Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/414

 336 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [Nov., are sure to receive. Let amateurs and admirers, men of means and taste, be solicited to join in the patriotic under- taking ; and we cannot fail of seeing a National Academy op American Architecture arise in our midst ; and, once arisen, grow and nourish in its native strength. The sanction of Congress can, no floubt, be obtained for such an institu- tion ; and the good wishes and art gifts of similar institutions in old Europe will pour in upon our laudable effort. The subject of Architecture requires to be popularized. It wants advocates, to urge its claims on a sympathiz- ing nation ; friends to introduce it to those, who stand ready to befriend it, but, from a want of acquaintance, are shy of approaching it voluntarily The wonderful progress made by our great art in London had its origin, some thirty years ago, in a very small and not very encouraging meeting of gentlemen, who then founded the Insti- tute op Britisjs Architects, which has since given rise to numerous minor, but not less useful societies in that city and every other of note in Great Britain. Is-iiot this fact worth dwelling on ? There are a few architects among us, who have shown an inclination to enter on such an enterprise ; but, unfortu- nately, they " hide their light under a bushel;" and a very limited portion of the community, indeed, is aware, that there is in New York city an Institute op American Architects. This is not what we want. We want such an institution, as will make its existence known by its works — " a light on the hill," that all can see and recog- nize — a National School of Architectonic Taste, from which ideas worthy of our name shall emanate. It is from such a source, and such a source alone, that we are to expect in- ventions in art worthy of us. It is there the mind is to be trained that will yet give us the first germs of a National Style ; ana it is there that stjde will be fostered and cultivated, until it shall attain that independent existence, so characteristic of this great couutry ; and so certain to be recognized and appre- ciated by the world at large. As we have already said, our Domes- tic Architecture, alone, shows a dis. tinctive, or National existence. Its ap- pearance is pleasing to Europeans ; and, indeed, it has many points about it superior to the domestic architecture of Europe. But, all this may be attributed to the influence of climate alone, rather than to inventive skill per se. Those prominent cornices, so highly orna- mented, and those brackets, which, while they support them, give, at the same time, such a distinctive feature of this style, as to be known to Eng- lish architects, as American Brack- eted Architecture; those umbrageous " stoops ;"* those broad and shady piazzas, all now so peculiarly our own, are some of the features, which go "to make up this new style. Yet, it is the combination of them, that makes the distinctiveness, for, the features just named are, of themselves, all derived from European sources. Our climate prompted their application to our wants ; and the native taste of our architects created that effect, which may now take the name of a style. Is it not reasonable to ask, why the public buildings, as well as the private dwellings, of the nation are not suscepti- ble of reformatory design ? — or, in other words, Why they are not to take the impression of independence, which is the glory of our land ? Again we say, there is no reason whatever that they should not ; and we would urge on the architects of the present day to step boldly forward, and present the world with an effort at least. It may not fully meet the taste of the canopy or roof. The term is Flemish, adopted in New York and " Down East." Were it English, the reason of its application would be on the "lucus a non lucendo" principle, because the steps do not stoop but rise.
 * Front stops— or, front steps, with side seats, and a