Architecture

The house is architected in the Italiantate style, technically, although some of the more "Italianate" features were very likely added after the original construction was completed. The Italianate style was brought to the United Kingdom in the early 1800s, and by the 1830s was made quite popular there. 

Athenaeum of Philadelphia

There are four architects best-known for popularizing the Italianate style in the United States. The first, Scottish-American John Notman, introduced the style in the late 1830s. Notman is recognized for the many churches he designed, including the Church of the Holy Trinity in Rittenhouse Square, but he also designed the first Italianate building in Philadelphia, and perhaps in the US, the Athenaeum. Added to the National Historic Register in 1976, the Athenaeum of Philadelphia operates today as a history and antiquities museum.

The second, Richard Upjohn, emigrated to the US in 1829 and became famous for designing Gothic Revival churches, with his first being St. John's Episcopal Church in Bangor, Maine. in 1857, he became a founding member of the American Institute of Architects, now the largest and most influential architectural trade association, headquartered in the head-turning Octagon House in Washington, DC.

The Octagon House itself is an interesting story, as it is reputed to be simultaneously haunted by the ghosts of slaves, a British soldier, a gambler shot and killed in a third floor bedroom, and even Dolley Madison. Perhaps the sheer volume of apparitional residents explains the unnerving experience of hearing every bell in the house ringing at the most inopportune times. Sounds like a Washington DC tour stop worth visiting!



The Edward King House, Newport

When not building massive Gothic churches, Upjohn used Italianate style in residential design "extensively" starting in 1845. His Newport, Rhode Island design for Edward King was built between 1845 and 1847, and was considered such a standard-setter that an engraving of the house was described in Andrew Jackson Downing's 1850 book The Architecture of Country Houses as "one of the most successful specimens of the Italian style in the United States."

Himself an architect, writer and horticulturalist, Downing favored Gothic and Italianate design. He seemed to take his profession quite seriously, going so far as to ascribe moral objectives to providing people with adequate homes. He opens the preface to Country Houses with "There are three excellent reasons why my countrymen should have good houses," and proceeds to convince the reader that his work is not only useful, but essential to the very fabric of humanity.



James Dwight Dana House, New Haven

The third architect credited with the advancement of the Italianate style was Henry Austin of New Haven, Connecticut. During the 1840s and 1850s, he designed in a number of styles including Italianate, Gothic, Egyptian and Moorish Revival. Many of his Italianate designs incorporated far-eastern influences, including this home designed for Yale geology professor James Dwight Dana in 1849. The house, now owned by Yale University and a Historic Landmark since 1965, has "candelabra columns" supporting the hipped front porch roof.

The fourth architect, and the man who is most-identified with the popularizing of the Italianate style, was Alexander Jackson Davis, a highly successful American architect. While he is most associated with Gothic Revival, he used Italianate as an alternative to the heavy, imposing Gothic structures he designed. Most of the Italianate homes he designed were built in the 1850s, and his designs helped the style become the most popular for American homes during the 1850s and 1860s.

Blandwood Mansion, Greensboro

The oldest surviving Italianate Tuscan Villa style home in the United States is Blandwood Mansion in Greensboro, North Carolina, completed in 1844 by Davis. Originally a Federal-style farmhouse built in 1795, Blandwood was refashioned into the home for 2-term North Carolina governor John Motley Morehead, who lived at Blandwood until he died in 1866. Blandwood is one of the 10-15% of American Italianate houses with a tower. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, Blandwood remains open as a museum today.

In addition to designing homes and churches, AJ Davis also had a number of commissions to design university campuses. In 1838, he was retained by the Regents of the University of Michigan to design the first campus buildings. The Regents subsequently approved the Gothic Revival plans for campus buildings, but their financial situation during the 1840s forced them to abandon the designs and instead proceed in a classical style that was more cost effective. Davis' unfufilled vision of the Ann Arbor campus is detailed in the book Aspirations for Excellence: Alexander Jackson Davis and the First Campus Plan for the University of Michigan. 

Flat-sawn balusters and cornices

Corbels supporting wide eaves

Italianate design features eaves supported by corbels, low-pitched or "hipped" roofs as seen in the Dana house above, tall first floor windows and in some cases cupolas or towers. Some exterior detailing is similar to Victorian design, with fancy cornice brackets and turned or flat-sawn porch balusters.

The Larner-Jones house was originally a small, 2-parlor square house, without a kitchen in the main house. There was no 3rd floor attic bedroom, and the original roof line was much flatter than it is today. It was essentially a simple farmhouse with Italianate design elements such as the tall first floor windows, low-pitched roof, and porch design. While there are no photographs of the house that predate 1902, we suspect that the corbels under the eaves were added much later than the presumed construction date of 1852.

Circa 1970

Pictures from the 1960s and 1970s show what appear to be flat-sawn gingerbread balusters on the side porch, although today the roof over the side porch is supported by a very contemporary (and not so pretty) pressure-treated wood deck. We intend to remedy that. This is as "Italianate" as the house ever looked, with the balusters, eaves supported by corbels, and hipped roof lines.