Book Alert / Prodigy Houses of Virginia

Prodigy Houses of Virginia -- Architecture and the Native Elite by Barbara Burlison Mooney, UVirginia Press '08, $65, 400 pages, ISBN #0813926734. Index, source notes, appendix, no bibliography, b&w images sprinkled through text.

"In choosing to spend astonishing sums to provide themselves with grand houses that far exceeded their living requirements -- in some case, by a disastrous measure -- the owners of these mansions advanced grand claims to social and political prestige."

A commentary on 21st century McMansions? Not quite, though it is certainly apt. Rather, the author is describing the competition among the landed Virginia elite of two centuries ago, to showcase their own personalities and character through their residential architecture.

In doing so, they fed off a statement by fellow Virginian Thomas Jefferson in 1788 that "Architecture (is) worth great attention. As we double our numbers every 20 years we must double our houses....It is then among the most important arts: and it is desireable to introduce taste into an art which shews so much." Accordingly, the University of Iowa art historian deals "less with issues of design and construction than with the social and cultural context in which the Virginia gentry commissioned their imposing dwellings."

The subject matter for Mooney's study includes such grand estates as Stratford Hall, Carter's Grove, and Gunston Hall among the 25 mansions studied. Yes, Jefferson afficionados, Mooney visits Monticello in detail as well.