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Virginia Commonwealth University

John Hartwell Cocke (1780-1866): From Jeffersonian Palladianism to Romantic Colonial Revivalism in Antebellum Virginia

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

John Hartwell Cocke was a Virginia planter and amateur architect whose style evolved from Jeffersonian Classicism to a revival of English Tudor-Stuart or Jacobethan architecture. This dissertation discusses the Cocke family's Elizabethan roots and advances four theses. The first of these theses is that John Hartwell Cocke implemented Thomas Jefferson's principles for the reform of Virginia architecture. Cocke's most ambitious project, a Jeffersonian Palladian mansion called Bremo, was in the planning stages by 1815. The second thesis is that Cocke's off-plantation buildings signals his break from the Palladianism of Thomas Jefferson in favor of the Jacobean style for his houses and his acceptance of classical Jeffersonian elements for public buildings. The third thesis proposes John Hartwell Cocke as the first practitioner of the Romantic Colonial Revival movement in America in his revival of Tudor-Stuart architecture. The fourth thesis is that John Hartwell Cocke's architectural legacy was expanded by Philip St. George Cocke, the second of his three sons, when the younger Cocke commissioned Alexander J. Davis to build Belmead and later promoted Davis among his circle of family and friends.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Doctor of Philosophy
Level thesis:degree_level
Dissertation
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Art History
Year dc:date.available
2003

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Rogers, Muriel Brine
Contributors dc:contributor
  • Dr. Charles Brownell

Subjects

dc:subject × 11

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • © The Author

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-1869

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Commonwealth University
Base URL
scholarscompass.vcu.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Rogers, Muriel Brine. John Hartwell Cocke (1780-1866): From Jeffersonian Palladianism to Romantic Colonial Revivalism in Antebellum Virginia. Dissertation thesis, 2003. https://doi.org/10.25772/GKKV-RP51