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Creating a New American Image: Architecture, 1870-1910

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The Breakers 44 Ochre Point Ave
Newport, RI 02840
June 1, 2023 6:00pm – 7:00pm
  • Tickets on sale March 1
  • Live at the Great Hall of The Breakers and via Zoom video conference
  • Virtual attendance is available, you will receive your zoom link 24 hours in advance
  • Please arrive at The Breakers in time to be seated for the Lecture
  • Advance registration required.
  • $20 In-person attendance
  • $15 In-person attendance, members
  • $10 Zoom (members and non-members)

American architecture changed dramatically in the Gilded Age. Tall commercial buildings rose in New York and Chicago. Grand mansions were built for the wealthy, and churches took on an Old World Gothic appearance. At the residential level, changes included the use of shingles, the emergence of the Colonial Revival style, and the adoption of the bungalow style. This lecture will examine the architectural changes sweeping the country as well as the work of several architects who helped to change the appearance of America.

Event thumbnail photo credit: Chateau Sur Mer, 1851. Photograph taken by Richard Guy Wilson.

Richard Guy Wilson, Commonwealth Professor Emeritus in Architectural History, University of Virginia

Richard Guy Wilson is Commonwealth Professor Emeritus in Architectural History at the University of Virginia. He is a frequent lecturer, television commentator and author of many articles and books on different aspects of American and modern architecture and design including “The American Renaissance” (1979), “McKim, Mead & White, Architects” (1982), “Machine Age in America” (1986), “Thomas Jefferson’s Academical Village” (1993, 2009) “The Colonial Revival House” (2004), and “Edith Wharton at Home” (2012). He has taught the Victorian Society’s Newport Summer School for 40 years.

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