties, the whole stiffened by the external timber
sheathing.
Character

This period saw considerable developments in the use of cast-iron

as a building material.
Character
c. ) Second Eclectic Phase (1860-1930)
American architecture achieved international significance
during this period and followed two main streams. The first
related to the Gothic revival and initiated as a Romanesque
revival with H.H. Richardson as its first important exponent,
gained considerable momentum and reached great vigor
and vitality in the work of Louis Sullivan. In some respects
the movement in its later stages can be equated with that
of the arts and crafts in Britain and it culminated in the
work of Frank Lloyd Wright.

The second stream was more academic in character.

Influence by the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris its
architecture inspired by the great periods of the past, the
Italian and French Renaissance, ancient Greek and Roman
and late Gothic.
Character

Two important and influential exhibitions belongs to this period; the

centennial expositions 1876, Philadelphia and the world’s
Columbian exposition (Chicago 1893).

The period is noteworthy for structural experiment and

achievement. The Skyscraper, often regarded as America’s
greatest single contribution to architectural development, was a
product of this phase and was closely related to metal frame
construction the non-load-bearing ‘curtain wall’ and the lift or
elevator. The period saw also the establishment of many schools of
architecture in the U.S.A., the first at Massachusetts Institutes of
Technology in 1868, under W.R. Ware.
 Examples (Domestic Buildings)
James Hoban (c. 1758 –
December 8, 1831) was an Irish
architect, best known for
designing the White House in
Washington, D.C.
The WHITE HOUSE, Washington D.C. (1792-1829)
the official residence of the
president of the U.S.A. was
designed by James Hoban, an Irish
architect, in the English Palladian
Style. After damage sustain in the
war of 1812, it was restored and
considerable restoration has been
carried out in the present century.
The porticoes were designed by
B.H. Latrobe.
 Examples (Domestic Buildings)
Frank Lloyd Wright (born Frank
Lincoln Wright, June 8, 1867 – April 9,
1959) was an American architect,
interior designer, writer and educator,
who designed more than 1000
structures and completed 532 works.
Robie House, Chicago (1908)
by Frank Lloyd Wright, is dominated
externally by its strong horizontal
lines which seem to make it almost
one with the land on which it is
built. Constructed of fine, small
brick with low-pitched hipped
roofs, the house is planned in an
open and informal manner,
interesting use being made of
changes of level internally, the
flowing internal spaces being
generated by a central core
containing staircase and fireplaces.
 Examples (Domestic Buildings)

Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia (1793)

Was designed by Thomas Jefferson

third person of the U.S.A. For his
own use. The first house, and
elegant example of colonial
Georgian, was completely
remodeled in a free and imaginative
Thomas Jefferson (April 13
[O.S. April 2] 1743 – July 4, Palladian manner.
1826) was an American
Founding Father, the
principal author of the
Declaration of Independence
(1776) and the third
President of the United
States (1801–1809).
 Examples (Domestic Buildings)

BILTMORE, Ashville, North Carolina (1890-5)

by R.M. Hunt, the first American

architect to be trained at the Ecole
des Beaux-Arts in Paris, in style of
Richard Morris Hunt (October an early French Renaissance
31, 1827 – July 31, 1895)
was an American architect of chateau.
the nineteenth century and a
preeminent figure in the
history of American
architecture. Hunt was,
according to design critic Paul
Goldberger writing in The
New York Times, "American
architecture's first, and in
many ways its greatest,
statesman.
Examples (Domestic Buildings)

STOUGHTON HOUSE, Cambridge, Mass (1882-3)

by Mckim, Mead and White, is a

timber-framed house, its walls
clad externally with wood
shingles providing an important
example of the so-called
‘Shingle style’.
 Charles Follen Mckim Stanford White
(August 24, 1847 – (November 9, 1853 –
September 14, 1909)[1] June 25, 1906) was an
was an American American architect and
Beaux-Arts architect of partner in the
the late 19th century. architectural firm of
Along with Stanford McKim, Mead & White,
White, he provided the the frontrunner among
architectural expertise Beaux-Arts firms.
as a member of the
partnership McKim,
Mead & White.

William Rutherford Mead

(August 20, 1846 – June
19, 1928) was an
American architect, and
was the "Center of the
Office" of McKim, Mead,
and White, a noted
Gilded Age architectural
firm.
Examples (Domestic Buildings)
STOUGHTON HOUSE, Cambridge, Mass (1882-3)
An external cladding of wood Shingles over a timber frame became popular in domestic building
during the second half on the 19th century. Internally, the plan arrangement shows a loosening and
foreshadows the ‘Free Plan’, to be developed later by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Examples (Domestic Buildings)

WINSLOW HOUSE, RIVER FOREST , Illinois (1893)

The first important work of Frank Lloyd

Wright, is a simple structure, basically
symmetrical, but its hipped roof, wide
projecting eaves and emphatic
horizontal lines foreshadow the
architect’s later work and what was to
become known as the ‘Praire House’.
Examples (Domestic Buildings)

TALIESIN EAST, Spring Green,

Winscosin (1911)

by Frank Lloyd Wright

 Examples (Religious Buildings)

The First CHURCH of CHRIST

SCIENTIST, BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA
(1910-12)
By Bernard Maybeck, provided an
article to the antidote to the epidemic
of old-Spanish-Mission revivalism,
which was threatening to engulf
architecture in California. It uses
natural materials, and owes something
to the vernacular tradition of the west
coast of America.
Bernard Ralph Maybeck (February 7,
1862 – October 3, 1957) was
an American architect in the Arts and
Crafts Movement of the early 20th
century. He was a professor
at University of California, Berkeley.
 Examples (Religious Buildings)
Henry Hobson Richardson
(September 29, 1838 – April 27, 1886)
was a prominent American architect who
designed buildings in Albany, Boston,
Buffalo, Chicago, Pittsburg, and other
cities
TRINITY CHURCH BOSTON,
Massachusets
(1872-7)
By H.H. Richardson, is one of the key
monuments of American architecture.
The design, chosen competition,
although basically Romanesque in
character, is handled in a master full
and imaginative way. A Greek cross
plan, the building is dominated by a
square central tower with round corner
turrets, and is constructed mainly of
red granite, the rock-faced texture of
which is exploited. Internal decoration
in encaustic colour was carried out by
J.F. Lafange, while the west porch
was added in 1897 to the designs of
Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge.
Examples (Religious Buildings)
UNITY TEMPLE, OAK PARK, ILLINOIS
(1905-7)

by Frank Lloyd Wright, is characterized

by the sturdy simplicity of its external
massing, on which the design relies
rather than eclectic detail. In the
building, the architect displayed a
knowledge of and sympathy with the
natural qualities of materials, which
are here exploited both externally ( in
the pebble-faced concrete of the
walls) and internally (in the sand-lime
plaster work and natural details)
Examples (Educational, Civic and Public Buildings)
The STATE CAPITOL, Richmond, Virginia
(1789-98)
by Thomas Jefferson, was based on a
Roman temple prototype, the Maisan
Carree, Nimes. An ionic order was
used by Jefferson, while for the
Fenestration of the “cella” he had
recourse to Palladian formulae. The
building is regarded as the first truly
Neo-classic monument in the U.S.
and had much influence on later
American buildings, Classical temple
forms, were adapted for banks,
schools and other buildings,
accommodation being sometimes
ruthlessly crammed into the cella in
order to retain, at all costs, the
external lines of the antique form
Examples (Educational, Civic and Public Buildings)
Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe (May 1,
1764 – September 3, 1820) was a
British neoclassical architect who
immigrated to the United States and is best
known for his design of the United States
Capitol, along with his work on the Old
Baltimore Cathedral or The Baltimore
Basilica, the first Roman Catholic Cathedral
constructed in the United States
Thomas Ustick Walter, born
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was
an American architect, the dean of
American architecture between
the 1820 death of Benjamin
Latrobe and the emergence of
H.H. Richardson in the 1870s.
The UNITED STATES Capitol, Washington
D.C.
seat of the United States government, has
become, with its crowning dome, one of
the world’s best known planned on
Palladian lines with a central rotunda; this
has survived in essentials, despite
numerous modifications and additions.
After the war, B.H. Latrobe was responsible
for rebuilding the structure. Between 1851
and 1867 additions were made by Thomas
Ustick Walter who designed the flanking
wings and great dome over the central
rotunda, and was constructed largely of
cast iron, with an internal diameter of 30 m
and a total height of 68 m.
Examples (Educational, Civic and Public Buildings)

The NATIONAL ACADEMY of DESIGN, NEW YORK

(1862-5)
by P.B. Wight , Venetian (Gothic in style
and making full use of polychrome
masonry patterning, shows the indfluence
of the writings of John Ruskin.

Peter B. Wight (1838–1925) was a 19th-

century architect from New York City who
worked there and in Chicago.
Examples (Educational, Civic and Public Buildings)

The PUBLIC LIBRARY, BOSTON, Massachusetts

(1887-93)
by Mckim, Mead and White is beautifully
detailed buildings, representative of the
best in the academic stream of late 19th
and 20th century architecture in America.
 Examples (Educational, Civic and Public Buildings)

The LINCOLN MEMORIAL WASHINGTON, D.C.

(1911-22)
By Henry Bacon, is in the form of an
unpedimented Greek Doric peripteral temple, set
on a high podium and surmounted by a simple
attic. Executed in white marble, its detail is
superlatively refined and in its scholarship and
execution marks a peak in academic architecture.

Henry Bacon was an American Beaux-

Arts architect who is best remembered
for the Lincoln Memorial in
Washington, D.C., which was his final
project
Examples (Educational, Civic and Public Buildings)

The CHAPEL and Post Headquarters, U.S. Military

Academy, West Point, N.Y.
romantically sited on a steep encarpment over
looking the Hudson River, are the work of Cram,
Goodhue and Ferguson, and provide examples of
academic architecture in Gothic style.

Ralph Adams Cram (December Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue was an

16, 1863 – September 22, 1942)
was a prolific and
influential American architect of
collegiate and
ecclesiastical buildings, often in
the Gothic Revival style.
American architect celebrated for his work
in neo-gothic design. He also designed
notable typefaces, including Cheltenham
and Merrymount for the Merrymount Press
Examples (Educational, Civic and Public Buildings)

The Temple of Scottish Rite, Washington D.C.

(1916)
A masonic temple design by John Russel Pope,
is in the same tradition as the Lincoln memorial.
Externally, it takes the form of a reconstruction of
the Mausoleum Halicarnassos, but is somewhat
ponderously handled.

John Russell Pope was an American architect whose firm is

widely known for designing of the National Archives and Records
Administration building, the Jefferson Memorial and the West
Building of the National Gallery of Art, all in Washington, DC.