Lewis Bowman and the Jacobethan revival

One of the most accomplished of the Jacobethan Revival practitioners was Lewis Bowman (1890-1970), a Bronxville, New York, architect who demonstrated considerable skill and ingenuity in adapting sixteenth and seventeenth forms of English architecture to twentieth century American suburban settings. Through his comprehension of massing, color, texture and siting, Bowman created buildings that are both beautiful and functional, and certainly very distinctive. Bowman's houses are also noteworthy in that they provide remarkably clear insights into the wants and needs of the pre- Depression era. The building of essentially modern, informal houses under the guise of Cotswold manor houses, the middle and upper class passion for all things Tudor, the craftsmen that could produce almost archeological detailing, the willingness of an architect to work in several different styles - all merit some attention. Finally, after years of being dismissed as revivalistic and therefore irrelevant by 'progressive' architectural writers, the works of Bowman and his contemporaries are now being gradually reassessed. Residents of these houses have been cognizant of their worth for years, but only now is more formal recognition feasible.