20 



ARCHITECTURE. 



ARCHITECTURE. 



ing from shore having been rapidly kept up by 

 them until so silenced, and having been recom- 

 menced from the new batteries on the heights 

 back, which reached us in volleys, dropping the 

 shot on board and about us like hail for nearly 

 an hour, but fortunately wounding but one 

 man, I hauled the vessel off, as the heights 

 proved wholly above the reach of our elevation. 



"Judging from the explosion of our ten-second 

 shells in the sand-batteries, two of which were 

 thrown by the Anacostia, it is hardly possible 

 the enemy can have escaped considerable loss. 

 Several others of the Anacostia's shells dropped 

 in the vicinity of the battery." 



Another attack was made on the batteries on 

 the 1st of June, by the Freeborn and Pawnee, 

 gunboats. 



Just as the firing opened the men at the bat- 

 teries burnt the depot houses at the end of the 

 wharf, probably to prevent them from being in 

 the way of their shot. They continued burning 

 throughout the whole engagement, as it was 

 not safe for any one to leave the batteries to 

 extinguish the fire. It also burnt the entire 

 wharf to the water's edge. 



A slight affair had taken place on the 29th 

 of May, previous to these two attacks, which 

 was the first hostile collision on the waters of 

 the Potomac. 



ARCHITECTURE. New York City has 

 long been famous for her stores, excelling those 

 of any other city either in this country or 

 abroad, in their size, expense of construction, 

 ornamentation, and their conveniences for the 

 purposes of the trade to which they are to be 

 adapted. The war has, during the past year, 

 materially interfered with new enterprises of 

 this kind ; but a few, undertaken in the pre- 

 vious year, have been completed, and are su- 

 perior to any stores before constructed. Of 

 these, the largest is the store and warehouse 

 of Messrs Claflin, Mellen & Co., extending from 

 Church street to West Broadway, with a facade 

 on one side of these streets of 80 ft., and 375 

 on Worth street. The facades are of the green 

 tinted Nova Scotia stone, with pediments on 

 the three streets. The first story is of iron, 

 painted and sanded to the same color as the 

 stone. The style may be called Italian, with no 

 excess of ornamentation, but the whole is in good 

 taste. Like most of the later stores in this 

 city, there are five stories above the sidewalk 

 on Church street, and two beneath, viz. : base- 

 ment and sub-cellar. Owing to the descent in 

 Anthony street, the basement becomes on West 

 Broadway, a full story above the side walk ; 

 at this end, most of the goods are delivered. 

 The whole store is appropriated to the business 

 of one firm, for the jobbing of dry goods. At 

 the corner of White street and Broadway, a 

 store has been erected by Wm. B. Astor, 75 feet 

 on Broadway, and 175 on White street. The 

 facades are of white marble, with the first story 

 of iron. The roof is finished, a la mansard, 

 with a balcony at the top of galvanized wrought 

 iron, of which material the cornice of thfi build- 



ing is also composed. This store differs in style 

 from those usually constructed here. " Heavy 

 pilasters ornament the front above the first 

 story on Broadway, which are supported, each 

 on two columns of iron. The caps of the win- 

 dows, and all the ornamentation are extremely 

 bold, and by their depth of shadow on the 

 material of which they are constructed, give 

 a character to the building uncommon to the 

 class. On Broadway, between 9th and 10th 

 streets, a store is building for A. T. Stewart, 

 probably for the retail dry goods trade. The 

 facades are entirely of iron ;' not distinctive in 

 character as to style, they strike one rather by 

 their extent than by their architectural beauty. 



In Boston, a few dry goods warehouses have 

 been finished, which, in boldness and originality 

 in their facades, are equal, if not superior to 

 those in New York ; but they do not equal 

 them in capacity. Some private dwellings have 

 also been built on the land reclaimed from the 

 Back Bay, which are deserving of notice archi- 

 tecturally. They are mostly in the French style 

 of architecture, with mansard roofs. Their 

 facades are of Nova Scotia stone, and of brick ; 

 and they ornament a part of the city which 

 has been heretofore a low-tide reservoir. 



At Washington, the work on the Capitol has 

 been in a measure suspended. Piece by piece 

 is still slowly added to the ribbed skeleton of 

 the dome. Each piece is raised by a steam 

 derrick, placed on the roof at the base of the 

 dome, and instead of steadying the load by a 

 guy, a man rides up on the piece as it is hoisted, 

 to preserve its balance, and returns resting on 

 a small iron ball above the hook. In the in- 

 terior, Leutze is maturing his design for the 

 ornamentation of the stair-case of the House of 

 Representatives. The bronze doors, designed 

 and modelled at Rome by Rogers, have lately 

 been cast at the Munich foundry. Each door 

 the whole forms a folding-door is divided into 

 four panels. Thus, with a semicircular space 

 above, there are nine divisions, in each of which 

 an important moment of Columbus' life is rep- 

 resented. The figures stand out in full relief. 

 The crowning event of the discoverer's career 

 occupies the commanding spot over the top 

 of the doors. Here Columbus, standing on a 

 mound, forms the central figure. He has just 

 landed from a boat, and with the standard of 

 Arragon and Castile planted upon the new soil, 

 and with sword upraised in his right hand, he 

 takes possession of the land in the name of his 

 sovereigns. Some boatmen are still in the 

 skiff, others are kneeling on the shore, while a 

 group of Indians, peeping from behind a tree 

 on the opposite side, look on in wondering as- 

 tonishment. In one compartment is represent- 

 ed the triumphal entry of Columbus into Mad- 

 rid, on his first return from America, amid 

 crowds of gazers at him, the hero of the tri- 

 umph, and at the Indians, who precede the 

 procession, with paroquets on their upraised 

 arms. The next panel is occupied with a sadder 

 story. Here, Columbus in chains, surrounded 



