The Domestic Architecture of the Early American Republic: The Greek Revival.

MAJOR, Howard.

Item Number: 95108

Philadelphia & London: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1926.

First edition of Howard Major’s essential work on domestic architecture. Quarto, original cloth, gilt titles to the spine and front panel, frontispiece in color with tissue guard and 256 illustrations. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the title page, “To Helen and Charlie McMill from Howard Major.” Fine in the near fine original dust jacket with light toning to the spine.

American architect Howard Brougham Major studied at the New York Atelier of Beaux-Arts and as chief draftsman for architect Charles Alonzo Rich before opening his own firm on Fifth Avenue in 1920. In 1923, Major began work with Addison Mizner on Mizner's Worth Avenue office and, two years later, relocated his family to Palm Beach. Although Major has been associated with the Palm Beach Mediterranean Revival style, he preferred Georgian style which he had admired in the British West Indies. Major published the present volume at the height of his career in Palm Beach, during which he also designed Major Alley, a row of Bermuda-style houses, on Peruvian Avenue. May examples of Major's works are now protected by the Palm Beach Landmarks Preservation Commission including the first Palm Beach house to be landmarked, the Vicarage on Lake Trail built in 1897, which Major renovated and took up residence in in 1929.