Colonial
Revival and Classical Revival By Peter Barr Inspired by a feeling of national pride prompted by the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876, the architects McKim, Mead & White toured original seventeenth- and eighteenth-century houses in New England in order to study them first hand. Then, in the mid-1880s, the firm designed a series of elegant mansions that preserved the key design features of these buildings while modernizing them and expanding their proportions to suit the needs of their wealthy clients. Among their earliest designs were the 1884 Appleton House in Lennox, Massachusetts, and the 1886 H. A. C. Taylor House in Newport, Rhode Island. Architectural descendents of the Appleton and Taylor Houses, which tended to become more historically accurate and simplified over time, feature a rectangular plan and an imposing central door that is framed by decorative fan lights and/or side lights. Their symmetrical façades feature white clapboard, stone or brick that was accented by dark shutters. Large double-hung windows—divided into small panes of glass—flood the interior with light. Generally, chimneys are plain and roofs have narrow overhangs and dormers. In all but the simplest designs, a single-story entrance portico frames the door and lead into a foyer that divides the dining room on one side from a living room (and frequently a sun-room wing) on the other. Behind the dining room is the kitchen, which is typically equipped with the latest conveniences. Stairs inside the front door lead up to three or four bedrooms and a bath. Until the 1940s, plans and materials for several popular versions were available through Sears Roebuck & Company and the Aladdin Redi-Cut Catalog, (out of Bay City, Michigan) among others. Variations on the Colonial style include: Dutch Colonial, Georgian Colonial, Garrison Colonial, Cape Cod and Classical Revival. The “Dutch Colonial” varies from the Colonial Revival in the design of its “gambrel” roof, which was derived from roofs found on 17th-century Dutch and English homes. Now associated with barn roofs, a gambrel roof breaks near the ridgeline to create a profile that resembles the section of a bell. A “Georgian Colonial” has a hipped or side-gable roof and frequently includes such classical elements as closed and broken pediments, quoins at the corners of the walls, dentils under the eaves, and decorative pilasters or columns based on the classical orders. The “Garrison Colonial” house features a second story that projects over the first story. The “Cape Cod” is a one-and-a-half-story Colonial Revival home with attic bedrooms tucked underneath its steeply pitched roof. The distinctive feature of the “Classical Revival” style (also known as the Neoclassical or the Classic Revival) is the full-height porch with colossal columns that dominate the façade. Dating slightly later than the Colonial Revival and sometimes discussed separately, this style originated with the buildings at the widely attended, photographed and discussed World’s Columbian Exposition, which was held in Chicago in 1893. Public buildings in this style can be quite impressive, as in C. Frederick Matthes’ design for the Lenawee County Savings Bank (now Bank of Lenawee), at 135 East Maumee.
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