A.J. Downing & His Legacy

Design I--Perspective view of Italian villa. Samuel Sloan, The model architect, vol. 1, 1852. AA7120 SL5 F

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The lavish two-volume set that the Philadelphia architect Samuel Sloan (1815–1884) published was entirely of his designs for Gothic, Italianate, and Romanesque Revival style houses, furthering the public appreciation for Romantic Revival styles. He combined familiar classical elements in new ways, with a freer massing, and on a generally larger scale than earlier Greek Revival style buildings. Asymmetrical “L” plan houses often incorporated a corner tower in their design; in this more symmetrical design on the right, the tower is placed in the center of the house. This Italianate villa, Design I in Volume I, set the tone for Sloan’s large and lavishly illustrated pattern book.

This perspective view of a “Model Cottage” by a “Model Architect” (below left) shows that Sloan understood the value of showing people and a landscape when presenting a house design. The tinted lithograph appeals directly to the family intent on building a new house. The plate shows a variation on the center-cross-gabled house first popularized by Downing. Through exposure in printed materials like this, the house type entered the American vernacular and was built across the country through the rest of the 19^th century.

Sloan’s book also presents drawings with more specificity for builders than can be found in Downing’s small illustrations. He even included drawings that showed the use of balloon framing, then a new construction system, as the basis for building his frame houses.