Discovering The Vernacular Landscape – John Brinckerhoff (1)

Many American towns, even many American cities, are all but indistinguishable as to layout, morphology, and architecture. The lack of variety in much of our man-made environment is recognized by anyone who has traveled widely in this country. Many deplore it, try to escape it, and because they cannot, suppose that America is al- together lacking the kind of landscape beauty characteristic of older parts of the world.

I have not found this to be the case. It is true that I cannot always remem- ber the difference between one small town and another; both will have a main street flanked by solid buildings of brick, both will contain block after block of freestanding frame houses, each with a lawn; there will be a cluster of elegant white grain elevators near the railroad tracks in both of them, and a stretch of highway bordered by drive-ins; the towns are indeed much alike.

But they are alike for a good reason: they consciously conform to what is a distinctive American style. Classical is the word for it, I think; and rhythmic repetition (not to say occasional monotony) is a Classical trait, the conse- quence of devotion to clarity and order. But the style also possesses spacious- ness and dignity; that is why I relish the similarity between the villages of New England, the similarity between wheatfields whether in Oklahoma or Oregon, or the stately repetitiousness of North Dakota shelterbelts: they illustrate on a vast and generous scale that “noble simplicity and quiet gran- deur” which Winckelmann associated with Classical works of art, and which, I believe, is more often met with in the landscape of the New World than in that of the Old.

Much as the Roman traveler found reassurance in the identi- cal grid layouts, the almost identical forums of the new towns in the more remote provinces of the Empire, saw them as affirmations of Romanitas, the traveler in the United States finds evidence wherever he goes of a specifically national style of spatial organization.

He may not care for it, he may prefer a greater variety, a romantic confusion; but he cannot fail to be impressed by it. Since the classical American town is easy to understand, its interest is soon exhausted.

New Haven and London We are grateful for permission to reprint with changes the following essays: “A Puritan Looks at Scenery” from Landscape Assessment, ed. Zube, Brush, and Fabos. Copyright © 1975 by Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross, Inc., Stroudsburg, Pa. Originally entitled “A Puritan Views the Landscape.” “The Love of Horizontal Spaces” from the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, vol. 62, no. 2, 1972. Originally entitled “Metamorphosis.” “The Movable Dwelling and How It Came to America” from New Mexico Studies in the Fine Arts, 1982.

Originally entitled “The Mobile Dwelling.” “Craftsman Style and Technostyle” from VIA, 1975, a publication of the Graduate School of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania. Originally entitled “The Crafts- man Style.” “The Origins of Parks” from Urban Open Spaces, 1979, a publication of the Cooper- Hewitt Museum, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Design. “A Vision of New Fields” from Arts and Architecture, vol. 1, no. 4, December 1982.

Originally entitled “New Fields.” Photographs on pages iti, 38, 56-57, 65, and 83 are from the Standard Oil of New Jersey Collection and are reproduced with permission from the Photographic Archives, University of Louisville. Copyright © 1984 by Yale University. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S.

Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. Designed by Nancy Ovedovitz and set in VIP Galliard type. Printed in the United States of America by Murray Printing Company, Westford, Mass. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Jackson, John Brinckerhoff, 1909— Discovering the vernacular landscape. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Landscape assessment—United States—Addresses, essays, lectures.

2. Landscape architecture—United States—Addresses, essays, lectures. 3. United States— Description and travel—Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Title. GF91.U6J315 1984 304.2’0973 83-21925 ISBN 0—300—03138-—6 0—300—03581-—0 (pbk.) The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. OR OSS! ane For Francis Douglas Adams ges i “ei ie REE ame Hot ao ch : oe bier ain oe } Tra = ben é .

at am wl ” Pruiy eety S26 Ata ame ia ART aa) 7 wh ogee Bei re mos aa ea Ss i. _ “gun! ee.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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