A Third Type of Indian Italianate

The Dr. P. W. Ellsworth House, Hartford, CT. 1850s?

Plan by Henry Austin for an unbuilt house.

This Indian Italianate I have depicted in the first image is the Dr. P. W. Ellsworth house that once stood on Main Street and Grove Street in Hartford, CT. Unfortunately, the house is poorly documented, and this is the only picture I could find of it. The house is in a unique style for this sub group. It has two bowed bays with four windows on each and follows the symmetrical plan. It's bowed bay style resembles some houses designed by Henry Austin on Orange Street and Chapel Street in New Haven. The house looks like it has stucco scored to look like stone or actual stone. The second floor windows on the sides have a curving balcony that runs along them with lacy ironwork and an exuberant fringe. the fringe is repeated above the unbracketed cornice in the cresting. The lack of molding around the windows is consistent with the Bristol house style. The crowning glory of the house is the two story porch. On the first stage there are candelabra columns, a trefoil ogee arch, and long sinuous brackets, all characteristics of a chhattri porch. The second stage is simpler, with plain candelabra columns and an iron balustrade. The whole is topped by a fantastic ogee dome with a tall finial. Above the central bay on the roof is a large stepped wooden piece for cresting.

The second image shows a plan by Henry Austin, kept at Yale University. This plan is utterly fantastic and crazy; it seems to have never been built. Perhaps it was just too much for New England. The plan shows a fully realized Indian facade. There are two projecting side bays with windows that have strong Bristol house like lambrequins and tracery. There are balconies on the second floor with equally complex windows. The bays are topped by very Indian looking projecting brackets and a wide eave. The central bay is a tour de force and seems to recall the entrance to the Taj Mahal. It is recessed behind the bays. There is a two story arch that creates a deep recess. The arch frame is paneled and topped by a huge cresting and small finials that resemble tiny minarets. The recess has paneling covering the wall surface (the play of volumes, panels, projections, and recesses is quite masterful) a circular window and a horseshoe arched window with a balcony. The door follows, paradoxically, the Greek Revival sidelight style, but the door and windows have lambrequins and tracery that mark it as distinctively Indian.

Both the Ellsworth house and the plan are bold, and they represent the taking of Indian Italianate to its logical conclusion of looking truly Indian, a feat that Eidlitz' Iranistan was able to achieve. The examples that survive are relatively tame by comparison. It is in these types that we can see Indian Italianate at its most exuberant and most out of control. It's not surprising that this house and plan found few imitators.

The Henry Z. Pratt House, Hartford, CT

The Henry Z. Pratt House, Hartford, CT. 1847 Photo: Samuel Taylor Col.

The Henry Z. Pratt house which stood on Washington Avenue in Hartford, once a street of mansions that is now mostly parking lots and government buildings, was probably designed by Henry Austin in 1847, a few years after the Willis Bristol house. Although most of the Indian Italianates we have looked at have followed the Bristol plan, this house is somewhat different. Some of Austin's drawings survive for a house similar to this, and though it is very likely that they depict the designs for this house, it is uncertain whether he was the direct designer. The drawings appear below and are from Yale University.

The Pratt house is a symmetrical plan villa like those of the Bristol type. The body of the house is similar, covered with stucco, with paired brackets, simple window surrounds, lacy iron balconies, and a low monitor. the unique feature of this house is the massive two story chhattri porch, which gives a completely different feel to the facade. The porch has particularly leafy versions of the candelabra columns in which the supporting urn, the lower shaft, and the capital are all covered with foliage. A bizarrely large echinus (the flat part above a capital) is a strange feature. The four point arch is scalloped, but the ends of each scallop have trefoil designs, which suggest Gothic architecture. Gothis is also suggested in the spandrels where elongated trefoil cut outs fill the space. The double s-curve brackets are very sinuous on this example. Another strange feature is that the frieze of the porch is open between the brackets, creating a very airy porch that is not as dark as it could be. The front of the house features a patio that runs the length of the house. The balustrade pictured makes me think that it might be later, but the patio could be original since it was once a more common feature than it is now.

The drawings of Austin show a house somewhat different. The main variation is the extra ornament, especially the eared moldings around the windows, a specialty of Austin, and the leafy ornaments all over, including above the window cornices and the scroll saw supports on top of the cupola. If these do represent two designs for the Pratt house, it seems that the fantastic porch was already enough for the family, and they dispensed with the extras to prevent the house from being overwhelming. Austin's design show no balconies on the house as well. Perhaps he added them in because of the popularity of the Bristol type. A lot can happen to a house between design and finish. This represents the second variety of Indian Italianate, but there is a very poorly attested third I will look at in my next post.

The B. F. Young House, Bath, NY

The B. F. Young house, Bath, NY. 1850s

This is the B. F. Young house at 220 Liberty Street in Bath, NY, a town famous for its fine Italianate homes. The house was designed in the early 1850s by Merwin Austin, whose work we saw in the Brewster house in Rochester, for B. F. Young, an agent for the Pulteney land office. It's another example of Henry Austin's Indian Italianate that was brought to upstate New York by his brother. This house is an interesting example of the style because, unlike the other examples, it is sided with clapboard rather than stucco. The house has all the pieces of the style. There is a chhattri porch with an elaborate scalloped arch, large brackets, candelabra columns of the common variety, and arabesques. The brackets on the main cornice are paired without an entablature, and there are small brackets running between the longer ones. The windows in this house differ from other examples, following a much more traditional style (with a molding surround topped by a cornice) than other Indian Italianates, which often have no window surround. Elaborate wooden balconies are attached to each of the front windows, which seems to be essential to this style. The house has a wooden monitor on the roof. There seem to have been a few changes to the house; originally there was a balustrade atop the porch, and the front doors are a particularly poor replacement. I believe the house is now a double house.

The Erastus Brainerd Jr. House, Portland, CT

The Erastus Brainerd House, Portland, CT. 1852

I know the picture of this house covered in overgrown vines and trees might suggest a glamorously abandoned southern mansion, but it is actually near the center of downtown Portland, CT. My friend, pictured above, and I wandered onto the property so that he could gather information on the house for a project, so I got these pictures. The Erastus Brainerd house in Portland is another fascinating Indian Italianate, but it is also one in peril. Built in 1852 as a symmetrical plan house, probably by Henry Austin, the originator of this style in the US, the Brainerd house exhibits many of the characteristics associated with this style and found in the Bristol house in New Haven. Brainerd was the son of a quarry owner, an important role in a town which revolved around its famous brownstone quarries. Interestingly, Brainerd decided not to build out of brownstone, preferring the exotic Indian style.

It has a very large chhattri porch with an unscalloped ogee arch, candelabra columns, long s curve brackets, arabesque strapwork, and multi-foil piercings in the spandrels. A very cool aspect to the porch is that the arabesques are continued on the inside. These types of candelabra columns, with the lotus base, fluted shaft, and dripping echinus (the flat piece at the top of the column) sitting atop a plinth with chamfered edges, are an example of the standard design of candelabra columns in Connecticut houses. The door follows Greek Revival precedents with sidelights and a transom. The bulk of the house is like the Bristol house, stuccoed with iron balconies, a wide eave, paired, simple brackets, and a low roof monitor. The lacy iron balconies look original. A side wing to the left has a porch with very odd ogee arches and paired simplified candelabra columns that seem to sit on impossibly small turned bases. The rear of the house has a strange low addition with a fenestration I can't quite make sense of. There might be a strange shift in the house's floor as you near the back. The house also includes a matching carriage house.

The house was part of a hospital complex which is slated for demolition along with a lovely temple front Greek Revival house and a Stick Style home. It was used for years as an administration building and clinic, but the house seems quite sturdy and the interiors, though unused for a while, also seem intact, at least from what I saw. The plan is to demolish the houses for a CVS and condos, a travesty since both are in a registered district and since the house is a rare example of the impressive Indian Italianate style. Developers seem stymied over parking access to the site, and there even was a possibility they would tear down the house and build a simplified version elsewhere on the property with some details (a particularly bizarre plan that I can't make sense of). Fingers crossed that the plan will never go through! The following pictures show all the sides of the house and some of the interior.

The other house slated for demolition:

The Brewster-Burke House, Rochester, NY and the William H. Glenny House, Buffalo, NY

The Brewster-Burke House, Rochester, NY. 1849 Photo: Bill Badzo

Photo: Wikimedia

These two houses in upstate New York, miles away from Henry Austin and New Haven, are shockingly similar to the Willis Bristol house and are examples of the Indian Italianate that Austin introduced. In the case of the first house pictured, the Brewster-Burke house in Rochester, the architect is thought to be Merwin Austin, the brother of Henry Austin. Thus, family connections allowed Indian Italianate to spread to upstate New York to Rochester, a city with many ties to Connecticut. It is likely that Merwin saw what Henry was doing with the Bristol house and decided to emulate the design for Henry R. Brewster, a real estate speculator, banker, and grocer, in 1849, four years after the Bristol house was built. It was constructed in the Corn Hill neighborhood in Rochester, an affluent district which, although somewhat damaged by time, is one of the earliest success stories in preservation history. The second house, the William H. Glenny house I am less sure about. The image comes from A Picture Book of Earlier Buffalo (1912) but not much more is said about the house. Given it's proximity to Rochester, it is possible that Merwin Austin or perhaps a follower might have copied the design of the Brewster or Willis house likely around the same time in the early 1850s. Glenny was a prominent merchant. 

Both houses are much alike. They are both symmetrical plan houses that have a very similar massing finished with scored stucco. The cornices have paired brackets but no entablature, as in the Bristol house. They each borrow different things from the Bristol house's design and add their own elements. The Brewster-Burke house has a chhattri porch with a scalloped ogee arch and quatrefoils cut out in the spandrels. The brackets are oversized and are an s and c scroll shape with interesting spirals cut out. Candelabra columns are also included, but these are far more angular and have deep fluting that make them look like grass bundles. The windows have lintels with simple triangles. A monitor caps the roof and a long wing to the side has a porch that mimics the central porch. The house ends in a structure with three pointed Gothic arches, that served as a summer kitchen and carriage house according to the plans, demonstrating the stylistic link some theorists of the period found between Indian and Gothic architecture. Throughout the house has ironwork balconies on the windows, while the main porch has a fantastic wooden balcony with exotic finials on the posts. The side seems to have had a porch that was as fantastic as the main porch with carved ornament, but this has disappeared along with an exceptional fence, pictured below from HABS. The house was threatened many times with demolition but has been saved mostly intact, despite some losses. 

The Glenny house in Buffalo has been demolished, though I do not know when. Unfortunately, the porch in the image is completely obscured by foliage, but I imagine it is a chhattri porch similar to the other examples of this type that looks like it might have a goofy tent roof. The house appears to be stucco and have a monitor. What this house does that the Brewster-Burke house does not is emulate the exterior lambrequins and tracery of the Bristol house, a quirky but lovely quality. It seems much less expansive than the Brewster-Burke house, lacking side porches and additions. Both these houses are great examples of the westward diffusion of architectural styles from the eastern US and they represent fascinating examples of Indian Italianate. The following pictures from various sources illustrate the Brewster-Burke house, which remains a National Register landmark.

The back of the Brewster-Burke house. Photo: Wikimedia

Photo: Bill Badzo

The following photos are selected from HABS which has many more images.