Excerpts from: Houses from Books: Treatises, Pattern Books, and Catalogs in American Architecture, 1738-1950: A History and Guide
By Daniel D Reiff
Copyright 2000 the
..............When we survey the development of American architecture during the eighteenth century, we can observe, not surprisingly, that architectural books play a growing role in the increasingly sophisticated architectural design in the colonies. A survey of instances where books have had an impact on, or have been the source of design for, houses (and other buildings) demonstrates how important the printed page was for colonial builders, just as it had been in England.
How do we know that designs derived from architectural books had an impact on colonial and early American architecture? There is evidence in both the buildings themselves and in documents of the era. Before surveying actual cases and analyzing what they tell us about how such books were used, we can summarize the “proofs” we will encounter.
The most direct evidence that houses were sometimes designed based on plates in books is that in a good number of instances from the eighteenth century the dwelling and the plate are so close as to effectively prove the case, especially when they stand out dramatically from the “standard types” being built at that time around them. Naturally, the designs are often somewhat modified, but the congruences are still convincing.
Related to this is the fact that a large number of cases can be documented in which exterior and interior details (door casings, elaborate windows, fireplaces, and other such features) very closely match plates in books—and, as is the case with facades, the books were published before the date of the constructed work.
One can also find features that, although not quite congruent with a plate, are very close indeed. Such correspondences suggest that either the craftsman was developing a design based on the printed model but using his own creative ingenuity, or that he had perhaps seen work of this type, based on engraved sources, which he was then emulating. In either case, the printed page is not too far distant.
Occasionally there is even more direct proof: A designer may specifically state that he drew on books for his work; or a British carpenter’s manual survives with the name of a known American carpenter written in it.
Furthermore, there is clear evidence of the importance of books in American design: British books were imported in growing numbers into the colonies; and on the eve of the Revolution, books began to be printed in
As we have seen, in the early nineteenth century and even before, books were important to craftsmen for both new technical information and for designs to supplement, or to update and replace, their traditional features……Although with a few lacunae, Hitchcock’s list of nineteenth-century books relating to architecture published in America is a remarkably complete guide to assessing the impact of the printed page. A tabulation taken from his listing reveals how the demand for books grew---with the proviso that the number of imported books was always considerable. In the 1820s and 1830s, however, American titles appeared in increasing numbers. Books that primarily provided designs (although the dividing line between these and technical books was not always rigid) were usually the dominant type: eight in the 1820s, twelve in the 1830s, twenty-six in the 1840s, and thirty-six in the 1850s. This trend continued through the rest of the century.
Craftsmen, especially architects, purchased these books, as well as imported books, to aid them with their work. How many were available is demonstrated by the astonishing library that Ithiel Town collected, thanks to the wealth he gained from his patented bridge truss. When Town began to sell off his architectural library in 1842, he had about 11,000 volumes and about 25,000 prints!....................
It is revealing to remind ourselves how many of the noted architects of
As one might expect, new technology was often featured to introduce subscribers (of journals) to the latest developments in the building field. Plumbing was a subject repeatedly discussed. The earliest treatment was the series “Modern Plumbing”, which began in 1878 and ran for many issues; another series, “Recent Modifications in Sanitary Drainage,” commenced the following year; in 1882, there appeared “Notes on House Drainage” and the twenty-one part series (by none other than Glenn Brown), “Water Closets”, which included their history as well as modern technology. “Sanitary Plumbing” ran for more than thirty installments in 1883-84; at the end of the decade, the journal published the series “The Water Supply of Buildings” in 1887.............
Although not as extensively covered as plumbing and drainage, at least eleven articles or series focused on electricity. The first was “Electrical Progress in
Before the establishment of schools of architecture in the United States (beginning in 1865), there were really two ways for a person to become an architect without going to study in Europe: to apprentice as a craftsman (usually a carpenter) and then study books and journals or to work for an established architect, usually a draftsman, and learn by doing and observing. As the editors of The American Architect commented in 1876, “A few years ago it was difficult to give satisfactory advice to a young man in our country who wished to become an architect. There were no architectural schools in the
Fredonia contractors were not the only ones who could draw up plans for houses for themselves. Local carpenters who worked on their own (and thus were often minicontractors) also did this. A good illustration of this practice is the carpenter Clifford A. Smith........Smith did all kinds of work, including houses, barns, and garages, mainly in the Fredonia and Dunkirk area…….He sometimes had blueprints to follow. One anecdote in this regard, recollected by his daughter, is revealing. Clifford Smith was not a man given to swearing, but one day he cam home considerably annoyed about a house he was working on, an attractive English-style dwelling in brick, designed by a local architect. Smith had been following the blueprints carefully and discovered that the architect had drawn the cellar stairs so as to leave no headroom! “You might as well do it yourself,” he exclaimed. One can readily understand carpenter’s sometimes jaundiced view of architects, because carpenters themselves so often did drawings and were unlikely to make much mistakes.........
After World War II, methods of house building changed somewhat, with the introduction of new materials (such as plywood) and with the popularity in the 1950s and later of “prefabricated” houses, which came in large factory-built panels and were put together on the site............
Especially for smaller dwellings (like on-story ranch houses), carpenters designed houses themselves. The customers would tell them what they wanted, and “we’d make (the drawings) right in front of them with a ruler and a pencil” and then add dimensions. “A lot was built that way.”
Although blueprints were useful, carpenters did not run to them every other minute. “We didn’t use the blueprints too much; you’d look at them, but just get your measurements and go ahead and built it….You work out of your head most of the time.” For craftsmen capable of designing and building, a supervising architect was worse than useless. According to bull, “All they do is stand around…not doing a damn thing”…................
One important result of the expanding use of designs in books as models for houses was an increased homogeneity of domestic architecture in geographically diverse areas. As more and more people built houses based on plans from these books and catalogs and more and more carpenters and even architects turned to these volumes for models for emulation (or for making direct copies), house designs that had originated in Knoxville, Tennessee, Bay City, Michigan, or Chicago appeared throughout the United States................
One of the reasons for the great upsurge of domestic building beginning in the early twentieth century, which provided such a fertile market for the precut houses of Sears, Aladdin, Bennett Homes, and others and for the plans of Radford, Standard Homes, Stickley, and legions more, was the growing number of middle-class Americans who, thanks to a rising standard of living, wanted a home of their own rather than an apartment...............
