 modern architecture on past models, and the reaction against the purely literary and archaeologic imitation of Gothic cathedrals, or the expensive and generally wornout forms of the traditional Renaissance, or the expensive and frequently unnecessary colonnades of the Greeks.
Side by side with this movement and slightly later in time came the so-called "Queen Anne" and "Colonial" styles, which were especially applied to country houses and suburban residences, whereas the Italian Gothic and Romanesque, as exclusively masonry and not timber styles, had been more confined to the cities.
In these last revivals we see partly the swinging back of the pendulum toward the Renaissance under which "Colonial" and "Queen Anne" must be included, but Renaissance of a simpler class, less pretentious, and with details of greater beauty than had survived in the purely traditional forms of brownstone fronts and American government buildings. Recurrence to our remarks on Dutch buildings of the seventeenth century will assist this explanation (p. 104). Otherwise, "Queen Anne" and "Colonial" may be explained as an appreciation of fashion for the picturesque and common-sense construction of the given periods, and both styles, so-called, as well as Italian Gothic and Romanesque, have been convenient cloaks for architects intent on solving modern problems in their own way without caring to make martyrs of themselves by explaining to their patrons that it makes very little difference what old name may be given a modern building. In all these varying currents and eddies of the hour, we can still see in our own country the steady movement of a great nation toward the assertion of its own needs and character and the realization of its own opportunities.
( Originally Published 1894 )
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