The Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Aug. 1869

The Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Aug. 1869

Vol. II.Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by Samuel Sloan, in the Clerks Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. In a tolerantly critical notice of the Review recently published in the Builder, we find an effort to substantiate a charge formerly made by it, and replied to by us, on the subject of trickery in the construction of the exteriors of American buildings. The Builder reiterates the charge and points to Grace Church, New York, in proof of the truth of it. That marble edifice, he avers, has a wooden spire, crocketted, etc., painted in imitation of the material of which the body of the church is constructed. Alas, we must acknowledge the wood. And we will make a clean breast of it, and still farther acknowledge that at the time that Grace Church was built, our land of wooden nutmegs, and other notions, had not an architectural idea beyond the wooden spire, and that our city and country churches, that aspired at all, were forced to do so in the national material of the day. That said sundry spires of wood were of necessity, painted, is most true; and furthermore, white-lead being a great favorite with the people generally, [when our manners, customs, and tastes were more immaculate than in these degenerate days of many colors,] that pigment was the ruling fashion. That the color of the marble, of which Grace Churchs body is constructed, should be similar to that with which said ecclesiastical edifices spire was coated, is unfortunate; but, that the resemblance goes to prove any attempt at a cheat, we most strenuously deny. Grace Church is of a by-gone taste,an architectural era which we now look back to in order to see, by contrast, how far we have advanced in architectural construction. Trinity Church, New York, was the first great effort at a stone spire which our Architects ventured to rear. And although hundreds have followed its lead, none in this soaring republic have gone so near to heaven as that yet. But the thing once effected is sure to be improved upon. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 60997
Author: Various
Release Date: Dec 22, 2019
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Sloan, Samuel, 1815-1884