'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 Pleasant M. Craigmiles House, Cleveland, TN

P. M. Craigmiles House, Cleveland, TN. 1866. Photo: Brent Moore.

Photo: Wikimedia.

The Craigmiles house was built in 1866 as an announcement to the community that it was time to reconstruct after the Civil War. The builder, Pleasant Craigmiles and his family seem to have been an important local family with business concerns and buildings all around Cleveland. In 1923, the house was donated with several thousand volumes to serve as the city's library, and today it remains the history and archives branch of the library. This irregular plan Italianate has a graceful simplicity and balance of forms. It seems to eschew the complexities seen in some other post-bellum designs. Like other houses we have seen, this house maintains its horizontality with the cornice (consisting of simple paired brackets and dentil moldings) extending across the tower. An interesting feature is the jutting courses of brick brackets extending under the tower's cornice. This lends the tower a greater thrust to its height and eave overhang, asserting its importance, as does the tall finial.

The house is a testament to arches. A simple arch in the tower base serves as the main entrance with an arched porch with pierced spandrels extending on the recessed section. The windows almost all consist of Venetian/Florentine tracery and are doubled. The arch is again repeated in the windows and hood moldings (which include pearl moldings, or moldings with hemispheres placed at regular intervals) of the first story bay window. The ghosting in the brick and old photographs tell us the bay window and the main porch once had a balustrade. They really should be restored! A particularly lovely feature is the unexpected right hand wing with its three bay porch. This wing is lower than the rest of the house, consisting of a story and a half. The same arch motif is repeated here in the cornice's round gable and window. Two circular windows flank the round central window, creating a pleasing variation. This wing visually balances the house without overpowering any part of it as a full two story wing might have done, making the house look too large. It might have been handled in a pedestrian way, but its lower height and its interesting variation while maintaining continuity with the rest of the design, make this a lovely addition to the home. The following enlarged views of Brent Moore's excellent photograph highlight some of the details.