David and Mary May House | |
Front of the house | |
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| Location | 3723 Washington Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 39°9′9″N84°29′41″W / 39.15250°N 84.49472°W Coordinates: 39°9′9″N84°29′41″W / 39.15250°N 84.49472°W |
| Built | 1910 |
| Architect | McMiller & Taft |
| Architectural style | Italian Renaissance |
| NRHP reference # | 96000931 [1] |
| Added to NRHP | August 22, 1996 |
The David and Mary May House is a historic residence in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Designed in the Italian Renaissance style of architecture, the house is a three-story structure constructed of Indiana limestone, [2] although themes of French Renaissance architecture can also be seen in its design. [3] The foundation is also stone, while the roof is covered with rows of terracotta tiles. Surrounded by trees, the house is covered by a hip roof that is pierced by multiple dormer windows. [4] Some of the elements evoke a sense of the Beaux-Arts style, including the house's carefully designed symmetry, its decorative columns, urns, and swags, and the small wings on both sides of the central main portion of the house. Occupying a corner lot, the house is placed to face the corner; as such, its rear is substantially less formal than the street-facing front. [5]
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the Great Lakes region of the United States. Of the fifty states, it is the 34th largest by area, the seventh most populous, and the tenth most densely populated. The state's capital and largest city is Columbus.
The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
Renaissance Revival architecture is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Grecian nor Gothic but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range of classicizing Italian modes. Under the broad designation "Renaissance architecture" nineteenth-century architects and critics went beyond the architectural style which began in Florence and central Italy in the early 15th century as an expression of Humanism; they also included styles we would identify as Mannerist or Baroque. Self-applied style designations were rife in the mid- and later nineteenth century: "Neo-Renaissance" might be applied by contemporaries to structures that others called "Italianate", or when many French Baroque features are present.
Since the 1930s, the 11-acre (4.5 ha) property has featured a brick driveway and a pillared gateway, [6] decorated with an arch of wrought iron. [5] Besides the house itself, the property consists of extensive gardens, including flowerbeds and a sunken garden, [2] located together in the neighborhood of North Avondale. [3]
Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content in contrast to cast iron. It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions, which gives it a "grain" resembling wood that is visible when it is etched or bent to the point of failure. Wrought iron is tough, malleable, ductile, corrosion-resistant and easily welded. Before the development of effective methods of steelmaking and the availability of large quantities of steel, wrought iron was the most common form of malleable iron. It was given the name wrought because it was hammered, rolled or otherwise worked while hot enough to expel molten slag. The modern functional equivalent of wrought iron is mild or low carbon steel. Neither wrought iron nor mild steel contain enough carbon to be hardenable by heating and quenching.
North Avondale is an economically diverse neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is home to Xavier University and the Avon Woods Preserve.
In 1996, the May House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, qualifying both because of its architecture and because of its place in local history. Besides the main house, an additional building and a related site were included in the historic designation. [1] An early formal garden and a detached garage, complete with living space for the chauffeur, remain in existence behind the house itself. [5]
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property.
The U.S. National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) classifies its listings by various types of properties. Listed properties generally fall into one of five categories, though there are special considerations for other types of properties which do not fit into these five broad categories or fit into more specialized subcategories. The five general categories for NRHP properties are: building, district, object, site, and structure.
Garden design is the art and process of designing and creating plans for layout and planting of gardens and landscapes. Garden design may be done by the garden owner themselves, or by professionals of varying levels of experience and expertise. Most professional garden designers have some training in horticulture and the principles of design. Garden designer, Rev David Coles, further elaborated this definition at the Chelsea Flower Show by stating that good garden design, while being on the one hand a “serious discipline” should embody a “playful creative mindfulness”. He postulates that successful garden designs enable transcendence from a physical sensory experience to a mindful awareness of being interconnected with nature. Some are also landscape architects, a more formal level of training that usually requires an advanced degree and often a state license. Amateur gardeners may also attain a high level of experience from extensive hours working in their own gardens, through casual study, serious study in Master Gardener Programs, or by joining gardening clubs.
