JOURNAL OF RURAL ART AND RURAL TASTE. 



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I^IHE "Genius of Architecture," said Thomas Jefferson, some fifty years ago, 

 *^ " has shed its malediction upon America."' Jefferson, though the boldest of 

 democrats, had a secret respect and admiration for the magnificent results of aristocrat- 

 ic institutions in the arts, and had so refined his taste in France, as to be shocked, past 

 endurance, on his return home, with the raw and crude attempts at building in the re- 

 public. 



No one, however, can accuse the Americans with apathy or want of interest in ar- 

 chitecture, at the present moment. Within ten years past, the attention of great num- 

 bers has been turned to the improvement and embellishment of public and private 

 edifices; many foreign architects have settled in the Union, numerous works — espe- 

 cially upon domestic architecture — have been issued from the press, and the whole 

 community, in town and country, seem at the present moment to be afflicted with the 

 building mania. The upper part of New- York, especially, has the air of some city of 

 fine houses in all styles, rising from the earth as if by enchantment, while in the su- 

 burbs of Boston, rural cottages are springing up on all sides, as if the " Grenius of 

 Architecture" had sown, broadcast, the seeds of 07-/iee cottages, and was in a fair way 

 of having a fine harvest in that quarter. 



There are many persons who are as discontented with this new hot-bed growth of 

 architectural beauty, as Jefferson was with the earlier and ranker growth of defor- 

 mity in his day. Some denounce " fancy houses,"'— as they call everything but a 

 solid square block — altogether. Others have become weary of " Gothic," (without 

 perhaps, ever having really seen one good specimen of the style,) and suggest whether 

 there be not something barbarous in a lancet window to a modern parlor ; while the 

 larger number go on building vigorously in the newest style they can find, determined 

 to have something, if not better and more substantial than their neighbors, at 

 more extraoi'dinary and uncommon. 



JuME 1, 1851. 



2^0. VI. 



