FIG. 220.—NATIONAL CAPITOL, WASHINGTON.
EARLY REPUBLICAN PERIOD. Between the Revolution and the War of 1812, under the new conditions of independence and self-government, architecture took on a more monumental character. Buildings for the State and National administrations were erected with the rapidly increasing resources of the country. Stone was more generally used; colonnades, domes, and cupolas or bell-towers, were adopted as indispensable features of civic architecture. In church-building the Wren-Gibbs type continued to prevail, but with greater correctness of classic forms. The gambrel roof tended to disappear from the houses of this period, and there was some decline in the refinement and delicacy of the details of architecture. The influence of the Louis XVI. style is traceable in many cases, as in the New York City Hall (1803–12, by McComb and Mangin), one of the very best designs of the time, and in the delicate stucco-work and interior finish of many houses, The original Capitol at Washington—the central portion of the present edifice—by Thornton, Hallet, and B. H. Latrobe (1793–1830; Fig. 220), the State House at Boston (1795, by Bulfinch), and the University of Virginia, at Charlotteville, by Thomas Jefferson (1817; recently destroyed in part by fire), are the most interesting examples of the classic tendencies of this period. Their freedom from the rococo vulgarities generally prevalent at the time in Europe is noticeable.
FIG. 221.—CUSTOM HOUSE, NEW YORK.
THE CLASSIC REVIVAL. The influence of the classic revivals of Europe began to appear before the close of this period, and reached its culmination about 1830–40. It left its impress most strongly on our Federal architecture, although it invaded domestic architecture, producing countless imitations, in brick and wooden houses, of Grecian colonnades and porticos. One of its first-fruits was the White House, or Executive Mansion, at Washington, by Hoban (1792), recalling the large English country houses of the time. The Treasury and Patent Office buildings at Washington, the Philadelphia Mint, the Sub-treasury and Custom House at New York (the latter erected originally for a bank; Fig. 221), and the Boston Custom House are among the important Federal buildings of this period. Several State capitols were also erected under the same influence; and the Marine Exchange and Girard College at Philadelphia should also be mentioned as conspicuous examples of the pseudo-Greek style. The last-named building is a Corinthian dormitory, its tiers of small windows contrasting strangely with its white marble columns. These classic buildings were solidly and carefully constructed, but lacked the grace, cheerfulness, and appropriateness of earlier buildings. The Capitol at Washington was during this period greatly enlarged by terminal wings with fine Corinthian porticos, of Roman rather than Greek design. The Dome, by Walters, was not added until 1858–73; it is a successful and harmonious composition, nobly completing the building. Unfortunately, it is an afterthought, built of iron painted to simulate marble, the substructure being inadequate to support a dome of masonry. The Italian or Roman style which it exemplified, in time superseded the less tractable Greek style.
THE WAR PERIOD. The period from 1850 to 1876 was one of intense political activity and rapid industrial progress. The former culminated in the terrible upheaval of the civil war; the latter in the completion of the Pacific Railroad (1869) and a remarkable development of the mining resources and manufactures of the country. It was a period of feverish commercial activity, but of artistic stagnation, and witnessed the erection of but few buildings of architectural importance. A number of State capitols, city halls and churches, of considerable size and cost but of inferior design, attest the decline of public taste and architectural skill during these years. The huge Municipal Building at Philadelphia and the still unfinished Capitol at Albany are full of errors of planning and detail which twenty-five years of elaboration have failed to correct. Next to the dome of the Capitol at Washington, completed during this period, of which it is the most signal architectural achievement, its most notable monument was the St. Patrick’s Cathedral at New York, by Renwick; a Gothic church which, if somewhat cold and mechanical in detail, is a stately and well-considered design. Its west front and spires (completed 1886) are particularly successful. Trinity Church (1843, by Upjohn) and Grace Church (1840, by Renwick), though of earlier date, should be classed with this cathedral as worthy examples of modern Gothic design. Indeed, the churches designed in this style by a few thoroughly trained architects during this period are the most creditable and worthy among its lesser productions. In general an undiscriminating eclecticism of style prevailed, unregulated by sober taste or technical training. The Federal buildings by Mullett were monuments of perverted design in a heavy and inartistic rendering of French Renaissance motives. The New York Post Office and the State, Army and Navy Department building at Washington are examples of this style.
FIG. 222.—TRINITY CHURCH, BOSTON.