The James Dwight Dana House, New Haven, CT

The James Dwight Dana House, New Haven, CT. 1849

The James Dwight Dana house on New Haven's Hillhouse Avenue, represents another important example of Indian Italianate by Henry Austin that does not follow the Bristol house plan. Built in 1849 for Dana, a celebrated natural history professor, the house breaks with what we have seen by following the side hall plan. The house is finished in stucco scored to look like stone, and has no window surrounds to speak of. The real pleasure in this house is the exotic detail. Starting from the porch, we can see the candelabra columns that are the most often encountered, with an 'urn', lotus bus, fluted shaft, and dripping echinus. The plinths of the columns are elaborate on the Dana house, with chamfered corners and spiked tops, adding an even greater touch of variety. The porch balustrade is also interesting with hardly describable balusters that almost look Art Nouveau. The tops of the columns are repeated inside the porch and look like stange inciples hanging down. Note the odd window tracery (almost Queen Ann) and the etched glass on the door. The tracery particularly reflects the designs at the Bristol house.

The cornice is also delightful. Although the house lacks brackets, this is made up for by the fringe design that runs around the house. The fring has free-form horshoe arches with balls at the end, simulating tassels. There are steps in the brick to suggest an architrave and frieze. A wing juts out to the north, which is enlivened by a shallow bay window and an odd decorated oriel in the corner. On both window protrustions, there is a similar fringe and trefoil motif. The back of the house has an very strange corner bay with fish scale shingles or tiles that is pierced by windows. I'm not really sure what to say about that except that its cool. The cupola on the roof, which is very hard to see from the street, is of a unique type that is almost entirely glass. It has dozens of small closely spaced windows in it without strong divisions and has scrolled supports. Looking at its spare design, it almost looks modernist and recalls the Metripolitan Opera in New York. A comparison with Austin's drawing from Yale University, shows many variations. There is no cresting on the porch roof, and the north wing is not included. The following pictures illustrate some of the aspects up close and include interior shots and plans from HABS.

Austin's original plan above.

 The HABS plan.

The Interior:



The interior is rather simple. The s-curve newel post can be found on several of Austin's houses. There appears to be etched glass in some of the windows.

A Unique House- The John Graves House, New Haven, CT

The John Graves House on Hillhouse Avenue, 1862.

The John Graves house makes a statement. On a street of mostly conservative, symmetrical, stuccoed Italianate villas, the Graves house breaks with the precedents of Hillhouse Avenue. Although in plan it is of the symmetrical type, the house's constantly shifting planes and masses, the restless breaking of the cornice line, and (from the side) the profusion of projections give the house a dynamic energy not seen in many Italianate villas. The front façade consists of two symmetrical bays, the third story of which breaks through the cornice line with a gable, almost giving the impression of half dormers. The corners are further enlivened by thick second story pilasters which seem to hover above the thinner first story corner boards. The center of the façade features two broadly jutting pilasters surmounted by a curved pediment that appears as a huge shadowy arch under which a balcony is placed. The depth of the arch is subverted by the projecting box window and balcony that rests upon a porch that juts out further still. Thus from porch to pediment, we see three large elements that recede as they move higher up. The whole is crowned by a more steeply pitched hip roof than is usually seen and a small cupola. The side elevations are just as complex.

 

The north side features three bay windows in a line with a shadowy recess under the central window.

The south façade also features a bay window and in the rear a large wing that because of the amount of windows gives the impression of a large box window. Again, a balcony tops this wing. A house with so many balconies and window effects was certainly designed to maximize the view of the avenue and surroundings.

Unlike the other houses I have posted, this house is of wood without any pretension of simulating stonework. The architect chose to emphasize this with many elaborate carvings and clear clapboard siding. Everywhere there are ornaments tucked into the houses nooks and crannies and blind panels filling wall space. A strong belt course in wood divides the first and second stories dramatically. The front windows have heavy cornices and brackets and vary from floor to floor. This house is a celebration of variety and carving ability. The brackets on the box window above the porch are particularly interesting as they intersect all the horizontal bands of the entablature. The following pictures show some of this delightful ornamentation.

 

First floor window treatments. The window is topped by a segmented arch. Note the paired s-scrolls that form the brackets and the carver's inclusion of foliage.

The windows on the second floor, with different brackets and elaborate foliage carving within the arch. Note the simple brackets on the cornice, a surprise given the elaborate treatment of the façade elsewhere.

                   The pediment and bay window.                                  A porch pilaster.

 

The delicately carved central flower on the porch entablature.

 

A close-up of the box window's cornice.

These pictures give you an idea of the delicacy and robustness alternating in the Graves House's decoration. While some people find this decoration monstrous, I tend to delight in the whimsy and complexity of it all. The same things that cause me to enjoy it are exactly the qualities that encouraged people in the mid 20th century to label the house a 'monstrosity' and encouraged them to demolish them. In looking at a house like this, you eye never knows what to focus on first, and that appeals to me, making this one of my favorite houses on the avenue. I've also always thought that the color scheme was particularly well done; the red window sash, the alternation of browns, creams, and yellow tints all are period appropriate choices and don't overemphasize the decoration as a "painted-lady" color scheme might have. The Victorians loved their browns and this house responds to that period's point of view.

The interior of the house has recently been renovated by Yale. The staircase is particularly fine with its carved newel post.

The gracefully curving stairs and the Renaissance Revival newel post.

The wainscoting along the stairs employs half of a newel post as a terminus for the paneling. The second view is of the stained glass in the box window over the porch.

 With this picture, shaded by the thick trees, I bid adieu to the John Graves House.

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?



The John P. Norton House, New Haven, CT



The John Pitkin Norton House, 1848/49.

Continuing with Hillhouse Avenue, we come to the John P. Norton house, one of the celebrated architectural pieces of its day and one of the best documented. The architect was a personal favorite of mine, Henry Austin (1804-1891) one of New Haven's most famous architects and one of the best known architects of Italianate architecture. He was also one of the most versatile architects of the 19th century. Austin proclaimed in his advertisements that he could design "in every variety of architectural style" and that he did. We have pieces by him in Gothic, Egyptian, Stick style, Federal, Greek Revival, and Second Empire, but it is his Italianate designs that were his specialty. Needless to say, you will be encountering him again on this blog.

The John P. Norton house follows one of the less popular of Davis and Downing's plans, the side towered plan and was constructed early in Austin's career in 1848/1849. The use of Davis' plan is particularly interesting because the house was built between two Davis houses. Thus, Davis own plans were being interpreted by Austin in a setting of his own designs. The original design has been altered, as have many of the houses on the avenue. The left-hand wing (south) is a later addition which attempts to harmonize with the architecture; it probably dates from the late 19th century. The center section has had a third story added to it, which alters entirely the drama of the tower. The wooden awnings, Juliette balconies, and window surrounds were all removed in the 20th century, but have been restored by Yale, which owns the building today. Still Austin's design is readily apparent despite these changes. Below are pictured Austin's original watercolors for the house from three sides from his papers kept at Yale University. He chose to depict the principal façade in a romantically rural setting, although the house was to be constructed on a densely built street.

The house has many significant features of Italianate design and is a uniquely finished specimen of the side tower plan. The brackets are thick and closely spaced, giving the impression of projecting roof beams found in Italian monasteries. The large eaves and dense brackets cast a strong shadow over the composition. The open loggia between the tower and the projecting pavilion conjures up images of medieval Italian cloisters. The stone capitals of the loggia pillars are noteworthy, projecting half a foot from the pillar. The whole surface is stuccoed pink and scored to simulate stone blocks. Perhaps most typically Austin are the window treatments and variations. In the Norton house one can see arched windows, triple windows, bay windows, and box windows. The tower itself is lively in its variation; the first floor might have once contained tripartite windows while the second features windows with small Juliette balconies surmounted by overhanging wooden awnings that are energized by dripping wood cutouts, giving the impression of a hanging circus awning. This curved roof on the awnings is called a tent roof, symbolizing in wood fabric draped over a frame. Above that on the third floor, two blind arches surrounding two arched windows simulates Romanesque blind loggias, while the final story of the tower has two paired arched windows, which a friend of mine labels 'tombstone windows'. These paired windows are especially common on Italianate houses, where, particularly in a tower, they represent open spaces where bells were hung. One the right hand pavilion, a box window is surmounted by triple arched windows with a small semi-circular lunette in the pediment, perhaps a throwback to Federal designs. The windows are finally surrounded with Austin's favorite type of molding, and several of the first floor windows have balconies. The images below illustrate some of the points I bring up.

Note the window variety on the tower alone. The projecting and retiring portions give the façade both a balanced rhythm and a balanced irregularity.

The Juliette balconies and awnings with jigsawed balconies.

A typical Austin window surround.

The north façade box window. Note the way the window rests on brackets.



The connection between the tower and the central portion.

 

A real surprise of the Norton house can be found on the inside. The entrance hall has a unique interior treatment of raised plasterwork that covers every surface in the room with raised Moorish designs which beg to be polychromed (at present they are painted several shades of green). The staircase features an elaborate and unique newel post that is from the original design and might have been carved by one of New Haven's leading woodcarvers at the time. The parlor to the right of the entrance, though divided into offices, retains a plastered ceiling with cartouches and flowers, while to the right, the later addition to the south houses a handsome parlor of the late 19th century.

 

The interior of the entrance hall and the Moorish wall treatment.

 The parlor ceilings with cartouches of triple fleur-de-lys.

 

The carved newel post and a later (probably late 19th early 20th century) stained glass window at the top of the stairwell.

The parlor housed in the addition, which reflects the Renaissance style of the late 19th century, probably the 1880s.

The Norton house remains a stunning example of Austin's work, despite the changes that time has taken on it and a significant example of an uncommonly seen plan.