ures were often enlarged as families grew; hence the chimney in the middle of the Parson Capen House in Topsfield Massachusetts (1683) and the 'saltbox' addition at the rear of the John Ward House in Salem (1684). The seeming austerity of these homes was not related to Puritanism (which seldom required such material sacrifice) and the house type had long been common in England among all types of communities. Indeed the availability of land and timber made it possible for yeoman engaged in rising socially to ascend rapidly to the middle-class level of domestic comfort signified by these houses.
2. From independence until around 1820 Monumental Classicism, the American version of European Neoclassicism, was the predominant style for the public buildings of the new American republic. Monumental Classicism went through, in fairly quick succession, three phases. The first featured Palladio's influence, the second looked to Roman models, and the third adapted Greek forms and led, eventually, to the Greek Revival. Although the general idea was widespread, Thomas Jefferson was the guiding spirit in establishing classical styles as the dominant mode for federal architecture.
Having broken with the tyranny of kings and asserted the right of the people to govern themselves the new nation was in need of an architecture that conveyed a sense of a nation motivated by such virtuous concerns and distinct from those nations still under the heel of royalty. Jefferson, for example, rejected the predominant brick architecture of Williamsburg, which derived from Christopher Wren's example as can be seen in the so-called Wren Building at the College of William and Mary (1695-98), largely because it was just too English. He also rejected any trace of the Rococo grandeur favored by the French court and was most interested in French Neoclassicism. Most of the associations that Jefferson, and others, perceived between ideals and classical archite...