Editing Federal Style Architecture (section)

== The Woodlands ==

The Woodlands, the estate of William Hamilton in West Philadelphia, exemplifies Federal architecture at its most ambitious and influential. Hamilton, heir to colonial wealth, transformed a modest Georgian house into a Federal masterpiece during the 1780s, creating interiors of unprecedented sophistication in America. The oval parlor, with its curved walls, elaborate plasterwork, and carefully proportioned classical ornament, introduced spatial ideas unknown in Philadelphia. Hamilton imported the latest English and French decorative ideas, creating rooms that rivaled European aristocratic interiors.<ref name="tatum"/>

The Woodlands estate also pioneered English landscape gardening in America, with Hamilton replacing formal colonial gardens with picturesque grounds featuring winding paths, specimen trees, and naturalistic plantings. The house's influence extended through visitors who carried Federal ideas throughout the mid-Atlantic region. Today The Woodlands survives as a cemetery and historic site, its mansion open for tours that reveal Federal taste at its most refined and expensive.<ref name="moss"/>