The Six Building Campaigns at Sylvania: The Transformation of Sylvania from a Folk Plantation House to a Fashionable Plantation, 1790-1865

This thesis deciphers the transformation of Sylvania’s architecture over its lifetime as a plantation house in the Green Springs National Historic Landmark District in Louisa County, Virginia. Between 1790 and 1865, Sylvania underwent several changes that dramatically departed from its original 1790 form. By applying three methods of architectural investigation including archival research, the analysis of physical evidence, and the analysis of 3D LiDAR data, I found that Sylvania underwent a dramatic transition from its original 1790 form as a folk plantation house that aligned with Henry Glassie’s XY3X subtype for Middle Virginia housing to a fashionable plantation house that aligned with the popular plantation architecture found in the Green Springs district in the mid-nineteenth century.
The study of Sylvania’s transformation over time presents insight into how Sylvania’s use, status, and identity changed over time as a reaction to its changing context. Over the course of Sylvania’s use as a plantation, the house underwent two major renovations. Sylvania’s original 1790 form presents an architectural identity that belongs to the broader Middle Virginia region as an example of Glassie’s most complex subtype of Middle Virginia housing that was two stories, two rooms deep, and had a central passage with its plan laid out proportionally based on the half-yard unit. Its design embodies architectural values such as proportional harmony, the facilitation of social filtration with the central passage plan, and the accommodation of both utilitarian and social activity within the house. Between 1825 and 1849, Sylvania experienced its first renovation that maintained its original central passage plan but altered the treatment of circulation in the house. Between 1849 and 1865, Sylvania underwent a dramatic transformation that removed its central passage and erased the original proportional layout on its first floor. As a result, Sylvania no longer identified as a Middle Virginia folk house. Instead, Sylvania became a fashionable plantation house that belonged to its local context in the Green Springs plantation network. Sylvania was transformed into a fashionable house by adopting the architectural language employed by its modern neighbors including the use of large social spaces, plentiful light and ventilation, openness and visibility between social spaces, and a distinct separation between public and private space. This transformation reflects both a desire to upgrade the aging Sylvania to match its modern neighbors, as well as a desire to assert Sylvania as a member of its more localized context in Green Springs rather than solely belonging in the broader Middle Virginia region. As the original Sylvania belonged architecturally as a common Middle Virginia house subtype, the renewed Sylvania belonged architecturally as a fashionable plantation house in Green Springs.
The study of Sylvania’s architectural transformation is valuable because it tells the story of how Sylvania’s architecture responded to its physical and social context over time. The study of Sylvania’s original design confirms that Sylvania responded to common architectural trends in its larger Middle Virginia context. However, the study of how Sylvania transformed from a Middle Virginia house to a Green Springs house reveals that Sylvania began to respond and react to the architectural trends happening within its local plantation network. Within its Green Springs context, the study of Sylvania’s transformations reveals how trends and subtypes of plantation architecture within its smaller Green Springs context emerged over time, and therefore how that broader landscape developed over time as an affluent plantation district.