Public-domain ebook
Language: en1,309 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: History - American·Architecture
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #39068.
The book is a guide‑to‑the‑historic‑shrine genre, cataloguing one hundred and twenty American buildings whose walls have witnessed the nation’s formative events. It opens with a sweeping declaration of purpose: to blend biography with architecture so that the reader feels the pulse of the Revolution as it moves from Boston’s Old State House to the frontier forts of Kentucky and the churches of New England. The author, John T. Faris, supplies concise chapters that pair vivid descriptions with enough historical detail to inspire travel, arranging the sites in a logical sequence that enables readers to plot successive “vacation journeys” through the country’s cultural heartland.
Written in a earnest, early‑twentieth‑century voice, the work combines factual narration with a patriotic enthusiasm that reflects its era’s reverence for the founding generation. Its style is straightforward yet lyrical, peppered with excerpts from contemporary diaries and letters. Readers who relish historic travel, architectural heritage, or biographical sketches of the nation’s pioneers will find it a rewarding companion for both study and itinerary planning.
The opening · free to read
It is fascinating to learn of these houses and public buildings and to delve into the biographies which tell what happened to the people who lived in them. Fiction seems tame after connecting, for instance, the story of Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler with the Ford Mansion and the Campfield House at Morristown, New Jersey, then with the Schuyler Mansion in Albany, New York, and The Grange in New York City. The heart of the patriot burns with new love for his country as he reads of Faneuil Hall and the Old South Church and Carpenters' Hall. The story of the Revolution is clothed with living interest when Washington and his generals are followed to Valley Forge and Newburgh and Cambridge and Morristown and Princeton. Fresh appreciation of the sacrifice of the pioneers comes from going with them into the garrison houses of New England, along the Wilderness Road in Kentucky, to the settlements on the Ohio, or to the banks of the Wabash where more than one Indian treaty was made.
Next comes the keen pleasure of visiting the houses and churches which, through the piecing together of these facts, have become like familiar friends. The vacation journey that includes a careful study of a few of these buildings becomes a fascinating course in patriotism.
It is the purpose of the author of "Historic Shrines of America" to tell just enough about each of one hundred and twenty of these buildings of historic interest to create a hunger for more; to present pictures sufficiently attractive to make those who turn the pages of the book determine to visit the places described; to arrange the brief chapters in such sequence that it will be possible for the reader to plan for successive vacations a series of journeys through the centers where historic buildings may be found, and, in doing this, to pass by so many structures of interest that the reader and the tourist will have abundant opportunity to discover houses and churches of which he will say, "I wonder why this was not included."
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