Newport Through Its Architecture : A History of Styles from Postmedieval to Postmodern

by Yarnall, James L.

• ISBN13: 9781584654919
• ISBN10: 1584654910
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-09-30
• Publisher: Univ Pr of New England

Summary

A remarkable coincidence of unplanned historical events has preserved Newport, Rhode Island's architectural heritage in a way that is rare among American cities. Newport has the largest number of pre-Revolutionary War buildings in North America, with some 800 in its old historic districts. In the nineteenth century, Newport was the summer home to America's most prominent families and patrons of outstanding architecture. With a diverse range of styles, Newport exemplified the greatness of mid-nineteenth-century American architecture. As Newport gained social importance in the 1880s, the Bellevue Avenue and Ochre Point neighborhoods became the sites of lavish Beaux-Arts palatial residences. Newport's twentieth-century architecture explored all modern currents, ranging from progressive Bauhaus functionalism as it evolved into the International Style of the 1950s to more conservative Art Deco and Scandinavian Modernism. After 1975, the postmodern era gave rise to a spirit of preservation and adaptive reuse, inspiring the Modern Traditionalism of architects such as Robert A. M. Stern. In a more vernacular vein, postmodern shopping centers, restaurants, and commercial establishments provided fertile ground for an especially well-informed postmodern kitsch.

Author Biography

JAMES L. YARNALL is an assistant professor in the Department of Art at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island, where he teaches art and architectural history. He also offers courses in the University's Cultural and Historic Preservation Program.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
M. Therese Antone
Preface and Acknowledgments	ix
A Geographical and Historical Note on Aquidneck Island	xiii
Introduction	xv
The Postmedieval Jacobean Style and Newport's Founding	1	(8)
The Georgian Styles before the Revolutionary War	9	(14)
Federal and Greek Revival Architecture, 1780--1840	23	(14)
The Gothic Revival of the 1830s and 1840s	37	(11)
The Italian Villa and Italianate Architecture of the 1850s	48	(14)
The French Roof and the Civil War Era	62	(11)
The Stick Style of the 1860s and 1870s	73	(12)
Queen Anne Variants, 1870--1890	85	(13)
The Shingle Style before 1885	98	(14)
The Colonial Revival after 1885	112	(9)
The Beginnings of Beaux-Arts Newport, 1880--1890	121	(11)
Richard Morris Hunt and the Beaux-Arts, 1888-1895	132	(21)
The Beaux-Arts and Academic Eclecticism in the Twentieth Century	153	(22)
Modernism from the Bauhaus to Postmodernism	175	(24)
Appendix: A Brief Listing of Selected Newport Buildings by Architect	199	(20)
Notes	219	(48)
Selected Bibliography	267	(18)
Index	285