Virginia Architecture in the Seventeenth Century Part 4

While the white man sometimes copied the Indian in his construction, it is significant that when the colonists landed in 1607, the Indian, for his part, was already employing several types of English medieval construction, which he had invented and acquired independently of European contact. Although we have already cited most of these types, we list them again, in order to give the Indian credit, where credit is due: palisaded walls with moats, and pale fencing; puncheoning with wattles; central hearths with roof louvres for smoke; thatched roofs; and timber-framing with wattle-and-daub panels. How can anyone belittle the technical accomplishments of the Indian by calling him "savage,"

when in at least five building methods he equalled the white man bringing the English Medieval Style to these sh.o.r.es? Our English ancestors _originally_ lived in smoky buildings with the central open hearth in the middle of the great room; in seventeenth-century Virginia the Indian did likewise. The difference was in timing.

ii. THE COUNTRY HOUSE

In the seventeenth century, the English rural homestead was usually placed along the great Bay, the Chesapeake, or upon one of its tidewater tributaries. Back of such a seat, or on either side of it, there stretched the outhouses, generally arranged in rows or around courtyards. The water served as the princ.i.p.al highway, and the plantation depended upon it. Certain Indian paths, it is true, were turned into narrow lanes for carts, in order to reach the interior, like the oldest "road" in Virginia, which, as we have seen, extended from Jamestown to Middle Plantation, now Williamsburg.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Type of 17{th} century Virginia Plantation "Carotoman," Lancaster Co.]

The variety and number of properties which the prosperous land-owners possessed is revealing, by giving us a glimpse of the economic and architectural life of the times. Besides the mansion-house there were offices, kitchens and bake houses, slave quarters, school houses, dairies, barns, stables, granaries, smoke houses, spring houses, and dovecots.

There were servants' dwellings, spinning houses, smithies, tan houses, bin houses, well houses, hogsties, cornhouses, and guest houses. For the gardens, sometimes called "hortyards," there were summerhouses, greenhouses, and arbors. Then there were bloomeries and ironworks, wharves for landing goods, called "bridges," warehouses, windmills, watermills, sawmills, gla.s.sworks, silkhouses, brick and pottery kilns, lime kilns, saltworks, and blockhouses.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Green Spring Pottery Kiln c. 1646]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Two Va. Outhouses Bin House Jamestown (Author's Reconstr'ns)]

For all intents and purposes such grandiose estates were self-sustaining. Those goods not produced in Virginia came generally from England and were usually landed upon the wharf in front of the plantation-dwelling. That the kitchen outhouse was frequently placed at a distance from the dining room was primarily due not to cla.s.s or color distinction, but to the medieval custom of carrying food across the service courtyard.

Very often throughout the seventeenth century, especially on the Eastern Sh.o.r.e of Virginia, the kitchen building was tied to the main abode by a colonnade--a pa.s.sage with columns--or by a curtain--a covered pa.s.sageway.

That these edifices in their wooden parts were painted, when the owner could afford paint, is proven by the record of importations of large quant.i.ties of color pigments and oils to make paint. Many of us today think that the early Virginia building was white, but colors like gray and tan were common. When the owner could not bear the expense of painting, he left his house bare or "whited" it with good white lime--that is, used whitewash.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SOME OCCUPANTS OF 17TH-CENTURY VIRGINIA HOMES ATE FROM BOWLS LIKE THIS ONE, FROM JAMESTOWN A scraffito or scratched slipware bowl with one handle. Height 3-5/8", dia. 8-3/4". _Photo, author._ (See page 21)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A MEDIEVAL "PYRAMID" CHIMNEY IN VIRGINIA So large is the fireplace of this one-bay dwelling that you can burn an eight-foot log within it. Great "weatherings" taper the chimney towards the stack, which is freestanding as protection against fire.

Note medieval "black-diapered" brick pattern in gable. _Photo, author._ (See page 22)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: REMNANTS OF A MEDIEVAL VIRGINIA STOREHOUSE The foundation of the "Bin House," Jamestown, excavated by the National Park Service. The two brick bins have concave floors below the original main floor level. _Photo, author._ (See page 36)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A TYPE OF MEDIEVAL CORNICE IN VIRGINIA Unlike the later box cornice, to which we are accustomed, the cornice of this dwelling of about 1670 has exposed and rounded beam ends, which are pegged to a tilted plate, on which the rafters rest. Note corbel of overlapping bricks which stops cornice. _Photo, author._ (See page 37)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A MEDIEVAL "HALL-AND-PARLOR" HOUSE IN JAMES CITY COUNTY The "Warburton House" or "Pinewoods" of about 1680 has segmental-arched openings, "T"-chimneys, and chimney caps with mouse-tooth brickwork, a decoration which seems to have come into fashion about that time. A rear wing has disappeared. _Photo, author._ (See page 40)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: "SWEET HALL," A MEDIEVAL "T"-PLAN HOME IN VIRGINIA This old seat of the Claibornes in King William County, dating from about 1695, has very tall "T"-stacks, with "weatherings" or slopes above the ridge, and with heavy, ornate caps. The dormers and porches are later. _Photo, author._ (See page 41)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: CLAY ROOFING PANTILES FROM THE FIRST STATE HOUSE, JAMESTOWN The left-hand tile, nearly complete, has a "n.o.b" at one end to catch on the roof strips. It was pieced together by Mr. John T. Zaharov, and is the _first_ pantile ever found in the United States. The paper arrow at right marks cemented overlap. _Photo, author._ (See page 48)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: ONE OF THE MOST HISTORIC SITES IN THE UNITED STATES Much of our knowledge of 17th-century Virginia life and art comes from Jamestown foundations. This interesting "complex" of ruins reveals William Sherwood's house cellar of c. 1677-80, and in the immediate foreground, a fireplace hearth of the "Governor's House," probably built in the 1620s, and occupied by Sir George Yeardley. _Photo, author._ (see page 49)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A JAMESTOWN LATTICE CAs.e.m.e.nT AS IT CAME FROM THE GROUND This medieval window, with the diamond panes or "quarrels" knocked out, came from the "Double House on the Land of Thomas Hampton," and is drawn restored in _Jamestown and St. Mary_'s. Note pane of gla.s.s standing upon a Dutch brick. _Photo, author._ (See page 67)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: TWO UNUSUAL JAMESTOWN STRAP-HINGES The right-hand hinge, broken, probably came from a wagon-box or chest.

(See page 68)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A BRa.s.s SWORD HANDLE FROM THE JAMESTOWN MUD Found in three pieces with the blade missing, this cavalier's sword is ornamented with _putti_ and other decorations. _Photos, author._ _Courtesy, Antiques Magazine._]

The most significant aspect of the medieval rural abode in Virginia was its regular course of development from the simple, one-room-and-garret cottage--what an English bishop in 1610 called a "silly cote," a hut of "one bay's breath"--to the stately and elegant Georgian mansion of the eighteenth century. Even so, it may not be unequivocally declared that all the simple dwellings were constructed first and all the complex ones later. At the same time, we find that often the homes with more than two downstairs rooms and a central pa.s.sageway were constructed in late seventeenth-century times. Further, the country lodging for the most part was only one-storey-and-loft high. The full two-storey domicile was the exception.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Floor Plan of a Medieval One-Bay House (c. 1670) in Va.]

The elementary hut of one bay, such as we have noted as having been prevalent in the Cottage Period of the first thirteen years, was the earliest type of substantial house-form in the Old Dominion; it had a "hall," which was the "Great Room"--not a pa.s.sage,--a dining room, and a kitchen, all rolled into one. The garret with sloping ceilings, perhaps reached by a stepladder or narrow, winding, "break-your-neck" staircase, was usually a cold, unheated, cramped s.p.a.ce for sleeping.

One of these small, fractional-bay dwellings stood (1660) in Northampton County, and was ten feet from end to end. It served as the first meeting-place of the Quakers or Friends on the Eastern Sh.o.r.e, and was later used as a "wheat house."

A better known one-bay domicile was Richard May's, built about 1661 in Jamestown, and pictured in a crude sort of way in the Ambler Ma.n.u.scripts: a flush chimney at one gable and a front with central door flanked on each side by a window. Excavations by the National Park Service at the site of May's revealed that the house had a chimney at the opposite end--a feature which must of necessity have marked an addition.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLAN OF A HOUSE-FOUNDATION ON THE LAND OF ISAAC WATSON AT JAMESTOWN.

Showing the distribution of important hardware, and a reconstruction of the house. _Courtesy Antiques Magazine._]

One of the few known ruins of a one-bay dwelling was excavated at Jamestown under this writer's direction and was designated as the timber-framed "House on Isaac Watson's Land," built possibly as early as 1644. Before its destruction, it comprised one "hall," twenty feet by twenty, with a great projecting fireplace at one gable big enough for an eight-foot log to burn. The chimney must have been what we call a "pyramid," and it was flanked on either side by small "outshuts," which were probably "ingle recesses" or "chimney-pents." Inside, there was a Dutch oven at one side of the fireplace and a setting for a brewing copper next to it. This was no pauper's hovel, for the cas.e.m.e.nts were leaded, and the hardware included fancy wrought-iron hinges, including the fairly-rare "c.o.c.k's Head" hinge.

Another structure of this type is here ill.u.s.trated under the caption, "Medieval One-Bay House" (c. 1670) in Virginia. Without including its tremendous "pyramid" chimney, the dwelling measures twenty-and-a-half feet long and sixteen wide. The chimney end is wholly brick, and the other three sides clapboarded. The one downstairs room, the "Great Hall," has exposed posts, beams, and wall plates, with chamfers terminating in crude "lamb's tongues." In a corner opposite the fireplace there was a stepladder or very steep staircase, only twenty-seven inches wide. Upstairs there was one sleeping room with two tiny, lie-on-your-stomach windows--almost peep-holes--to give air and light. There were no dormers, and the long cedar shingles were pegged to thin oaken strips across the rafters. Even the floor beams were pegged to the rafters so that the roof on a stormy night would not part company with the "Great Hall."

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Medieval Hall-and-Parlor House in Va.]

When the planter or tradesman became a little wealthier, or his family became larger, it was a simple matter to add a "parlor" to one end of the homestead, thus making the second stage of development, the "hall-and-parlor" dwelling. There was a regular "school" of building of such habitations in seventeenth-century Virginia. In such examples the parlor was smaller than the "Hall" or "Great Room." Sometimes, of course, the early settler commenced with a "hall-and-parlor" residence built all at once.

The foremost example of this type in the Old Dominion is the "Adam Thoroughgood House" (c. 1640), Princess Anne County, a brick storey-and-garret dwelling, with a flush chimney at one gable and a "pyramid" at the other. The chimney-stacks are "T"s, meaning that they are designed in that shape in plan to reveal multiple flues. The brickwork is English bond, and the windows, before alterations, were leaded cas.e.m.e.nts. The doors, too, were battened, or built up with boards. All the openings have segmental arches, and high up on the brick gables are lines of glazed header bricks parallel to the rakes.

Of the same ilk is another brick lodging, the "Wishart House" (c. 1680) in Norfolk, which has two pyramid, "T"-chimneys, and a cornice terminated by little corbels of overlapping brick--a common medieval feature. Other extant examples are "Sweet Hall" (c. 1695) and "Warburton House" (c. 1680), both of which had a projecting addition at the rear.

In fact the records are full of "hall-and-parlor" houses which may have been destroyed, such as Sam Wools' plantation (1638) on Eastern Sh.o.r.e, twenty-five feet long and sixteen wide--a standard size. There was "one part.i.tion in it," and it had only one chimney and only one wing, a b.u.t.tery. The kitchen, it seems, was not mentioned, but it probably was an outhouse.

It was a natural step to the third development, the "central-pa.s.sage"

type, a group of buildings named by this writer for the purpose of convenience. A "screen" or wooden part.i.tion was added to the end of the "Hall" or Great Room in order to make a pa.s.sage from front to back in the center of the edifice. In that way the living s.p.a.ce, the "Hall," was made more private than when it served as a pa.s.sageway. At any rate, the brick "Keeling House" (c. 1700), Princess Anne County, is a good specimen. A later, or "Hangover" phase of the central-pa.s.sage type is "Smith's Fort Plantation," generally known as the "Rolfe House," Surry County, which has been continuously and erroneously dated 1652, but which really belongs to the first half of the eighteenth century.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Cross Plan in Virginia "Bacon's Castle," c. 1650]

The last or culminating development in the rural dwelling was the changing of a "hall-and-parlor" habitation, or one of "central-pa.s.sage"

variety, into a "cross-house." The cross was formed by adding an enclosed porch, usually with a "porch chamber" above it, on the front facade, and a wing, like a stair tower, to the rear. However, a "T"-shaped domicile, with no back wing, is also cla.s.sified as a "cross-house." An old record tells of one Southey Littleton, of Accomack, who had a porch and porch chamber on the front of his dwelling--in other words, a cross-house. Of the extant or partially extant examples in Virginia are "Bacon's Castle" (c. 1650), Surry County; "Malvern Hill" (c. 1662), Henrico County; and "Christ's Cross"

(c. 1690) and "Foster's Castle," (c. 1685) both in New Kent. They make a veritable school of building which once must have flourished the length and breadth of tidewater Virginia. With its noted "Bond Castle,"

Maryland, too, had a school of cross-houses.

Of the Virginia examples, "Bacon's Castle," two-storeys-and-garret high, with bas.e.m.e.nt, was built by one Arthur Allen, and was named for the rebel, Nathaniel Bacon, who in 1676 ordered his men to capture the dwelling. "Castle" meant "fort." Its cross-plan incorporated a porch, porch chamber, and stair tower. A low, wooden, curtain and kitchen extension, which is believed to have been seventeenth century in date, formerly stood off the gable on the "Hall" side--an arrangement indicating that the Great Room perhaps also served as a dining room. The curtain was the b.u.t.tery, or bottlery.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Medieval Diamond Stacks in Virginia Plan Bacon's Castle c. 1650 West Gable]

But the most distinguishing feature of "Bacon's Castle" is the Jacobean "curvilinear" gable at each end. These gables possess round members--"cuspings"--and steps, built pretty much the same way in which they were made in England and the Low Countries. The chimney stacks are Tudor, three in number, set diagonally on their bases at each gable.

Because of the way these chimneys look in plan, we call them "diamond stacks."

Also Jacobean are the crude brick pediment over the main entrance, now much changed, and the brick borders surrounding the windows--called "enframements." And of course, the windows formerly held leaded cas.e.m.e.nts, with mullions and transom bars.

Two important features of another of the cross-houses mentioned belong to "Christ's Cross," called for short, "Criss Cross." This writer can remember when there was hardly a person who knew of the existence of this place, and where it was located. The double door opening out into the enclosed porch from the "Hall" we have denoted as the "finest Tudor door in all Virginia"--because of its panel design and Gothic mouldings; and the post in the "Hall" has probably the finest Jacobean carved capital in the United States. The capital is in truth a _folk_ Jacobean carving, a grotesque, comprising a raised heart-shaped shield with crudely chiselled volutes upon it, and an "echinus" or cushion, and an "abacus" or block above it. It reminds one of the ancient Greek Ionic wooden capitals in Athens, Asia Minor, or elsewhere, which possessed rough or incipient volutes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Folk Jacobean Post Capital (c. 1690) "Christ's Cross," Va.]

Study of the cross-house in Virginia needs an essay to itself. We have tried here to give some of the highlights of this last development of the rural dwelling, which is outstandingly medieval in design and construction--with a bit here and there of Jacobean tr.i.m.m.i.n.g.