Famous Colonial Houses — Inside the Classic

Anecdote Over Architecture

Despite its title, the book devotes considerable space to biographical sketches and local legends. The chapter on the Timothy Dexter Mansion, for example, spends far more words on Dexter's eccentricities—his self-appointed lordship, his poet laureate Jonathan Plummer, and his garish renovations—than on the house's colonial architecture. Hollister describes Dexter's additions as making the house 'look like a Christmas tree gone mad,' a phrase that captures the author's preference for colorful narrative over measured description. The catalog subject 'Architecture, Colonial' thus proves misleading: the book is less a systematic study of colonial building styles than a collection of character-driven vignettes.

The Author's Confessed Method

In his foreword, Hollister admits to 'a snapping-up of ill-considered trifles where I found them,' and acknowledges that some information came from owners who 'have even read this manuscript.' This candid disclosure reveals his method: he prioritizes engaging stories over scholarly rigor. The book lacks a bibliography, as he freely states. Readers expecting a formal architectural history will find instead a personal, anecdotal tour. The catalog's secondary topic 'cooking-home' hints at domestic life, but the excerpts show Hollister more drawn to the bizarre than the everyday—Dexter's poet laureate, for instance, or the 'iron-dog-and-Diana tendency' on wealthy lawns.

Illustrations and Their Role

James M. Preston's illustrations accompany each chapter, and the transcriber's note advises that larger versions may be viewed by right-clicking. The illustrations are 'especially engraved and printed by the Beck Engraving Company,' suggesting a high-quality production. However, the excerpts do not describe the illustrations' content or how they relate to the text. Given Hollister's anecdotal focus, the images likely depict the houses' exteriors or interiors, but without seeing them, the reader must infer their contribution. The book's structure—31 text sections covering 14 houses plus an appendix—implies a visual complement that the text alone does not fully document.

Readers approaching Famous Colonial Houses should set aside expectations of a dry architectural catalog. Hollister's work rewards those who enjoy historical gossip and character sketches set against colonial backdrops. The book's value lies not in its architectural precision but in its preservation of early 20th-century attitudes toward colonial heritage, filtered through a narrator who freely admits his sources are 'gifts, some purchases, some thefts.'

Leafing through Hollister’s old survey, I found myself lingering less on the wainscoting and more on the people who once rattled around those quiet rooms. Their odd, stubborn lives felt so vivid that I set the book down, thinking of another volume altogether, one that traces the same restless character across a broader canvas: Art in America: A Critical and Historial Sketch — Key Ideas to Explore. A shared, unspoken thread, really.