The R. F. Beck House, Vicksburg, MS

The R. F. Beck House, Vicksburg, MS. 1875. Source: Steven Martin

Source: Steven Martin

The next few posts we will be looking at Italianate Vicksburg!

The R. F. Beck house was built by a building contractor in Vicksburg, MS as a showplace of his own design and construction skills, and it does not disappoint. It is a decidedly individualistic irregular plan house, with sparing detail, partially due to a rather unsympathetic paint job, but a rich treatment in woodwork. The house is irregular in plan, with a side that forms a pavilion plan façade, but lacks the tower component, instead suggesting a tower by the central placement of the octagonal cupola at the junction of the l-shape (although the entrance, as typical of this plan, appears in the center). The windows, all segmental arched except for the full arches in the gables, actually do have hold moldings, articulated in brick, something of a development of the 1860s and 70s, but these are hardly apparent because, unlike their probably original paint scheme which would have differentiated them from the façade, they are painted the same salmon color as the brick. The side façade, oddly, has deeper and more articulated moldings, with several layers, rather than a flat expanse. The entablature is of the paneled bull's eye type and features single s scroll brackets. An odd feature, the brackets are spaced somewhat oddly on the house and not at all aligned with the windows on the long section to the right, while there are bunches of three brackets at the gable peak, a very odd feature. The porch as well is noteworthy, being a rather lacy Gothic concoction with trefoils in the spandrels. The door surround is nice and thick, suitably emphatic, with chamfered panels arranged onto a typical pilaster and arch surround. These same panels are answered in the chimneys, a feature of the panel brick style.

'Two Rivers' the David McGavock House, Nashville, TN

'Two Rivers', Nashville, TN. 1859 Photo: Brent Moore

Photo: Wikimedia

If this plantation, built in 1859 for the very wealthy McGavock family could have something elaborate, it does. In fact, it's a surprisingly urban design one might see in a wealthy city rather than in the countryside, which testifies to the taste and wealth of the family. It was eventually sold to the city which built a golf course around it. The house has a symmetrical plan, but the facade is far more elongated than the typical symmetrical box, somewhat dwarfing the windows in a sea of brick. The house creates rhythm and emphasis by defining the side bays with paneled brick pilasters and causing the central bay to project through its heavy, elaborate porches. As usual, the central bay differs from the side bays. The sides have rectangular windows topped by flat hood moldings with swirling rococo foliage. The central window is a segmentally arched with Venetian tracery that has not two but three windows contained within it, an uncommon design. This is topped by a drip molding. The central door is recessed and flanked by arched windows.

The porches run across the facade on the first floor and the central bay on the second, creating that all important central emphasis on a symmetrical house. In that, this house has some affinity with the New Orleans Porch Facade type. The thick paneled pilasters create filleted rectangular openings which feature brackets with carved acanthus leaves, raised diamond panels, and rosettes, no doubt reproduced carefully from a Greek Revival pattern book. The balusters are a Renaissance type, another indication of wealth (turned balusters cost money, especially that many). The cornice is paneled, with variations of s scroll acanthus leaf brackets and simple s scroll designs that are paired on the main facade. The central section is topped by a boxy paneled attic with a few carved moldings and vegetable accents. The cornice wraps around the entire house, but the facade treatment is not repeated on the sides which have a simpler design. HABS documented the house and provided the interior views and plans seen below.

'Oaklands' the Lewis Maney House, Murfreesboro, TN

'Oaklands' Murfreesboro, TN. 1860 Photos: Brent Moore

Although I put a date on this house of 1860, I might have equally put 1820 or 1830. Like many plantation houses, Oaklands started life as a small two room house that accrued additions, ells, and wings. When Dr. Maney built his original home, he was in effect a settler, but after his wife died and he retired, his son Lewis took control of the home. Lewis added the Italianate facade in 1860, designed by local architect Richard Sanders, turning the old settler's home into a fashionable mansion, even if the Italianate design was more of a false front hiding a complex past. After the Civil War, the Maneys struggled to hold on with dwindling finances and eventually sold Oaklands to a string of owners. It was abandoned, vandalized, and threatened in the 1950s, but was bought and restored; it is now a house museum.

The house is a five bay plan with a strongly projecting central pavilion, The windows are rectangular with simple flat hood moldings crowned with elaborate rococo flowers and vines. The central window is arched with thick Venetian tracery, so common in other Italianates in Tennessee. The simple cornice has s scroll brackets. What really distinguishes this house is its impressive porch which spans beyond the entire front of the facade. It's a simple Italianate porch with an interesting rhythm of square pillars and arched sections with brackets. As part of the illusory nature of the redesign, from a purely frontal view it looks like it wraps around the entire house, but when one looks from a side view, the porch's dimensions seem rather ridiculous and the design's illusion becomes clear, especially against the earlier 19th century side facades. HABS documented the building in the 1930s before it was vandalized, including several interior views, below.

The Joseph B. Palmer House, Murfreesboro, TN

Joseph Palmer House, Murfreesboro, TN. 1869 Photo: Brent Moore

Photo: Wikimedia

The Joseph B. Palmer house was built in 1869 in Murfreesboro, TN by a retired Civil War general who served in several major battles. It bears a great deal of similarity to the Craigmiles house nearby in Cleveland, with which it is a near contemporary. Perhaps the Craigmiles house influenced the Palmer house's design. His house is an irregular plan Italianate that takes much of its force from its massing complemented by interesting details. While it follows the standard profile of an irregular plan house, it emphasizes its projecting pavilion with an extra level to its projection and also lacks a central tower, making it far more horizontal than vertical. The first floor windows are relatively simple, segmental arched elements with a limited amount of decoration. The second floor windows, however, are all round arched, and two have thick Venetian tracery (it's usually much more nimble). They are all topped by strong drip moldings that feature central cartouches and end in rococo designs. The ironwork, a southern specialty is decisively delicate, with very thin Renaissance and Gothic designs combined with Greek vegetal motifs. The cornice is extremely compact, featuring very tight double s scroll brackets that break into a run of dentils. Except for the flimsy ironwork, this house suggests masculinity in its understated and sober composition.

The Charles Johnson House, New Orleans, LA

Charles Johnson House, New Orleans, LA. 1876

I have been absent for some time; I've had plenty to work on in my career. My resolution for this new year, though is to post more regularly, so I am starting out with one of New Orleans' grand streets, Esplanade Avenue. When dealing with the Italianate architecture of New Orleans, which is well known, a few characteristics come to mind:

1. In southern architecture, a lot more ironwork survives, particularly in porches and sometimes in brackets themselves. This ironwork once was ubiquitous in the US and much more common in different regions, but the scrap metal drives for WWI and WWII, weather decay, and changing tastes encouraged its removal in more northern cities, even from cemeteries. In New Orleans, where it never really went out of fashion given its presence in French and Spanish design, it was even more common than elsewhere and was preserved, giving us a nice image of the range and decorative possibilities of this architectural form.

2. In the south, one often finds a much stronger blending of styles, especially Greek Revival. You often see a double height columned Greek porch with brackets superimposed onto the entablature. Traditional Greek elements like eared window surrounds, anthemia and palmettes derived from the design books of Minard Lafever, and battered moldings (where the sides flare outward) are common in New Orleans Italianates. Additionally, many urban houses of the south display more refined Anglo-Italianate designs, to which residents may have been predisposed by the strong European influences, both continental and British, throughout the south.

3. One of the most popular facade treatments in the south is plaster, another strong European influence, since most French and Spanish colonial architecture was faced in plaster that was perfect for battling the moist weather. Since humidity and wetness cause mortar to decay more quickly, plaster provided a useful protective coat over brickwork that help preserve the structure and was maintained in the south while many plastered buildings in the north have lost that coating. Frequently, we will see the plaster scoured (etched) to look like blocks of stone.

4. Plan-wise, most houses in New Orleans were built on narrow lots, leading to the adoption of side-hall and rowhouse plans that had a narrow front facade and a very wide side facade (the "shotgun" house). This left much less space for decorative towers and unique plans, although there are some of examples of these in the more spacious, suburban Garden District. Wealthier New Orleans houses frequently feature a courtyard behind the house with connected outbuildings that housed horses, slaves, kitchens, and domestic spaces.

The Charles Johnson house, built in 1876 at 571 Esplanade, is an excellent and refined example of the side-hall/rowhouse plan. Esplanade Avenue itself was a major 19th century prestige street in New Orleans. In a city strong divided between anglophone and creole society, Esplanade served as the society street for wealthy Creoles, at the edge of the French Quarter, while wealthy anglophones settled St. Charles Avenue as a prestige street. The house has a plastered facade painted an appropriate grey to simulate stone, although like many houses, the sides are left unplastered, a cost saving measure. All the windows and entrances are segmental arched and are graced by curving hood moldings enlivened by rococo anthemia. The brackets are simple c-scroll and alternate between longer brackets connecting runs of shorter brackets. The facade itself displays Anglo-Italianate raised panel quoins at the corners. What especially caught my eye on this house, however, was how the iron porch (very lacy and delicate) was articulated; rather than merely capping it with a tent roof, this house adds a strong wooden cornice to the porch with intersecting arched pediments. The tympana (the hollow space created by a pediment) are graced with delicate sets of triple leaves in a crown like pattern. This makes this house a particularly bold example of a New Orleans Italianate, since the porch comes off as such a strong element. Additionally, the house is brought together by its heaviness, the thickness of the moldings and the depth of the eave. In a city like New Orleans with lots of houses vying for the passer-by's attention, competition must have been fierce to make a distinctive contribution.

The house, as the story goes, was left by Johnson to his secret lover Marie Lanaux, the daughter of his business partner. It is from this woman that the current bed and breakfast that owns the house derives its name. Take a look at their website for more information and interior views of the house, which is furnished with some fantastic Renaissance Revival pieces appropriate to the house's age. The decorators have definitely created a bric-a-brac filled authentic interior that matches the house very well.