Morphology of Three Colonial Cities
Three regions with different economies, social worlds, and political “cultures”
New England
Mid-Atlantic
South
Character of Colonies
New England – 1620s; Puritan merchants
Mid-Atlantic – mid-1600s; English Common Law
South – late 1600s; Plantation based agriculture; manorial system
New England Townscape
Organic – oriented to port functions & other topographic features (Ex.: Boston; Portland, Portsmouth)
Bastidal – European new towns; egalitarian land assignment – orthogonal plan (Ex.: New Haven, Cambridge)
New England - Boston
Organic Design: response to the topography & priorities of use
Port town: oriented to water & wharfs
Functional lay-out and land use patterns (Ex. “the commons”)
Mid-Atlantic - Philadelphia
American Grid
Land speculator’s model
Egalitarian – bastide
influence plus “London Rebuilt”
Penn’s Plan
“ a greene country town” “a great towne” – selling lots to British
speculators; land sale rather than land use determined the form
Laid out – one mile X two Town squares for public use