Gervase Wheeler
Gervase Wheeler (1815–1889) was a British architect, writer, and illustrator who designed homes in the United States.
Gervase Wheeler | |
---|---|
Born | Circa 1815 |
Died | January 1st, 1889 |
Occupation | Architect |
Wheeler is best known for publishing influential architectural pattern books Rural Homes (1851) and Homes for the People in Suburb and Country (1855).[1][2][3][4] These books include house plans as illustrations, while the prose focuses on architectural best practices and Wheeler's personal opinions about American culture and aesthetics. He promoted Italianate style[5] as well as Carpenter Gothic.[6]
Wheeler moved to the U.S. in 1846 or 1847 and stayed until the 1860s, after which he returned to London.[1]
Personal life
Wheeler's father, who was also named Gervase, worked as a manufacturer of gold, silver and gilded jewelry from 1832 to 1844. London directories indicate he worked at 28 Bartlett's Buildings in Holborn, then just outside London.[1]
In 1855, he stated that "the desire to build, to have a home of one's own is implanted in the breast of every American, and I fancy statistics would show that the number of those who own homesteads in this country far exceeds England."[7]
Buildings designed
- Henry Boody House, Brunswick, Maine[2]
- Rockwood Hall, Mount Pleasant, New York
- Patrick Barry House, Rochester, New York[2]
- Olmstead House, East Hartford, Connecticut (the design of which inspired The Willows, Morristown, New Jersey)[8][6][9]
- Chapel at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine[2]
- Chapel at Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts[2]
- Patrick Barry House
- Olmstead House
- Bowdoin College Chapel
- Williams College chapel
References
- GERVASE WHEELER: MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY BRITISH ARCHITECT IN AMERICA University of Pennsylvania thesis, 1988
- "Gervase Wheeler". Wesleyan University Press. Retrieved 25 November 2022.
- Winters, William (1882). Memorials of the Pilgrim Fathers: John Eliot and His Friends, of Nazing and Waltham Abbey. Waltham Abbey, Essex [Eng.] p. 53.
- Shaw, Robert (1871). Visits to High Tartary, Yârkand, and Kâshghar: Formerly Chineese Tartary. John Murray.
- Poppeliers, John C.; Jr, S. Allen Chambers (6 October 2003). What Style Is It?: A Guide to American Architecture. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-471-25036-4.
- Guter, Robert P. The Willows at Fosterfields Historic Structure Report, "Architectural History Report", 1983. Written by Robert P. Guter of Acroterion Historic Preservation Consultants, available in the archives of the Morris County Park Commission.
- Ryan, Mary P. (1985). The Empire of the Mother: American Writing About Domesticity, 1830–1860. Harrington Park Press. p. 108.
- Chemerka, WIlliam R. General Joseph Warren Revere: The Gothic Saga of Paul Revere's Grandson. BearManor Media. p. 87. Archived from the original on 17 April 2022. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
- Tribert, Renée Elizabeth (1988). "Gervase Wheeler: Mid-Nineteenth Century British Architect in America". p. 13 (iii). Archived from the original on 17 April 2022. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
Bibliography
Renée Tribert and James F. O’Gorman, Gervase Wheeler: A British Architect in America, 1847–1860 (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2012).