Presidential Story Lines
In time for Independence Day, Janet Maslin’s insightful review of a new book about Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln’s relationship in today’s New York Times is the perfect springboard for a Houseplans.com topic: Presidential homes. She likes Daniel Mark Epstein’s The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage (Ballantine) because it describes in detail how the couple lived, providing as she says, “an exacting evocation of the 19th century household.” This comment made me think of presidential houses and their influence on home builders and new home buyers. For example, the architectural power of The White House, designed by James Hoban in 1792, is strong even today: you can build your own updated version with one of our plans, and here it is.
It’s plan # 119-189 (part of our Landmark-Inspired Collection) and comes with a two-car garage on each side of the portico (camouflaged by the tall pedimented ground floor windows) and an expansive great room. Fun to think of John and Abigail Adams hangin’ out and sippin’ mojitos by the kitchen island…It’s a house that clearly makes every occasion a state occasion.
Or think of George Washington’s Mt. Vernon with its famous flat pediment on the entrance side and the two-story portico running the width of the house on the river side, shown in views from the collection of the Alexandria, Virginia Library, below.
You’ll find versions of these features on houses in leafy suburban enclaves from New York to Hollywood. Our plan #72-184, below, offers a handsome adaption, with a pediment that’s actually more in scale with its facade (No offense to George — I like the innocent way his pediment just seems to hover at the top of the house, barely keeping the adjacent row of windows under control, like an unruly clutch of chicks.)
This Houseplans.com version includes a guest suite in the left hand wing and the garage in the right hand one. The front courtyard serves as parking area and entrance garden.
A more modest presidential icon is the Lincoln Cabin, where Abe spent a little time. Here’s an early view from the Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitation Proejct and the Chicago Historical Society.
Early American frontier cabins like this one later prompted nostalgic views of log building as Americans began rediscovering their history. Modern versions, usually much expanded and used as getaways or vacation cabins, remain popular — like our plan # 17-462, and show that the form has come a long way.
Note the porch and all that glass. The Presidential log cabin also influenced the development of another American architectural invention: Lincoln Logs building blocks created by Frank Lloyd Wright’s architect son John Lloyd Wright and still made today.
These blocks may be toys but they’re still a good way to get a feel for the character, simplicity — and limitations — of strict log building. And they feed the imagination. I have a set and my children and I continue to play with them, though I tend to add other elements in order to make miniature urban environments — but that’s a story for another posting. Happy Fourth of July!
