The architecture of the period immediately succeeding the War of Independence was marked by a return toward classicism (see p. 346), though it was not until the second decade of the century that the rage for Greek set in. Among the structures erected at the beginning of the pres ent century were the City-hall of New York (which will be described far ther on), Park Street Church, Boston, and, slightly later than the last, St. Paul's at New York. The first of these churches preserves most of the features of colonial times, and has a very, fine steeple, the three stages of which rise gracefully one over the other. The lower storey of the tower is entirely unadorned, the flanks of the structure are very plain, and the convex entrance-buildings, which fill up the angle on each side of the tower and have pilasters running through two storeys, could well be dis pensed with. St. Paul's has four distantly-spaced columns with a plain pediment at one end, while from the other rises a steeple of elegant design and good outline, consisting of several stages and a terminal spire.
From this period onward the number of important structures erected becomes so great that it would be better to classify them according to their purpose, first prefacing the descriptions with a resume of the various art-movements that have made their influence felt since the commence ment of the century.
Tice Classic Re that remnant of the rococo that lingered in England until the close of the eighteenth century lingered still longer in the United States, it was in the beginning of the present cen tury superseded by a revival of classicism. Time rage for Greek which had covered England with incongruities in stone and stucco made its way to this continent, and it soon became necessary for every respect able building, public or private, to have Greek, Doric, or Corinthian peristyles (or, at least, porticoes) of all materials, from massive stone to wood, which latter was made to imitate stone. Capitols, city-halls, churches, cottages—even outhouses—were infected by it. The Capitol at Washington, though burdened with the nu-Grecian feature of a dome, was completed as a Greek temple, and for a generation all government buildings were erected after the same model. Even until very recent clays government buildings affecting the Greek style have been erected, and this style is still in vogue. After having influenced all the older States it travelled westward, and there mingled with varieties of Renais sance, and with the "American vernacular" which has for so many decades been the accepted style of American dwellings.
American I last traditions of the broken pediments, the attenuated columns, the lengthened inter-columniations, the wooden pseudo-classic cornices—of the colonial period died away, and the Grecian revival did not reach the masses. Meanwhile, cities arose where before was wilderness, and a continually-growing population which knew naught of " old colonial " or Greek, which had no acquaintance with the Architecture of the Old World and scarcely knew even the best work of the New World, must be supplied with dwellings, and also with court-houses, city-halls, churches, and other public buildings. Under such
circumstances as this new styles have arisen in countries isolated from their neighbors, and it may be asked why such was not the case in the United States. In a sense, it was the case. A manner arose which only needed more time to become a style, although a most debased one, but it was a manner devoid of all originality, for the United States was never isolated in the same sense as were the countries of the Old World before the days of the printing-press.
I'ernacular proceeding from the eighteenth century were the heritage of the artificers of the nineteenth, and a copious literature gave directions to workmen and employers. There were but few skilled architects, and these were confined to the cities; most so-called architects were but mechanics who designed in the current manner of the day. Throughout the greater part of the country—west to the Pacific, north to Maine, south to Georgia, east in New Jersey—wood was the mate rial most used, and thus the master-carpenter became the designer of the intended structure. In Philadelphia and a few other places where clay and brick were good and cheap, frame-construction gave place to brickwork, and stone continued in use in some districts, but, while stone and brick houses were local, those of wood, with the chimneys, and perhaps a base ment, of stone or of brick, were national, and still continue so, though the detail has changed.
Perhaps the greatest factor in the debasement of American structures into that vernacular of which we are far from being proud was the change from hand-work to mill-work. What carving was done in colonial days was done by the skilled workman; in style it might be poor, but the artif icer put into it all he had of thought and sentiment. Machinery changed all this. Scrolls were jig-sawed out of inch stuff, consoles built by the junction of inch pieces, mouldings run out from the planer by the thou sand feet. All work became stock-work, all patterns stock-patterns; the public taste had not been awakened to demand that machinery should bring forth new forms, nor had the architect arisen to design such forms. All first-class carpentry was absorbed by the mills, and the carpenter, provided with clapboards, rustic boarding, consoles, scrolls, doors, win dows, and flooring all ready-made, was simply the agent who put them together to form buildings of greater or less size and pretension. When we allow for his lack of art-knowledge and his inability to wrestle with the intricate problems of his trade, we must acknowledge that the car penter-builder did not do so badly. He at least tried to vary his out line. Instead of adhering to the symmetrical double front of colonial days, lie essayed the L-form, the recessed centre, the receding wings; he invented piazzas of almost every conceivable form; lie added tiny cupolas and he adorned his roof with balustrades. But he essayed was marred by the sameness of detail, by motives which were for the most part of classic origin, but had degenerated into caricatures of their pro totypes.