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The Victorian and the Modern

By Gordon Francis Corbett

    Some people praise Victorian styles, denounce their modern replacements, and ignore the fact that each has its good points.

    Architectural modernism is based on Louis Sullivan's idea that "form follows function":  that a building's purpose should determine its shape.  That precept kept his buildings' shapes from being traditional.

    Similar thinking designed Citroen's ID and DS automobiles.  Their unorthodox shape lets them slip through the air with a minimum of resistance, endearing itself to people who value gasoline economy.

    The Victorian house's high ceilings and carved ornaments required much more labor to make than do the relatively simple components of the modern house.  Some still love them.  They see the Victorians' elaborate carvings and their equally elaborate and costly painting as signs of individuality.

    That beautiful and costly decoration expresses its owner's taste and priorities.  The modern house, an elaborate example of which is shown in Hitchcock's "North By Northwest," also displays its owner's taste and priorities.

    The Victorian's owner likes to look at it, and hopes that other people will do so too.  The expensive modern house's owner also might hope that others will admire his home; but, if it exists, he really wants its enormous windows to let him enjoy the surrounding scenery.

    Modern architects know that many people cannot afford houses whose construction requires considerable style, strength, and pains.

Therefore, they create structures that provide the necessary shelter at a relatively cheap price.  Economy does tend to dictate simplicity.

    Nevertheless, economy does not necessarily mean danger.  Modern homes' construction, wiring, and insulation are much safer and perform better than the Victorian houses' did.  Although they cost little to build, little to demolish, and lack the Victorians' sometimes spectacular good looks, the moderns let people enjoy comfort far greater than that the Victorians' original owners had.

    Relatively few people lived in the expensive and elaborate Victorian houses that so many of our people justly admire.  Most Victorian-era urban dwellers lived in tenements whose like one finds today only in places like Bangladesh and Bolivia.  For further information, see "The Good Old Days:  They Were Terrible," by Otto L. Bettmann.

    Almost all of America's beautiful Victorians were later replaced or converted into apartments by owners avid to escape the cost of their proper maintenance.

    Those homes were beautiful, but they were like 1932 Rolls-Royces.

They cost a great deal, cost a great deal to maintain, and, ultimately, were superceded by scientific progress.

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