Agenda - 08-25-1997 - C2 - Laserfiche WebLink

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033 Criterion C. Architecture in Rural Orange County—Post Civil War to Post World War II Architecture of the Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Centuries The architectural landscape of rural Orange County is characterized by vernacular interpretations rather than high-style examples. Stylistic influences are more apparent in Orange County's post-bellum, late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century houses than in pre-Civil War examples. The availability of manufactured architectural components including brackets,doors,sheathing,gable detailing,balustrades and mantels resulted in a proliferation of architectural embellishment just prior to the nineteenth century in Orange County as throughout North Carolina(Bisher 1990,293-295). Most common are frame center hall-plan houses. Many of these are I-houses which typically date from 1870 to 1910 and are characterized by a 2- story height and a single-room depth with either a hall-and-parlor or center-hall plan. The I-house variation known as the triple-A is also prevalent in Orange County. This house form is characterized by a side-gable roof with a third gable centered on the front facade. The T.L Oliver House(22),the Hayes-Hall House(8) and the Burch-Mallon House(7)in the Cedar Grove community are examples of this house form. Many rural dwellings in Orange County are late nineteenth-and early twentieth-century farmsteads which retain much of their historic acreage. These farmsteads constitute one of the most character-defining property-types in the county and manifest the pockets of intact rural quality found throughout the county. While many of the main houses of these farm complexes are not distinctive,the collection of the farm buildings as a whole, including their spatial relationship to each other, is of greater significance. The late nineteenth century witnessed growing opportunities for new types of domestic design fostered by innovative framing methods,the mass production of brick,nails,and milled lumber,and the emergence of rail transportation. Frame and brick houses became faster,easier,and cheaper to construct. At the same time, architectural catalogs offered an unprecedented array of stylish and affordable sawn ornaments, moldings,and mantelpieces,fashioned at steam-powered factories and delivered to customers by rail. Builder's widespread use of the light balloon frame,which consisted entirely of small framing members nailed in place, coincided with the rise of the national picturesque movement. Picturesque architecture, including such styles as the Gothic Revival and Italianate,and culminating in the flamboyant Queen Anne, promoted a freedom of design not permitted by strictures of neoclassicism. But even as the appeal of the