THE WELL-APPOINTED HOUSE:
VIRGINIA DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE IN THE COLONIAL ERA

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Dec. 5 -- What does a house tell us
about the people who live there and the times in which they live?
Camille Wells, assistant professor of architectural history at the
University of Virginia and resident fellow at the Virginia
Foundation for the Humanities, will give a talk, "The Well-Appointed
House:  Virginia Domestic Architecture in the Colonial Era," at the
foundation's Conversations with Scholars series on Tuesday, Dec. 10,
at 4 p.m. at the foundation's center, 145 Ednam Drive.
	Wells's specialty is in the domestic architecture and rural
landscape of colonial and early national Virginia. "The most
compelling aspect of 'reading' the function and significance of
colonial housing is the opportunity it offers to visit a domestic
realm which is quite foreign to modern eyes," said Wells. In her
talk she will show the evolution, between 1650 and 1800, of the
Virginia dwelling form, facade and spatial components that signaled
important shifts in social roles and issues.  Homes were significant
as visually prominent figures on the landscape, scenes of public and
semi-public interaction, statements of segregation according to
class as well as race, and shelters for valuable assemblages of
possessions.
	Wells is a founder and past president of the Vernacular
Architecture Forum and also founded the series Perspectives in
Vernacular Architecture and edited its first two volumes. 
	Virginia Foundation for the Humanities programs contribute
to the interpretation and understanding of diverse cultural
traditions; relate the humanities to contemporary issues and promote
the Commonwealth of Virginia's culture and history.
December 4, 1996
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	For more information, contact the Virginia Foundation for
the Humanities at (804) 924 3296.  Television reporters should call
our TV News Office at (840) 924-7550.