Architecture
The White-Ellery House is one of just a few First Period (c. 1620-1725) houses in eastern Massachusetts that survives intact to this day. It is a 2 ½ story “saltbox” structure with a massive central chimney that once serviced six fireplaces. The building has vertical plank frame construction with an integral lean-to roof. There is a framed overhang on the front façade and rare examples of raised-field paneled doors between rooms on the first floor. The Renaissance-inspired architectural features illustrate the transition from European building traditions to early American ones. Inside there are several examples of early decorative detail, including three different examples of painted wall decoration, elaborate chamfering (decorative plane work) on ceiling beams and one of the most highly developed front staircases of the period in eastern Massachusetts.
Read more about this topic: White-Ellery House
Famous quotes containing the word architecture:
“The two elements the traveler first captures in the big city are extrahuman architecture and furious rhythm. Geometry and anguish. At first glance, the rhythm may be confused with gaiety, but when you look more closely at the mechanism of social life and the painful slavery of both men and machines, you see that it is nothing but a kind of typical, empty anguish that makes even crime and gangs forgivable means of escape.”
—Federico García Lorca (1898–1936)
“It seems a fantastic paradox, but it is nevertheless a most important truth, that no architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect.”
—John Ruskin (1819–1900)
“Defaced ruins of architecture and statuary, like the wrinkles of decrepitude of a once beautiful woman, only make one regret that one did not see them when they were enchanting.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)