DOI Heft:
No. 190 (December, 1912)
DOI Artikel:Book Reviews
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43451#0415
Book Reviews
From "Colonial Homes of Philadelphia and Its Neighborhood," J. B. Lippincott & Co»
AN INTERIOR HALLWAY, “HOPE LODGE”
and interesting incidents which are a part of
national history.
Biographically and genealogically there is a
fund of interest in the careful text, which reflects
not only the authors’ knowledge of their field,
but their love of it as well.
Architecturally it is by way of being a revela-
tion to realize what a factor in the evolution of
current architecture in Pennsylvania are the old
pre-Revolutionary manors and family seats in
and around Philadelphia. In “Wynnestay,” in
‘1 Graeme Park, ’ ’ in “ Waynesborough, ’ ’ and in many
others of these old houses there is to be seen the
direct prototype of the present logical develop-
ment of the country house architecture of the
locality today. Houses of the Southern Type,
or even of the strictly Georgian Type are rare,
and the Classic Revival played a still smaller part.
For the most part the older of the houses are of
local fieldstone, with solid wooden shutters and
small-paned windows, and the interiors are of the
purest “colonial” type.
There is a dignity which is inseparable from
these early examples of American architecture,
and a sincerity which seems reflected today only
in the immediate sphere of their influence on
modern architects, and when there is added to
these qualities the rich historical interest which
surrounds them, some measure of this “ Colonial
Homes” book may be had. Its pages take one
directly back to the days when Boston, Newport,
New York and Philadelphia were our four leading
seaport towns—to times of a less complex yet
more rigid social system than obtains today—
and certainly to a day when plain living, high
thinking and large deeds were national charac-
teristics.
And it comes as quite a pleasant surprise to
find that Philadelphia and its neighborhood have
had more veneration for historic and family
landmarks than has shown itself in most parts
of this country. Possibly no other locality of
such historic importance has retained so much of
its oldtime flavor—that quaint and thoroughly
charming sort of conservatism which is so
pleasantly and entertainingly chronicled in “Colo-
nial Homes of Philadelphia and its Neighbor-
hood.”
LI
From "Colonial Homes of Philadelphia and Its Neighborhood," J. B. Lippincott & Co»
AN INTERIOR HALLWAY, “HOPE LODGE”
and interesting incidents which are a part of
national history.
Biographically and genealogically there is a
fund of interest in the careful text, which reflects
not only the authors’ knowledge of their field,
but their love of it as well.
Architecturally it is by way of being a revela-
tion to realize what a factor in the evolution of
current architecture in Pennsylvania are the old
pre-Revolutionary manors and family seats in
and around Philadelphia. In “Wynnestay,” in
‘1 Graeme Park, ’ ’ in “ Waynesborough, ’ ’ and in many
others of these old houses there is to be seen the
direct prototype of the present logical develop-
ment of the country house architecture of the
locality today. Houses of the Southern Type,
or even of the strictly Georgian Type are rare,
and the Classic Revival played a still smaller part.
For the most part the older of the houses are of
local fieldstone, with solid wooden shutters and
small-paned windows, and the interiors are of the
purest “colonial” type.
There is a dignity which is inseparable from
these early examples of American architecture,
and a sincerity which seems reflected today only
in the immediate sphere of their influence on
modern architects, and when there is added to
these qualities the rich historical interest which
surrounds them, some measure of this “ Colonial
Homes” book may be had. Its pages take one
directly back to the days when Boston, Newport,
New York and Philadelphia were our four leading
seaport towns—to times of a less complex yet
more rigid social system than obtains today—
and certainly to a day when plain living, high
thinking and large deeds were national charac-
teristics.
And it comes as quite a pleasant surprise to
find that Philadelphia and its neighborhood have
had more veneration for historic and family
landmarks than has shown itself in most parts
of this country. Possibly no other locality of
such historic importance has retained so much of
its oldtime flavor—that quaint and thoroughly
charming sort of conservatism which is so
pleasantly and entertainingly chronicled in “Colo-
nial Homes of Philadelphia and its Neighbor-
hood.”
LI