An architectural historian teams with a photographer to showcase samples of New England's homes--broadly defined to include Friends' and Shaker meeting houses, and provide details on their origins and preservation. Representing a cross-section of styles of the region's finest historic architecture, the two dozen homes featured in full-page and two-page spread color photographs range from that of Henry Whitfield (1639, Guildford, Connecticut) to Joseph Fessenen's (c. 1801, Royalton, Vermont).The volume also includes the 'Witch House' (1675) of a judge in the Salem, Massachusetts witch trials, a regional map, and list of the houses featured that are open to the public. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Old Homes of New England paints a stunning portrait of the charming and important old homes of the region, featuring storybook cottages in white clapboard as well ancient mansions in brick and stone. Cherished for its intimate, community-centered spirit, New England lays claim to some of the most wonderful architecture of the country—and, significantly, its buildings are among the nation’s very oldest. Featured here are twenty-five of the most beautiful examples, ranging from the storied House of the Seven Gables of 1668, in its magnificent colonial splendor, to the Corwin House of 1675, nicknamed the "Witch House" for its direct association to the infamous Salem witch trials, to the bucolic Cogswell farmhouse of 1728. Each house exemplifies its style, which range from early colonial Pilgrim, Puritan, and Shaker, to later Georgian, Federal, and Greek Revival. With richly crafted interiors formed from old woods, fine plasterwork, thoughtfully set beams, brick, and stonework, the houses return us to a more gracious time when the simple pleasures of staying at home were paramount, a time to which many of us, even now, long to return.
