An Architectural Monograph On Providence Its Colonial Houses

Author : Frank Edwin Wallis
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781330156179
Total Pages : 23 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (561 download)

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Download or read book An Architectural Monograph on Houses of the Southern Colonies written by Frank Edwin Wallis and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2015-06-25 with total page 23 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from An Architectural Monograph on Houses of the Southern Colonies "Pop" Chandler, in whose office we installed the stolen trophy, had numerous fits when we informed him that "a kind lady had given the thing to us." The draughtsmen of the office of that time have since become fat and portly architects, such men as Longfellow and Austin, Ion Lewis and dear old Billy Barry, who in himself was a most delightful Colonial expression. His sketches of ships and of old compositions of eighteenth-century buildings were masterpieces; he knew the intimate detail of a dentilled turn in the cornice, the habits of clapboards and rake-moldings, and the customs and manners of gables and dormers as few other men knew them. In order to gather sufficient funds for a European trip, it occurred to me that possibly I might acquire such with a few carefully measured drawings of good examples of the Colonial. The plan seemed good and the layouts were not difficult; but I smile to-day when I remember the rocky path ahead of that unsophisticated youngster who expected to achieve Spain and Italy through the easy bypaths of Colonial drawings. Ware of the American Architect would not even look at the proffered sheets; Col. Meyer of the Engineering Record wanted to cut them up, though this big-hearted man tried to sell them for me and offered them to Comstock in New York. This effort was more hopeless than the other with Ware in Boston. Then there comes on the screen that fine old soul whose memory many architects still adore - "Pop" Ware, then in Columbia. These drawings suggested something to him, and his students were permitted to look them over as inspirations for their own summer work. After Prof. Ware had put his seal of approval on these sheets, they were demanded by and sold to the American Architect. To-day they form a part of the Georgian Period. I have wondered in my later days at the difficulties which I had encountered in disposing of these drawings, realizing, of course, that the profession at that time had little, if any, appreciation of the charm and fitness of that phase which has since come to be known as Old Colonial. I have never been able to comprehend the "Old," though I have been told by one of the grandfathers of the profession that I, myself, was responsible for this false appellation. I wish here to disclaim the credit for the misnomer, and will hereafter, being relieved of this anachronism in phraseology, insist that Colonial is the only correct and proper label for those beauties of the eighteenth century which we to-day know with such intimacy. On my return from the European trip I was amazed and delighted to find a representative of Col. Meyer on the dock, a contract in his hand, and with a demand from the virile West that Wallis be looked up and sent South. With this commission and sufficiently financed, I began my journey south, much as Sir Galahad did in his search for the Holy Grail. I had been face to face with the great expressions of Europe, and had talked with Vedder, with Abbey, and with others in the ateliers of the E. D. B. A. I knew the museums of Madrid, of Florence, of Paris, and of London; the streets and alleys of all of those Spanish, Italian, and French cities where architecture is at home, and where the street gamins and the proletariat are in complete accord with the architectural expressions of their fathers. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com