the fireplace details correspond to the Roman tradition which is the foundation of colonial forms. There are four fireplaces.
The correspondence is shown in the enframement of the fireplaces with a classic pilaster supporting an architrave and projecting cornice, which, of course, in simple terms, becomes the shelf.
The roof reveals the beginning of the romantic influence, expressed in the steep gable ends. The house is now as in 1858 of distinguished appearance.
There was not, said J. M. Campbell, one of the carpenters, a planer mark on the whole house, flooring, ceiling, etc., all being dressed by hand. Moldings, cornice and balustrades were all made by hand. The front door has the position of the lock reversed—the keyhole upside down. The key is six inches long.
In 1859 a new court house was erected on the square donated by the trustees of the Academy and Dallas was entrenched as a county seat.
The contract was let to William Pitman, the price fixed at $7,400. Upon completion the new edifice was regarded as one of the finest buildings in the state. In architecture it is interesting.
It reveals distinct southern ancestry. Thomas Jefferson's influence is marked in the severe Roman classic lines. Indeed, comparing the court house with the original model of the Virginia State Capitol—sponsored by Jefferson and said to be the first monument of the classical revival in American architecture—it is seen at once that Dallas had in 1859 a reproduction of that model prepared in 1789.
The angle of the roof is a little sharper in the court house than in the Capitol at Richmond—the columns are of the Doric instead of the Ionic order. The tympanum is an almost exact reproduction of the Roman temple, peculiarly appropriate to the South as it gives a shadow. The architecture of the Capitol is inspired by the Maison
