'Ellarslie', the Henry McCall House, Trenton, NJ

'Ellarslie' the Henry McCall House, Trenton, NJ. 1848

 

 

'Ellarslie' was built by John Notman in 1848 for Henry McCall, a military commander at the Battle of New Orleans and later a successful merchant. The house has gone through a variety of trials; in the 1880s, McCall's son sold the house and lands to Trenton to become Cadwalader Park. As the central building it the park, it became an ice-cream stand and later was stripped of its ornament to serve as a "monkey house" for a zoo exhibition. Restored in the 1970s, it is now the Trenton City Museum with an excellent collection of Trenton pottery products. As one of Notman's first Italianate residential designs that is relatively unaltered, it represents a significant example of his early work. The front of the house is typical of Notman's work, with a relatively flat façade of three broad bays. The entrance is in the center, surrounded by a huge arched porch, something few Notman houses are without, with simple panels and an interesting balustrade with circular piercing. The house is faced with stucco and has simple window surrounds. It lacks an entablature, but has typical early wide eaves and simple beam brackets. The roof is red painted lead, a design which suggests the style of Italian terracotta roofs.

The right façade and the back have more interesting volumes. On the right, we have a projecting gabled bay, a recessed central bay, and a large projecting chamfered bay. Most of this façade is covered by a spindly iron porch (beautifully restored) with a curving tent roof (painted here appropriately with stripes!). The back of the house resembles the irregular plan, although the tower is not placed as a focal point in the center but to the side. The projecting pavilion features an elaborate balcony, supported on oversized brackets like those at Riverside, that echoes the details on the front of the house. The tower has usual triple arched windows, but is enclosed in a simple and utilitarian service wing with several porches. Clearly this is not meant to be one of the house's vistas. It's rather interesting that Notman chooses not to use the tower as a frontal design element but hides it in an inconspicuous spot. This is a picturesque approach in that the tower always sticks out from the building, its base is unseen, floating over any façade you see.

The interiors of the house have been greatly altered by the removal of fireplaces and some walls, yet enough remains, including the staircase with an impressive convex ceiling, to give an idea of Notman's décor and design.

 

 

 

 

The First Italianate-'Riverside' the Bishop George Doane House, Burlington, NJ

'Riverside', Bishop Doane House, Burlington, NJ. 1839 All Photos: HABS

 

In thinking about the sources for the double tower plan by Richard Upjohn, a house that is often hailed as the country's "first Italianate" came to mind. Indeed, although I think the distillation of Italianate into the US was far from a simple process with any clear "first", it cannot be disputed that this house is one of the first. Built for an Episcopal bishop in 1839 who founded one of the US' first all girls boarding schools, it was designed to be the bishop's residence in Burlington, and was kept by the diocese until it was demolished in the 1950s tragically. Apparently, no one cared about saving a key monument in the history of 19th century architecture; the house is a major casualty of the low esteem for Victorian architecture in the mid-20th century. It was designed by John Notman, one of early America's greatest architects who constructed both some of the first Italianates as well as some of the first major academic Gothic buildings in the US. With building started in 1837, it does come first in the history of Italianate design.

The house does not follow exactly any of the plans that shape Italianate design throughout the 19th century. Notman was breaking new ground here and thus had less standard examples or published plan books to work from. Nonetheless, one can see elements of several different plans in the house and can trace the contours of more familiar shapes. If we look at the house head on and cover up the back, tall tower, we can see the root of the irregular plan with its deeply projecting pavilion, set back tower, and recessed wing. On the other hand, if we cut off the projecting pavilion and the recessed wing, we can see the outline of the double tower plan. Looking at the side of the house, to the left (lower elevation) we can see the general shape of the side tower plan. In effect, many of the familiar plans are all present in this house. The Italianate plan is like putting together a set of blocks, blocks which are symmetrical in form. If one takes the tower block, the pavilion block, the recessed wing block, one can make dozens of possible and stylistically appropriate shapes. Judging by the dictum "form follows function", the Italianate house offers all the possibilities for any kind of protuberance or room to be added as needed without violating the requirements of the style. The focus on the picturesque and asymmetrical allows the house's interior to be perfectly comprehensible from the exterior. Thus, it's able to balance both form and function effectively without picking one or the other. Looking at the plan, it seems that Notman started with a central block and then added wings as rooms were necessary, balancing all of his blocks to form a picturesque and varied whole.

Looking at the house as its own entity, without reading other designs in, there is a central long wing with a tall tower tower to the left side. In front of this block, there is a dramatic projecting pavilion, a shorter tower/wing (it appears as a tower from the front view but as a wing off the central block from the sides) where the entrance is located, and a low, one story wing to the right of the lower tower. The wings of the house give it a Greek cross shape. Decoration is spare on the house, appropriate to its early date. The walls are stuccoed and almost all rectangular with the exception of the triple arched windows in the tower. These triple arched windows are intimately associated with the upper stage of Italianate towers from this example. A triple window sits above the excessively wide, heavily molded arched door with an incredibly thick Renaissance style balcony with massive brackets. The projecting pavilion is enlivened by a full story bay window with a tent roof and Gothic diamond paned panels while the cornice has a wooden fringe running around it. The only other bit of decoration is the projecting wing on the back façade which features a bay window and Greek Revival pilasters. The simple cornice without any entablature has rafter brackets, simulating the rafters of Italian houses that project beneath the eave. Interestingly, despite being a country house, the house lacks the usual multiple windows with broad swaths of blank wall.

HABS has a few pictures of the interior with a simple staircase with iron spindles and a lotus shaped newel post, an impressive Gothic paneled room, and Greek Revival interior window surrounds.

The James Laws House, Cincinnati, OH

The James Laws House, Cincinnati, OH. 1860s. John Smith Photography

Photos: HABS

The James Laws house, built in the 1860s (many dates for the houses on Dayton street are unclear because of a fire that destroyed records) is an interesting brick house on a street of limestone mansions. James Laws' daughters were particularly famous as spinsters who established kindergartens and nursing schools. Planwise, the house is difficult to classify. One could call it a rowhouse with a short wing on the side, however, in looking at the volumes and fenestration, I might say that it's actually an irregular plan house in which the facade has been completely flattened and all the recesses and projections have been flattened out with the tower removed. Regardless, the house displays many Anglo-Italianate features in its simple design. The facade is brick with limestone trim, including quoins at the corners, a Renaissance limestone entablature, and rafter brackets that are closely spaced, suggesting dentils. The windows are segmental arched and have a rectangular surround with a simple strip of molding at the top. The main door is round arched with a molding that has carved floral "capitals" and a curved keystone. Simple and spare, the house is a model design on the street.

The George Hatch House, Cincinnati, OH

The George Hatch House, Cincinnati, OH. 1850 Color photos: Wikimedia

The George Hatch house is much earlier than other houses we have seen on Dayton Street. It was built in 1850-1 for Hatch, a mayor, land speculator, and soap manufacturer, and was designed by Isaiah Rogers, who was responsible for the Gaff House in Indiana. Like the Gaff house, it has similarities to Greek Revival design, but remains a firm example of Anglo-Italianate architecture. Although the plan is symmetrical, the limestone facade undulates boldly. The bowed bays are particularly characteristic of Rogers and can be seen in his work on Boston's Tremont House. The central section maintains the facade's restlessness with its bayed entrance porch surmounted by a bay window. In terms of ornamentation, there is a very low amount on most of the facade. The bows have very plain windows with a minimum of molding. A broad string course separates the floors, but is enlivened by paired Temple of the Winds pilasters at the ends of the facade. The porch is truly lovely. Although it looks like a three bay projection, it actually forms a hexagon because the projection is reflected by a three bay recess in the facade. Corinthian columns alternate with Temple of the Winds pilasters. Above, the simple bay window has round windows which very thin, almost Federal Corinthian pillars. The Greek Revival cornice is ornamented with simple rafter brackets, suitable for the 1850s. Notably, this house has an octagonal cupola and a port cochere with a room above.

The interiors of the house are particularly impressive because of the massive staircase hall which is entered through the port cochere. Additionally, the floors are inlaid and tiled and the interior arches have Corinthian columns. The house has been recently restored.

The following images are from HABS.

'Nuits', the Francois Cottenet House, Irvington, NY

'Nuits', Irvington, NY. 1852 Photos: Wikimedia

'Nuits' is an impressive early Italianate mansion overlooking the Hudson River Valley in Irvington, NY, a city full of impressive homes. It was part of the push in the early and mid 19th century to construct elaborate showplace estates on the river to both take advantage of the impressive views and the company offered by the artists, businessmen, and writers who had country homes in the area. It was designed by the German architect Detlef Lienau for Francois Cottenet, a French immigrant to the US.

The house is a highly unique example of Italianate design, and its plan is complicated and expansive. It is in general an example of the central tower plan with a strongly projecting tower bisecting a narrow three story block. This central block, while it gives the appearance of symmetry soon dissolves from the sides into a mass of asymmetrical projections, bays, and corridors. As can be seen on the plan below, the house is a series of intersecting cubes, which seem placed where they seemed most conducive to interior planning rather than exterior symmetry. Whoever said function followed form in historic design? Indeed, the house does seem like some fantastic cubist sculpture, and must have seemed striking to 19th century steamboat passengers.

Unlike many Italianates, Nuits is actually built of stone. Apparently Cottenet had no problems with importing expensive Caen stone for his house. Decoratively, the house is in line with the severity characteristic of Italianate designs of the 1850s: spare walls and light colors only relieved by porches and around the windows. The entablature is only marked by a slight projection in the stone and rafter brackets. At Nuits, the windows are liberally supplied with Juliette balconies, wooden tent roofed awnings, and even a tent roof box window. The front itself has a few interesting features in that the windows flanking the tower are actually triple segmental arched windows, and the archway surrounding the main door is rusticated (the seams between stone courses are emphasized). Very simple, spindly porches are liberally supplied around the main block. A large conservatory was added in the 1860s, a unique survivor.

The house is still a private home and seems to have had a pool added behind the billiard room. Recent pictures of the front and of one of the interiors can be found online.

The Thomas Gaff House, Aurora, IN

The Thomas Gaff House, Aurora, IN. 1855 Photo: Johns S

This is certainly a one of a kind early Italianate house. Built in 1855, its designer was Isaiah Rogers, the father of the American hotel who worked primarily in Greek Revival. Rogers dotted the nation with dozens of grand Greek edifices that revolutionized the way Americans lodged when traveling. The Thomas Gaff house was built by Rogers for an important local distillery owner, and the design is unique as a specimen of Italianate and Greek Revival fusion. The house is far more eclectic than most examples of Italianate we have seen. While the plan is symmetrical, the large projecting semi-circular portico is more characteristic of Regency design in England than houses in the US. The thinness and classical inaccuracy of the columns on the central portico and side porches are much more characteristic of Federal design than Italianate or Greek Revival. The effect created is one of lightness and buoyancy rather than classical monumentality, a feature that is reflected in the delicacy of the second floor ironwork. The decision to side the house in flushboard rather than clapboard is another element which, although not unprecedented in Italianates, is very common in Greek Revival.

Features that are typically Italianate are the Renaissance style details in the corner quoins, second floor window moldings, and round arched windows which dominate the central bay. Also significant is the uncommon round cupola that reflects the curve of the central bay and is marked by paired tombstone windows. The cornice is simple, as are the brackets which are crafted like rafter brackets, a kind of bracket found on earlier Italianate homes of the 50s and 40s. A final interesting feature is that the house is built on a slope; the entire back of the house is a maze of ells, porches, and additions that sit on the sloped rock behind, as seen in the following images from HABS. The house is currently well maintained and functions as a house museum.

The Italianate Bracket

The bracket is perhaps the quintessential feature of Italianate architecture, so much so, that the style was sometimes referred to in 19th century publications as the 'bracketed style'. Even though many Italianate buildings do not include brackets, the majority of them are profusely bracketed. Brackets served the function of keeping the wide eaves level and prevent bowing in the cornice. Brackets could be made of metal but were most commonly made of wood. They also served a decorative function, giving rhythm and vertical thrust to a house. While the facades of many Italianates are subdued, the brackets often provide a relieving ornament and whimsy that differentiates the exuberance of Italianate from the sobriety of Greek Revival.

There is no set rhyme or reason for bracket design. Earlier on, the brackets were primarily constructed at the site of a house by carpenters who were inspired by published house plans and details. As time went on brackets could be ordered in bunches from catalogs in a variety of shapes based on carpenter precedents. Because they were so unique to each house, brackets have literally limitless scope for variation and design. Sometimes similarities in brackets in one region can inform us of the vernacular. Nonetheless, despite these variations, there are common traits to Italianate brackets that allow us to grasp a bit of what the design process was behind them.

The basis for the most common Italianate bracket is two types of curves, the s- and c- curves. These give the bracket its general tapering shape below the molding that forms the bracket cap.

The general shape is often enlivened with extra pieces of ornament:

Finials: These turned pieces are probably the most common form of ornament on a bracket. They can be added to a block at the end of the upper part of the bracket, below the foot of the bracket, or from a block attached at the center. The finials give an icicle like effect to a bracket.

Medallions: Medallions or bull's eyes are circular pieces of molding. They are often put at points in the design where the curve spirals. They similarly adorn a lot of contemporary furniture and interior woodwork.

Strapwork: The strapwork is a set of thin boards cut with a jigsaw in a decorative pattern and glued or nailed onto a surface to give it a shallowly projecting design. In brackets, strapwork usually outlines the shape of the bracket and forms spirals.

Incised Carving: Incised carving was made affordable by the invention of the router. It consists of shallow relief cuttings into the wood in a decorative pattern. Mostly associated with Eastlake design and furniture, incised carving adds relatively inexpensive ornament to a surface.

Acanthus Leaves: Acanthus leaves are an expensive feature for a bracket. They usually are not placed on the sides but on the front, projecting slightly and adding an extra touch of fanciness.

Other design elements consist of carved garlands, fluting (cutting parallel grooves in the front of a bracket), beading, and elaborate caubuchons (jewel shaped pieces of wood).

Bracket Shapes:

As I said, the c- and s-curve form the basis of the bracket shape. The drawing below shows a bracket that uses one of these curves.

The number of curves can be doubled or tripled by adding more s- or c-curves. Sometimes this involves rotating one of the curves horizontally or varying their size. As the 19th century moved on brackets became more and more complex in how they used curves. The Bidwell house gives us an example.

Both types of curves can be combined to form composite s- and c-scroll brackets as shown below. Of course, this combination can be done in a lot of ways.

Special brackets:

There are two types of bracket I think deserve special mention because they tend to occur in specific contexts. The rafter bracket, beam bracket, or block bracket is a very simple rectangular block of wood attached to the eave. This occurs primarily in Italianate homes of the 1830s to the 1850s, and is a mark of an early Italianate. They were designed to resemble the exposed rafters peeking out from the eave in their Italian models. The Starr house and the Apthorp house have these types of brackets.

The Rotated or horizontal s-curve bracket is a type which, though it can occur anywhere, is particularly associated with Anglo-Italianate architecture because its shape conforms closely with Renaissance and Classical precedents. It is usually tarted up with acanthus leaves, scrolls, and palmettes, and was based on publications that showed ancient entablatures. The Lippitt house and the Graham house are examples.

The angular bracket is an uncommon type. It employs no curves, and instead has angles that define it. These can be stepped or even just consist of a simple diagonal piece of wood supporting the roof. The Hall house has angular brackets.

Finally there is an interesting bit of ornament that can sometimes be found on brackets, piercing. This consists of open space or holes piercing the wood of the bracket, creating a lighter effect. The Fisher house has pierced brackets.

Painting:

The painting of brackets is a complex business given the profusion of decoration. The book Victorian Exterior Decoration suggests these historically appropriate possibilities. The brackets are usually painted the color of the house's trim. If they are relatively simple with few decorative details, they should probably just be painted solidly with the trim color without picking out details in the body color. Brackets with strapwork usually have the strapwork frame painted the trim color and the space inside the frame painted the body color. Incised designs are usually picked out in the trim color or perhaps a third accent color to emphasize their presence. If the house trim color is simulating stone, they should never have details picked out and be painted to appear like stonework.

Brackets are a fun feature of Italianate and one of the elements that draws people to these houses. Although my discussion is certainly not comprehensive, it tries to give a bit of vocabulary to this fascinatingly elusive element of design.