
Excerpt from An Architectural Monograph on Houses of the Southern Colonies "Pop" Chandler, in whose office we installed the stolen trophy, had numerous fits when we informed him that "a kind lady had given the thing to us." The draughtsmen of the office of that time have since become fat and portly architects, such men as Longfellow and Austin, Ion Lewis and dear old Billy Barry, who in himself was a most delightful Colonial expression. His sketches of ships and of old compositions of eighteenth-century buildings were masterpieces; he knew the intimate detail of a dentilled turn in the cornice, the habits of clapboards and rake-moldings, and the customs and manners of gables and dormers as few other men knew them. In order to gather sufficient funds for a European trip, it occurred to me that possibly I might acquire such with a few carefully measured drawings of good examples of the Colonial. The plan seemed good and the layouts were not difficult; but I smile to-day when I remember the rocky path ahead of that unsophisticated youngster who expected to achieve Spain and Italy through the easy bypaths of Colonial drawings. Ware of the American Architect would not even look at the proffered sheets; Col. Meyer of the Engineering Record wanted to cut them up, though this big-hearted man tried to sell them for me and offered them to Comstock in New York. This effort was more hopeless than the other with Ware in Boston. Then there comes on the screen that fine old soul whose memory many architects still adore - "Pop" Ware, then in Columbia. These drawings suggested something to him, and his students were permitted to look them over as inspirations for their own summer work. After Prof. Ware had put his seal of approval on these sheets, they were demanded by and sold to the American Architect. To-day they form a part of the Georgian Period. I have wondered in my later days at the difficulties which I had encountered in disposing of these drawin
Page Count:
23
Publication Date:
2015-06-25
ISBN-10:
133015617X
ISBN-13:
9781330156179
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