 |
| Above
is the Pittock Mansion, a great example of French Renaissance
style. |
 |
| Right
is an example of a restored Tudor Revival style in NW Portland. |
 |
| Left
is an example of a restored Colonial Revival style in NW Portland. |
 |
| Right
is an example of a hybrid restored Mediterranean Revival style
in NW Portland. |
Identifying
Oregon Architecture
PART
THREE
By Matthew Hayes
In the final installment
of our three-part series, we will examine the revival of past historical
styles. One hundred years after the signing of the Declaration of
Independence, Americans were rediscovering the origins of their ever-expanding
democracy. The nation’s first successful World’s Fair, Philadelphia’s
Centennial Exposition of 1876, was conceived to celebrate the future
by remembering the past. While extolling modern American invention
and ingenuity in the burgeoning industrial age, the Exposition reverently
and romantically evoked the perceived “simplicity” of the
Colonial times.
An aesthetic step
back in time, this stylistic revival was a disciplined departure from
the rambling eclecticism of Queen Anne and other excessively ornamented
Victorian styles. Adaptations of Colonial architecture were intended
to suggest a unique and refined American heritage of good breeding
and civility. In the public mind, a Colonial Revival home represented
both an expression of patriotism and a return to old-fashioned values.
But architects broadly misused the term Colonial, often combining
pre-Revolutionary Georgian details with post-Revolutionary Federal
proportions. Succeeding phases of Colonial Revival design stressed
a more academic approach to the variances of the style. Austere, restrained,
and historically sympathetic renderings began to appear across the
nation’s wealthier neighborhoods and newly planned subdivisions.
Between the First and Second World Wars, authentic Colonial proved
the most popular revival style in the United States.
In addition to
revivals of early American building types, it became increasingly
popular to hearken back to the Old World. In the early 1920s, there
was a resurgence in England’s 16th century Tudor style. Tudor
houses first appeared in England during the kingship of Henry VIII.
Having dissolved the landholdings of large monasteries, Henry parceled
large properties off for smaller-scale dwellings, many of which were
recognizable by their “half-timbered” appearance. Exposed
wood beams created superstructure with the spaces in between filled
with plaster, brick, or stone. The style reappeared in England several
hundred years later, and reached the United States via the Philadelphia
Centennial Exhibition. In the United States, however, the effect of
exposed “half-timbering” was purely decorative.
Jacobethan homes
— a conjunction of the Jacobean and Elizabethan styles —
originally gained momentum in England under Queen Elizabeth I and
flourished during the reign of King James. The Jacobethan revival
was unique because it combined the elements of two distinct styles,
and is most often viewed as Queen Anne in brick. Meanwhile, the designs
of prominent architects such as C.F.A. Voysey, M.H. Baillie Scott,
and Sir Edward Lutyens began to appear in popular periodicals like
The Studio. Looking to the traditional thatched dwellings of the British
Isles, the so-called English Cottage rose to prominence. The unique
feature of the style was the shingled imitation of a thatched roof’s
rolled eaves, a decorative technique that can still be seen in the
Portland area. An interesting example — currently threatened
with demolition — is located at the northwest corner of Stark
at Cleveland Avenue in Gresham.
Other regions
of Europe were similarly represented. The French Renaissance and Château
styles were embraced by Portland’s elite, who aimed at duplicating
the luxurious lifestyles of Napoleonic France. Portland’s Pittock
Mansion is the city’s premier example of this rare style. Far
less lavish was the Norman Farmhouse, characterized by its steeply
pitched, partial-triangle rooflines. Humble reproductions of these
12th century peasant farmhouses erected by the Normans of Northern
France were particularly popular in the suburbs of the late 1920s
and early 1930s.
Before the Second
World War, a myriad of Revival Styles appeared across Oregon and the
nation. Elements of styles were mixed and matched. Old techniques
were mimicked with new materials to varying results. Additions and
alterations may have been added over the years. So if you happen across
a house and still can’t identify what style it is, take heart.
You’ve probably found a mutation; one of the many utterly original
but unidentifiable hybrids of modern American architecture. |
