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WHAT HAS BEEN DONE AND WHAT CAN BE DONE.
I.
THOUTGH we Americans can not point
to our antiquities, and must needs go
to the Aborigines of the country for
tradition, we yet have a history and
that history including the record of art,
such as it is, and the record of art
including the record of Architecture,
-we may still find in it something in-
structive. To that end we propose to
state what has been accomplished in
America towards giving us proper and
suitable houses to live in, stores to
trade in, churches to worship in, and
public buildings wherein to perform
the various offices of state, law, educa-
tion, charity, popular convention and
amusement. We will for the present
confine ourselves to the inquiry, how
far such buildings have served our uses
and necessities, and how far they have
conduced to our moral health, pleas-
ure and instruction.
At a future time we will endeavor to
show how much more is yet to be done
before we can realize a perfect Archi-
tecture, how much can be done with
the means at our disposal, and what
are the duties of architects under the
circumstances.
To a person true to our faith little
can be said upon the first part of our
subject that will be either instructive
or entertaining.  We shall however
decii it in our line of duty to record
whatever of condemnation or praise
nve have to bestow upon works of the
past and present, and, knowing the posi-
tion we now hold, can the better be
able to steer our future course.-We
will see that not only the architect, but
every person whose labor or money
contributes to the erection of a build-
ing, has a duty to perform, not only
to posterity, but to the cause of univer-
sal truth. We will see more clearly
that we have yet to revive that which
is lost and dead, but which we hope
will rise again with increased glory.
We who claim to be the revivalists
have no mean task before us. We
shall find that we have started on a
laborious journey, beset on all sides by
old-time prejudice and obstinate ignor-
ance; that we must wage, as we pro-
ceed, most uncompromising war against
all deception and untruth wherever we
find it, and be guided on our way by
the truths of nature and Nature's laws.
Let us hope that, while carefully ex-
amining what we see about us, we may
yet find some light in the midst of the
prevailing gloom; and, if such should
be our fortunate lot, we will reap con-
fidence, and have cause to hope that
the outer darkness will be penetrable,
and that our lamps will spread lustre
wherever they go, gathering and dif-
fusing light as they march along, until
they are confounded with the brilliancy
to which they have given birth. Then,
and then only, when the world is filled
with the light of the knowledge of
truth, their kindly offices will be no
longer needed.
We certainly have cause for congrat-
ulation, that our forefathers who first
ventured upon these shores were unac-
companied by the architects of their
time. The result was that they intro-
duced the most natural and construct-
ive system of architecture that has ever
p]recailed in this country; and which,
like all the good styles that had pre-
ceded it, was everywhere adopted with
equal uniformity. But shortly settle-
ments became villages-the house car-
penter came over, and soon the honest
substantial log cabins were demolished,
and the cottage was substituted. White-
washed boards assumed their sway, and
the lichen-grown bark, the turf chim-
ney and the thatched roof were seen no
more. Villages became cities, and then
the architects, trained in the most de-
based period of architecture, came over.
Henceforth the temples of Greece and
Rome were everywhere re-produced in
wood and plaster, until at last the
whole country was inundated with
Parthenons and   Ereetheums.  The
court-houses became temples, and every
respectable gentleman of means was
obliged to dwell in a sanctuary of hea-
then divinities.
The nation became independent,
public treasuries were overflowing, and
National and State Capitols, City Halls,