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Introduction to Architectural Styles in Martinsville
Architecture has varied meanings. It is the
art and science of designing and constructing buildings.
Architects, for examples, are professionals in building design and
construction. It is also the style and method of design and
construction. We classify buildings as Greek Revival in style or as log,
frame or masonry structures. And, architecture also means the overall
structure or arrangement of parts. For example, we often talk about the
architecture of a computer system or the architecture of a piece of
literature.
In "Designing Place," architecture means all of these
things. The focus is on historic architecture, or that which is at least 50
years old. This age is one of the criteria for evaluating the significance
of historic properties established by the federal government.
Much of the material included in the following
architectural essays has been adapted for use in this website from the
Morgan County Interim Report (1993), part of the Indiana Historic Sites
and Structures Inventory; Martinsville: A Pictorial History (1995) by
Joanne Raetz Stuttgen, PhD; and A Field Guide to American Houses (1984) by
Virginia and Lee McAlester. Refer to
Resources for complete
citations.
For the most part,
architectural styles in Indiana, especially in the areas outside the urban
centers, were expressed in a vernacular, both folk and popular,
rather than pure academic, or high style, fashion. They reached the
state first not through trained architects but by way of cultural tradition
and popular publications such as carpenters' guides and builders' manuals.
In the pre-railroad era, stylistic motifs derived from these books were
generally applied to otherwise traditional building forms. After the arrival
of the railroads, the range of stylistic possibilities broadened as new
building products and technologies were made available and as communication
in general improved. In addition, the post-Civil War era witnessed the rise
of the architectural profession in America, which brought an increase in the
number of academic or "high style" buildings.
In Morgan County, the
majority of buildings considered to be examples of high style architecture
are found in Martinsville. The impact of the railroad on business and
industrial growth and the development of a number of mineral water
sanitariums during the late-nineteenth century dramatically increased the town's prosperity. As a
result, business owners and industrialists could afford more elaborate homes
and business buildings. The
East Washington Street Historic District
and the Northside Historic District, with their late-nineteenth and
early-twentieth century academic/high style houses, are good examples. The
Martinsville Commercial Historic District blends a variety of
vernacular buildings with several academic-high style examples.
Architectural
Styles Found in Morgan County
Folk and Vernacular
Single Pen
Double-Pen
Hall-and-Parlor
I-House
Side-Hall Plan
Central-Passage
Gable-Front
Shotgun
Gabled-Ell
T-Plan
Pyramidal Roof
American Foursquare
Academic
or High Style
Greek Revival
Gothic Revival
Italianate
Second Empire
Queen Anne
Stick/Eastlake
Free Classic
Neoclassical
Eclectic Period Revivals
Tudor
English Cottage
Tudor Gothic
Renaissance
Spanish
Colonial Revival
Prairie
American Foursquare
Craftsman
Bungalow
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