The "Cross-House" in New Kent

Some locally relevant passages from The Architecture of The Old South: The Medieval Style 1585-1850 by Henry Chandlee Forman 

 

 THE CROSS-HOUSE IN VIRGINIA 

IT WAS a comparatively simple matter to change a hall-and-parlor house, or one of central-passage type, to a cruciform structure. An enclosed entrance porch was placed on the front and a stair tower, or other kind of wing, at the rear — and there it was, the culmination of the development of the Virginia country house in the seventeenth century. Even so, it is not necessarily true that the more typical dwellings were all erected first, and all cross-edifices later. But indications are that known examples of the cruciform class average together a much later date than, for instance, the Thoroughgood House. It therefore appears that the cross-house, by its very complex nature, did not originate first, as has been recently suggested. 

The entrance porch or vestibule, and the stair tower, were pure English medieval features, and it is a pity that at least three out of seven known structures have been badly mutilated in the process of time, and that two have been completely razed from their foundations. Even in Maryland, the most interesting of the larger plantation houses, cruciform Bond Castle, was pulled down to make room for an ugly farm structure. 

In England the cross-dwelling must have been derived from the parish church, and may have carried a religious connotation. To declare that it had such a meaning in Virginia and Maryland would be a stretch of fancy but who can tell what was in the mind of the Southern planter when designing a house on a cross? The colonists of the seventeenth century were, by and large, a deeply religious people. 

We know cruciform architecture in Virginia best through these seven sites: Bacon’s Castle in Surry County; ruined Malvern Hill in Henrico County; the demolished Third State House¹ at Jamestown, as well as the destroyed Fourth State House² on the same site; the razed Turkey Island dwelling, home of the well-known Randolph family in Henrico County; Foster’s Castle and Christ’s Cross in New Kent County; and lastly, the partially ravaged, original Matthew Jones House in Warwick County. 

 . . .

The two most interesting cross-dwellings in Virginia, built in the late seventeenth century, are Foster’s Castle, known as “The Castle,” and Christ’s Cross, called “Criss Cross” for short. Both stand in New Kent County and were erected about the same rime: the former by Colonel Joseph Foster probably between 1685 ^^d 1690, and the latter by George Poindexter about 1690.^

The interest in Foster’s Castle lies chiefly for us in the exterior. Now much altered, the habitation was T-shaped in plan and comprised a story and loft with a two-story enclosed vestibule. The gables had the customary arched lie-on-your- stomach windows, but it was the front facade which was distinguished by unusual features. First, the main windows were each ample enough to contain three casements in a row, separated by mullions. Secondly, the gable over the porch had an oeil de boeuj window, sometimes known as an oculus or bull’s eye. In 1872 it was claimed by the gentleman who owned the Castle that this circular window was used for shooting Indians. Be that as it may, the opening is almost unique in early Virginia. The third feature is the broken belt course of brick over the two-leaf door of the vestibule, forming what is known in England as a “battlemented” doorway, a description of which follows. 

The belt or string course of projecting brick at the level of the second story at Foster’s Castle ornaments not only the two main gable ends, but extends around the whole vestibule. Now when the belt approaches the front doorway, it makes a right-angle break upward and over the head of the door. The illustration indicates how this was done. Inasmuch as the battlemented doorway decorated the approach front of many a seventeenth-century dwelling — including Bacon’s Castle and Fairfield — it is not surprising to find that it is a pure English medieval motif. At historic Compton Wynyates in Warwickshire, for instance, the two-story porch has a "battlemented pointed arch.” Another coeval example is at Little Warley Hall, Essex. 

The other late seventeenth-century cruciform house, Christ’s Cross, has not been as well preserved as its twin, Foster’s Castle, but there is the same story-and-loft dwelling with high vestibule After entering the enclosed porch of Christ’s Cross by a battlemented doorway, one finds oneself facing a double door to the great hall, called the finest Tudor door in all Virginia. To designate it as such is scarcely an exaggeration. The two leaves are hung by strap hinges, the heavy nails of which are cushioned on small leather washers. The narrow door panels, rising vertically, comprise molded battens secured to wide boards by means of clinched, wrought-iron nails. So wide are the boards of the door that only two vertical planks are needed for each leaf. But what is most remarkable are the Gothic moldings of the battens and the proportions of the panels. In design these moldings approach those seen on Gothic chests. 

Upon entering the great hall of Christ’s Cross, one’s attention is drawn almost at once to the summer beam or girder which runs from one gable-end fireplace to the other. This beam, and those running along the top of the walls, called wall plates, are elaborately carved with molded edges, terminating in lamb’s tongues. For all that, the most curious feature of Christ’s Cross is the capital of the square oak post near the middle of the dwelling. Upon this capital there is carved in raised relief a heart-shaped shield, enclosing scrolls, with a strange impost molding above — the ensemble partaking of that flavor belonging to grotesque carvings of Romanesque and Gothic sculpture. Here at Christ’s Cross is no Renaissance carving, but a bas-relief of genuine medieval style. In every rib and sinew Christ’s Cross bespeaks the Middle Ages. 

-The Architecture of The Old South: The Medieval Style 1585-1850 Henry Chandlee Forman, Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts 1948

¹- Burned in 1676 during Bacon's Rebellion

²- Burned by an arsonist in1699