The Jewel Box
Had I been the architect Thomas Veal, tasked in the year 1859 with designing a building to house the Philomathean Literary Society on the campus of Erskine College in Due West, South Carolina, this is what I would have designed, too.
Not surprisingly, this little jewel box of a building is still relevant and still a stunner, a full 160 years after the fact.
I am well acquainted with modern building codes and budget constraints and the need for functionality and practicality that dictates what most architects today can logically produce, but that being said, we should make more of an effort.
Thomas Veal certainly would second that motion.
Philomathean Hall is on the National Register of Historic Places and is the oldest building in the Erskine College-Due West Historic District.
Photo by Beth Yarbrough.
Yes, by gosh, we MUST make more of an effort to create a beautiful buildings. Or get on architectural review committees and veto the ugly ones. Bill Bryson wrote that in America, you have to drive somewhere to find beauty.
I can't enlarge the photo enough, but it appears the pilaster capitals have open space between the scroll "wings" and connection to the pilaster??? I've never seen that.