In a rich blend of architectural and social history, Abbott Lowell Cummings reconstructs some of our nation's first houses. This is a splendid story of innovations, of restless, migratory people and their architectural and social responses to their environment. It is the first chapter in the long saga of America's preoccupation with technology, showing how it affected the early American home.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
After more than 25 years of research into the houses and the associated documentary material Abbott Cummings has produced a book which deserves the description "definitive study"...English scholars will be well served when someone produces a book of this quality concerned with traditional buildings in the old world rather than the new. (Richard Harris Architectural Review )
This will probably be the definitive book on 17th-century American architecture. Richly illustrated, highly detailed, it...will reward careful study by those interested in the subject. (Geoffrey Elan Yankee )
A major contribution to American architectural history...[with] solidly researched, eloquently presented text...The Framed Houses of Massachusetts Bay will be the standard reference for architects, architectural historians and preservationists for many years to come. (Dell Upton AIA Journal )
[A] meticulous, wonderfully illustrated book...[Cummings] has made a grand book. It fills the lap, enchants the eye, and illuminates all Massachusetts Bay. (R. C. Haskett Journal of American History )
Abbott L. Cummings' book is an in-depth history of the framed house almost as if it were a work of art that was losing meaning as the "era of technical reproducibility" approached...From [his] meticulous technical treatment one learns the unique nature of these pioneer homes...The book concludes by underscoring, from the stylistic viewpoint, a sort of common character in the architecture of Massachusetts Bay which endures until the present. The framed house was not just the link between the Old and New World, it also was the mythical commencement of the American constructional tradition. (Domus[Italy] )
This will probably be the definitive book on 17th-century American architecture. Richly illustrated, highly detailed, it...will reward careful study by those interested in the subject. (Geoffrey Elan Yankee )
A major contribution to American architectural history...[with] solidly researched, eloquently presented text...The Framed Houses of Massachusetts Bay will be the standard reference for architects, architectural historians and preservationists for many years to come. (Dell Upton AIA Journal )
[A] meticulous, wonderfully illustrated book...[Cummings] has made a grand book. It fills the lap, enchants the eye, and illuminates all Massachusetts Bay. (R. C. Haskett Journal of American History )
Abbott L. Cummings' book is an in-depth history of the framed house almost as if it were a work of art that was losing meaning as the "era of technical reproducibility" approached...From [his] meticulous technical treatment one learns the unique nature of these pioneer homes...The book concludes by underscoring, from the stylistic viewpoint, a sort of common character in the architecture of Massachusetts Bay which endures until the present. The framed house was not just the link between the Old and New World, it also was the mythical commencement of the American constructional tradition. (Domus[Italy] )
About the Author
Abbott Lowell Cummings was Executive Director of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities and a member of the faculty at Antioch College, Boston University, and Yale University.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Definitive book on 17th Century Early American Homes,
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This review is from: The Framed Houses of Massachusetts Bay, 1625-1725 (Belknap Press) (Hardcover)
I first read the hardcopy version in 1979. I was so taken with the book I eventually ordered the paperback version which I still have. Both versions at this time are out of print, unfortunately. Cummings traces the design aesthetic from the Mother Country of England to the New World of Massachusetts with its abundant natural resources. This book is a valuable resource for anyone contemplating a saltbox design or who wishes to ensure the design is true to Puritan Massachusetts in the 1600s. The book is not dry but contains many pictures including the timber frame joinery, the masonry work, and the foundations. Cummings, to his credit, did the best he could with the existing homes as many fine specimens burned down or were otherwise destroyed over the years.
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