Gore Place
| Gore Place | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| National Register of Historic Places | |||
| National Historic Landmark | |||
 The building in 2005 |
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| location | Waltham , Massachusetts , United States | ||
| Coordinates | 42 ° 22 '24 " N , 71 ° 12' 51.8" W | ||
| surface | 76 acres (30.8 ha ) | ||
| Built | 1805 | ||
| architect | Jacques-Guillaume Legrand | ||
| Architectural style | Federal style | ||
| NRHP number | 70000542 | ||
| Data | |||
| The NRHP added | December 30, 1970 | ||
| Declared as an NHL | February 18, 1997 | ||
As Gore Place (also Governor Christopher Gore Mansion ) is a former country estate in Waltham in the state of Massachusetts of the United States designated. It was built in 1805 and inscribed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 . Today's museum has been recognized as a National Historic Landmark since 1997 .
description
The Gore Place is located on a roughly 31 hectares of land and in 1805 by Governor Christopher Gore built, after which it is named today. Gore had acquired part of the property as early as 1786 for use as a summer resort , but the wooden house standing there burned down completely during the family's stay in London in 1799, so he bought additional land from Boston doctor Aaron Dexter and sold it for $ 23,000 ( today about $ 517,000) had a new 22-room house built. The Gore family - especially Christopher's wife Rebecca - worked closely with the French architect Jacques-Guillaume Legrand , but also contributed many of their own designs. When designing the garden, Christopher Gore was particularly inspired by Humphry Repton , who preferred naturalistic landscaping. The Gore Place Society , founded in 1935 to manage the estate, relied on Christopher Gore's original plans for its restorations of the garden.
architecture
Main house
Outdoor areas
The symmetrically laid out main building consists of a two and a half storey high middle section as well as two pavilions arranged on both sides , each connected to the middle section by a one and a half story high mezzanine . The building is around 58 m long, with the central part occupying a floor area of around 21 m × 12 m. The pavilions each have dimensions of 9.8 m × 6.1 m. The bricks were made in Charlestown and are installed in the Flemish Association .
There is an octagonal structure on the hipped roof of the middle section, which serves as a light passage and ventilation. The mezzanines and pavilions have gable roofs that are oriented on an east-west axis in the former and on a north-south axis in the latter. The former wood-shake roofs in 1956 as part of a renovation of slate from Vermont replaced.
In front of the central section, five bays wide, there is a terrace made of red-brown sandstone on the north side, which used to serve as a climbing aid. The two main entrances are to the side.
Indoor areas
The ground floor of the middle section, together with the east wing, is essentially designed for formal receptions based on the typical English country house . There were service rooms in the west wing and the owner's private rooms on the second floor.
Gala dinners were held in the knight's hall, the marble floor of which extends to the two entrance halls. The almost 5.20 m high room is semicircular and has two fire places and three doors on the south and three floor-to-ceiling windows on the north, which when open serve as passages to the terrace. The ceiling height, in conjunction with the marble floor and the large window openings, allowed efficient cooling during the summer months.
Opposite the knight's hall is the oval salon , which also has a fireplace and can be entered through two doors. To the east of this there is a reception room through which the other two rooms are accessible. Today's wallpapers in the salon and reception room are reproductions of the French originals of the Gores. To the east of the knight's hall is the formal entrance, from which a staircase leads to the upper floor, which was restored in 1986.
On the ground floor of the east wing there is a 9 m × 5.8 m billiard room , in which Gore's oversized billiard table has been preserved, as well as a library. The museum's exhibition rooms are now located on the upper floor. The library obtained by lunette plenty of natural light and has a Kaminumfassung that could be saved from the first building and a gesso - grabbing shows, one of the oldest in the United States.
On the first floor of the central block there are two bedrooms and a dressing room in the north, and another bedroom with a dressing room and a private family salon in the south. In the west wing, which was reserved for servants, was originally the main kitchen in the basement. A side kitchen used to be set up where the souvenir shop is located today.
Remise
The two-story coach house , built in 1793, has a floor plan of approx. 21.3 mx 12 m and, like the main building, also has a hipped roof. The arch over the passage is formed by a canopy into which a round window is let. The building is made up of three parts: in the western part the carriages were stored, in the eastern part the horses were housed in stables and harnessed, and the carriages cleaned, while a centrally positioned saddle room ensured that the horse smell was kept away from the carriages. The upper floor was mainly used as a hay and feed store. The structure was moved from the entrance to its present location in 1968 to allow Gore Street to expand and parking spaces to be created. This was preceded by a corresponding expropriation on the part of the city of Waltham. Today there are visitor toilets and a catering kitchen in the building.
Farmhouse
The farmhouse was built in 1835 by the then owner Theodore Lyman Jr. It originally stood in the middle of fields on Waltham Street - now Raytheon’s office - and was moved to its current location in 1963. It is two stories high and has an attic and a fully developed basement. The two chimneys each lead four ventilation pipes to the outside to supply the eight fireplaces in the house.
Two dormers protrude from the roof on the front and back . The special shape and slope of the roof is unique in the region today.
Historical meaning
The building originally served as the mansion for Christopher Gore, who became well known in New England as a lawyer, veteran of the American Revolution , signatory to the United States Constitution , Governor of Massachusetts (1809-1810) and Senator of the United States (1813-1816). Part of the property had been in the family since 1786.
The explicit design of the entire west wing for servants was unique at that time and reflects the increased importance of servants living in the house at the beginning of the 19th century. Many women of the upper and sometimes middle classes increasingly sought the help of servants, which was mainly the result of a new understanding of the role of women in the household. While people who previously lived externally were only hired for certain tasks such as obstetrics or laundry support, the trend now went towards employees living permanently in the client's house, who took on more and more tasks, giving the lady of the house freedom for activities such as childcare, non-profit There were jobs and visits to other families.
Today's museum clearly shows the living conditions of the employees of the Gore family, which included some slaves . The Christian Heurich Mansion (Washington, DC), James J. Hill House (Minnesota), Pomona Hall (New Jersey), Glessner House (Illinois) and McFaddin-Ward House (Texas) museums are similarly oriented .
Also worth mentioning is Robert Roberts, who worked as a butler for the Gore family and wrote The House Servant's Directory while he was there , in which he codified rules and guidelines for servants. It was the first book written by an African American in the United States in 1827 and published by an established publishing house with Boston-based Monroe and Francis . Roberts describes how employees should behave towards their employer and other employees and how they can best do their jobs. Roberts' book was so successful that a second edition was printed in 1828.
See also
- List of entries on the National Register of Historic Places in Waltham
- List of National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts
literature
- Robin F. Bachin: National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. (PDF) United States Department of the Interior , National Park Service , January 7, 1997, accessed May 30, 2017 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Massachusetts. National Park Service , accessed August 10, 2019.
- ↑ a b cf. Bachin, p. 4.
- ↑ a b c d e cf. Bachin, p. 5.
- ↑ a b cf. Bachin, p. 6.
- ↑ cf. Bachin, p. 7.
- ↑ cf. Bachin, p. 8.
- ↑ cf. Bachin, p. 8 f.
- ↑ cf. Bachin, p. 9.
- ↑ a b c d cf. Bachin, p. 12.
- ^ Robert Roberts, Graham Russell Hodges: The house servant's directory, or, A monitor for private families: comprising hints on the arrangement and performance of servants ' work . Ed .: Gore Place Society. Routledge, London 2015, ISBN 978-1-315-50337-0 (English).
- ↑ cf. Bachin, p. 13.