Category: Southeastern United States

The Background

This is the eighteenth and final installment in a series of articles written for The Atlanta Journal in 1890 and 1891 by W.W. Goodrich, an architect who practiced in Atlanta between 1889 and 1895.

As in his 1890 article of the same name, Goodrich here describes the Colonial Revival architectural style that was then gaining popularity in Atlanta.

Hardly anything about the style was actually “colonial”, and in typical rambling fashion, Goodrich attempts to explain its finer points across multiple paragraphs—without success.

Readers would have been better served by G.L. Norrman’s succinct definition a year earlier: “The so-called colonial style is barbarism of the Italian renaissance interpreted by Sir Christopher Wren.”

Boom. Done.

This article takes a bizarre turn when Goodrich describes matching a home’s furniture to the hair color and complexion of the woman who lives there, with corresponding fashion tips—I wish I were joking.

“A brunette is never so exquisite as in cream color,” Goodrich writes, adding: “Women who have rather florid complexions look well in various shades of plum and heliotrope.”

As for blondes? “Blondes look fairer and younger in dead black.”

Notice, of course, that only light-skinned complexions are discussed.

The article ends with a lecture for young women on buying furniture. “Each couch and footstool is an achievement”, Goodrich prattles. “Each rug and curtain represents a triumph.”

You can tell he was exhausting to be around.

A few words in the article text have been lost due to faded ink on the original newspaper page. The missing portions are indicated by the [obliterated] tag.

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Pretty Homes

Something About The Colonial Architecture.

Many Specimens of the Style Found in the South.

Adapting My Lady’s Boudoir to Her Own Tints and Tones.

How to Buy Furnishings for a Home so as to Produce the Most Artistic effect.

Written for The Journal.

Through knickerbocker treatment we inherit architectural forms bequeathed to us from the Italian renaissance. To this we have given the name “Colonial”–developed, as it was, during our colonial existence and thereafter.

The north and south are possessed of numerous examples of this style in the old homes on the farms and manors of New England, and on the plantations of the middle and southern states.

This development is a growth with constant retrospection toward Greek art and an occasional treatment of forms, promoted or necessitated by existing conditions. The acanthus and the scallop shell are frequently met with, and a profusion of [obliterated], bead and fret mouldings, bands and [obliterated] are the proper ornamentation.

This application of the ornament varies [obliterated]. Sometimes we see it in profuse [obliterated] and sometimes used sparingly with plain surfaces as better becomes Puritan taste. The southern colonial of Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia verges almost on the rococo, in some cases, especially in the detail of the foliage. The towns of the south are full of exquisite examples of fine colonial ornament, exterior and interior.

In most cases the metal work of old colonial houses is very simple, the surfaces being of plain polished brass and the edges [obliterated] ornamented with some of the characteristic fretwork of the exterior ornamentation. Where such ornament is found it is usually adapted from earlier renaissance examples, simplified to suit the occasion of the owner’s purse.

A Colonial Revival.

The colonial school has been recently revived in many parts of the country, more especially for suburban residences near large cities and for handsome country houses surrounded by broad landscapes. When consistently executed, it is most suitable for such buildings and the quaint outlines and soft colorings of some of the recent examples in this school are very attractive, making home dearer and more to be desired than any form of home construction.

The colonial will always be memorable for the introduction of that unique style of furniture and coloring that has never ceased to be admired, having that about it which appeals to the most refined feelings of domesticity, and is strictly adapted to the occupants of the home in color, form and generally symphony; thus, for a blonde I would have a rose parlor, the woodwork of prima vara [sic], the glass of polished plate, the mantel of root ash, the facings of onyx. The walls should be hung with rose-colored silk in various rose designs, procaded [sic] with thistles; the furniture in rosewood covered with rose-colored velvets, embossed with roses; the portieres of rose-colored silks and satins, with heavy fringes in blue and gold.

In the dining-room the hangings are of peacock blue, with a border of beetle’s wings, sewed on with jewels and pearls. The chairs of mahogany, covered with light, embossed terra cotta velvet.

The ballroom is Moorish, designed from a room in the Alhambra, of tinges of blue and gold, in symmetrical designs of Greek Byzantium, with the draperies, hanging and divans of exquisitely oriental treatment.

In the library the prevailing hue should be a soft brown with delicate blue and [obliterated] violets peeping out from grasses in various portions. And for the boudoir I would have a tulip room, old gold covering the walls and a dado of yellow and pale pink tulips reaching to the dulled gilt frieze.

Matching the Fair Occupant.

There can be no finer example of modern American furnishing than this idea, that the colors chose were those tints of which a duplicate were found in the hair, the eyes and the complexion of the lady herself.

A woman with blue-gray eyes and a thin, neutral-tinted complexion, is never more becomingly dressed than in the blue shades in which gray is mixed, for in this complexion there is a certain delicate blueness.

A brunette is never so exquisite as in cream color, for she has reproduced the tinting of her skin in her dress. Put the same dress on a colorless blonde and she will be far from charming, while in gray she would be quite the reverse. The reason is plain, in the blonde’s sallowness there are tints of gray, and in the dark woman’s pallor there are always yellowish tones, the same as predominate in the cream-colored dress.

Women who have rather florid complexions look well in various shades of plum and heliotrope, also in certain shades of dove gray, for to a trained eye this color has a tinge of pink which harmonizes with the flesh of the face. Blondes look fairer and younger in dead black like that of wool goods or velvet, while brunettes require the sheen of satin or gloss of silk in order to wear black to advantage.

The Charm of Colonial Houses.

One of the greatest charms of colonial houses is found in the beams and panels which appear without disguise in the ceilings, and which are manifestly capable of supporting the floor above. They give a sense of fitness and security which one does not experience in the contemplation of the unbroken, and apparently unsupported, expanse of plaster, which forms the ceiling of the modern. Add to this bareness the two or three feet of unnecessary height, which we usually find in houses of the last decade, with no shape in the finish of the cornice to give an impression of support, or perhaps a meaningless cornice repeating the confused floral forms of the absurdity which forms the centre piece, and it is evident that innovation and reform in the matter have not come to soon.

If a room be badly proportioned or too high, a good effect may be obtained by dividing the ceiling space by moulding of heavy wood–enough to give a feeling of stability.

[obliterated] be frescoed or painted, and if the work be carefully considered, and not too intricate in pattern, the appearance of the room will be greatly improved.

Some Specimens in Atlanta.

The colonial school of architecture and ornament has proved to be so well adapted to modern uses and surrounding that many handsome residences of the kind are to be found in various parts of this city, and are coming in more general use in this country. While its prominent features are necessarily adaptations from earlier forms transplanted from across the sea, yet it has more of an historical claim to be considered an American style than almost any other, and as such is worthy of special study.

From any point of view the colonial style is decidedly free from old-fashioned ideas, whilst it is distinguished not only for elegance, but comfort and convenience, thus being well adapted to modern adoption. The formation influences that led up to this remarkable development of artistic power, date from the Italian Renaissance, illustrating how subtle germs of thought, fed from various sources, and fructifying from generation to generation, are presently developed under favoring circumstances in original and attractive forms. The colonial style was not an electric, it was a positive creation, characterized by a charming individuality.

Artistic Mantels.

Colonial mantels, as constructive features of apartments, claim our first notice. If of hard wood the ornaments were curved or turned; if of plain wood, they were coated with a plastic composition, toned to yellow color, that presently assumed an adamantine hardness, and on which were formed in relief, figure groups, and floral garlands, and pendants, similar designs being carried out on the jambs and lintels of hardwood mantels.

Pillars supporting the shelves would at times by mounted by brass capitals; but many of the pillared supports are fine examples of turnery, which was also applied to geometric ornaments on lintels. Much of the pleasing effect of the mantels is due the fine proportions maintained, and the delicacy of relief work in carvings and mouldings, made more effective by ample and well considered spacing. The mantel would be surrounded by a moderately high oblong mirror, metal lined, and running its whole length and this topped by shelves resting on brackets.

In the colonial order of architecture, the home seeker can do better in buying pieces singly, rather than in sets, and to pick up said articles at various times, as the home progresses in being occupied, and as wants increase.

How to Buy Furniture.

It seems a pity that the young woman who is about to establish a home, and has a sum of money to spend for its garnishing, cannot be persuaded from laying it all out at once. She robs herself of so much future enjoyment. The spick and span sets of furniture which are carelessly ordered from an upholsterer, and carried home and stood around her parlors by his men, will never afford her half the satisfaction she can get in a room for which to-day she buys a chair, and the next week, seeing there must be a table to accompany the chair, she starts on a fresh shopping excursion, and finds a table which is exactly what she was looking for; and in another month, discovering the need of a bookcase or a screen she has again the delight of the hunt, and the gratification of obtaining the prettiest screen and bookcase in the city.

Such a room is a growth, a gathering together of household treasures, little by little. Each article, bought only when the need arises, or when something is happily found to just meet the need, will have a family history which makes it an entertaining as well as a valuable possession. Each couch and footstool is an achievement; each rug and curtain represents a triumph. Such a home, built up gradually, with careful planning in each part, with thought and loving consideration in all its details, acquires a far deeper meaning than could be purchased by the longest purse from the most fashionable cabinet-maker.

W.W. GOODRICH.²

References

1. “Building in LaGrange.” The Atlanta Constitution, December 13, 1890, p. 3. ↩︎
2. Goodrich, W.W. “Pretty Homes.” The Atlanta Journal, December 5, 1891, p. 11. ↩︎