college; the wings to The interior of the

style (Plate XXVIII.) The main building is devoted to the hall for the library of the rooms for the society libraries. hall is beautifully arranged; the windows of the clerestory and the large windows at the end let in the light from above, upon the clustered columns and well-filled alcoves. This beautiful edifice was completed in 1847. Henry Austin, architect.

A foreign traveller remarks as follows: "In the United States there are many splendid temples for

Several valuable houses have been lately built in this manner; and the cement, contrary to the general expectation, has hitherto perfectly sustained the severity of our seasons. This mode of building is very little more expensive than building with wood; and will, I suspect, ultimately take the place of every other. I know of no other equally handsome, where marble itself is not the material. Both these kinds of stone are found inexhaustibly at a moderate distance. All the congregations in New Haven voted, in 1812, that they would take down their churches, and build new ones. Accordingly, two of them commenced the work in 1813, the others in 1814. The first was finished in 1814, the others soon after. They are all placed on the western side of Temple Street, in a situation singularly beautiful, having an elegant square in front, and stand on a street one hundred feet wide. The Presbyterian churches are of Grecian architecture. The Episcopal church is a Gothic building, the only correct specimen it is believed in the United States. Few structures, (many have since that time been erected in every part of the country,) devoted to the same purpose, on this side of the Atlantic, are equally handsome, and in no place can the same number of churches be found, within the same distance, so beautiful, and standing in so advantageous a position."-Dwight's Travels in New England and New York.

religious worship, not on a scale of magnificence to equal the St. Peter's of Rome, or the St. Paul's of London, nor the ancient Abbeys or Minsters of this country, yet, generally speaking, on a par with many or most of the modern religious edifices throughout the United Kingdom. There are numerous superior specimens of architecture in the United States, which, although neither antique nor original, are highly creditable to the genius and generosity of the American people. Many instances might be enumerated in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, and other cities, of different public buildings.

"The United States Banking-House at Philadelphia, built on the model of the ancient Parthenon, excels in elegance, and equals in utility, the edifice not only of the Bank of England, but that of any banking-house in the world.

"The Exchange Hotel of New Orleans, in St. Charles Street, is probably the largest of its kind in the world; the cost of the ground and building has amounted to upwards of $600,000. The hotel is two hundred and twenty-eight feet in front by one hundred and ninetysix feet throughout or square. The front view is elevated on a plain basement, fourteen feet high, in the centre of which is a portico containing six columns, projecting from the main building, with four also on either side, receding inward, all in the Corinthian order, and forming an elegant colonnade along twothirds of the front, the other third being solid and

ornamented with pilasters. It is six stories high. From the basement to the top of the cornice the height is seventy-one feet, but there is an octagon in the centre of the building, seventy feet in diameter, which is raised fifty-three feet above the roof, and surmounted by a dome; above this is an observatory; the whole height from the ground being one hundred and thirteen feet.

"The theatre of New Orleans is on a similar scale of magnificence and magnitude.”

We are far from having named all the public buildings worthy of note in the United States. This list is necessarily very limited.

18

CHAPTER XXIII.

DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE IN THE UNITED

STATES.

DOMESTIC architecture in this country must be adapted to the circumstances and condition of the people. As it is an art originating from necessity, the progress of society must change the architecture of every country, from age to age. As wealth and refinement increase, taste and elegance must be consulted, without destroying convenience and appropriateness. We can no more adopt the style of architecture than the dress of a foreign people. We acknowledge the flowing robes of the Persian to be graceful and becoming; they suit the habits and climate of the country. The fur-clad Russian of the north has conformed his dress to his climate, and made it rich and elegant; yet, as he approaches his neighbours of Turkey, his dress becomes somewhat assimilated to theirs. France is said to give the law of fashion in dress to the civilized world; and the absurdities that