Irish Natural Stone, Inc.
The premier importers of
Irish interior and exterior stone products
Irish Natural Stone, Inc.
27 Drydock Avenue, 7th Floor
Boston, MA 877.737.7397
Showroom Hours: M-F 9-5
www.irishlimestone.us
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derives from Pallas Athena, the Greek goddess
of wisdom. By meticulously studying and recording Roman architecture, from plans and
facades to the finest details, he came to understand the classical principles that would
mark his own buildings — villas, palazzos,
and churches that are among the most beautiful monuments in Italy.
But his greatest accomplishment was to
write it all down, in concise prose with detailed
drawings, in I Quattro Libri dell’Architecturra
( The Four Books of Architecture), published in
1570. It gave readers a new visual vocabulary
to comprehend each building — which included, somewhat audaciously, his own works
alongside those from antiquity.
The book was a smash hit. One young
reader was Inigo Jones, who went on to help
transform English architecture from the medieval to the classical. The new style reveled
in a Palladian emphasis on symmetry and
harmony, strong central sections composed
of columns and pediments, and a hierarchy of
spaces inside, often arranged around a vaulted
central hall.
If that sounds somehow familiar, it
should. Palladio-inspired buildings are scattered throughout New England. When Newport, Rhode Island, resident Peter Harrison,
one of the Colonies’ first architects, took a
trip to London in 1747, he came back with an
English translation of I Quattro Libri. Thus inspired, he created five buildings that should be
on every Palladio fan’s must-visit list. In Newport, the Redwood Library (1748), the country’s oldest lending library, was also the first
American building to have a Palladian temple
front. Touro Synagogue (1759) showed how
Palladio’s design principles could be adapted
to a use never imagined by their author — that
of a Jewish house of worship. And the Brick
Market of 1762 was a near dead ringer of Inigo
Jones’s Old Somerset House in London, itself
modeled on a palazzo designed by Palladio.
In Boston, there is King’s Chapel (1749–
54), its Ionic-columned portico memorable
for its simplicity. The elegantly spare wooden
Christ Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
built in 1759, had a tighter budget. Much of
the Harvard campus is a Georgian creation,
replete with Palladian windows. The Massachusetts State House designed by Charles
Bulfinch shows Palladio’s presence, as does
Bulfinch’s Harrison Gray Otis house on Cambridge Street. In Salem, Massachusetts, Sam-
