Date Awarded
Fall 2016
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
History
Advisor
James P Whittenburg
Committee Member
Susan Kern
Committee Member
Susan V Webster
Committee Member
Gregg G Kimball
Abstract
Whether made of stone, brick, or wood, the built environment is a bricolage of materials, skills, aesthetics, and practical needs. This dissertation disassembles the colonial and antebellum cityscape of Richmond, Virginia, into its component parts in order to better understand the relationships between builders, materials, and occupational knowledge as elements of the built environment, as well as the building culture that united them. This approach challenges the historically exalted place of architects and urban planners as the primary producers of a city, and instead focuses on the contributions of previously unknown carpenters, sawyers, joiners, bricklayers, and masons. These craftsmen labored together in occupational communities governed by generally accepted, though rarely written, rules that guided not only their daily practices, but also Richmond's evolution from a small port town to the industrial center of the antebellum South.
DOI
http://doi.org/10.21220/S2808K
Rights
© The Author
Recommended Citation
Cook, Elizabeth, "The City at The Falls: Building Culture in Richmond, Virginia, 1730-1860" (2016). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. William & Mary. Paper 1499449853.
http://doi.org/10.21220/S2808K
