Mayhurst: the John Willis House, Orange, VA

Photo: Wikimedia

Drawings from HABS

This plantation house, one of the most exuberant I have seen, is in Orange, Virginia. It was built in 1859-1860 for John Willis, a relative of President James Madison who named the house "Howard Place". It passed through various owners before it was renamed "Mayhurst" in 1902. The house follows the symmetrical plan with a hip roof and cupola and is faced with wood that has been cut to simulate stone, an elegant and costly effect. The house may have been designed by Norris G. Starkweather, who designed a similar house that I have featured, Camden, nearby. The embellishments to the design and the inventiveness and variety are characteristic of his style. Another candidate is Charles Haskins, another architect in the area. Regardless of who designed it, it is definitely the product of the architect rather than the carpenter/builder. 

The symmetrical house features central gables on each side. The basement is brick with paired windows. The first floor features paired, shallowly arched windows with balconies and simple hood moldings. The front door is arched with a glass surround and is fronted by an unusually simple three bay porch that could be a later replacement for another porch. The second floor is where the eccentricities arise. The flanking windows are Palladian, an unexpected choice. They have a bracketed hood molding, and the center panel features Venetian tracery. The second floor side windows mirror the central panel's tracery and shape. The central window on the front has two arched windows supporting a large 'rose window' with spoke tracery. In essence this is a sort of exaggerated Venetian tracery, and is a very uncommon shape especially for a private home. I have only seen examples of this type of window on churches and public buildings, so its presence in a private home is noteworthy. On the sides, the rose window is repeated under the gable with a drippy hood molding. 

Approaching the third floor, the cornice is undulating and is pierced by small windows. The brackets are of the c and s scroll type and are placed in a somewhat odd pattern with one at each corner, then pairs, then two small brackets framing each window. Each gable is topped by an anthemion, a stylized palmette. These cut out appliques are also found on the impressive cupola. The cupola has an odd manifestation of Palladian windows with a pointed central window and flat flanking ones. The cornice follows the window line and is gabled, reflecting the general form of the house. The cupola roof is fantastic; it is bulbous and forms one giant spire that has cut out decorations ascending to it. The color choice for the house, all white, is unfortunate because it flattens out the details in a way that makes the house look more dull than it is. In the early 20th century, the way people handled Victorian exuberance was to tone it down with monochromatic paint schemes, which are not at all period appropriate and reflects a disdain for Victorian ornament and design. The house is currently a bed and breakfast; a look on their website will show you some interiors.

HABS has a plan on record for the house:

Camden: the William Pratt House, Port Royal, VA

Camden, Port Royal, VA. 1857-59 Photos: HABS

When we think of plantation houses, our minds usually conjure up Greek Revival mansions surrounded with white columns. The truth is, however, that though they are not as common southern plantations can be Gothic or even Italianate. They run the gamut of styles. Camden is a particularly well documented example of an Italianate plantation house. Constructed by William Pratt between 1857 and 1859 after he demolished his family's Colonial house, Camden is a star example of southern Italianate plantation architecture. The architect was Norris G. Starkweather, an important architect in Philadelphia and Baltimore who was responsible for the design of the Backus house in Baltimore. There is a certain similarity to these houses. The house is a symmetrical plan mansion, which originally included a tower which was destroyed during the Civil War. The plans show how the tower was integrated into the design at the back of the house, appearing as a large cupola from the front. After the war, the tower was not reconstructed, but Starkweather's elevations for this house survive. The siding is flush board, giving a smooth surface appearance.

The house is beautifully composed and detailed. The front facade is three bays with a central gable; all the gables in this house have semi-circular windows in them, a throwback to Federal design. The first floor windows are tripartite Greek Revival windows. Above them on the second floor, pairs of segmental arched windows flank a tripartite round headed window with a taller central panel, just like we saw in the Backus house. The right facade continues the segmental arched windows and is three bays, but the center features a tombstone window united under an arch, making it appear like Venetian tracery. While the hood moldings are very simple, they resemble the Backus house in the elaborate jigsawed rococo motifs over the windows. The right facade also has a unique feature, a massive bay window conservatory with Venetian tracery windows. The first floor is mostly surrounded by a large wraparound porch that is bracketed with trefoil flat topped arches and that features square posts elaborated with chamfered edges and inset panels. The cornice is also elaborate with paired double s-scroll brackets, finials at the bracket ends, drops at the base of each bracket, and long receding dentils. I particularly like how a bracket was cut carefully so that where the cornice breaks on the facade at the gable, there is a bracket in profile. From the plans it appears that balustrades and palmettes topped the porches and the bay window, but these must have been removed.

The tower was truly a lovely piece. The stump of it remains on the back of the house. From the designs, the base of the tower had an arched door like the front door that had a glass surround. The second stage copied the front as well with a triple arched window. The third stage was separated by a belt course and had semicircular windows that had jigsawed scroll work above them. The top of the tower had highly elongated brackets that filled the entire upper story. In the center were Palladian windows with balconies. The cornice had an arch in the center of each side that had anthemia (vegetable decorations at the peak of a gable) and palmettes. The whole was covered with a hip roof and an impressively tall spire. The tower would have been beathtaking and was certainly envisioned as the pearl of the entire composition. If anyone's looking to blow some money on a historic restoration...

Another interesting feature is the left facade of the house that has the servants' wing. This is simpler in detailing but nonetheless grand. A porch faces the front of the house. But the side has a reversal of the house's formula, with segmental arched windows on the first floor and round headed ones on the second. A pedimented door with a bracket surround (an interesting feature we have noticed in this area) is in the center bay. Another quirky detail are the paired tombstone blind arches on the chimney. The house betrays the careful thought and design of a real architect from tower to chimneys. Along with the Backus house, they remain two interesting Italianate works for this architect and deserve to be considered alongside each other. The interior also remains intact and retains some of the family's original furniture. All the following pictures are from HABS, and it is worth a look at their 38 photographs online.

Note how the triple arched window on the front is repeated in the doors of the front hall. Also the glass surround for the door is a particularly impressive specimen.

The parlor still has its original furnishings. The oval mirror is impressive!

Even the gasolier light fixtures are in place. This shows also the finely crafted plaster ceiling medallions.

The John Backus House, Baltimore, MD

The John Backus House, Baltimore, MD. 1855-56

Baltimore has one of this country's best collections of early and Anglo-Italianate row-houses that I've seen. However, one of its more interesting and florid examples is the less-typical John Backus house. The house was built in 1855-1856 for Dr. John Backus, the pastor of First Presbyterian Church which adjoins it. After his death, it was bought by the church for use as its rectory. The architect was Norris G. Starkweather, an important Baltimore and Philadelphia 19th century designer. The house features a bevy of unique features. It follows the symmetrical plan, although it is a row house, with a tripartite façade, central door, and central gable emphasizing the small projecting center bay. The walls are finished in stone. It is the detailing of this house, however, that catches the eye. The best descriptor for this detail is probably rococo revival. The lush bouquets of deeply and intricately carved foliage that top the window moldings, cornice over the door, and even the pediment recall the wood carving on contemporary rococo revival furniture and mirror frames. Although such carving was commonly employed on furniture, this style of it on a house exterior is something I have never seen and certainly makes this a unique specimen.

The windows as well are surprisingly varied. The first floor has paired arched windows with Austin-like surrounds and carved bosses in the center divider. The second floor on the flanking sections has tripartite windows with a tall center section and surrounds surmounted by carvings. The center section features paired arched windows that differ from the first floor in the depth of the molding and the center pilaster on the divider. The third floor on the sides has deeply recessed plain windows, while the center section in the gable features tripartite round headed windows that lack the surrounding molding but include the bosses and carved toppers. All this makes for a façade that has a dizzying array of irregularity, but nonetheless harmonizes in the careful deployment of different forms on different windows. The door surround is yet another variation, with an ogee arch that extends from the defining belt-course broken by an explosion of elaborate vegetal carving. The door itself is entirely surrounded by side lights. Supported by Corinthian columns, the pendantives feature yet more carving. The amount of vegetation on this house almost makes it seem like the trees that surround it.

The cornice as well displays unique variations. While the parts flanking the gable are relatively simple bracketed cornices, where they engage the gable, which is raised several feet from the cornice, there are odd carvings that look like upside-down tulips. The gable has no bracketing but features a series of thickly spaced Romanesque style drops under a simple cornice. As one might expect in this house, there are further vegetable anthemia (carved floral pieces that top a gable) on top and to the sides of the gable. I provide some detail shots below.

The following pictures from the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) show the house without trees obscuring it and some of the interior.

The interior features a beautiful curved staircase, which seems to run around a curved wall.

The parlor displays interesting paneled doors.

The Backus house is one of my favorite buildings in Baltimore. It is a unique piece of architecture that seems to take the indoor world of pier mirrors and rococo furniture outdoors in its beautiful carving.