The George W. Lewis House and Row, Albany, NY

The George W. Lewis House, Albany, NY. 1877

The George W. Lewis house is at 163 Lancaster in the Center Square neighborhood in Albany; it was built in 1877 according to Albany Architecture. Lewis, the builder of the house, was a lithographer, who also engaged in real estate development, building the neighboring houses at 165-173 (to the left of the house in my image). The house like the Wing-Williams house is a five bay semi detached row house. However, while the Wing Williams house appealed to Anglo-Italianate detailing, the Lewis house embraces the Albany vernacular and the rich ornament of the 1870s. The porches to the right seem to be of a later date.

The house has all the features of the Albany style. The hood moldings are highly decorated, featuring a curved pediment that's broken by a small, central pointed pediment with a long triglyph and guttae. This distortion of elements of a Doric frieze are typical of the 1870s interest in playing with traditional classical forms. These hood molds may be made of metal and surmount segmented arched windows (the current flat topped windows may be modern). The basement is of rusticated stone, a common treatment in row houses. The porch features the flat-topped trefoil arch we have seen in the Richardson-Bates house and incised design. The expected box window over the door is present. A real treasure of this house is the cornice, which is of the bull's eye type. The house features a central gable with an arched window in the center. A fascinating detail around this window is that the cable molding that extends around the frieze is carved into rope ends at the corners of the window. This charming feature takes a form that is often used abstractly and suggests its original associations. The following images and enlargements show some of the details.

 

 

I also have added a picture of the row Lewis constructed next to his house. These follow the row house plan. He differentiated the row from his house, which forms the terminus of the continuous row. These houses are characterized by different hood moldings, which though a similar shape differ in the detail, a different type of cornice (the undulating type), and box windows that have similar pediments to those on his own house. By altering the detail, Lewis ensured that his house would remain architecturally distinct, both by its different ornament and its different plan, displaying his status in relation to those who occupied his development.

Classifying Albany's Cornices

This article might seem pedantic to some of you. Classifying cornices? Really? Albany has a wide variety of cornice types, but they tend to fall into categories of patterns. These patterns aren't just useful for looking at Albany's architecture; they are applicable to a wide variety of cornices in upstate New York and other areas like Cincinnati, the Midwest. I said that one aspect of this blog was to examine regional vernaculars, and Albany's cornices definitely fall into a vernacular style. These decorative and elaborate cornices are a product of the 1860s and 70s, when the sobriety of earlier Italianate design was embellished according to changing tastes. A look at furniture styles that were popular during this period, Renaissance revival and Eastlake, provide a good parallel for this type of elaboration in exterior architecture. The accretion of panels, projecting pieces, elaborate fringed borders, and heavy plaques reflect Renaissance revival furniture, while the incised decoration, made possible by the invention of new saws that saved time, and changes in principles of decoration from complex carved design to simpler outlines of symmetrically arranged vegetation reflect the influence of Eastlake. These elaborate cornices are less commonly seen on detached houses or houses outside of an urban setting in which the cornice runs around the entire building. They are extremely common on domestic architecture in a city and can be particularly found on commercial buildings. Elaboration such as this can sometimes be expressed in wood, but it is also a feature of cast iron cornices.

I use the term cornice loosely in this post. The cornice is properly on the top molding of an entablature, that consists of a top molding, cornice, bottom molding, architrave, and center section, the frieze. Properly I am classifying entablatures, but because cornice is so commonly used to denote the entire thing, I've decided to go with 'cornice', as a generalizing term.  The nomenclature I come up with and my division of these into types is my own. In doing so I hope to add a new level of classification to the vagaries that comprise Italianate architecture.

The Horizontal Cornice

The horizontal cornice is the most traditional type. The heavy top molding, the cornice, is supported by brackets, while the base molding, the architrave, is straight. The frieze, or the space between the cornice and architrave is only made up of horizontal bands of molding, often in various patterns like cable, dentil, or egg and dart.

 

The Paneled Cornice

 

The paneled cornice is one in which the frieze includes horizontal moldings as well as panels. The panels can be squares, rectangles, or even triangles. In general most other cornice types I will be discussing are paneled cornices that follow specific patterns.

The Arched Cornice

The arched cornice has a horizontal architrave and moldings, but its central feature is a strip of molding laid in a semicircle in the center. Often the spandrels, the triangular shapes to the upper right and left of the arch's curve, have shaped panels. The part within the arch may also have a panel. A keystone can also sometimes be found at the arch's center.

This third example, showing a normal arched cornice to the left also shows a variant to the right, where an arched third story window intersects the architrave.

The Bull's Eye Cornice

The bull's eye cornice is similar to the arched cornice. This cornice features a circular window or panel, a bull's eye window, that breaks the horizontal architrave and drops below it. The window is usually placed so that the center of the circle would be bisected by the architrave. To the right and the left, there are commonly panels that have curved edges that follow the circle's curve.

The Fillet Cornice

The fillet cornice is like the bull's eye in that it features a central window or panel in the shape of a rectangle filleted (with curved corners) in the upper two corners. The straight run of the architrave, however, is not broken. Panels to the right and left of the rectangle mirror the filleted corners of the central feature.

The Undulating Cornice

The undulating cornice is one in which the architrave itself forms an arch between longer brackets, creating a rippling effect when looking at the whole. Often the frieze moldings in this type of cornice will follow the curve of the architrave. There may be some type of fringe (lower picture) or drop (upper picture) descending from the arched architrave.

The Fringed Cornice

The fringed cornice is one in which the architrave is broken up or replaced entirely by a descending series of frieze sections that form a fringe, akin to the elaborate tassels attached to drapes. This fringed finish can take a variety of patterns. The upper image shows a geometrical diamond based fringe, while the lower shows a curved fringe.

In looking at these types, we can see that the last two, the fringe and undulating cornices, deal with the shape of the architrave, while the others deal with the frieze. The arched, bull's eye, and fillet cornices all feature a central section, an arch, circle, or rectangle, that panels are placed around. These three might be called 'medallion cornices' since they feature a central medallion. The treatment of these cornices has almost endless variation, although they tend to fall into these types. There is always an outstanding cornice here or there; how a cornice is treated can be as diverse as builder's minds. These cornices, however, are often the most elaborate and distinctive pieces of these otherwise uniform row houses. It is in the trimming of this traditional form that the builder or owner could express themselves and make an impression. Thus, what we are looking at in these varieties of decoration is a vernacular method of social presentation and individuality that today makes strolling down Albany's streets a delight.

159 Lancaster Street, Albany, NY

159 Lancaster, Albany, NY. 1864

Here I present the typical Albany Italianate row house that I referred to in my last post. This row house can be found at 159 Lancaster Street was built in 1864 according to a plaque on the house. In the 1890s, it was occupied by William Ryder, a contractor responsible for the two Queen Ann houses next door on Dove Street, according to the guide Albany Architecture. Ryder was an important builder in Albany during the 80s and 90s. It utilizes the row house plan which comprises three bays and an off center doorway. Typically these houses in their grander manifestations are three stories, though this is not a requirement.  This house is faced with brick and includes the features I said comprise the style of row house in Albany: the box window over the door (which is a particularly upstate New York Italianate feature), elaborate sculpted hood moldings, and a complex cornice and entablature.

The box window is one of the most readily apparent features of upstate New York's architecture. It is usually comprised of two large panes of glass on the front, and sometimes one on each side. This particular box window manifests Renaissance revival detail in its shallow rounded pediment. The date of the houses construction in the 60s is exemplified by the presence of sculpted pieces and incised Eastlake designs in the supporting brackets. The meander motif in the frieze adds a classical Neo-Grec touch. You can also see the hood moldings in this and the following image. They consist of a horizontal molding placed over a slightly curved window. The molding is broken by a tall intrusion that increases the height toward the center. Again carved pieces and incised designs are applied. Though these might be made of cast iron, they could just as well be wood. The cornice certainly appears to be wood to me, and the hood moldings might also, though I wasn't able to tap on any of them to see!

The cornice follows a pattern seen on many Albany cornices. The brackets alternate between long brackets that define the three bays and smaller brackets that fill in the intervening space. Below the brackets is a tall dentil molding. Where it gets interesting is the frieze. In this cornice, the frieze of each section consists of a molding that represents an arch, cut to look like a cable, a center key and raised panels in the spandrels of the arch and below it. The panels are cut with Eastlake designs. This 'arch' style frieze is one of a variety of patterns popular in Albany. This house, lacking windows in its entablature does not have to make allowances for their shape as others do. Later, I will probably do a post that tries to classify various Albany cornices, which really deserve their own terminology. Keep in mind that although Albany provides a good example, some of these characteristics are common to many upstate buildings. Further examples will highlight the similarity or difference between these various modes. For now though, suffice it to say you have been introduced to Albany.



The Wing-Williams House, Albany, NY

The Wing-Williams House at 284 State Street in Albany was built in 1860 according to this site. The plaque on the house may read differently though. That teaches me for not taking a better photo of the plaque although it was hot, and I had already spent close to four hours tooling around the Albany Rural Cemetery, a must visit when going through the Capital Region. Albany has one of the most intact neighborhoods of Italianate row homes, the Center Square district, I've seen outside of Cincinnati. The Italianate seen in Albany is characterized by incredibly ornate and complex cornices and sculptured hood moldings with generous amounts of incised Eastlake decoration and trim. Also characteristic are large box windows overhanging entrances. This house, however, does not display these features.

This house instead tries to create a sense of grandeur that separates it from the more elaborate styling of the typical Albany row house, looking more toward Anglo-Italianate Renaissance precedents which formed the basis of many of the great brownstone mansions appearing on New York's Fifth Avenue than the vernacular American precedents of other nearby homes. Still the house has features that separate it from the strict Anglo-Italianate style of the Athenaeum in Philadelphia. The house, like the Albert house in Baltimore is a five bay row house and has a recessed bay in the center. Starting at the base, the rusticated stonework of the basement follows the segmented arch curve of the basement windows with paneled carved keystones. Thus the basement story has an undulating effect as its line curves along with the windows; a traditional Renaissance design doesn't employ such variations on the straight horizontal divisions between floors. The window treatments are also odd; the hood moldings don't conform to traditional curved or pointed pediments but instead have an raised vertical projection in the molding that interrupts its flow over the first floor's segmented arched and the second floor's round headed windows. This is the flat-topped trefoil arch so characteristic of the 1860s and 70s. The little finials on the sill flanking the window, suggesting a continuous surround, are also strange. These variations on the Renaissance scheme are influences from the Albany vernacular.

Similarly the cornice, like the hood moldings, has variations from the norm. The brackets and molding mostly follow Anglo-Italianate ideas, however, pairs of brackets at the corners of the side bays descend lower than the other brackets, creating a variation that defines the facades sections, but also departs from Renaissance form. The frieze is paneled in a vernacular way, and beneath the frieze are small guttae (or drops) running the length of the entablature and softening the line. Many Albany row houses use drops to enliven an entablature's line. The door is a fanciful creation, with cable molding, a centered cartouche and the segmented arch breaking the horizontal cornice line. The central window is divided in two, almost in the Venetian manner, but where the round window should be between the two arched windows is a dense swag of foliage. Below I have a detail shot of the door.