Architecture expression in the several colo nies, however, differed according to locality, but was always informal in its utilitarian consid eration of the requirements of early American life. The introduction of Georgian motifs in the second decade of the 18th century was ac companied by a classicism lacking in the earlier folk domiciles of the colonies. In England, and in all the colonies outside of New England, the interpretation was nearly always in brick and stone. In New England, however, clapboards were almost invariably used, though they were sometimes grooved or beveled to imitate cut stone. The New England Puritan character was reflected in many of their domestic and public structures. Comparativelyplain on the exterior, the lavishly carved and decorated in terior presents the real architectural character of the structure.
In the first phase of the New England Georgian (1714-45) boldness of outline together with a wealth of vigorous carving over the doorways, is strongly reminiscent of the Queen Anne style, and this resemblance is further added to by heavy moldings and flanked pilasters or carved panels. The windows, char acteristically tall and narrow, were frequently crowned with a flattened arch in place of the lintel. A rectangular transom of small square lights was often used above the entrance door. The second phase of Georgian architecture (1745-80) in New England witnessed the in troduction of more straight lines and the prac tical elimination of the arch in all except public buildings. Exterior and interior moldings and cornices lost their heaviness and ornamental detail was more restrained. The third phase was strongly influenced in interior and do mestic architecture by the Adams Brothers who introduced the Classic Revival (1780-1820). Care and studied design replaced the grossness of earlier work. Columns and pilasters as sumed the delicacy and grace so often met with to-day in the architecture of the New England States. During this period Charles Gulfinch in the Massachusetts State House (1795-98) and Samuel McIntire in the Pierce Nichols house in Salem (1790) did much toward the proper expression of the New Eng land artistic consciousness.
The three Georgian periods in vogue in the colonies from about 1720 to 1805 were more architecturally elaborate in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware than in New York and New England. Philadelphia, by 1750, the largest and wealthiest city in America, became the focal point around which the architecture of the Middle Colonies centred. Brick and stone were almost invariably employed for ex terior construction, while in the interior, carved wood paneling, extending from floor to ceiling, was the usual treatment, though at a later date, damask and elaborate wall paper were often substituted. In the first period, bold but simple ornamental detail, both exterior and interior, combined with strong profile moldings in high relief, resulted in the same heaviness of out line found in New England during the same era. In the second phase, the decorative treat ment was lighter and more elaborate, the pro files of moldings being less bold and more graceful, while a close attention to detail indi cates more study in the proportion and adapta tion of the different classic orders. In the third
period, the fireplace which had before extended to the ceiling, under the influence of the Eng lish architect, Sir William Chambers, was re duced until it extended but halfway up the wall, but retaining much of its former classic design. Another interesting architectural dif ference is the decorative point of view during this third and last phase. In the two preced ing periods it had been the custom to single out individual features for decorative emphasis; now, the entire front of the house, and often the sides and back as well, were carefully con sidered and the decorative element extended to the proportions as well as to the detail of the whole. Fan lights, enriched with beautiful metal tracery became common over the doors.
Georgian architecture in the South was usually of brick construction. Kitchens and offices were built apart from the main building, which retained the wide hall and first floor bedrooms of the colonial period. Much study was given to the carved details of staircases, pilasters and pediments. The portico, which later, under the influence of the Classic Revival, assumed the imposing proportions now so familiar to us, was introduced at this time. Amply satisfying, by its dignity and breadth, the demands of the exuberant climate and the affluence of the rich southern landowners, it was, like the archi tecture of New England and the Middle Colo nies, an admirable index of the time and con ditions. It was during the latter part of the 18th century that educational, political and humanitarian ideals forced on the national consciousness the necessity for the solution of institutional (prison, asylum and university) problems in a way that no foreign method of arrangement could satisfy. The great exemplar of what might be termed rational institutional structural philosophy in the United States was Thomas Jefferson, combining architectural knowledge and political power. The University of Virginia, at Charlotteville (1817) and his design for the Capitol of Virginia at Richmond (1785), boldly adopted from the Maison Carrie at Nimes, are among the most interesting and characteristic productions of the Early Repub lican Period. The solution of institutional problems found concrete expression in the erec tion of the New York State Prison (Joseph Mangin, 1796-98) which planned for the separa tion of the sexes and for criminal classification. The ultimate solution of the problem projected in constructed form by the works of Mangin and Latrobe (the Virginia Penitentiary, 1797 1800, based on the Old World principle of soli tary confinement) has been achieved in the new prisons being constructed by the State of New York at Sing Sing and at Wingdale, where the institutions embody in their organization the function of study of the individual prisoner. Consult Pilcher, L. F., (Sing Sing Psychiatric Classification Prison,' (New York 1917).