Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/432

 354 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [Dec, Europe, who struggled for fame in ages past, whose theories have not been worked into practice in our country just as their musty folio books happened to be in the possession of the respective knights-errant of the drawing-pen. But, as we have already said, there were some exceptions, and excellent ones too, in favor of the true taste of that by-gone day ; and we would not have them forgotten, as, indeed, they cannot be, so long as we can look upon and comprehend the classic purity of such edifices as are to be found in our own city, and which are pre-eminent as monuments of taste, whether of this day or that. Chief amongst these we would place the Custom-House, origi- nally the United States Bank. It is said to have been modeled after the Parthenon at Athens. This we may Very well question. But whether or no, it has undeniably a very perfect frontis- piece of pure Doric. The Mint, and the Exchange, are each commendable in most of their features. But it would be invidious to go farther than these, in representing our Philadelphia claims to taste, amid the mist of composition, which so darkly hung over the land, when they were dedicated to Fame. New York has a claim to considera- tion, in this matter, that cannot be passed over. The United States Sub- Treasury is decidedly a noble specimen of Grecian Doric, not alone in its por- tico, but throughout the whole building. The Custom-House is a very striking feature in New York architecture, which has, in more recent days, been materially injured by the addition of an attic, monstrous to the observer, but doubt- less desirable to the officials and em- ployees, for whose accommodation it was perpetrated. The City Hall of New York has, for a fair share of years, enjoyed the otium cum dignitate of being the only object of interest, in an architectural sense, in that metropolis. It is in the Italian style, decorated. The front presents a very good appearance, even in our day of progress. Three-fourths of the build- ing are of marble. But, strange to those uninitiated into the secret, the rear is of brown-stone. Why? Because, when this City Hall was erected, it stood at the limits of the then city; and as it was thought, by the unprogressive build- ing committee of the day, that the rear elevation would never, by any possi- bility, become prominent, it was sagely judged advisable to treat it with econ- omy. This elevation has now assumed a prominence unlooked for, and will pre- sent a still more marked appearance, when the new white marble Court-House, which faces it, shall be finished. "Which, to be sure, is a subject of time, for, judging by the progress of this latter building, up to the present, there is a grave doubt as to the completion of it at any period within the limit of exist- ing life. We might follow up this subject of the early classic buildings of the various cities, throughout; the nation, were it not, that in so doing we would alike exhaust the patience of our readers, and the space in our Review. Suffice it then to say, that in the designing of all pub- lic buildings, erected by the Govern- ment, the classic styles of Greece, dressed in one or other of its three orders, but especially the Doric, was in- variably chosen, and generally carried out with the largest amount of taste. As regards Ecclesiastical Archi- tecture, we find a wider field for review- ing the efforts of early days. For, in the erection of churches and chapels, there has been a liberty assumed, which nothing, save the utter apathy of the public for architectural design, could have tolerated. The earliest structures were intended to carefully avoid all that our Puritanic forefathers considered as abominations, namely : Spires, mina- rets, pointed doors and windows, but- tresses, and the many accessories of Ecclesiastical Architecture, as it existed in Europe. All this the Pilgrim Fathers