The Tradition of American Classicism

Architectural theory in the United States, as we might expect, was a relatively late developing phenomenon – a philosophical luxury rarely engaged in before the 1840s. But this does not mean that national characteristics in thinking were not evident before this date. If American architecture in the beginning was heavily influenced by the cultural values and historical perspectives of European settlers, it soon exhibited important differences from European architecture, variations forced on it by the new geographic and cultural milieu. For one thing, American architects lacked ready access to the monuments of the past – the architecture of Greece, Rome, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance – or those models that provided the immediate context for European historical conceptions. Then there were the economic and physical hardships of pioneering life, which quickly tempered the pretensions of European culture with a necessary respect for frugality and practicality. We should also take into account the unspoiled and mostly unpopulated landscape of North America with its large distances and scale, which helped to foster a generally rural or antiurban outlook.