| Overview |
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| Style |
Material |
Orientations of structure |
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| Refined |
Wood |
Vertical |
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| Key features |
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Symmetrical design; fanlight over front door, and an elaborate
door surround; double-hung sashes, commonly a Palladian
arch above the window.
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| Architectural Features |
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| Entrance Door |
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- Panel door with curved top, fanlight
- Lites on both sides of the doors
- Less prominent panels (more refined than the Georgian), usually placed in two columns
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| Garage Door |
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- Vertical orientation of surface material
- Raised panels in varying sizes
- Layered trim boards with decorative molding
- A fanlight across the top or one row of larger-paned, evenly placed 2/2 or 4/4 windows
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| Style Summary |
The Adam style was a development and refinement of
the preceding Georgian style. Established first by wealthy
merchants along the New England seaboard, it drew on
contemporary European trends, particularly the work of the
Adam brothers who, at that time, had the largest architectural
practice in Britain. The eldest, Robert, had traveled to Italy
and the Mediterranean to study classical buildings for himself.
These studies introduced a new interest in the early Greek and
Roman monuments themselves, rather than as interpreted
through the buildings of the Italian renaissance. Adam
popularized a number of design elements (swags, garlands,
urns, etc.) that he had seen in his travels. Because of the
breadth of his influence, what had formerly been called the
Federal style is now becoming known simply as the American
phase of the English Adam style.
Adam was the most dominant style of the new United States
at the turn of the century, a period in which the population
grew from 3 million to about 10 million and expanded into
new territory. The style reached its zenith in the prosperous
port cities of the eastern seaboard, particularly Boston, Salem,
Newburyport, and Marblehead in Massachusetts; Newport,
Providence, Warren, and Bristol in Rhode Island; Portland and
Wiscasset in Maine; New Castle, Delaware; Portsmouth, New
Hampshire; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; New York, New York;
Charleston, South Carolina; and Savannah, Georgia.
Excerpted from A Field Guide to American Houses, Virginia and
Lee McAlester, Alfred Knopf, New York, © 2000. |
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