Neoclassicism
The main Neoclassical movement coincided with the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment, and continued into the early 19th century, laterally competing with Romanticism. In architecture, the style continued throughout the 19th, 20th, European Neoclassicism in the visual arts began c.1760 in opposition to the then-dominant Baroque and Rococo styles. Each neo-classicism selects some models among the range of classics that are available to it. They ignored both Archaic Greek art and the works of Late Antiquity, the Rococo art of ancient Palmyra came as a revelation, through engravings in Woods The Ruins of Palmyra. While the movement is described as the opposed counterpart of Romanticism. The case of the main champion of late Neoclassicism, demonstrates this especially well. The revival can be traced to the establishment of formal archaeology, the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann were important in shaping this movement in both architecture and the visual arts. With the advent of the Grand Tour, a fad of collecting antiquities began that laid the foundations of many great collections spreading a Neoclassical revival throughout Europe, Neoclassicism in each art implies a particular canon of a classical model.
In English, the term Neoclassicism is used primarily of the arts, the similar movement in English literature. This, which had been dominant for decades, was beginning to decline by the time Neoclassicism in the visual arts became fashionable. Though terms differ, the situation in French literature was similar, in music, the period saw the rise of classical music, and Neoclassicism is used of 20th-century developments. Ingress coronation portrait of Napoleon even borrowed from Late Antique consular diptychs and their Carolingian revival, much Neoclassical painting is more classicizing in subject matter than in anything else. A fierce, but often very badly informed, dispute raged for decades over the merits of Greek and Roman art, with Winckelmann. The work of artists, who could not easily be described as insipid, combined aspects of Romanticism with a generally Neoclassical style. Unlike Carstens unrealized schemes, the etchings of Giovanni Battista Piranesi were numerous and profitable and his main subject matter was the buildings and ruins of Rome, and he was more stimulated by the ancient than the modern.
Neoclassicism in painting gained a new sense of direction with the success of Jacques-Louis Davids Oath of the Horatii at the Paris Salon of 1785. Despite its evocation of republican virtues, this was a commission by the royal government, David managed to combine an idealist style with drama and forcefulness. David rapidly became the leader of French art, and after the French Revolution became a politician with control of government patronage in art
Greek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture, the term was first used by Charles Robert Cockerell in a lecture he gave as Professor of Architecture to the Royal Academy of Arts, London in 1842. With a newfound access to Greece, or initially the books produced by the few who had actually been able to visit the sites, archaeologist-architects of the period studied the Doric and Ionic orders. This was especially the case in Britain and the United States, Greek Revival architecture took a different course in a number of countries, lasting until the Civil War in America and even in Scotland. Despite the unbounded prestige of ancient Greece amongst the elite of Europe. The monuments of Greek antiquity were known chiefly from Pausanias and other literary sources, visiting Ottoman Greece was difficult and dangerous business prior to the period of stagnation beginning with the Great Turkish War.
Few Grand Tourists called on Athens during the first half of the 18th century and it would take until the expedition funded by the Society of Dilettanti of 1751 by James Stuart and Nicholas Revett before serious archaeological inquiry began in earnest. Access to the originals in Greece itself only became easier after the Greek War of Independence ended in 1832, Lord Byrons participation, following James Stuarts travels to Greece in the early 1750s, intellectual curiosity quickly led to a desire to emulate. Stuart was commissioned after his return from Greece by George Lyttelton to produce the first Greek building in England, arguably the greatest British exponent of the style was Decimus Burton. In London twenty three Greek Revival Commissioners churches were built between 1817 and 1829, the most notable being St. Pancras church by William and Henry William Inwood. Such was the popularity of the Doric in Edinburgh that the city now enjoys a striking visual uniformity, Greek continued to be in favour in Scotland well into the 1870s in the singular figure of Alexander Thomson, known as Greek Thomson.
In Germany, the Greek revival is predominantly found in two centres and Munich, the earliest Greek building was the Brandenburg Gate by Carl Gotthard Langhans, who modelled it on the Propylaea. Ten years after the death of Frederick the Great, the Berlin Akademie initiated a competition for a monument to the king that would promote morality, similarly, in Munich von Klenzes Glyptothek and Walhalla were the fulfilment of Gillys vision of an orderly and moral German world. The purity and seriousness of the style was intended as an assertion of German national values and partly intended as a riposte to France. By comparison, the Greek revival in France was never popular with either the state or the public, what little there is started with Charles de Waillys crypt in the church of St Leu-St Gilles, and Claude Nicolas Ledouxs Barriere des Bonshommes. It would take until Laboustres Neo-Grec of the Second Empire for the Greek revival to flower briefly in France, the style was especially attractive in Russia, if only because they shared the Eastern Orthodox faith with the Greeks.
The historic centre of Saint Petersburg was rebuilt by Alexander I of Russia, the Saint Petersburg Bourse on Vasilievsky Island has a temple front with 44 Doric columns. Leo von Klenzes expansion of the palace that is now the Hermitage Museum is another example of the style, following the Greek War of Independence, Romantic Nationalist ideology encouraged the use of historically Greek architectural styles in place of Ottoman or pan-European ones
National Historic Preservation Act of 1966
The National Historic Preservation Act is legislation intended to preserve historical and archaeological sites in the United States of America. The act created the National Register of Historic Places, the list of National Historic Landmarks, senate Bill 3035, the National Historic Preservation Act, was signed into law on October 15,1966, and is the most far-reaching preservation legislation ever enacted in the United States. Several amendments have been made since, among other things, the act requires federal agencies to evaluate the impact of all federally funded or permitted projects on historic properties through a process known as Section 106 Review. Preservation is an early development in America. Although there was no national policy regarding preservation until 1966, efforts in the 19th century initiated the journey towards legislation, one of the earliest efforts of the preservation movement occurred around the 1850s when George Washington’s home, Mount Vernon, was in shambles. His nephew attempted to sell it to the government for $200,000.
To prevent further destruction or conversion to a resort, Ann Pamela Cunningham created the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association to fight for this house, after establishing the first group promoting preservation efforts, they raised the money to acquire the property and protect it from ruin. Due to their efforts, not only does this house stand to represent the nation and the birth of independence, but it also, “served as a blueprint for organizations. ”In 1906, an act was passed on the behalf of the nation’s history and land. President Teddy Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act that “prohibited the excavation of antiquities from public lands without a permit from the Secretary of Interior. ”It gave the president authority to declare a specific piece of land a national monument, therefore protecting it from scavengers and proclaiming national identity. In 1916, the Department of the Interior established a new entity known as the National Park Service, Historic American Buildings Survey, one of the established programs, provided jobs for architects and surveyors who suffered from the Great Depression era.
They were to record, document and survey historic properties, the Historic Sites Act organized the national parks under the National Park Service, which created the foundation for the future development of National Register of Historic Places. Although the Antiquities Act and Historic Sites Act were major stepping stones for the preservation movement, it did not create a public “national awareness. In addition, the bill enforced public participation in preserving and protecting the sites, objects of significance in American history. ”Initially. Today, they are able to offer funds for planning and education, providing a plethora of information, due to this new construction, many historic properties were destroyed. In the 1960s, the Kennedy administration launched the Urban Renewal Program, hoping the plan would rejuvenate the cities, it in fact increased the destruction in the downtown areas. The increase in population around this time, as well, and the manufacturing of cars called for a rapid change, therefore hindering our nation and its culture.
“With the urbanization, tear downs, and rebuilding America. it is destroying the evidence of the past. ”During the 1950s and 1960s people saw the negative changes in their city and developed a concern for their “quality of life that reflected their identity. ”As a response to the nationwide destruction brought about by federally initiated programs, a report coordinated by Lady Bird Johnson analyzed the country. The National Historic Preservation Act was signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson on October 15,1966 and this act established several institutions, Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, State Historic Preservation Office, National Register of Historic Places, and the Section 106 review process
United States
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power.
The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations.
In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal governments official list of districts, buildings and objects deemed worthy of preservation. The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register, of the more than one million properties on the National Register,80,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing resources within historic districts, each year approximately 30,000 properties are added to the National Register as part of districts or by individual listings. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service and its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate and protect historic sites in the United States. While National Register listings are mostly symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties, protection of the property is not guaranteed.
During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Occasionally, historic sites outside the proper, but associated with the United States are listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties, site, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties, some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service. These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks/Battlefields, National Memorials, on October 15,1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices.
Initially, the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Registers creation, approval of the act, which was amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, hartzog, Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law, ernest Connally was the Offices first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register, the first official Keeper of the Register was William J. Murtagh, an architectural historian. During the Registers earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small and underfunded. A few years in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U. S.
National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two Assistant Directorates. Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation, from 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs, jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate
Contributing property
Government agencies, at the state and local level in the United States, have differing definitions of what constitutes a contributing property but there are common characteristics. Local laws often regulate the changes that can be made to contributing structures within designated historic districts, the first local ordinances dealing with the alteration of buildings within historic districts was in Charleston, South Carolina in 1931. Properties within a district fall into one of two types of property and non-contributing. A contributing property, such as a 19th Century mansion, helps make a historic district historic, while a non-contributing property, such as a medical clinic. The contributing properties are key to a districts historic associations, historic architectural qualities. A property can change from contributing to non-contributing and vice versa if significant alterations take place, the ordinance declared that buildings in the district could not have changes made to their architectural features visible from the street.
By the mid-1930s, other U. S. cities followed Charlestons lead, an amendment to the Louisiana Constitution led to the 1937 creation of the Vieux Carre Commission, which was charged with protecting and preserving the French Quarter in the city of New Orleans. The city passed an ordinance that set standards regulating changes within the quarter. Other sources, such as the Columbia Law Review in 1963, the Columbia Law Review gave dates of 1925 for the New Orleans laws and 1924 for Charleston. The same publication claimed that two cities were the only cities with historic district zoning until Alexandria, Virginia adopted an ordinance in 1946. The National Park Service appears to refute this, in 1939, the city of San Antonio, enacted an ordinance that protected the area of La Villita, which was the citys original Mexican village marketplace. In 1941 the authority of local controls on buildings within historic districts was being challenged in court. In City of New Orleans vs Pergament Louisiana state appellate courts ruled that the design, beginning in the mid-1950s, controls that once applied to only historic districts were extended to individual landmark structures.
The United States Congress adopted legislation that declared the Georgetown neighborhood in Washington, by 1965,51 American communities had adopted preservation ordinances. By 1998, more than 2,300 U. S. towns, contributing properties are defined through historic district or historic preservation zoning laws, usually at the local level. Zoning ordinances pertaining to historic districts are designed to maintain a historic character by controlling demolition and alteration to existing properties. It can be any property, structure or object that adds to the integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, either local or federal. Definitions vary but, in general, they maintain the same characteristics, another key aspect of a contributing property is historic integrity
Houses in Sycamore Historic District
The houses in the Sycamore Historic District, in Sycamore, United States, cross a variety of architectural styles and span from the 1830s to the early 20th century. There are 187 contributing properties within the district, 75% of the districts buildings. Many of the homes are associated with early Sycamore residents, usually prominent business leaders or politicians, Houses within the district are known by, either their street address or by a name associated with a prominent owner or builder. For most of the houses, the latter is true, a full 75% of the districts buildings are listed as contributing properties. Many of these include homes within the boundaries of the district that are architecturally or historically significant but are known only by their street address. Two of the districts contributing homes are found along Ottawa Street, both homes are nameless and stand next door to each other, one is at 124 and the other is at 134. Along Maple Street the Italianate home at 202 is listed as a contributing property, the two story Italianate home at 314 S.
Main Street is another example of a property in the Sycamore Historic District that is known only by its address. The house was constructed in 1878, Main St. is a brightly colored example of Queen Anne architecture. The only contributing property along the east-west High Street is the home at 418 W. High, the house at 312 Somonauk Street is an example of Italianate architecture, it is a nameless contributor to the districts historic nature. The Italianate home further down the block, at 328, has undergone some exterior changes. Its original wood siding was replaced with vinyl, on the other side of the street, the house at 413 Somonauk is an example of the American Foursquare style of domestic architecture. Also in the 400 block of Somonauk, at 437 is another contributing property. The Byers-Faissler House is located in the 500 block of Sycamores Somonauk Street, the house was built in 1867 for Sycamore politician William Byers. The home contains elements of both Gothic Revival and Italianate architecture and it is thought that the main gable once contained the same decorative elements as the smaller gable.
Byers eventually served two terms in the Illinois state legislature, though before he held that office he was active in DeKalb County politics, Byers youngest daughter, married native German Johannes Faissler. Faissler became a lawyer in Sycamore. The Captain R. A. Smith House, known as the F. W. Partridge House is another contributing property to the Sycamore Historic District. The house was built sometime before 1871 by Captain R. A. Smith
Italianate architecture
The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. The style of architecture that was created, though characterised as Neo-Renaissance, was essentially of its own time. The Italianate style was first developed in Britain about 1802 by John Nash and this small country house is generally accepted to be the first Italianate villa in England, from which is derived the Italianate architecture of the late Regency and early Victorian eras. The Italianate style was developed and popularised by the architect Sir Charles Barry in the 1830s. Barrys Italianate style drew heavily for its motifs on the buildings of the Italian Renaissance, the style was not confined to England and was employed in varying forms, long after its decline in popularity in Britain, throughout Northern Europe and the British Empire. From the late 1840s to 1890 it achieved popularity in the United States. A late intimation of Nashs development of the Italianate style was his 1805 design of Sandridge Park at Stoke Gabriel in Devon.
Later examples of the Italianate style in England tend to take the form of Palladian-style building often enhanced by a belvedere complete with Renaissance-type balustrading at the roof level. Sir Charles Barry, most notable for his works on the Tudor, unlike Nash he found his inspiration in Italy itself. Barry drew heavily on the designs of the original Renaissance villas of Rome, the Lazio and his most defining work in this style was the large Neo-Renaissance mansion Cliveden. Thomas Cubitt, a London building contractor, incorporated simple classical lines of the Italianate style as defined by Sir Charles Barry into many of his London terraces. Following the completion of Osborne House in 1851, the became a popular choice of design for the small mansions built by the new. These were mostly built in cities surrounded by large but not extensive gardens, on occasions very similar, if not identical, designs to these Italianate villas would be topped by mansard roofs, and termed chateauesque. However, after a modest spate of Italianate villas, and French chateaux by 1855 the most favoured style of an English country house was Gothic, the Italianate style came to the small town of Newton Abbot in Devon, with Isambard Brunels atmospheric railway pumping houses.
An example that is not very known, but a clear example of Italianate architecture, is St. Christophers Anglican church in Hinchley Wood, Surrey. When the Ottomans exiled Fakhreddine to Tuscany in 1613, he entered an alliance with the Medicis, upon his return to Lebanon in 1618, he began modernising Lebanon. He developed an industry, upgraded olive-oil production, and brought with him numerous Italian engineers who began the construction of mansions. The cities of Beirut and Sidon were especially built in the Italianate style, the influence of these buildings, such as the ones in Deir el Qamar, influenced building in Lebanon for many centuries and continues to the present time
Queen Anne style architecture in the United States
In the United States, Queen Anne style architecture was popular from roughly 1880 to 1910. Queen Anne was one of a number of architectural styles to emerge during the Victorian era. Within the Victorian era timeline, Queen Anne style followed the Stick style and preceded the Richardsonian Romanesque, the style bears almost no relationship to the English Baroque architecture produced in the actual reign of Queen Anne from 1702 to 1714. It is loosely used of a range of picturesque buildings with free Renaissance details rather than of a specific formulaic style in its own right. Queen Anne Style buildings in America came into vogue in the 1880s, the popularity of high Queen Anne Style waned in the early 1900s, but some elements, such as the wraparound front porch, continued to be found on buildings into the 1920s. There are triple windows of Serlian motif and a two-storey oriel that projects asymmetrically, the Astral Apartments, built in Brooklyn in 1885–1886 to house dock workers, provides another similar, and larger, example of red brick and terracotta Queen Anne architecture in New York. E.
Francis Baldwins stations for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, built variously of brick, the most famous American Queen Anne residence is the William Carson Mansion of Eureka, California. Newsom and Newsom, notable builder-architects of 19th Century California homes and public buildings, all styles described below as well as others are present in this example of American Queen Anne Style. Dentils, classical columns, spindle work and bay windows, horizontal bands of leaded windows, monumental chimneys, painted balustrades, front gardens often had wooden fences. Smaller and somewhat plainer houses can be Queen Anne, the William G. Harrison House, built 1904 in rural Nashville, Georgia, is an example. The Shingle Style in America was made popular by the rise of the New England school of architecture, in the Shingle Style, English influence was combined with the renewed interest in Colonial American architecture which followed the 1876 celebration of the Centennial. This impression of the passage of time was enhanced by the use of shingles.
Some architects, in order to attain a look on a new building, even had the cedar shakes dipped in buttermilk and installed. The Shingle Style conveyed a sense of the house as continuous volume, the most famous Shingle Style house built in America was Kragsyde, the summer home commissioned by Bostonian G. Nixon Black, from Peabody and Stearns. Kragsyde was built atop the rocky shore near Manchester-By-the-Sea, Massachusetts. Many of the concepts of the Shingle Style were adopted by Gustav Stickley, Victorian architectural styles Category, Victorian architecture in the United States
Gothic Revival architecture
Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. Gothic Revival draws features from the original Gothic style, including decorative patterns, scalloping, lancet windows, hood mouldings, the Gothic Revival movement emerged in 19th-century England. Its roots were intertwined with deeply philosophical movements associated with a re-awakening of High Church or Anglo-Catholic belief concerned by the growth of religious nonconformism, the Anglo-Catholicism tradition of religious belief and style became widespread for its intrinsic appeal in the third quarter of the 19th century. The Gothic Revival was paralleled and supported by medievalism, which had its roots in antiquarian concerns with survivals, as industrialisation progressed, a reaction against machine production and the appearance of factories grew. Proponents of the such as Thomas Carlyle and Augustus Pugin took a critical view of industrial society. To Pugin, Gothic architecture was infused with the Christian values that had been supplanted by classicism and were being destroyed by industrialisation, poems such as Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson recast specifically modern themes in medieval settings of Arthurian romance.
In German literature, the Gothic Revival had a grounding in literary fashions, guarino Guarini, a 17th-century Theatine monk active primarily in Turin, recognized the Gothic order as one of the primary systems of architecture and made use of it in his practice. Some of the earliest evidence of a revival in Gothic architecture is from Scotland, inveraray Castle, constructed from 1746, with design input from William Adam, displays the incorporation of turrets. These were largely conventional Palladian style houses that incorporated some features of the Scots baronial style. The eccentric landscape designer Batty Langley even attempted to improve Gothic forms by giving them classical proportions, a younger generation, taking Gothic architecture more seriously, provided the readership for J. Brittens series of Cathedral Antiquities, which began appearing in 1814. In 1817, Thomas Rickman wrote an Attempt. to name and define the sequence of Gothic styles in English ecclesiastical architecture, the categories he used were Norman, Early English and Perpendicular.
It went through numerous editions and was still being republished by 1881. The largest and most famous Gothic cathedrals in the U. S. A. are St. Patricks Cathedral in New York City and Washington National Cathedral on Mount St. Alban in northwest Washington, D. C. One of the biggest churches in Gothic Revival style in Canada is Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate in Ontario, Gothic Revival architecture was to remain one of the most popular and long-lived of the Gothic Revival styles of architecture. The revived Gothic style was not limited to architecture, classical Gothic buildings of the 12th to 16th Centuries were a source of inspiration to 19th-century designers in numerous fields of work. Architectural elements such as pointed arches, steep-sloping roofs and fancy carvings like lace ant lattice work were applied to a range of Gothic Revival objects. Sir Walter Scotts Abbotsford exemplifies in its furnishings the Regency Gothic style, parties in medieval historical dress and entertainment were popular among the wealthy in the 1800s but has spread in the late 20th century to the well-educated middle class as well.
By the mid-19th century, Gothic traceries and niches could be inexpensively re-created in wallpaper, the illustrated catalogue for the Great Exhibition of 1851 is replete with Gothic detail, from lacemaking and carpet designs to heavy machinery
Bayard Taylor
Bayard Taylor was an American poet, literary critic, travel author, and diplomat. Taylor was born on January 11,1825, in Kennett Square in Chester County and he was the fourth son, the first to survive to maturity, of the Quaker couple and Rebecca Taylor. His father was a wealthy farmer, Bayard received his early instruction in an academy at West Chester, and at nearby Unionville. At the age of seventeen, he was apprenticed to a printer in West Chester, the influential critic and editor Rufus Wilmot Griswold encouraged him to write poetry. The volume that resulted, Ximena, or the Battle of the Sierra Morena, using the money from his poetry and an advance for travel articles, he visited parts of England, France and Italy, making largely pedestrian tours for almost two years. He sent accounts of his travels to the Tribune, The Saturday Evening Post, in 1846, he published a collection of those articles in two volumes as Views Afoot, or Europe seen with Knapsack and Staff. That publication resulted in an invitation to serve as an assistant for Grahams Magazine for a few months in 1848.
That same year, Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, hired Taylor and he returned by way of Mexico and published another two-volume collection of travel essays, El Dorado, or, Adventures in the Path of Empire. Within two weeks of release, the books sold 10,000 copies in the U. S. and 30,000 in Great Britain, in 1849 Taylor married Mary Agnew, who died of tuberculosis the next year. That same year, Taylor won a competition sponsored by P. T. Barnum to write an ode for the Swedish Nightingale. His poem Greetings to America was set to music by Julius Benedict, in 1851 he traveled to Egypt, where he followed the Nile River as far as 12°30 N. He traveled in Palestine and Mediterranean countries, writing poetry based on his experiences, toward the end of 1852, he sailed from England to Calcutta, and to China, where he joined the expedition of Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry to Japan. He returned to the U. S. on December 20,1853, after two years, he went to northern Europe to study Swedish life and literature.
The trip inspired his long narrative poem Lars and his series of articles Swedish Letters to the Tribune were republished as Northern Travel and Winter Pictures. In Berlin in 1856, Taylor met the great German scientist Alexander von Humboldt, Humboldt was welcoming, and inquired whether they should speak English or German. Taylor planned to go to central Asia, where Humboldt had traveled in 1829, Taylor informed Humboldt of Washington Irvings death, Humboldt had met him in Paris. Taylor saw Humboldt again in 1857 at Potsdam, in October 1857, he married Maria Hansen, the daughter of the Danish/German astronomer Peter Hansen. The couple spent the winter in Greece
Charles O. Boynton House
The Charles O. Boynton House is located in the DeKalb County, city of Sycamore. The home is part of the Sycamore Historic District which was designated and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in May 1978. The Queen Anne style mansion sits on a stretch of Sycamores Main Street that is dotted with other significant Historic District structures including, the Townsend House and the Townsend Garage. The Boynton House was designed by the architect who designed the Ellwood House in nearby DeKalb. Charles O. Boynton was born in 1826 in Rockingham, Vermont and he came to Illinois in 1847 and opened a dry goods store in Chicago. Two years he moved to Sycamore and opened another store and he began lending money in 1852 by obtaining capital from back East at lower interest rates and lending locally at a higher rate. He did this until the early 1870s and made a significant amount of money, after lending Boynton moved on to land speculation. Boynton owned farmland in DeKalb County as well as almost 75,000 acres in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota and he held nearly 60,000 acres of walnut forests in Arkansas where he owned a lumber mill.
Planning for the Charles Boynton House began in 1886, by Boynton and his hand picked architect was George O. Garnsey of Chicago, who had designed a number of prominent structures in DeKalb and in Sycamore. Many of those structures are listed on the National Register either individually or as part of the Sycamore Historic District, the Queen Anne style mansion was completed by April 1887 at a cost of about $12,000. The house remained in the Boynton family for around 100 years, in the 1940s the family converted the first floor of the home for use as a gift and womens clothing shop. To add merchandise space they enclosed the porch with glass and consolidated their living quarters to the upper floor, finally, in 1986, the home left the hands of the Boynton family as third generation Lillian Boynton put the home up for sale, asking $275,000. The home, nearby Charles O. Boynton Carriage House, the homes new owners set about remodeling, mostly the interior of the home. Outside they returned the porch to its 1880s appearance, the third floor had originally held a grand ballroom, said to have been even larger than that in the Ellwood House.
At its height the ballroom was decorated and furnished. Even in the homes last years with Lillian Boynton the ballroom still retained its deteriorated original wallpaper, after the sale, the ballroom was gutted to make way for a new master bedroom. The home hit the market for the time in a little over 100 years in 1997. Both the home and carriage house passed hands, separately this time, the home, at 8,824 square feet remained a single family home while the carriage house was converted for office space
