Federal Architecture

Federal architecture is the neoclassical building style current in the United States roughly from the 1780s to the 1830s, taking its name from the newly independent federal republic and drawing heavily on the delicate ornamental vocabulary Robert Adam had developed in Britain, adapted to simpler American construction and budgets. Its houses are typically symmetrical box shaped forms with low pitched roofs, marked by a semicircular or elliptical fanlight window set above the front entrance, slender attached columns or pilasters framing the doorway, and restrained swag and urn motifs rather than the heavier classical detail of the preceding Georgian period. Architects Charles Bulfinch in Boston and Samuel McIntire in Salem, Massachusetts were among the style's most prominent practitioners, and Federal era rowhouses still line historic districts of Boston, Philadelphia and other early American cities. The style also shaped major early public buildings of the new republic, with Federal era design contributing to the original architecture of the United States Capitol and the White House before later remodeling and additions altered their appearance.