G history. I want to thank you all for coming to the hermitage this evening and want to welcome you im howard cattell and i have the privilege of being the president and ceo of the Andrew Jackson foundation. And were so happy to have you here tonight for our third history and quirked series our third of our series tonight. Let me put it that way. Better look at my notes. These informal events these informal events are intended to offer you glimpses of United States history. As it relates to Andrew Jacksons america. And enjoy some excellent natchez hill wine, which i see you all are taking advantage of as i say. With increasing frequency history always goes better with alcohol, especially his history as we with it today. So november 2001 marks . 2021 marks the bicentennial of when andrew and Rachel Jackson and their son Andrew Jackson jr. Moved into their new newly constructed home here at the hermitage. While significantly more modest the dimension you will visit today. It was a substantial upgrade from the twostory log farmhouse. They had lived in for the prior 17 years. But the question is why did the jacksons choose to construct this particular type of house beyond the functional considerations . What did it symbolize to them . How did it position them in the community . And how did it express the familys aspirations . Tonight were honored to have dr. Kevin murphy. As this evening speaker, dr. Murphy is the andrew w mellon. Chair in humanities and professor and chair of the department of history of art and architecture at vanderbilt university. He will explore for us the history of early president ial Plantation Homes what these building symbolized to their owners and to their constituents and what do they mean to us today . Dr. Murphy grew up in the boston, massachusetts area he holds master heals and undergraduate degree from swarthmore college. A masters in Historic Preservation from Boston University and his phd is from the university of chicago in art architecture and preservation. His areas a particular interest are 19th century french architecture american architecture and the meanings of these various styles in the when they were popular. Dr. Murphy credits growing up around so many Historic Buildings in the northeast with stimulating his interest in architectural history and Historic Preservation. He calls old Hickory Village just up the road from here home. Following dr. Murphys presentation. There will be a time for questions and answers. If you would like to ask question, please step to them to the mic here in the middle of the room because were honored to have cspan here tonight filming. This evenings event and please silence your cell phone, so youre not recorded and broadcast across america and a few weeks. So now please join with me and welcoming dr. Kevin murphy to the to the platform. Thank you howard for that very generous introduction. And normally i wouldnt you know, making a editorial comments about the introduction except. That you credit credited by phd to the university of chicago. It was actually from northwestern at since. Were such rivals, you know hyde park versus evanston. I feel like i have to say in fact, i was on the north side not in hyde park whereby brother was a grad student at the same time when i was but anyway, but im really happy to be here at the hermitage as you said, im really a neighbor up the street in old Hickory Village and have visited the hermitage. Before but i really i dont think of myself as an expert of the hermitage ive written more about. Other president ial houses, so really going to focus on those theyre earlier examples, but i feel like they give you some background some ways of thinking about the building which is in our backyard here. So let me begin im told that the Response Time of the clicker is very slow. There we go. Okay. So i begin here with a group of four buildings all of them associated with. Us president s so we have monticello which you know mount vernon the home of George Washington montpelier also in virginia, and then of course finally the hermitage so what do they have in common . Well a lot of them are brick of course being in virginia. Thats a common thing. They are all the residences of us president s. They all are neoclassical. In the sense that they all look back to traditions of ancient greece and ancient rome and build upon the interpretations of those traditions that had been made over subsequent centuries. And theyre all plantations where the enslaved population far outnumbered the population of free white People Living in these places that any one time. So what i want to do was to connect two things. One that kind of paradoxical fact that these are plantations but also the homes of some of the greatest spokesmen for you know, Political Freedom religious freedom that we have in our history and at the same time. I also want to address the fact that they only refer to certain architectural traditions in very different specific ways, and i want to think about what you know classesism does for the understanding of these plantations. So the other the other thing that these gentlemen had in common besides their political and social positions was that they were obsessive builders, especially washington and jefferson whose houses were in the process of being renovated for decades, especially jefferson was like obsessed with building and it was interested in architecture was really the deepest of any of these men. He is, you know famous for having always been living in a construction site. However, washington too whos not so much invested in architecture did not think of himself as an architect in the way that will see jefferson did. Still was deeply concerned with the design of his house. And with its furnishings and in fact, basically bankrupted himself ordering incredibly expensive Building Materials and furnishings from abroad. You know, theyre just arrived in a huge numbers out at mount vernon and culminated in this building. But the introduction howard referred to the log cabin that the jacksons have lived in well that log cabin would have been typical of the way that most people lived in the 18th century all but a tiny. Infinitesible fraction of people lived in houses that were one or two rooms that were made out of wood that did not have foundations. So they were earthfast houses. And so most of them have disappeared so what we are left with is a very unrepresentative sampling of 18th century houses in which Something Like about vernon would have just been unspeakably huge. I mean it would have been like, you know, ten mcmansions today because it was just so elaborate and so lavish in the context of the way most people lived. Now i want to Say Something a little bit about but about about where design comes from. But i also want you to notice. A couple of kind of bizarre things about it. Im hoping this is going to turn into a pointer. Yes, it did. Perfect. So you notice that . Who are the facade you have this . Kind of floating gable theres three this triangular kind of pediment here, which does not line up perfectly with either the windows or the doors in the first two stories, which is a very unclassical thing to have happen, you know, if youre a strict class assistant you want you would want the door to be centered under the gable to have the windows spaced evenly on other side and to have the cupola line up perfectly with the peppermint. But of course because the house was built in stages that wasnt possible. So washington built the house over the course of time and thats why it has a somewhat idiosyncratic arrangement of the facade. Which was commented upon at the time that there was something a little bit off about the way that the elements were. Thank you so much were of distributed across the facade. Im going to be very careful here. Now, so thats thats one thing. Theres an aspiration to a classicism thats not totally realized because of the way that the building project unfolded. Which is of course how most building projects unfold which is over the course of time now the other thing i want you to want to show you is this cupola. On the roof, which is a very undomestic feature. Its not something that was typically found on houses and it tells us that. Washingtons aspiration was to make a residence. But a residents that also had a public aspect to it. It was supposed to be more than just a house was supposed to be the house somebody of some importance. Oops, and hopefully yep. There we go. Okay, so the other place where it would have appeared. Is in this building the Governors Palace . At williamsburg colonial capital, which of course washington would have known. Where the the this cupola signaled the presence of an important residents president , so wasnt just a house. It was the Governors Palace and so he seems to echo this echo that feature in the design of this house. But in other respects, he really is placing some distance between himself. And this colonial monument, which is something that jefferson who was educated in williamsburg also did they were attempting to establish a language for american architecture. That was neoclassical it drew uncertain british examples, but it was really trying to create a distance. From the colonial architecture of that prerevolutionary period so you have here that the use of this prominent brick. Course those of you who know virginia know that the soil is all red clay. Its really easy to make brick there. Its used. Very extensively, but its also a material thats very familiar to british people. Its the material of london for example, and of other british settlements, so and that material and the style becomes very with the colonial period so one of the things i want to emphasize is this idea of difference and distinction of using architecture to separate yourself to connect but simultaneously separate yourself. From the past as you know, mount vernon is one of the iconic houses at the us along with of course a monticello and one of the reasons that becomes iconic, is that because is because its so different. From other houses because of the fact. Thanks again that it has that cupola on the on the land side when i would call the land side and then it has this. Portico on the riverside on the potomac side which has become so very very well known side of the building and i think if you look behind you there at the hermitage, i think that that colonnade or that screen of collabs really refers back to mount vernon, which became so unbelievably famous particularly after washingtons death right around 1800 when this became really pilgrimage destination for thousands of people. Ill say more about that. So on the water side you saw you would see. And if you ride by the by way of the potomac which many people did you and you probably know the side of mount vernon which is way above the river. Its very prominent you would have seen the cupola and you would have seen. This long porch or piazza tears the italian word, which again was a completely unfamiliar feature. Which would have suggested that this isnt just any old house it is the house of somebody who is important. And somebody who is creative. Somebody who has a very specific idea. Of what they want their house to look like . And i think that is really significant. This is in a painting from the probably the early 19th century. Heres the plan of mount vernon you have on this side. Heres the piazza and you see all the columns observes a little bit blurry. Heres the plan of the house itself. What you see here in elevation and then on either side, this is the interesting part you have these curved. Walkways that then connect to outbuilding is one of which is a kitchen. Here to on either side, so what is trying to create is a symmetrical or balanced composition of parts of the house . So you have at the center of the Main Residence and then at either side absolutely identical mirror image connections to these Service Buildings now at the center you can see that its basically what we call a georgian plan, which is a house plan in which you have a center hole and you know, we still build these today. Its very familiar a throughhold that goes from the you know land or driveway side over here straight through the house. Opens out onto the piazza beyond it and then you would have the view of the river there beyond the house and then two rooms on either side with the chimneys here and here fireplaces and all the major rooms again. All of this is typical. And then you have on the ends. Rooms that were added by washington to that central core this one at the end. He referred to as the new room. It was always still called that it was in addition that extended that central core of the house which was fairly conventional on plan. So it got bigger now. The idea of having the various functions of a big fancy Plantation House separated into pieces that are connected in artistic ways to one another is something that comes from the italian renaissance. Or contact in whom both washington and jefferson especially were very very interested. And jefferson referred to the books of palladio, which were really well known as the bible because that was his the ultimate source for his knowledge of the Classical Tradition was through this man, andrea, palladio whose famous. Hes shown here whole day four books of architecture republic during his lifetime and that constantly republished through the 18th century. They existed in english translations published a Great Britain and jefferson then had them in the us jefferson knew had one of the largest architectural libraries in north america, so palladio is so influential that he starts a whole school of architecture. Not a literal institution, but it kind of style of design that first had an impact in britain and then in north america among your especially among wealthy educated builders Like Washington and jefferson. So the idea was that and you see it representative there in the right hand side in one of the great houses in the veneto in italy by palladio the Villa Barbaro from around 1550. The idea was not to try to pack all the functions of a big, you know farmhouse in this case into one building, but rather to separate them in into smaller buildings that would then be connected in a kind of artistic way. So on the right hand side there. Im going to do this. Really generally you see theres the main house. Connected with thee to these subsidiary buildings by these kind of walkways. Of course, its italy so the idea of the open logia or porches, very important and then the main house at the center. What does that look like . Probably a little socratic here. What is he referred to here . Where does it make you take off . Yes. Time. Yeah, right. So its a its like a or a roman temple. So it takes that real the idea of a religious building and then he makes that the source for the actual house the residents at the center. So here you see that central block. And then it has walkways and other side and then these kind of subsidiary buildings. So the idea of separate the different parts of complex is very important. And for example at mount airy in virginia from the mid 18th century we have this Plantation House. Very polluted and inspiration very classical Central Building and then you see these kind of curving walkways. This is what washington is thinking about too to these outbuildings here and here you could see in the plan here there. Its two rooms with these big fireplaces, which means that these are this is probably a kitchen building so you get you know, its virginias super hot like it is here. You want the kitchen building away from the main house the heat away from the main house and then building this could have been for offices. They have these kind of corner fireplaces and stairway. So the parts of the complex are beautifully balanced. Everything is symmetrical you could draw a straight line. Through the center of this main house and the two sides of the complex are mirror images of one another and that classical symmetry is modeled on what claudio had done in his a series of great villas in italy that many of which you could still go visit today. These were famous because not only were they thought to be very classical and accomplished in terms of designs, but plaudia also had as his clients. Wealthy basically farmers people who live by agriculture, but they were very well educated. They were liberally educated sophisticated. Clients and therefore the style is associated with a kind of style of living in the countryside living off agriculture. But not just being hell kind of pumpkin hacy former guy, but being also somebody whos very sophisticated and learned and expressing that. In the architecture that you cause to be built and so thats kind of what these were not kind of its not kind of what theyre thinking of it is what theyre thinking of very sophisticated. Sort of person living off of agriculture here a couple of views and here you see that curved walkway now one thing when issue for these ambitious builders in early america was that there was not here the sophistication in terms of building its stone which was much less common in the 18th and in the 17th centuries then building in wood and so when it came time to model and architecture that had been pioneered in stone going all the way back to ancient greece and rome. It was a challenge for crafts people here in the us or in the colonies so often what was done was to use wood this more prevalent Building Material and then to make it look like stone. So in the case of mount vernon, its built out of wood, but you just get eclipse of this here the wood is flat boards that are then scored in order to make them cast the shadows between them and to give them their appearance of blocks of stone and then the surface of that would is sanded. Its painted with a a paint that sand mixed up in it. To give it the texture of quarried stone. So what theyre trying to do is to give the impression of this very monumental masonry building in the neoclassical mode. But to work with the conditions at hand to use materials tha