Early AvondaleAvondale was the first planned community in the Southeastern United States, featuring many amenities including paved streets, a lake for fishing, leisure boating, and swimming, a pool, tennis courts, dairies, a horse stable and a business district. The community sought to bring nature into the community, creating a sense of idyllic peace and “beckon to restful pleasures.” Avondale described itself as “[a] magnificently appointed community… where neighborly friendship reigns.”
Avondale is a mimicry of an English town, transplanted into the South. George F. Willis, a pharmaceutical magnate purchased the entire town of Ingleside to create his vision in 1924. Willis had recently travelled to Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. This influenced the architectural style and bequeathed the city its name, Avondale. The visual look of the estates was an important aspect, intended to create a harmonious life. One advertisement claimed that “art is a part of the everyday life of Avondale Estates,” and buildings were “graceful,” roads were “symmetrical curves,” and shrubbery was “artistic[ally] arranged.”
Stratford-Upon_Avon
The Tudor Revival style ties into this rural/modern dichotomy. The style experienced a revival in Europe after World War I due to a nostalgia for traditional values; this spread to other countries including the United States. It became popular with the middle class, particularly within suburbia, as the buildings were livable with a veneer of stylistic flourishes that, in earlier times, were associated with the upper class. The “tapestry brick… selected hardwood floors… bronze lighting fixtures… built-in bookcases in [the] living room…. Tile… set in terraces and bathroom, [a] China closet in the breakfast room” were new consumer novelties. On this note, it is important to note that Avondale was only intended for “families of proven standing and financial responsibility.” The community attracted a certain upscale, like-minded clientele.
Early Riding SchoolAvondale is unique, a time capsule of a particular time in American history. Yet, the themes underlie the creation of the community – a return to simpler life, idealizing the past – are quintessentially American.
Avondale is an early example of the now common planned community, an early antecedent to later house trends. In the next thirty to forty years, suburbs would become popularized as urban flight began. Yet, Avondale is also a unique landmark, a testament to cross-cultural exchange across the Atlantic Ocean.