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"George W. Littlefield came to Texas with his family in 1850. He served in the Civil War with Terry's Texas Rangers, attaining the rank of major. Following the war he became a cattleman and acquired ranches in New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle. He came to Austin in 1883 and engaged in banking. A regent to the University of Texas, 1911-1920, he contributed funds for new buildings, study grants and library collections. Littlefield built this Victorian residence in 1894. Designed by James W. Wahrenberger, the house was bequeathed to the university in 1935."
Taken from landmark signage in front of building
The Littlefield Home
24th St. and Whitis
The Littlefield Home is a good example of a Victorian building. It contains most of the characteristics of a Victorian building as presented by John Ruskin in The Stones of Venice. The rest of this page provides a graphical representation to Ruskin's points of Gothic. Along with the pictures are Ruskin's words and my comments on each point. If one of the points is not found in the Littlefield Home, I provided pictures of other structures exhibiting those points.
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"First, look if the roof rises in a steep gable, high above the walls..."
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The gable here on the Littlefield Home is above the window from the high spire. This particular gable does not rise very high, but is still present.
"Second, look if the principle windows and doors have pointed arches with gables over them."
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This arch is from an actual Gothic building. The Cathedral of Amiens provides for what arches on Victorian buildings all strive for. Notice the pointed arch at the top of the window, topped by the long gable.
In addition to having these first two characteristics, the building should contain most of the following six details. It does not need to meet all six, but if it does not meet a majority, it will destroy the Gothic character of a building.
1) Savageness or Rudeness
"...roughness of the work: this look of mountain brotherhood between the cathedral and the Alp,...the imperfection of the workman."
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Look again at the Littlefield Home. With the tall spires and the roof coming to points in other places, the profile looks very much like that of a mountain range. It really does give the home the look of the Alps.
2) Love of Change
"...perpetual variety of every feature of the building...great art, whether expressing itself in words, colours, or stones, does not say the same thing over and over again...we must no more expect to derive either pleasure or profit from an architecture whose ornaments are of one pattern, and whose pillars are of one proportion, than we should out of a universe in which clouds were all of one shape, and trees all of one size...no pleasure is taken anywhere in modern buildings, and we find all men of true feeling delighting to escape out of modern cities into natural scenery."
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Here we have the columns on the front door steps of the Littlefield Home. As you can see, there is one column on the left, while there are two on the right. This lack of symmetry is the love of change according to Ruskin.
3) Love of Nature
"...peculiar fondness for the forms of Vegetation...rendering the various circumstances of daily life. Living foliage...a subject of intense affection...a more tranquil and gentle existence...delicate touch of the chisel, as it rounds the pedal or guides the branch...the interlacing of branches...a resemblance to vegetation...the goodly building is then most glorious when it is sculptured into the likeness of the leaves of Paradise..."
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The love of nature can be seen in this stone carvings which are found along the top of windows at the Littlefield Home. Although it maybe hard to see, this white stone is carved with leafy vines and limbs, showing the fascination with nature.
4) Disturbed Imagination
"...the tendency to delight in fantastic and ludicrous, as well as in sublime, images." The grotesque.
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ANZ Bank, Collins St.
Melbourne, Australia
This is a gargoyle from the ANZ Bank in Australia. I do not know what period of time it was constructed in or what fashion, but the gargoyle provides a perfect example of disturbed imagination. This imagination wasn't limited to gargoyles though. Human faces and other mythological/fantasy figures were used to adorn buildings on both the outside and inside.
5) Obstinacy or Rigidity
"...an elastic tension and communication of force from part to part...expression of energy in the framework of the ornament itself...prickly...jutting...thorny, bossy, and bristly...never for an instant languid...vigour of effect, rather than refinement of texture or accuracy of form...impatience of undue control...vigorous and various masses, and daringly projecting and independent structure."
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Here we look almost straight up at the roof of the Littlefield Home. There is a feeling of no form almost. There are corners sticking out every couple feet. Also, look at what lines the roof, little ornamentations adding to this look of the roof jutting out in all directions.
6) Generosity
"Redundance; the uncalculating bestowal of the wealth of its labour...accumulation of ornament...complexity...a profound sympathy with the fullness and wealth of the material universe...seeing her perfect and exquisite creations poured forth in a profusion which conception could not grasp nor calculation sum."
Here we look at the overall decoration of the home. As you can see a substantial amount of money was spent to give the house this look. There are marble steps and columns. In various spots of the home there are stained glass windows. Also, there is wonderful color in the house. The roof wasn't spared any expense with its high rising spires, rough contoured look and magnificent ornamentation.
Now compare the features of the Victorian Gothic building to a modern building, Beauford H. Jester Center.
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Beauford H. Jester Center
21st St. and Speedway
Jester is a tall, rectangular shaped building. It gives the feel of technology and progress. It lacks imagination and character. Personally, I think it looks like a large prison unit. It offers no beauty, no link to the past. It shows no change, it is rigid in its form. And, without ornamentation and color, it is boring to look at. Jester demonstrates none of the characteristics of a Victorian building like the Littlefield Home.
How many have come to my domain:
Let me know what you are thinking: Bark@mail.utexas.edu
Quoted material is from The Stones of Venice by John Ruskin, published in 1853.
The links in the credits of pictures are to where the pictures were found through search engines.
All pictures without labels are of the Littlefield Home.
This page was produced by Jason P. Barkemeyer for an assignment in a course entitled Texas and England at The University of Texas-Austin. The professor of the course is Jerome Bump.
Last Update of Page: February 23, 1998