The "Cross-House" in New Kent Pt II

 Today some more from Henry Chandlee Forman on the "Cross-house" in Virginia

The last or culminating development in the rural dwelling was the changing of a "hall-and-parlor" habitation, or one of "central-passage" variety, into a "cross-house." The cross was formed by adding an enclosed porch, usually with a "porch chamber" above it, on the front façade, and a wing, like a stair tower, to the rear. However, a "T"-shaped domicile, with no back wing, is also classified as a "cross-house." An old record tells of one Southey Littleton, of Accomack, who had a porch and porch chamber on the front of his dwelling—in other words, a cross-house. Of the extant or partially extant examples in Virginia are "Bacon's Castle" (c. 1650), Surry County; "Malvern Hill" (c. 1662), Henrico County; and "Christ's Cross" (c. 1690) and "Foster's Castle," (c. 1685) both in New Kent. They make a veritable school of building which once must have flourished the length and breadth of tidewater Virginia. With its noted "Bond Castle," Maryland, too, had a school of cross-houses.

Of the Virginia examples, "Bacon's Castle," two-storeys-and-garret high, with basement, was built by one Arthur Allen, and was named for the rebel, Nathaniel Bacon, who in 1676 ordered his men to capture the dwelling. "Castle" meant "fort." Its cross-plan incorporated a porch, porch chamber, and stair tower. A low, wooden, curtain and kitchen extension, which is believed to have been seventeenth century in date, formerly stood off the gable on the "Hall" side—an arrangement indicating that the Great Room perhaps also served as a dining room. The curtain was the buttery, or bottlery.

But the most distinguishing feature of "Bacon's Castle" is the Jacobean "curvilinear" gable at each end. These gables possess round members—"cuspings"—and steps, built pretty much the same way in which they were made in England and the Low Countries. The chimney stacks are Tudor, three in number, set diagonally on their bases at each gable. Because of the way these chimneys look in plan, we call them "diamond stacks."

Also Jacobean are the crude brick pediment over the main entrance, now much changed, and the brick borders surrounding the windows—called "enframements." And of course, the windows formerly held leaded casements, with mullions and transom bars.

Two important features of another of the cross-houses mentioned belong to "Christ's Cross," called for short, "Criss Cross." This writer can remember when there was hardly a person who knew of the existence of this place, and where it was located. The double door opening out into the enclosed porch from the "Hall" we have denoted as the "finest Tudor door in all Virginia"—because of its panel design and Gothic mouldings; and the post in the "Hall" has probably the finest Jacobean carved capital in the United States. The capital is in truth a folk Jacobean carving, a grotesque, comprising a raised heart-shaped shield with crudely[43] chiselled volutes upon it, and an "echinus" or cushion, and an "abacus" or block above it. It reminds one of the ancient Greek Ionic wooden capitals in Athens, Asia Minor, or elsewhere, which possessed rough or incipient volutes.

Study of the cross-house in Virginia needs an essay to itself. We have tried here to give some of the highlights of this last development of the rural dwelling, which is outstandingly medieval in design and construction—with a bit here and there of Jacobean trimming.

Virginia Architecture in The Seventeenth Century, Henry Chandlee Forman Ph.D. (Fine Arts), A.I.A. 1957 With Drawings and Photographs By The Author 

 

 

 

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

Event- July 21, 2024

 

A reposting from Memorial Day three years ago

Richmond National Cemetery lies some 15 miles east of New Kent . . .

 

 At the close of the Civil War, the remains of Union soldiers who died during the numerous battles in and around Richmond, including the 1862 Peninsula Campaign, the 1864 Overland Campaign, and the Sieges of Petersburg and Richmond, were scattered among the city’s cemeteries and battlefield burial grounds.  When the Richmond National Cemetery opened in 1866, most of the first burials were reinterments of Union soldiers from other sites in the area.  The reburied soldiers include 3,200 from Oakwood Cemetery in Richmond, 388 from Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, 210 from the cemetery at the Belle Island Confederate Prison, and hundreds more from the battlefields of Cold Harbor, Seven Pines, and more than 70 additional sites within a 25-mile radius.

From Roll of Honor: Names of Soldiers who Died in Defence of the American Union, Interred in the National  Cemeteries and Other Burial Places ... Vols 16-17

Union Soldiers Interred in Richmond National Cemetery, VA

Division: F

Section: 1

No. 5621

(76 to 148)    73 unknown

These bodies were interred in an triangular enclosure, at Bottom's Bridge, where the New Kent road crosses the Chickahominy river. No. 76 was No. 1 grave on the southwest corner of the triangle and the rows followed the hypotenuse.

The Partial Eclipse of 1831

       OK, A little late, but, following is the account of the annular eclipse of the Sun that was visible in New Kent in the February of 1831.

https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/19th-century

                                   THE GREAT ECLIPSE 

On next Saturday morning (the 12th) the great annular Eclipse of the Sun is to take place. Richardson's Virginia Almanac, gives the following account of its elements.

"Beginning at 48ra. after 10h. A.M. —Ecliptic conjunction at 48m. after 11h.—Apparent conjunction or greatest obscuration at 27m. [-------- ]— End at l m. after 2h. P.M. — Duration 3h. 13m .

When it is 16m. afternoon at Richmond, the Sun will be centrally eclipsed on the Meridian, in lat. 35 deg S 1-2 n North, and long. 3 dg. 68m. West, from Richmond. The centre of the Moon's shadow will pass thence near Petersburg, Va. little to the Southeast of Richmond, and go off into the Atlantic Ocean near Cape May, New Jersey.—At all places where the eclipse will be central or nearly so. the edge of the Sun's disk will appear like a luminous cloud round the body of the Moon, having different appearances at different distances from the path of the penumbras centre. — At Richmond, the visible part of the Sun  Northern limb, will be much broader than the Southern. At the time of the great obscuration, the Sun's apparent diameter will be 32 n. 26 arc. of a deg. and the Moon's 31in  25 sec. consequently only about one thirty-second part of the Sun's diameter will be visible, at places where the eclipse is annular.”

 We are indebted to the last Fredericksburg Arena for the following corpendicus* description of this remarkable phenomenon, “with fear of change perplexing monarchs:"

“There are few persons who have not seen an ordinary eclipse of the sun, but, for a long course of years, the kind of eclipse which will happen on Saturday may not be again witnessed. It will be what is called an Annular eclipse. To those situated on a particular line, entering the United States from Mexico,- and passing thro’ the States of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, S. Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, thence into the Atlantic, South of Cape Henlopen, and touching the Island of Nantucket, the sun will exhibit the appearance of a bright luminous ring; the circles forming the Interior and exterior boundaries of which will be concentric. To those, within the distance of 50 miles on either side of this line, the appearance will still be that of a ring, but of a ring, whose exterior and interior boundaries are circles which have not a common centre. To all on either side of the path of a greater distance than 50 miles, the appearance will be that of a crescent. The Southern limit of the Annular Eclipse passes through the counties of Greensville, Sussex, Surry, Warwick, York, Northampton and Accomack— Between this line, and the central path, to which like the Northern limit, It is parallel, the appearance will be precisely the same as between the Northern limit and the central path, but the Eclipse will be up in the North limb of the Sun. 

“From the American Almanac— 26 pages of which are devoted too this Eclipse— we gather the following particulars, in relation to its appearance in the various parts of Virginia: 

“The path of the Central Eclipse, passes through the counties of Halifax, Mecklenburg, Lunenburg. Dinwiddie, (very near Petersburg.) Chesterfield, Charles City, New Kent, King William, King & Queen, Middlesex, Lancaster and Northumberland —To persons on this path, in the several counties mentioned above, the sun will appear a luminous ring of equal breadth all around. Petersburg is the only Town, of any size, in the Union, which is upon the central path."

        -Richmond Enquirer, 10 February 1831

A most sensible change in the temperature of the air was experienced during the eclipse on Saturday. A thermometer placed in the sun fell 31 deg. in an hour and 10 minutes, from the first commencement, to the moment of greatest obscuration.

-Richmond Whig, 14 February 1831

                                                          THE ECLIPSE. 

There was no necessity for Swift's Bellman to put off the Eclipse on Saturday, for a finer day. The sky was as clear and cloudless as could have been wished by Endymion himself. The sublime Phenomenon, was visible from first contact to the final emersion(sic) of the moon. Every person in the city was star gazing, from blear-eyed old age to the most bright eyed infancy— duly armed with smoked glass, or with green spectacles. But there was a scarcely a Telescope mounted, to trace the various phases of the heavenly bodies and we have not heard of a single scientific observation being made, to ascertain the Longitude of the Metropolis. The event itself gave a new triumph to the cause of Science.  The calculations of the Astronomers seemed to be perfectly realized. The Eclipse appeared beautifully annular in our City— the ring being accurately defined, but in about a minute evanescent. 

 We were struck with two phenomena of light and of heat- The light, in passing through the interstices of the leaves of plants, was formed into very beautiful crescents corresponding  with the appearance of the sun. The same phenomenon was witnessed when the rays of light, were passed through a small hole in a sheet of paper, and by varying degree the number and positions of the holes, you might obtain a series of crescents in the most fanciful forms. The change of temperature was remarkably great. About the period of the greatest obscuration, the Mercury rapidly fell several  We understand in another position the thermometer indicated a variation of 32 degrees from the commencement of the eclipse to the period of the greatest conjunction. We saw the thermometer standing at 32 degrees in a confined yard.— The cold was, of course, still more oppressive from the suddenness of the change— A few of the stars of greatest magnitude were visible in different parts of the firmament.

         -Richmond Enquirer, 15 February 1831

The eclipse took place on Saturday, pursuant to appointment, and was doubtless gazed upon by hundreds of thousands. The darkness was not so great here as was expected.—The change in the temperature of the air, by the interception of the Sun’s rays, was very striking. A Thermometer placed against the south wall of of Office, and exposed to the rays of the sun stood at 60, a few minutes previously to the commencement of the Eclipse. As the disk, of the sun became gradually covered, the mercury sunk and at the moment of greatest obscuration stood at 32 1/2, having fallen 27 1/2 degrees. —The day was as fine as ordered expressly for the occasion.

        -Political Arena(Fredericksburg), 15 February 1831

* relating to Copernicus?

The eclipse of 1831 was seen by Nat Turner as a sign to start recruiting men for his insurrection.

The Total Eclipse of 1778

 A total eclipse of the sun was visible in New Kent on June 24 1778 in the midst of the Revolutionary war. We have this brief description from Williamsburg of observations made by the Reverend James Madison, President of William and Mary and cousin of the more famous Madison.

To Thomas Jefferson from Rev. James Madison, 26 July 1778

From Rev. James Madison

      WMC.  1 July 26th 78

 

Dear Sir

I was very glad to see your Observations, tho they differ considerably from those we made here. The same Misfortune of a cloudy Morning prevented us from seeing the Beginning, but we had a very good View of the End which Mr. Page made at 11h 3′ 25″ and myself at 11h 3′ 27″ tho’ I think the Altitude of the Sun was such as must render the Observations uncertain to a few Seconds. The End of total Darkness was at 45′ 30″. This was pretty nearly determined, for the Return of Light was almost instantaneous. There was really something awful in the Appearance which all Nature assumed. You could not determine your most intimate Acquaintance at 20 yds. distance. Lightening Buggs were seen as at Night.*

Path of the 1778 eclipse from www.solar-eclipse.info

From the site Founders Online

We're Number 10!

Top 10 Counties in Annual Percent Growth: July 1, to July 1, 2023

Resident Population of 20,000 or more in 2022 and 2023

Rank	State	County	April 1, 2020 (Estimates Base)	July 1, 2022	July 1, 2023	Percent Growth
1	Texas	Kaufman County	145,307	172,611	185,690	7.6%
2	Texas	Rockwall County	107,844	123,342	131,307	6.5%
3	Texas	Liberty County	91,631	102,462	108,272	5.7%
4	Georgia	Jackson County	75,912	84,009	88,615	5.5%
5	Georgia	Dawson County	26,796	30,189	31,732	5.1%
6	Texas	Chambers County	46,562	51,309	53,876	5.0%
7	Texas	Comal County	161,493	184,749	193,928	5.0%
8	Texas	Ellis County	192,445	212,323	222,829	4.9%
9	South Carolina	Jasper County	28,810	31,986	33,544	4.9%
10	Virginia	New Kent County	22,944	24,952	26,134	4.7%

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2023 Population Estimates.

 

-More Counties Saw Population Gains in 2023
March 14, 2024

Press Release Number CB24-44