Everyday Architecture of the Mid-Atlantic: Looking at Buildings and Landscapes

by Gabrielle M. Lanier and Bernard L. Herman

Book Overview

This richly illustrated volume explores the character of pre-1940 domestic and agricultural buildings in the towns and rural landscapes of southern New Jersey, Delaware, and coastal Maryland and Virginia.

Winner of the Fred Kniffen Prize from the Pioneer America Society

From the eighteenth-century single-room "mansions" of Delaware's Cypress Swamp district to the early twentieth-century suburban housing around Philadelphia...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801853257
• ISBN13: 9780801853258
• Release Date: July 1997
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Length: 424 Pages
• Weight: 2.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 8.5" x 10.5"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Everyday Architecture of the Mid-Atlantic: Looking at Buildings and Landscapes

Everyday Architecture of the Mid-Atlantic: Looking at Buildings and Landscapes. Authors: Gabrielle M. Lanier, Bernard L. Herman. 424 pages. 1997 I picked up this book at the library as part of my self guided education for being a guide at Waynesborough. The book is hefty and has the look and feel of a textbook. While the text claims to focus on the Mid-Atlantic, most of the focus is in Delaware and Delmarva. The text reads easily for the first 65%. After this initial phase it starts to bog down in academic technical prose as it probes deeply into a few structures. It does this probe as a way to teach the reader how to apply archaeological techniques to building and site evaluation. The evaluation is a bit more rambling because it attempts to be as holistic as possible. This can cause the untrained to readily throw up their hands or to get bogged down in pet areas of interest. A more simplified checklist type of approach followed by a more in depth methodology for those points on the checklist would be helpful. The initial section is interesting and does provide quite a bit of information due to its approach. This book does more than try to identify a house and its era and show how this was done. The approach starts with function and location. It tries to show how the landscape or lot influences the function and design as well. To this end it does an adequate job of providing the reader with context for a building rather than looking at a structure in isolation. Once the readers has gotten a grasp of the context of the building the text move son to various varieties and evolutions of construction material and technique and how they influenced the structure it self. The book does not limit itself to houses. In the process of providing context through lot surveys the book deals with the various varieties of both urban and rural outbuilding. The study of outbuildings covers the evolution and typical location of the buildings. This aspect of the text proved most interesting because so much f the e history of these common outbuildings has been lost due to technological innovations such as indoor plumbing, electric refrigeration and other advances. Besides houses and their attendant outbuildings the text address barns, sheds, factories, and commercial buildings as well. This type of architecture is often reserved to serious students as most casual readers are enamored of houses. The eras portrayed begin in the earliest days of settlement and proceed forward to near the mid-20th Century. The book is well provided with photographs to illustrate ideas and structures as well as line drawings. The later proved especially useful in describing and providing understanding to how structures are built and where they are located.

Great Reference for Old House Lovers

Wonderful book with very detailed information regarding architectual styles and construction techniques. This information is very useful for both the layman and scholar. It is written in easy to understand language with numerous illustrations and photographs.

Everyday Architecture of the Mid-Atlantic

This is the perfect book for those interested in the art and science of examining and interpreting the built landscape. Providing the same instruction as an intro-level Historic Preservation course, it teaches the reader the process for building documentation , as well as some of the other basics of the Historic Preservation profession. The beautiful photographs, drawings, and illustrations clarify the more-difficult ideas. Not for the casual building-enthusiast, but it will greatly add to the enjoyment of the more serious vernacular architecture fan.