CHAPTER VII

GEORGIAN ARCHITECTURE IN NEW YORK

Strange as it may seem, the territory comprised in the present state of New York is not nearly so rich in Georgian remains as are the other parts of our country contained within the boundaries of the original Colonies. At first it may astonish the student of architectural history to find one of the oldest, wealthiest and most important communities, rich not only in material resources but in history, so devoid of the Georgian landmarks that characterise the adjacent sections of the country. New England is filled with well preserved memorials of the eighteenth century. So likewise are New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and the South. How is it, then, that New York is, by comparison, so deficient in this respect?

Several reasons may be assigned in answer to this question. In the first place, the representative Georgian houses in all parts of the Colonies were the homes of that part of the population that enjoyed affluent circumstances; they were not the homes of the plainer folk nor of those in humble circumstances. The majority of well-to-do citizens were to be found in New York City and there, naturally, were most of the Georgian houses. Even those that counted themselves as residents of other parts of the Province, as a rule, had their town houses there. What befel the Georgian country houses we shall shortly learn.

Unfortunately for the student of our architectural history, the relentless tide of mercantile progress in New York City has ruthlessly swept aside nearly all the landmarks of former generations and replaced them with high office buildings, factories, flats or warehouses. Only in the fabric of a few of the older churches or in some of the backwaters left by the eddying currents of urban life have a few scattered remnants of the city of the eighteenth century been preserved for us and even these are rapidly disappearing.

In the second place, a large proportion of the Georgian country houses, outside the territory now covered by the spread of New York City, have suffered so sadly at the hands of nineteenth century “improvers”, whose unintelligent alterations and additions have wrought architectural havoc, that oftentimes nearly all traces of Georgian characteristics have either been seriously marred or altogether destroyed. Instead of stately Georgian dwellings of august mien and compelling interest, as they once were, they have become mere commonplace and often repulsive agglomerations of masonry like other structures erected during the uninspired Victorian era. This is their plight outwardly and within they have often been subjected to indignities quite as revolting. Such systematic and calculating vandalism on the part of former owners cannot be too severely condemned but condemnation will not undo the mischief, and only the most conscientious process of restoration can in some measure remedy the misdeeds of the “enlightened” nineteenth century spoiler.

Another important reason for the paucity of Georgian domestic structures within the territory of New York is that, in the Hudson region and in the valleys abutting upon it, the majority of houses built during the eighteenth century, houses belonging to those in moderate and comfortable circumstances and also some belonging to people of great wealth and social prominence, remained Dutch in type and in their later architecture borrowed freely from Georgian and Classic Revival sources and adapted such details as they saw fit to new uses with a considerable degree of success. The Dutch colonial tradition was exceptionally strong, virile and intensely characteristic and persisted in spite of the introduction of the Georgian mode. Curiously enough, notwithstanding the potent individuality of the Dutch style, none of its significant peculiarities seems to have been grafted upon the Georgian stock in like manner with the blending processes and modifications that took place in New England or in the South.

Finally, a great many houses built about the beginning of the nineteenth century or at the very end of the eighteenth in the western part of New York showed a strong Classic Revival influence rather than any essentially Georgian affinities.

Several of the finest examples of eighteenth century work, which for lack of further special subdivision of our subject must be included in the Georgian period, belong to the Queen Anne category under the strictest classification. These are Fraunce’s Tavern and the Philipse House in Yonkers. The former was erected during the reign of Queen Anne and was originally the home of the Van Cortlandts and DeLanceys. It was not until the middle part of the eighteenth century that it became a hostelry. So many important events have been closely associated with the venerable building, among them Washington’s affecting leave-taking of his officers and troops, that it was both the privilege and duty of patriotism and a proper national pride to rescue the fabric from neglect and the

base uses to which it had fallen and restore it, so far as possible, to its former appearance and condition after all the vicissitudes which several generations of nineteenth century neglect and lack of appreciation had imposed upon it. In its general proportions, in the lines of its hipped roof and in many interior details, such as the panelling, it is distinctly reminiscent of some of the best English work of Queen Anne’s day although in several respects may also be traced the architectural influences of a later era. The other building, even earlier in date than Fraunce’s Tavern, has not suffered from the same damaging chances of fortune and debasement and far fewer of its details are conjectural. One might say that the carcase and contour of the Philipse Manor House are of Queen Anne character but that beyond that it is conglomerate since it embodies so many peculiarities and additions of later times that it can scarcely be considered truly typical of any one epoch. While much of the fabric is in its original condition, as erected in the latter part of the seventeenth century, the addition of Georgian details and adornments made by the lords of the manor during the eighteenth century may readily be traced, and while they are all interesting and admirable and not in any sense to be regarded as pieces of vandalism, they prevent the structure from presenting an appearance in strict chronological keeping with the date of its erection.

The Schuyler and Van Rensselaer houses have also undergone some unfortunate modifications from time to time which have impaired their typal value to the architectural student so that we are forced to content ourselves, when considering the Georgian houses of New York that are still really characteristic, with the Van Cortlandt house in Van Cortlandt Park and the Jumel Mansion. These are, both of them, interesting and worthy specimens belonging to the middle Georgian phase or the phase that corresponds chronologically with the middle Georgian phase elsewhere, but even here the hand of the “restorer” has recently taken some liberties which one cannot help feeling were unnecessary. The Van Cortlandt house--it is not to be confounded with the Van Cortlandt Manor House which is of much earlier date and is situated at the mouth of the Croton River many miles distant--was erected slightly before the middle of the eighteenth century and is an admirable specimen of the Georgian feeling of that particular day. One of the most striking features of exterior detail is to be found in the procession of grotesque heads or masques carved in high relief on the keystones of the lintels above the windows. They are typical of the decorative trend of the epoch, and although

their employment is not common in American Georgian architecture, other examples are to be found on the tower of the State House in Philadelphia, the tower of Christ Church, in the same city, and in the trims of some of the small circular windows in the gable ends of the Old State House in Boston. The panelling and interior adornments of the Van Cortlandt house display the disciplined proportion and judicious placing usually observable in other representative houses of the middle of the eighteenth century before the delicacy and decorative profusion of Adam influence had replaced the simpler and more robust conceptions of the school of Gibbs and his contemporaries. The Jumel Mansion with its hipped roof terminating in a balustraded deck, its substantial foursquare dimensions, its heavy quoins and its well proportioned columns is also eminently characteristic of the same school of architectural design.