Nate Cole is a 4th year architecture student at the University of Arkansas, who seeks to complete minors in Urban Planning, and the History of Architecture and Design. He hopes to study abroad in Rome in the coming Spring semester where he can apply some of the research experience that he has gained during his time as an honors student.
My task on the team was to research the architectural history and features of the home. The lack of architectural documentation proved challenging but allowed for a wide range of research questions and speculation. My goal, ultimately, was to broaden the list of contributors to the home and expand the foundation and my own knowledge of the Italianate Style, which the Peel Mansion is attributed to. Despite the long held negative reputation of the region, 19th century Arkansans living in the Ozarks were surprisingly not far behind on international trends. The Peels were especially in touch because of Samuel’s travels, jobs and connections. Mary Emeline, wife of Samuel Peel, was also a contributor to the home, as she had access to lady’s magazines and books that standardized interior design trends throughout the country.
What defines Italianate style? You can see several examples here, that were defining characteristics of a broader 1800’s architecture movement towards domestic living.
In the 1800’s, architects shifted from revival styles that were popular during the colonial era for new styles that drew inspiration both internationally and domestically. Enlightenment principles and the picturesque entered the western architecture cannon Trends in this era focused on moral values and domestic living and produced hybrid styles: Italianate, Victorian, Second Empire, Queen Anne, and Colonial, among others. The Italianate combined eccentric ornament with Italian renaissance proportions, and domestic principles like home decoration and guest entertainment. The two-story balcony on the front façade, the double-arched windows, and the corner quoins are all Italianate characteristics, while rooms like the parlor and the library were common in a range of domestic homes. Another driving force at the time was the American Dream-style of single-family living that influenced home construction. Builders’ guides spread architectural knowledge to all classes of individuals, which empowered homeowners to customize their own homes. Newly upwardly mobile families like the Peels (see Emily’s post) used architecture and interior design to perform their new status. There are several customizations present in the Peel Mansion, so the interior decorating options and materials used could have reflected a range of personal influences. The dark stucco on the façade covers the original brick walls, which was added later for unknown reasons, reflecting this customization and the evolution of the home over time.
A screen which demonstrates the intention of the docents to communicate Peel’s culture and experiences. While not originally present, these decorations can serve to guide visitors assumptions of the original owners.
The current staging of the home, as well as the inspirations at the conception of the home, speak to the Peel family’s work and likely travel. The Japanese influences, added recently and existing in the original home, appealed to me as a first avenue for research: The national register document took note of the Anglo-Japanese mantle in the home, which is currently accompanied by other Japanese-inspired artifacts without mentioning the true contribution Japan had to the design culture in the 1800’s. I was able to look into several books at the Fine Arts Library to learn about the arrival of Japanese and Chinese design influences to America. Increased trade, capitalized by the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, brought East-Asian aesthetics into the United States and Europe. These, in turn, were appropriated by middle to upper class families all over the country, likely finding their way to the Peels: the exhibition took place one year after the Peel Mansion was built. These influences are not foreign to architecture or to northwest Arkansas, architects in the Ozarks continued to travel and appropriate styles from Japan for decades, particularly their joinery methods and interior design habits. Their influences exist today, as well as the affinity with Japanese theories and practices.[1]
The lambrequins in the parlor match an illustration in the American woman’s home exactly. The Chapter also mentions pink wallpaper. This room communicates the class of the family and the influence of the women of the home, and very well might have been decorated just like it is today.
Builders’ guides and ladies’ magazines became popular during the 1800’s, however they also supplemented the social construction of domestic spheres, and at times explicitly defined these spheres. The most popular source of the period was The American Woman’s Home by Harriet Beecher-Stowe. Preservationists cited this book in their notes as the main influence in the decoration of the parlor (the lambrequins that adorn the windows and the wallpaper, as well as the carpet choice, are exact prescriptions from Stowe[1]). The parlor was intended to entertain and present the wealth of the family, and the women spend more time designing this room than any other[2]. As was the trend in many rooms and houses, the lady of the home oversaw the decoration of a room that presented the family’s wealth and the status of the patron. This subversion was a main interest of mine during my research of the material culture of the time. The preservationists’ reference to Stowe is a unique visual documentation of how Mary Emaline Peel herself acted and displays other assumptions that the preservationists made in the past. Stowe’s intended audience were white, middle-class, Protestant women (this is defined in the table of contents with chapters like “The Christian Family,” and “The Christian Home,”[3]), which carries implications of Mary’s values (see chapters like “Care for the Homeless,” “Sewing, Cutting and Mending,” and ‘”Good Temper in the Housekeeper”[4]), while these values also align with the Victorian and Italianate styles that were internationally popular during the construction of the home[5][6].
The preservationists rigorously followed the prescriptions of Beecher-Stowe.
The stairs and doorway were not original features of the home. This change could’ve simplified the path the girls originally had to take to get to the main foyer.
Perhaps the clearest example of the Victorian separation of gender is present in the girls’ room. Prior to the addition of a new entry, the girls in the home would have had to take an entirely different path to get to the foyer of the home. A new entry was added that allows easier access from the girls’ room directly to the foyer, a testament to the evolution of gendered space. The placement of the parlor (feminine, entertainment) and library (masculine, social status) separate activities by gender, and are outfitted accordingly. The parlor and the library both subvert the impact of the woman in the design role. While Samuel W. Peel is often noted as the main contributor to the home, his wife, Mary Emeline, likely had an equivalent or greater amount of influence in the interior.
The stucco has chipped away over time, revealing the original brick.
The house is a palimpsest of changes and design decisions: the original brick appears under the stucco that was added by later owners; and on higher floors various wallpaper samples appear alongside original chalkboards that the children used. Stairs and passages accommodate a new circulation path through the home displaying changing needs over time. While the history is still incomplete, our team was able to connect several timelines and open new avenues for future research, and I hope this can influence the telling of the Peel Mansion’s history going forward.
[1] Lancaster, Clay. The Japanese Influence in America. Literary Licensing, 2013.
[1] Beecher-Stowe, Harriet and Beecher, Catharine. The American Woman’s Home. Applewood Books, Illustrated Edition, 2008.
[2] McMurry, Sally. Families and Farmhouses in Nineteenth Century America: Vernacular Design and Social Change. Oxford University Press, 1988.
[3] Ibid
[4] Ibid
[5] Nassaney, Michael and Rotman, Deborah. “Class, Gender, and the Built Environment: Deriving Social Relations from Cultural Landscapes in Southwest Michigan.” Historical Archaeology, Vol. 31 (2), 1997. 42-62.
[6] Kaston, Andrea. Architectural Identities: Domesticity, Literature and the Victorian Middle Classes. University of Toronto Press, 2010.