LOCAL COLOR, OLD PHILADELPHIA.
Renaissance architecture of Bristol, and anyone who should be particularly interested in this local development of his national school I would respectfully refer to the indexes of those publications. There are no Colonial houses exactly like those of Bristol. It has a unique development of its own. If the De Wolf-Colt mansion-house is the most elaborate of its contemporaries it is not the more remarkable. The house once belonging to Captain Churchill, sometime master of our queen of privateers, the “Yankee,” erected in 1807, is a most fascinating exemplar of its genus ([Plate XL]). Nearly all the Bristol houses have parapet rails, the detail of which is exquisite. The rails of the Churchill house are particularly fine, while gracefully poised upon a ball at each corner is a carved American eagle, perhaps intended to be emblematic of the victories gained over the British by their intrepid master. Another uncommon development greets us in the Norris house ([Plate XL]). It has two parapet rails, to accomplish which distinction the third story is narrowed up, I should judge about two feet all around the building. The De Wolf-Middleton house, situated on a peninsula forming Bristol harbor, called “Papasquæ,” erected in 1808, is still another splendid home with flanking wings and intermediate passages, in which respect savoring of adorable Annapolis. ([Plate XLII]). The view shown is really the rear-view though it be the carriage approach.
Then follow so many beautiful things in Bristol to describe that I quite despair of making selections. There are doorways—bewitching doorways galore, one or two I have already used to illustrate American Renaissance, and I hope to find room for others without prejudice to other towns.
Under the title “A Salem Enchantment,” in the House Beautiful for November, 1902, may be found somewhat more of an account of an interesting town filled with early nineteenth century work than is possible here. What Annapolis is to the grand epoch Salem is to the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Federal Street, Essex Street, Broad and Chestnut suggest a panorama of edifying domestic architecture. But of all the grateful impressions that stamp themselves indelibly upon the mind, one in particular has
HOUSE WITH THE EAGLES, BRISTOL, R. I.
THE NORRIS HOUSE, BRISTOL, R. I.