The diverse traditions of architecture in the United States underwent dramatic changes during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Population grew, cities expanded, and new ideas about public and private life gained currency. During this period architectural fashions shifted, housing standards improved substantially for some people, public buildings diversified and proliferated, and a new typeof building designer--the professional architect--gained prominence.

The most readily discernible change in Anglo-American architecture during the period 1754-1815 is that of architectural style. The mid-18th century saw the growing popularity of "Georgian" architecture. First introduced into the North American colonies about 1700 and embraced by the very wealthy, the Georgian style represented the extension of ideas spreading in Europe since the Renaissance. Georgian houses were characterized by a new attention to bilateral symmetry: two windows on either side of an entrance and five windows across the second floor. These houses typically extended two rooms deep with a central hallway; kitchen and work areas were placed in a rear wing. The central hallway, which allowed people to move through the house without intruding into individual rooms, increased personal privacy while also separating work spaces from those for entertainment. The Georgian style of architecture also showcased decorative details borrowed from architectural publications of the period known as "patternbooks."

Most popular was the practice of accentuating entrances with classical ornaments such as pilasters (flat columns applied to a building's surface) or pediments (triangular decorative elements of applied molding). Windows, too, were often topped with pediments and contained many panes of glass in upper- and lower-window sashes. In New England, a good example of Georgian domestic architecture is the Vassal-Craigie-Longfellow house in Cambridge, Massachusetts (1759). Mount Airy in Richmond County, Virginia (1754-64) and the Corbitt-Sharp house, in Odessa, Delaware (1771-72) are also typical examples.

In the decades following the Revolutionary War (1775-83), and lasting well into the 19th century, the Georgian style was replaced by a variant of classical architecture known as "neoclassical" or "Federal." This style of architecture used a refined classical vocabulary that emphasized thinness, verticality, and delicacy. Particularly popular in East Coast seaport towns such as Salem, Massachusetts; Newport, Rhode Island; Annapolis, Maryland; and Charleston, South Carolina, neoclassical buildings retained the Georgian style's emphasis on symmetry but more often rose a full three stories in height with few horizontal breaks in the front facade. Windows of neoclassical houses sported larger and fewer panes of glass, while doorways surrounded by sidelights and fanlights further emphasized the lightness and transparency of the buildings. Surviving examples of neoclassical style buildings include the Harrison Gray Otis House in Boston (1805); the Octagon in Washington, D.C. (1799-1801); and the Nathaniel Russell House in Charleston, South Carolina (1809).

The changes taking place in domestic architecture from 1754 to 1815 are evident not only in changing architectural fashion but also in the increasing numbers and improving quality of houses for the "middling sort"--primarily yeoman farmers, craftspeople, and prosperous tradespeople. Prior to the mid-18th century, an affluent minority, both rural and urban, lived in substantial houses with a high degree of architectural finish, but the majority of people lived in one- or two-room houses, often with dirt floors, unglazed windows, and wooden chimneys. In the late 18th century and early 19th century, many rural European Americans continued to be housed in flimsy one- or two-room wooden buildings that often measured about 18 by 20 feet. Urban dwellers increasingly resided in multifamily dwellings with only thin partitions dividing one apartment from the next. The very poor, including enslaved African Americans, ordinarily lived in spaces used for other purposes, such as garrets or agricultural buildings. Following the Revolutionary War, however, there was a "housing revolution" when domestic structures for the middling sort improved noticeably. Many more people lived in substantial, finely finished houses that adopted some elements of "gentility" or "refinement"--work spaces separated from entertainment spaces by new circulation patterns and increased attention to interior finishes, including wooden floors, plastered walls, and paint. In rural New England this late-18th-century "rebuilding" was manifest in large numbers of twostory houses, one-room deep with interior chimneys, and two-story, side-hall houses with two rooms front-to-back. South of New York, the typical house was two-story, with a central passage flanked by single rooms. In German-speaking areas of western Maryland and the Shenandoah Valley, wealthy farmers slowly began to move away from the traditional Germanic three-room asymmetrical house to adopt these fashionable Anglo-American forms.

The "housing revolution" of the postrevolutionary period and the influence of architectural fashion, however, did not directly affect many of the diverse people living in North America. For Native Americans, this was a time of struggle to maintain their traditional livelihoods in the face of war and brutal resettlements. Architectural historians studying Native American building traditions have primarily concentrated on the period of first contact between Europeans and Native Americans, and they have not fully explored the subsequent periods when Native American communities had been profoundly affected by centuries of European colonization. For most Native Americans, housing and sacred architecture constructed during this period reflected the fundamental shift from a migratory to a sedentary way of life and the adaptation of European building forms to traditional lifestyles. Often, however, Native Americans differed among themselves about appropriate housing forms. For instance, prior to their forced relocation, some members of Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw communities tried to "Americanize" by building southern-style plantation houses, while others continued living in structures organized around traditional "square grounds" or ceremonial courtyards.

Similarly, the inhabitants of the Spanish Southwest did not experience a "housing revolution" comparable to that of the British colonies. Spanish settlements in Florida, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California were all outposts of a much larger, southward colonization effort and therefore did not attract the population of their British counterparts. Settlement followed the objectives laid out for town planning in Law of the Indies, Spain's regulations for colonization in the New World, which specified that new towns be centered on a plaza and bordered by government buildings, churches, and markets, all surrounded by a grid of streets. This intricate city planning was largely unnecessary for Spain's small frontier communities, but towns were laid out as defensive plazas. Chimayo, in northern New Mexico, begun in the mid-17th century, is the best surviving example of a walled town. Most of the buildings constructed by the Spanish in the Southwest were made of adobe bricks or stone, blending Spanish and Native American building traditions. The Spanish goal of converting Native Americans to Catholicism was expressed in the construction of mission churches that ranged from elaborate Spanish baroque structures such as San Xavier del Bac in Tucson, Arizona (1795), to simple pueblo mission churches such as St. Francis of Assisi, Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico (1805-15).

In addition to changing architectural style and some advancement in housing standards, the 1754-1815 period was marked by a proliferation of public buildings that had begun just prior to the Revolutionary War. In New England towns the primary public space during the 17th and early 18th centuries had been the meetinghouse or, in urban seaports, the townhouse. Both of these structures served a wide variety of public functions. Similarly, in the mid-Atlantic region and the South, churches, courthouses, and some market houses accommodated all of a community's public activities. Beginning in the mid-18th century and accelerating through the 19th, civic functions began to split off from these multipurpose buildings, and many towns, small and large, started to support an array of purpose-built public structures: courthouses, market halls, town halls, customs houses, and banks. After the Revolutionary War, most of the new states also immediately began construction of buildings to house state governments. Surviving examples of these new state capitols include the Virginia State Capitol, Richmond (1785-89), and the Massachusetts State House, Boston (1795-97).

The most significant public structure was the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Throughout the 19th century, the Capitol underwent a number of design changes, including the addition of its well-known dome at mid-century, but the core structure was completed by 1828. No fewer than six architects were involved in the Capitol's early design and construction. Particularly influential was the collaboration between President Thomas Jefferson and the architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, hired by Jefferson in 1803. Jefferson and Latrobe worked closely together to create a neoclassical building with unmistakable symbols of the new nation. Latrobe achieved this synthesis most famously in his design of interior columns capped with indigenous North American plants such as corn and tobacco. In 1814 British troops burned the Capitol, leaving just the walls standing. Latrobe was hired to rebuild it in 1815 but resigned in 1817, and President James Monroe hired Bostonian architect Charles Bulfinch to complete the structure.

The proliferation of public buildings and their increasing complexity of design highlight the prominence achieved by architects as professional designers during this period. The building process in the 17th and 18th centuries had been dominated by trained craftsmen, both European-American and African-American. In most cases, a master builder or "undertaker" would contract with a client to build a structure for a specific price. The design was normally spelled out in a building contract, with details to be worked out in consultation with the client during construction. In the late 18th century, however, some designers began to assume a new role in the building process. Referring to themselves as "architects" rather than builders, these designers looked to secure control over the entire construction project and began to view their work as a form of art rather than a craft. Architects such as Latrobe, Alexander Parris, Robert Mills, and William Strickland marketed their design services to clients by arguing that they alone had the education and expertise to create fashionable buildings.

The early 19th century brought a new type of architectureto the North American landscape: factory buildings to house the New England textile industry. New England's abundant water power, shipping facilities, and merchant capital made it the most attractive region for mechanized textile production, which began in 1793 with the construction of the Slater Mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The new textile factory had to respond to distinct requirements: housing large pieces of machinery, accommodating the powertransmission system (consisting of waterwheels, belts, pulleys, gears, and shafts), providing adequate natural light, and allowing for open interior spaces. Early mill builders resolved these problems by designing wood-frame, two- to three-story buildings with monitor roofs that admitted light through an extra band of windows set into the roof. Belfries added symbolic importance to mill buildings in addition to providing factory owners with a means of calling workers to the mill. Following the expansion of New England textile production as a result of the Embargo of 1807 and the War of 1812 (1812-15), factory owners built larger buildings--60 feet in length, three to five stories high, made of brick or stone, and incorporating exterior stair towers. These mills, built in Slatersville, Rhode Island (1806-07 and later), and Waltham, Massachusetts (1816), provided the prototype for mill buildings constructed in places such as Lowell, Massachusetts, during the second quarter of the 19th century.

Bibliography:

1) Edward A. Chappell, "Housing a Nation: The Transformation of Living Standards in Early America," in Cary Carson, Ronald Hoffman and Peter J. Albert, eds., Of Consuming Interests: The Style of Life in the Eighteenth Century (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1994)

2) Lois Craig, The Federal Presence: Architecture, Politics, and Symbols in United States Government Building (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1976)

3) Dora P. Crouch, Daniel J. Garr, and Axel I. Mundigo, Spanish City Planning in North America (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1982)

4) Gabrielle M. Lanier and Bernard L. Herman, Everyday Architecture of the Mid-Atlantic: Looking at Buildings and Landscapes (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997)

5) Peter Nabokov, Native American Architecture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989)

6) William H. Pierson, American Builders and their Architects, Vol. 1: The Colonial and Neoclassical Styles (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1970)

7) Boyd C. Pratt and Chris Wilson, The Architecture and Cultural Landscape of North Central New Mexico (Newport, R.I., 1991)

8) Leland Roth, A Concise History of American Architecture (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1979)

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