Carolyn's Blog

HISTORIC HOME STYLES  CHAPTER 1-GEORGIAN

 Although there are earlier styles in the United States, they are more of the vernacular or local folk styles such as Spanish Colonial, English Medieval, Swedish log cabins, and Prairie lean-to huts. 

It's not until we get to the Georgian style (1700-1780) that a more formalized aesthetic begins to take place.

Brought to this country by architectural building or pattern books, these manuals ranged from the sophisticated styles of Inigo Jones (1573-1652) and Christopher Wren (1632-1723) to inexpensive carpenters' handbooks showing in simple terms and drawings how to construct fashionable doors, windows, cornices, and mantels. Below is Tomahawk Manor, late 1700's, in Central Delaware, exhibiting the popular Georgian style of the time in a rural location. Note the Georgian configuration and the sophisticated raised paneling on the fireplace wall.

As  I have traveled the East Coast of the U.S., I have seen versions of these sophisticated styles, but with local variations. Even the most modest farmhouses usually managed columns or pilasters on either side of a fireplace mantel.  Indeed, we can still see this being replicated in modern construction (although it may be made of a plastic or composition material, since millwork craftsmen of high caliber are in short supply.)

 Two examples of mantels show, first, the less sophisticated (but knowlegeable) country style at the Corbit House, c. 1770 outside Odessa, Delaware, followed by the highly sophisticated carved stone mantel in the Physick House, c. 1786, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Both have reeded pilasters on either side, but there is a great deal more skill involved in the latter, since it is more elaborate, and of stone.

 Of course, even the sophisticated designers in London copied--but from the Greeks, who were the true originals!