National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Analysis of Historical Significance and Integrity by Resource Type
Although this era saw a trend to more classical motifs, the firm experimented freely,
combining styles, fusing styles, borrowing from other sources, and reinterpreting elements to fit
its need. This variety can be found in examples from this period, such as Berkeley House, the
LeRoy King house, in Newport (1884-86); 1274 Naumkeag, the Joseph Hodges Choate in
Stockbridge, Massachusetts (1885-86); 1275 the James Hampden Robb House in Southampton,
Long Island (1885); 1276 Beacon Rock, the Edward Dennison Morgan III house, also in Newport
(1888-91); 1277 the Samuel Longstreth Parrish House, also in Southampton (1889); 1278 and the
other E.D. Morgan house, in Wheatley Hills, Long Island (1890-91 and 1898-1900). 1279
These examples show that the firm successfully designed many country houses
using a wide variety of sources, and no two houses were the same. However, Wilson feels
that the designs for the smaller houses "all followed a formula," usually with a center entry
and through hall, while the larger, more complex designs - and more expensive ones -
merited more individual attention from the partners. 1280 As the practice grew, this was most
likely the case.
These commissions marked the end of a concentration on suburban design and a shift in
focus to "the urban center." 1281 They, along with the experiments in Italian Renaissance
commercial structures and Georgian/Federal Revival townhouses being built in the cities, were
the prelude to the most mature, most classical, and most academic period of McKim, Mead &
White's work. The increased reliance on classical prototypes for new designs was based
partially on the belief that the mathematical order of classical proportions brought order to the
built environment of the fast-growing city. In addition, America's structures should reflect the
glory of bygone empires, if the country was to project a similar image. 1282 The firm's portfolio
was giving:
great impetus to the claim that America was no longer a follower but a leader in creating a
great civilization . . . As with many American architects from the turn-of-the-century period,
two goals and accomplishments can be discerned in the firm's work: a search for an
architectural order, and a search for an appropriate image for Americans. 1283
This was a gradual process that eventually led to the "notion of the 'American
Renaissance.'" 1284 Leland Roth credits the firm of McKim, Mead & White as unique in that it
looked both to the past for classical direction and into the future for learning how to best
express America's prosperous rise in political, economic and social arenas through architectural
designs. 1285 The firm, in following this path, contributed to the American Renaissance. 1286
1274 White, 103-04.
1275 White, 108-16.
1276 White, 132-37.
1277 White, 138-39.
1278 White, 144-49; MacKay, 284.
1279 MacKay, 278, 284.
1280 MacKay, 277.
1281 Roth, 2.
1282 Roth, 180.
1283 MacKay, 277.
1284 MacKay, from Wilson et al, American Renaissance; and Richard Guy Wilson, "Architecture and the
Reinterpretation of the Past in the American Renaissance," Winterthur Portfolio 18 (Spring 1983), 69-87.
1285 Roth, 2.
229