The Houses of Irvington

Book excerpt: The Houses of Irvington- Architecture of An American Village by Steven M. Reiss presents a unique perspective on the residential design of this small coastal Virginia community. Reiss has built on the villages' selection in 2000 into the National Register of Historic Places by examining its wide range of unique and well-preserved architectural house styles. Reiss sees Irvington as a living example of the chronology of American residential design. He believes that the history of any community can be better understood through the architectural lens of its homes constructed over time. The book offers a visual history of the evolution of American house design using photographs of over 40 Irvington homes and nine distinct home styles. The book examines each of these house styles in detail beginning with Irvington's oldest house, the 1740 Colonial designed Wilders Grant and takes the reader through the next several centuries of American houses up to and including a number of contemporary houses in Irvington. Using historic and current photographs and pen and ink sketches of each house style by the author the book frames the houses of Irvington from the mid-1700s through the Steamboat Era to the picturesque Irvington of today.” A special section of the book is titled Yesterday and Today, which looks at a number of photographs of Irvington buildings and compares them with photographs from when they were first built.?The Houses of Irvington reinforces how a community's character is deeply rooted in its past and that while structures can not always be saved, they should be remembered as their stories are told and retold through time.