Robert Brickhouse, UVA Alumni Magazine
The original two-story house that Phillips and Crawford built for John A. G. Davis and his family is based on classical design principles. Its 48í x 42í base is virtually symmetrical about a dominant axis which runs though the central passage from the front to the back. It is also virtually symmetrical about the cross axis which runs through the two chimneys. The south facing rooms also have a bilateral symmetry with one window lining up with the fireplace and the other with the door. The roof is hipped with a flat area between the two chimneys. On the south facade is a Tuscan portico with a deck above surrounded by Chinese Chippendale railings. The portico rests on an arched brick base with paired Tuscan columns made of a stone base, stuccoed brick shaft and a stone capital. On the north side is a distyle pedimented portico with smaller Tuscan columns of the same design as those on the south portico.
The brick walls are laid in Flemish bond on all four facades, which is unusual since most buildings of this era only utilized this bond on the main facade. The foundation is in five course American bond with a flat water table. The brickwork bears the unmistakable mark of William B. Phillips. The bricks are very precise in form and color laid in particularly straight mortar joins which have a reveal at the top and the bottom.
Other exterior features include a three part roof entablature of the Tuscan order. The south facing rooms have triple hung six-over-six-over-six windows whereas the other windows are double hung six-over-six. All windows originally had wooden, louvered, hinged blinds. The main entrance has double leaf doors with pilasters framing rectangular sidelights, the whole capped with an elliptical fanlight.
The interior is laid out as a center passage four square plan with twelve foot ceilings on the first floor and ten foot ceiling on the second floor. The center passage is subdivided into an entrance hall and a stair hall each nine feet wide. The stair with its walnut railings and heart pine treads is set against one wall so as not to obstruct the passage. The chimneys are offset in the plan resulting in two rectangular rooms and two square rooms diagonally disposed on each floor. The west chimney shifts in the attic so as to emerge through the roof lined up with the east chimney. Each room is served by a fireplace with a Tuscan mantel and a brick hearth. The fireplace wall of the southwest room has two semicircular wooden arches capped with a keystone defined by architraves which spring from pilasters with wood capitals. This room has a Tuscan order wood cornice, whereas the entrance hall and south east room have three part wood cornices.
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RENDERING OF SOUTH ELEVATION
RENDERING OF WEST ELEVATION
AXONOMETRIC RENDERING - SOUTHWEST VIEW