'Woodlawn' the Henry Howard Owings House, Columbia, MD

The Henry Howard Owings House, Columbia, MD. 1840 Photo: Wikimedia

Starting out life as an 18th century wooden farmhouse, the Owings house (he bought it in 1858), aka 'Woodlawn' was extensively remodeled in 1840 in the Italianate style, a rather early manifestation of it by the looks of the design. It follows the symmetrical plan, with a central gabled projecting bay. Like most of these earlier designs, the decoration is pretty sparse, consisting of a tight cornice with no entablature, featuring the early style beam brackets. An odd feature is that these beam brackets are attached to the moldings above the windows, and not typically just at the corners but in a full run. This provides an odd bit of shadow and movement on an otherwise simple house. The porch is similarly simple, with thin chamfered posts and diminutive cut out designs. It's finished in appropriate stucco, and the painting of the house is quite appropriate to the Davis and Downing principles that underline its planning. Unfortunately, once surrounded by woods, the house is now surrounding by parking lots! Talk about some unpleasant rezoning. At least they left the house, even though its context is gone.

'Locust Grove' the Samuel F. B. Morse House, Poughkeepsie, NY

'Locust Grove' the Samuel F. B. Morse House, Poughkeepsie, NY. 1850

Photo: Wikimedia

Photo: Wikimedia

Photo: Wikimedia

Thinking of remodels into the Italianate style, the Samuel F. B. Morse house, Locust Grove, originally a 1771 five bay house, was remodeled extensively by the famous painter and telegraph developer (think Morse code) to the designs by Alexander Jackson Davis, America's premier Italianate designer of the period. The house, especially in its large arches, finish, and tower proportions very much resembles John Notman's Riverside in NJ. Davis successfully disguised the five bay house so that it is difficult to imagine what it originally looked like today, and because it was a remodel, the house does not follow any regular plan but is a custom design. The five bay façade, with the exception of the two outermost bays was completely hidden behind a massive projecting pavilion that covered the three central bays and entrance and sheltered a port cochere. This pavilion featured a large arched entrance in the center with a palladian window above. On the right side, Davis extended the façade with a polygonal bay framed by a large porch with thin, iron lattice supports. The left bay was originally supposed to be polygonal as well, but something seems to have changed in the design. Davis placed the tower to the rear, overlooking the Hudson, but aligned it so that it is centered on the projecting pavilion, making it look like a cupola from the front, a central tower design from the back. The whole façade is flushboarded with simple details reflecting its early period, a plain entablature board with c scroll brackets on the house (beam brackets on the porch). The window surrounds are complete moldings. The paint scheme for this house is certainly one of the most historically accurate, reflecting the pale colors favored by Downing and Davis. The house is now a museum.

'Ridgewood' the Edwin Litchfield House, Brooklyn, NY

'Ridgewood' Brooklyn, NY. 1854-57 Photo: Wikimedia

Photo: Kim

'Ridgewood' also known as 'Litchfield Villa' is perhaps Alexander Jackson Davis' most important and lavish Italianate mansion and bears the distinction of nearly duplicating a house we have looked at before, the Munn house in Utica, NY. Currently surrounded by Prospect Park in Brooklyn, it was built in 1854-57 by Davis for Edwin Litchfield, an extremely important figure in the development of Brooklyn's Park Slope, the Gowanus Canal, and railways. When Propsect Park was laid out, the Litchfields were allowed to keep their home until their deaths in the 1880s, after which the park service occupied the house as offices. After a long period of neglect, the house is in the process of being restored.

The house strongly resembles the Munn house in plan, and Davis seems to have simply expanded the already impressive design he had constructed in Utica a couple years before. A comparison of the facades of these irregular plan houses reveals a variety of differences. First, the placement of the tower and the chamfered projecting pavilion are reversed between the two houses. Unlike the Munn house, there is no recessed archway around the front door. The left hand wing, which once had a similar porch to that on the right, terminates in a surprising round tower with a conical roof. Round towers are exceedingly rare in Italianate houses. The disposition and treatment of windows is mostly the same, except the triple windows of the Munn house on the pavilion are paired arched windows here, and a balcony has been added to the third floor of the pavilion.

Decoratively, the Litchfield house is far more elaborate and more Anglo-Italianate, than the Munn house. The house has rotated s curve brackets typical of Anglo designs, as well as a highly refined acanthus leaf frieze and full classical entablature on the porches and windows. Most startling is the use of corn and wheat capitals instead of the traditional acanthus Corinthian capital, a very uncommon stylistic quirk that was part of the attempt to Americanize classical forms. Although the facade appears to be brick, it was intended to be stuccoed white (the stucco was removed in the 1930s and never restored). Overall, the Litchfields seem to have outdone Davis' earlier designs and created a more sophisticated and playful version that sought to convey a more European sensibility.

The house's interiors are quite stunning. A series of interior pictures can be seen here as well as a period image below. The floors feature beautiful Minton tilework, elaborately carved Rococo Revival fireplaces, pilasters, columns, and an interior rotunda. Finally, the house's interiors are being carefully restored, and one can only hope that someday the stucco may actually be replaced to allow the house its full effect.

Photo: Frank Sinks

Photo: Wikimedia

Parlor.

'Blandwood', the Charles Bland House, Greensboro, NC

Blandwood, Greensboro, NC. 1844

Continuing my exploration of some early Italianate houses, Blandwood in Greensboro is one of the nation's oldest Italianate homes, and it's spare design reflects the simplicity of many early Italianate houses. Begun as an 18th century farmhouse (the four room plan of which can be seen below), the home reached its current design in 1844 under the aegis of none other than Alexander Jackson Davis, the man who introduced Italianate design to America. Davis altered the house for James Moorehead by creating a new wing connected to the original house by a central hall and adding Italianate details, such as the arched entryway, central tower, plaster exterior, and rafter brackets, which are characteristic of most early Italianates. The lack of cornice ornamentation is also typical of an early design. The facade is of the symmetrical and central tower type, and unusual for this kind of design the tower projects dramatically from the facade and is not relieved by side porches. The overall effect is severity at its extreme.

Atypical for an Italianate house, this building lacks the usual play of round and flat headed windows that are usually found in towers. Similarly, the small size of the second floor windows is uncommon. The house also creates a strong sense of formality by the connection of the kitchen and side buildings with segmental arched arcades and simple pilasters. A folly like this is more common in English formal design than American. The interiors are well preserved, since the house was saved from demolition and now operates as a museum. A couple images below, selected from the NCSU page on the house, illustrate the elaborate interiors in their pre-restored state. Blandwood is a rare survivor of a fascinating early page in the history of Italianate design in America. 

Following Photos: NCSU

The Italianate Plan

The plan of an Italianate house is one of the central features of the style and one of its greatest contributions to the architecture of the 19th century. Many of these (indicated by roman numerals that correspond to their numbers in Downing and Davis) were published and designed by Davis. Davis was usually the architect and planner behind the scheme of these two designers; Downing tended to focus on color and landscaping. The drawing above was done by me with the intention of pinpointing all the varieties of plan that exist in Downing and Davis and establishing a clear terminology for my entries. Of course, this is not an exhaustive schematic; Italianate plans can take literally any shape. In describing the Italianate style, Davis talks about two types of clients, those who appreciate regularity and those who admire picturesque but balanced irregularity. The symmetrical plan is the height of regularity since it is symmetrical. The irregular and side-tower plans are the height of balanced irregularity. Both remained popular throughout the life of Italianate architecture and were adapted for other styles, particularly Second Empire. You may notice that towers are optional additions for many plans. Italianate designers loved their campaniles, and they employed them when the client's taste and funds allowed. Any of these forms may potentially have a tower. A house with a tower, however, almost never includes a central cupola. Some of the plans, the five-bay and the gable front did not originate with Davis but hearken back to colonial and Greek Revival precedents. Nonetheless, they remain a part of the Italianate vocabulary despite their inherited nature. I will go through each plan to clarify how they function:

Irregular

The irregular plan is one of the most common, and expresses Davis' love of irregularly balanced forms. It hearkens back to the irregular, pragmatic clusters of wings and additions found in Italian monasteries and farm houses. The plan consists of a projecting pavilion that features often a bay or box window, at the left in this image (plans can always be reversed), a central tower that is slightly recessed from the projecting pavilion where the main entrance is commonly located, and a recessed section at right that tends to be longer than the projecting pavilion with a porch running across it. Thus the plan starting from the left gradually recedes. Sometimes it is called the L-shape plan or the Tuscan villa plan, but Davis used 'irregular' in his own description so I have adopted it as its name.

Symmetrical

The symmetrical plan is, as it is called, symmetrical, and is perhaps the most common form of Italianate you will see. It features a central entrance flanked on both sides by one bay, making it a three bay composition. The center very often features a gable or pediment in the cornice and the central second story window is usually differentiated from the others. The center bay in many examples projects from the façade. The house is almost always hip roofed and may have a cupola in the center of the roof.

Side-Tower

This towered plan is less common than the irregular plan. It features a projecting pavilion on the left and a projecting tower on the right. The central section is recessed and usually has a porch and is the location of the main entrance. The central recessed section is usually longer than the projecting pavilion and is often two or three bays wide. The base of the tower has commonly a window. As with the irregular plan, the projecting pavilion often features box or bay windows. Like the irregular plan, its inspiration is the farm houses and monasteries of Italy.

Pavilioned

Davis says that the pavilioned plan was designed and sent to him by the Philadelphia architect John Notman, It is symmetrical, featuring two projecting pavilions with a recessed central section. The central section features a porch and the main entrance. The published plan shows a large central tower topping the central section, but it is an extremely uncommon feature. The plan itself is not particularly common, but can occasionally be found or discerned under later changes.

Five-Bay

Having finished with Davis' plans, the five-bay is an inherited form from colonial architecture, where the symmetrical five-bay house with central entrance was dominant. This type may feature roof with end gables or a hip roof that may include a cupola. Sometimes the center of the house will have a gable over the door facing the front and even dormer windows. This house may include a tower to one side.

Central Tower

This plan, an adaptation of the symmetrical or five-bay plan features, as I call it, a central tower where the main entrance is located. The tower projects from the side wings, which may be one or two bays long. Thus the house could be a three or five-bay composition. There are often porches running along the sides from the tower.

Side-Hall and Gable-Front

These two plans, which I group together, are inheritances from Greek Revival. They differ primarily in their roof shapes. Each is a three-bay composition with a door placed to one side rather than in the center of the façade. These may include towers to the sides, and when they do I call them towered side-halls or towered gable-fronts. The side hall plan features a hip roof that may include a central cupola. The gable front has the gable end facing the front of the house. In the gable-front, there are often tombstone windows in the third story. These plans are both very common and represent the majority of middle-class Italianate designs. It is also a plan suited to urban construction.

Row-House

The row-house plan is probably one of the most commonly encountered types for those living in Northeastern urban centers. It is also an inheritance from Greek Revival row-homes developed in England. Though designed to be part of a long row of attached houses, a house can use this plan without being attached. The typical row-house is three stories, although two stories also occurs. It is three-bays wide with an off center entrance. Sometimes they may stand on a high basement with a long staircase leading to the entrance called a stoop. This elongated basement is known as an English basement. The roof is usually not hip, but sloped in some way or even flat. This type can but rarely includes a cupola or tower.

 

These then are the Italianate plans. Remember that Italianate can come in all shapes and sizes and a plan's social connotations, frequency, and ornamentation depend on varying vernacular and architectural criteria.

Munn's 'Castle', Utica, NY

Photo from New York Traveller.

The so-called "Munn's Castle", 1 Rutger Park, Utica. 1852 or 1854

The Munn House in Utica is one of upstate New York's greatest Italianate monuments. The house was designed directly by Alexander Jackson Davis c. 1852 or 1854, and is reminiscent of another of his designs, that for Litchfield Villa in Brooklyn, built in 1854 as well (the Baughman House in Detroit was also a related design). The house is part of a 19th century development in Utica, Rutger Park. Originally part of the rural Miller estate until 1850 when it was divided into lots for building, Rutger Park formed as a 19th century street of mansions (akin to Hillhouse Avenue in New Haven or Cleveland's Euclid Avenue) that fronted onto a large park. The park and site attracted wealthy and influential Utica families who built a row of mansions, mostly Italianate homes, along the park's western side. The Munn house in the 1950s was converted into a nursing facility and subsequently abandoned. The interiors are in particularly rough shape, and from the images you can see, there are missing balusters and damaged verandahs. Although the house has gone through some rough times, the Utica Landmarks Society has purchased the house and plans to restore it as a house museum (kudos to them!). Utica itself, although it seems a little decayed, is home to a fantastic collection of Italianate buildings of which the Munn house is a particular gem.

Despite its 'castle' moniker that suggests Gothic architecture, the house is a particularly sober Italianate irregular villa. The design departs somewhat from the expected irregular plan, but considering Davis popularized the irregular plan in the first place, it's his prerogative to futz with it. Unlike the plan published by Davis, the house has a large wing to the left of the projecting pavilion, which dramatically increases its mass and horizontality. The projecting pavilion itself is chamfered (has angled corners) rather than 90 degree corners, which do give it a somewhat castle-like appearance, or make it seem like some overgrown bay window. The chamfered shape of the pavilion is elegantly echoed by the bay window on its first floor whose tripartite division is repeated up the façade. The tower is spare, unlike Austin's tower at the Norton house, with just a few round-headed windows. The brackets are small but frequently deployed without an entablature, again giving the effect of jutting roof beams, as Davis did in his design for the Apthorp house. The finish is scored stucco, an effect we have seen in many houses of the 1850s. Originally the façade was graced by a wooden porch on the right and a delicate cast iron porch on the left. Fortunately for us, Davis' plans and elevations for the house have been preserved and are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

 The north elevation.

 

The principal western elevation.

Both of these drawings can be found on the Metropolitan Museum's website (drawing 1 and 2). Looking at the plan, we can see that Davis took full advantage of his chamfered pavilion by incorporating chamfered rooms into most of the first floor. Where a lesser architect might have been forced to create thick and oddly shaped halls and closets, Davis beautifully combined the rooms into a carefully composed jigsaw puzzle that snugly fits these oddly shaped rooms together. From these elevations one can also get a good idea of the original finish of the house. In looking at these drawings, however, you should notice some discrepancies. The house seems to have been 'flipped' by the architect since the elevations show the tower on the left of the projecting pavilion whereas the house as completed has the tower on the right; also one of the porches is missing. A later drawing also in the Met, shows the house closer to its appearance as it was completed (credit).

The Munn house is an impressive example of an Italianate villa by a master designer. The careful balance of heights and widths betray the work of a great architect. I personally love how the tall, thin tower is contrasted with the thick projecting pavilion, how 90 degree angles contrast with chamfered corners, and how a 2 bay wing is balanced by a single bay wing. The house almost has a pyramidal shape as the various rooflines culminate in the tower with its urns. I am excited to see how the Landmarks Society restores this impressive monument.

Two Hillhouse Cubes- The Elizabeth Apthorp House and the George Fisher House

The George P. Fisher House, 1865.

The Elizabeth Apthorp House, 1837

In this post I am featuring two of Hillhouse's symmetrical cubes, the George Fisher house and the Elizabeth Apthorp house. These houses stand on opposite sides of the street and at opposite ends, and they are separated by 30 years; yet they share the characteristics of being blocky symmetrical, 3-story compositions. The Apthorp house has been bizarrely marred by additions, while the Fisher house appears as it was built. The houses both share similar window treatments and are much taller than many Italianates, which do not commonly rise above two and a half stories. Thus, I thought they'd make a fitting pair of bookends.

The Apthorp House stands at the end of Hillhouse Avenue on the western side neighboring the Norton house from my previous post. The house is one of several on the street designed by Alexander Davis in 1837, with whom you should be quite familiar now. As Elizabeth Mills Brown (an important architectural historian whose book New Haven: A Guide to Architecture and Urban Design is indispensable) notes, the brackets are like "exposed rafters under the eaves in the Tuscan manner". If one looks carefully, the brackets are actually quite shallow in height and do give the impression of roof beams peeking out from the eaves. The hip roof is surmounted by a small monitor (that is very hard to photograph). The windows consist of paired flat headed windows with simple moldings and brackets tying them together. The walls, as we have seen in many houses, are coated in stucco scored to simulate stone. What really livens up the façade, however, is the porch, which is uniquely Egyptian in inspiration (the glassed in room surmounting it is a later addition).



Egyptian Revival is a rare style to encounter, especially on a sedate avenue like Hillhouse. It was spurred by the publication of the Description de l'Egypte, a book of illustrations of Egyptian monuments by Napoleon's scientific staff. The series was completed in 1826, several years before the construction of the Apthorp house, but had some influence on American architecture. Connecticut alone has several examples: the monument at Groton, the cemetery gates for New Haven's Grove Street Cemetery (by Henry Austin, 1849), and the church at Essex, CT. The Tombs prison in New York by John Havilland (1838) was perhaps one of the most famous example of Egyptian Revival in the US and was a near contemporary of the Apthorp house (pictured below from Wikimedia.

 

Why this style was chosen is anyone's guess. Perhaps Davis was inspired by other Egyptian buildings like the Tombs being constructed at the same time. Perhaps Ms. Apthorp, who was moving from a decidedly pedestrian five-bay Federal house further down the avenue wanted to make an exotic splash with her new villa. The porch's columns seem to be of the papyrus-bundle type, although the entablature has a band of incongruous rococo swags, a testament to the 19th century's love of eclecticism. As I noted in my first post, Italianate architecture is open to all types of ornament, and the addition of Egyptian elements doesn't make this any less an Italianate villa. It's simply the manifestation of style on an Italianate canvas.

The additions and remuddles are interesting in themselves. A look at the south façade (above) shows a riot of pilasters and columns. The pilasters were added to the house in 1909 by the owner who salvaged them from a demolished house by the Federal architect David Hoadley. In addition, side porches and box windows have been added to the design, leading Mills Brown to call it the "Old Curiosity Shop on Hillhouse Avenue".

 

The George P. Fisher House stands at the entrance of Hillhouse on the east side and was built in 1865. The Fisher house receives some harsh criticism from Mills Brown, who said of it "a surprisingly gawky version of the late-late villa style". The house has the distinction of having four nearly symmetrical facades without side wings, ells, or additions, making it a cube. Like the Apthorp house, the Fisher house rises three stories, has paired flat top windows, and scored stucco. The porch on the Fisher house, is far more classical, being a pedimented and very 'correct' Corinthian affair. A gable atop a small façade projection interrupts the flow of the cornice and wall on three sides of the house, providing an undulating rhythm as one walks around it. The hip roof has no cupola, which is a wonder given the grand effect being sought. The window treatment is particularly interesting, in that the hood moldings over the windows fade into the façade with a small tent roof protrusion.

 

The house has a full verandah on the rear that is currently enclosed. Also of note are the brackets, which form a graceful s-curve, have an open space between the curve and the wall attachment, and are finished with a drop that resembles an acorn. As opposed to many of the brackets we have seen, these large types of brackets are more common as Italianate enters the late 1850s and 60s; in the 1870s, the brackets sometimes approached monstrous sizes. Below are shown the rear porch and brackets.

 

 I have a few pictures of this house's interior which retains many features of the 1860s in its design.



A parlor at the end of the main hall, now used as office space/seminar space.

The newel post and banister. The paired spindles that project from the stairs are noteworthy.

Given these two houses, separated by 30 years, yet very similar in conception, which do you prefer?



What do I mean by Italianate?

"Victoria Mansion" in Portland, ME. The house is more suitably known as the Morse-Libby House and was built in 1860. It is a 'textbook example of Italianate architecture and was designed by Henry Austin. Image from Wikipedia.

In answer to the question I posed in my title, one could say a lot. Italianate is a 19th century architectural style, a system of ornamentation, a mode of designing house plans, a romantic or downright silly interpretation of Northern Italian building, a Victorian horror... The Italianate style can be viewed as all of these things. It was perhaps the most popular and most long-lived architectural style of the 19th century, yet there exists no comprehensive monograph or study of it on its own. Without the grandiosity of Second Empire, the restlessness of Queen Anne, the ponderousness of Gothic Revival, or the reasoned calmness of Greek Revival, Italianate architecture seems to fall by the wayside in discussions of 19th century style. Often when I've talked to my friends about it, their answer is that this or that Italianate building just looks like "a regular old building" to them. Some of us live our lives around Italianate architecture without even noticing it. This blog attempts to address this lack of interest by looking at American Italianate architecture, primarily domestic, and hopefully showing that indeed Italianate can express restlessness, grandness, calm, and weightiness. Because of its long life and its adaptation in nearly every geography of the US, Italianate architecture developed a versatility; it became a simple canvas on which many concepts could be grafted, whether those visions suggested Florence, London, Athens, or even Delhi. Living in New Haven, Connecticut, a city and state which both have a rich relationship with Italianate architecture, I have come to appreciate just how complex and malleable this style is, and so I decided to write this blog.

 

I'd like to start off with a little discussion about what Italianate architecture is. It is a style of building that was popular throughout the 19th century which took its inspiration from the monasteries and villas of Medieval and Renaissance Northern Italy. It did not aim to be a replication of its prototypes, but rather a representation in a concentrated form of the monasteries it emulated. The first Italianate building is generally considered Cronkhill House in the UK, designed by John Nash in 1802, pictured to the right (image from wikimedia commons.) In essence, Cronkhill is a Regency cube, stuccoed, with two asymmetrically placed towers. It has broad overhanging eaves with notable supporting brackets and low hipped roofs. All these features are the hallmarks of the Italianate Style, although Cronkhill does not express them to the degree that they would be in the US. Italianate began in England, but changes and reinterpretations of its precepts when it arrived in the US altered it so much that American Italianate is its own unique style with its own vocabulary and variations.

Italianate was introduced to the US by Alexander Jackson Davis (1803-1892) and Andrew Jackson Downing (1815-1852) in their book Cottage Residences (1842). In this hugely influential book, Davis and Downing provided plans for country houses in a variety of styles (Gothic, Swiss, Italian etc.), discussed the suitability of each style, provided exterior decorative and gardening ideas, and discussed proper color choices.  They characterized the 'Italian Style' as suitable for a warm climate because of its verandahs and balconies and said that the style recalls "to one familiar with Italy and art, by its bold roof lines, its campanile and its shady balconies, the classic beauty of that fair and smiling land, where pictures, sculpted figures, vases and urns...make part of the decorations". For Davis and Downing, the Italian style was a romantic form that suggested to its beholder (their man of artistic and picturesque appreciation) thoughts of Italy and its artistic associations and warm Mediterranean climate. In a world of the Grand Tour and an emphasis on Italian art and architecture, in which one's class was displayed through one's aesthetic refinement, the Italianate style could not have failed to prosper.

The essential hallmarks of Italianate architecture included for Davis and Downing:

• Very broad eaves supported by strong, noticeable brackets. The notability of these brackets sometimes caused the style to be called "Bracketed". The brackets and eaves remain the most significant stylistic feature of Italianate architecture.
• Low hipped roofs. These low roofs mimicked the roofs of Italian architecture, although occasionally on towers and cupolas different roofs could be employed. As the style evolved in the 1870s a higher pitched hip roof was developed.
• A tower or cupola. Irregularly planned houses usually feature a tall tower or campanile. Symmetrical villas often have a cupola or belvedere in the center of the hip roof.
• Verandahs. Often the verandah runs the length or part of the length of an Italianate house. Sometimes verandahs are included on the sides between projecting sections.
• Irregular or Regular Plans. These two types of plans form the basis of most Italianate houses, although the style was adapted for use with a variety of plans and shapes.
• Other features include 'Juliette' balconies, exterior wooden awnings (projecting eaves over windows), tent roofs, two story porches, bay windows, and elaborate hood moldings around windows. The various features of Italianate can vary from builder to builder and region to region.

Two of Davis' plans particularly characterize Italianate architecture, the symmetrical and the irregular. The symmetrical plan of an Italianate house involves the door centered on the façade with two bays flanking it. The irregular plan, or as Davis says, the embodiment of "artistical irregularity" is more complicated. It involves in order from one side of the front façade to the other a projecting pavilion, usually with one central window, a tower which is recessed from the projecting pavilion, which is where the door is often located, and a set-back pavilion which may have a lower roofline than the projecting pavilion and is often fronted by a porch. This set-back pavilion is usually longer than the projecting pavilion. The Morse Libby House in Portland pictured above is a classic example of the irregular plan. The picture at the left shows Downing and Davis' plan for an irregular Italian villa (from Wikimedia). The picture below shows a symmetrical Italianate villa on Orange Street in New Haven. Although the two story porch is uncommon, nonetheless it reflects the symmetrical plan.



A symmetrical Italianate plan on Orange Street in New Haven. The Watson-Coe House 1867-1868.



Of course, Italianate architecture uses a variety of plans. The gable-front Greek revival plan as well as the five bay Georgian plan (whether with a hip roof or gable ends) persisted through the 19th century and many Italianate houses follow these plans. A great many Italianate homes follow the side-hall plan, in which the door is placed to one side of a three bay composition. There is also another type of towered plan in which the tower is placed to one side of the composition and the projecting pavilion is placed at another with a recessed section connecting them, which I call the "side-tower" plan. Although they may seem tedious, these plans are significant for the development of other styles as well. Second Empire architecture, for instance, often closely follows these plans, simply adding a mansard roof into the composition. I have drawn a pretty basic chart of these various plans, of course variations will be dealt with as they come up.

 

So much for plans. I'd like to add a few more things before I conclude this post. First, Italianate, as I've said, is a flexible style. It was never dominated by one particular style of ornamentation and detail. Perhaps the most striking example of this is Henry Austin's application of Indian (or as he might have said 'Saracenic') ornament to the Italianate plan. These houses in essence retain the style and feel of Italianate even though there are elements of Indian architecture in the design. Another style which was often applied was the so-called "Steamboat Gothic", which consists of porches (usually) with elaborate and complex jigsaw work that doesn't particularly fall into any of the traditional stylistic categories. Italianates can be the best examples of regional and personal vernacular in the US. As time went on each new generation's concept of ornament was applied to the Italianate plan and thus we can see the whole range of styles and decades reflected in Italianate houses.

Italianate architecture was versatile in its use outside of domestic architecture. Although Davis and Downing envisioned it as a style suited to warmer climates and country or suburban villas, it was used in urban row-houses, churches, schools, public and commercial buildings, and even cemetery mausoleums. Although this blog focuses primarily on domestic design, I will sometimes include examples of other types of structures which have their own quirks. I would welcome photo submissions from people who would like to have an Italianate house or building in their area posted. I would ask that when doing so you try to include a general picture of the building, views from both sides and close-ups of unique details. It's been a long post, but introductions always have to be a bit long and complex. At any rate, I will post some interesting new buildings soon for your consideration.