The doorway in Illustration [396] is in a very different style from that of McIntire, with its delicate and graceful ornamentation.
Illus. 396.—Doorway in Dalton House, Newburyport, 1720.
This doorway is in the house built in 1720 by Michael Dalton, in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and now occupied by the Dalton Club. It was Michael Dalton who built this house, but its golden years were during the ownership of his son, Tristram Dalton, who married the daughter of “King” Hooper, and who might well be called by the same name as his father-in-law. In evidence of his wealth and lavish manner of life is the story of his splendid coach, lined with white satin, drawn by six white horses, and attended by four outriders, all in white and mounted upon white steeds. In this dazzling equipage the various brides of the family left the house, and the same royal splendor probably attended the arrival at the house of famous guests, of whom there were many. All this display does not agree with the common notion of sober New England, but smacks rather of the aristocratic Virginians who built mansions on the James River. The doorways and mantels in the Dalton house tell of great wealth, for those early years of 1720. They are made of pine, painted white, and all of the woodwork is hand carved. The doorway in Illustration [396] is in the same room with the mantel in Illustration [397] and is designed in the same classical style, with fluted columns and Ionic capitals. The cornice is the same, and the egg and dart moulding upon it extends with the cornice entirely around the room. The immediate frame of the door has the same carved moulding as the lower part of the cornice, and the window frames. The door itself is very fine with eight panels. The knob is new. The original knob was of iron.
Illustration [397] shows the mantel in the room with the doorway, and at one side is a glimpse of the cornice and frame of the window with its deep seat. The fluted square pilasters of the doorway, in the mantel are changed to round detached columns, and there is a plain panel with simple mouldings over the narrow shelf.
Illus. 397.—Mantel in Dalton House, 1720.
Illustration [398] shows another mantel in the Dalton house, of a plainer form, without columns, but with a heavy moulding, a variation of the egg and dart, around the fireplace and the plain centre panel.