Tea at Trianon: Italianate Architecture in America

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, January 2, 2024

Italianate Architecture in America

From Better Homes and Gardens:

As the name suggests, the Italianate architectural style does have Italian roots, but it actually developed in Victorian England as an homage to the informal housing styles of Italy. Architects, designers, and travelers returning from areas like Tuscany were inspired by the villas and homes found in the Italian countryside. Though it reflects elements of Italian Renaissance architecture, Italianate was considered by many to be a modern Italian style during its time, in part because it was less formal than both its namesake and the popular architectural styles that preceded it. By today’s standards, we’d still find Italianate quite traditional thanks to its characteristically ornate exterior trim.

Italianate architecture dominated the housing market in the United States for a few decades in the 1800s. Part of its pervasiveness was because the style's detailed trim could be applied to housing of many shapes and sizes, from modest single-family homes to row houses, large commercial buildings, and even grand estates. In fact, Italianate style inspired the remodeling of Highclere Castle—the real-life setting of the fictional Downtown Abbey—by architect Charles Barry in the 1830s and 1840s; his drawing still exists with the Royal Institute of British Architects.

And even though landscaping was important to its inception, the style was adapted in urban areas, too. The fictional home of Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City is among many iconic New York brownstones in the Italianate style. Historic single-family homes in the United States include the John Muir house built in California in 1882, and the 1860 Ulysses S. Grant house in Galena, Illinois.

Read on to find out what brought Italianate homes to such pervasiveness and learn about their signature styling. (Read more.)