Temple

History

In architectural history, the term temple was derived from at least two design traditions—the classical and the Chinese. The temple in the American garden was a structure that could assume many stylistic variants and could adapt to a range of scales and locations. To illustrate this point, consider the temple that was dressed in the Chinese style at Belfield in Germantown, Pa., the Gothic at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, and the Grecian at Monticello. Charles Willson Peale’s Chinese temple at Belfield was intended for meditation and reflection because, he claimed, the Chinese were great philosophers.1 In the treatise Rural Architecture in the Chinese Taste (1755), William and John Halfpenny illustrated an elaborate temple, replete with Chinese statuary [Fig. 1]. On a more practical level, A. J. Downing showed in his treatise how the application of zigzag wooden latticework could transform a simple temple structure into one “in Chinese taste.” James Gibbs’s Book of Architecture (1728) provided Thomas Jefferson with classical models of temples [Fig. 2], while Batty and Thomas Langley’s Gothic Architecture (1747) offered a range of designs in the “Gothick” mode [Fig. 3].

The temple in its classical form became an icon of the American republic. The association of Roman virtue with agriculture resulted from the eighteenth-century rediscovery of ancient texts by Virgil and Pliny the Younger, who had written about husbandry, villas, and plantations. Early Americans embraced classical republican imagery in the design of their gardens, which reaffirmed the agrarian ideal through the use of ornament and inscription, as well as through the celebration of the farm and garden. At Gray’s Garden in Philadelphia, a “federal” temple was built to celebrate the ratification of the Constitution. The structure was composed of a rotunda in which the interior space was defined by thirteen columns representing the thirteen original colonies. Patriotic interpretations of the classical temple form were also to be found in private gardens. For example, Peale’s Belfield also had a classical temple with thirteen columns, which was surmounted by a bust of George Washington in place of a traditional Roman one [Fig. 4].

At Grants Hill in Pittsburgh, small temples were built, each in a different order of architecture. Jefferson likewise planned several temples for his plantation at Monticello of varying stylistic forms—Chinese, Gothic, and classical. Some of these designs exemplify Jefferson’s interest in archaeology while others illustrate his highly imaginative recreations of historical styles. Jefferson relied upon his excellent library of architectural treatises for models, and for some projects he copied elements from the Lantern of Demosthenes, the temple at Chiswick by Lord Burlington, and the Chinese pagoda at Kew Gardens. In another instance, he invented a Gothic variant for a design.2

Temples also varied widely in scale. The Temple of Solitude at the Friends Asylum for the Insane, near Frankford, Pa., was intended, presumably, for one person to occupy alone. Vauxhall Garden in New York, on the other hand, featured another nationally inspired temple, the Grand Temple of Independence, which was an impressive twenty feet in diameter, the same in height, and was crowned by a bust of George Washington. The temple type was at times used either to decorate or to disguise utilitarian structures; examples include the icehouse at Montpelier [Fig. 5], the dovecote [Fig. 6] and out-chamber at Monticello [Fig. 7], and Latrobe’s garden temple/milkhouse [Fig. 8].As Jefferson instructed, temples often were isolated in the garden, placed on top of mounts, or in woods that were gloomy and evergreen. One such example is an 1804 sketch by Jefferson for the location at Monticello of a temple (or a seat) at the center of a spiral labyrinth. Another example, a “rustic temple,” published in the Horticulturist in 1847, is shown at the edge of the lake at Montgomery Place in Dutchess County, N.Y. With this type of siting, temples provided a retreat for meditation. In the novel Wieland, or The Transformation, An American Tale (1798), the temple was placed at the top of a rock, far from the house. It was a place of resort and instruction and held a harpsichord and a piece of sculpture.

The term “temple” was often used interchangeably with “pavilion,” “pleasure” or “garden house,” and “summerhouse,” all referring to lightweight structures within the garden or landscape (see Pavilion, Pleasure ground, and Summerhouse). Like them, the temple served as a viewing platform, as a visual punctuation in the garden scene, and as a shelter and resting place within the landscape.