Preface

In response to requests for a book on American buildings on the plan of my Turrets, Towers, and Temples, Romantic Castles and Palaces, Historic Buildings, etc., I have endeavoured to gather here a number of houses, churches, forts and civic buildings that are doubly famous for their architectural interest and their association with historical events and distinguished personages. I have also included two monuments,—the Washington and the Statue of Liberty.

Of houses associated with Washington, I have selected Mount Vernon, Fraunces Tavern, the Hasbrook House at Newburg and the Morris-Jumel house, and to these the White House might be added, since he interested himself in the plans for it and even made a personal visit of inspection in 1792.

I have included a few simple houses that are types of the homes of the past and have become pilgrimage places to those who delight in reconstructing the social life of other days. Among these, the Whipple House is one of the best specimens of New England domestic architecture of the Seventeenth Century extant, and, having been judiciously restored, is now a museum of antiquities. Other New England types are represented by the Old Manse at Concord and the Clarke-Hancock house at Lexington.

The ruins of the Jamestown Tower carry us back to the first English settlement of the country, and the Cradock House in Medford, built in 1634 (the oldest house in New England), shows us what a house had to be in the early days of the colonists,—a fort as well as a dwelling, and a place of refuge in times of Indian attack. Another house that was also protected against Indian raids is the less-known Carlyle House in Alexandria, which was built about the middle of the Eighteenth Century.

Other forts are shown in St. Augustine, Sumter and Castle Garden. The latter also furnishes memories of musical and theatrical celebrities, gala performances, brilliant entertainments to distinguished guests, great mass meetings, and shows of the Crystal Palace order.

The Churches of Guadalupe in Mexico and St. Anne de Beaupré in Canada are shrines that attract thousands of devout visitors and rival in picturesqueness some of the pilgrimage-places in the Old World.

Two peculiarly individual buildings are also included: the curious beehive Tabernacle of Salt Lake City and the Palace of Chapultepec, built in 1785. As this was originally Montezuma’s country-seat, it carries us back as far as any other scene in the book. The Cathedral of Mexico is also built on Aztec ruins. It is interesting to compare this edifice with the Cathedral of Havana, in both of which the Spanish influence is easily appreciated.

Two of the most admired productions of American architecture will be recognized in the City Hall of New York and St. Michael’s, Charleston, which would almost pass for a Wren church were it transplanted to the Strand. Fortunately it survived the Charleston earthquake. The Mission Dolores has been damaged by the San Francisco earthquake as this book goes to press.

To our list of fine architecture should be added Christ Church in Alexandria, Independence Hall, and the old Boston State House.

It is sometimes said there are no prevailing styles of American architecture; but even with the few examples gathered here, we are able to note a general taste. The style favoured by the Dutch William and Mary of England (who shared her husband’s tastes), is revealed in many buildings from Boston to Charleston; and the Classic style of the Eighteenth Century, with its colonnades, porticos, domes and cupolas, is found everywhere and is constantly imitated, to-day.

E. S.

New York, April 23, 1906.