Architecture for the Emergent Middle Class
This dwelling was well suited for a “farmer of wealth” or a middle-class suburbanite, according to Andrew Downing, author of The Architecture of Country Houses (1850). The exterior of the house exhibited “a considerable degree of elegance,” while the interior boasted a substantial drawing room and dining room, for the entertainment of guests, and a parlor for more intimate conversations among family and friends. Downing’s books helped to define the culture of the growing middle class and diffuse it across the nation. Andrew J. Downing, The Architecture of Country Houses, 1850.