COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS

AMERICAN STABLES
An Architectural Tour
by Julius Trousdale Sadler Jr. and
Jacqueline D. Sadler
Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1981.

With the arrival of spring in Middleburg, the Annual Hunt Country Stable Tour is held in late May. In celebration of the event, the National Sporting Library named American Stables, An Architectural Tour by Julius Trousdale Sadler, Jr. and Jacqueline D.J. Sadler, as the May 2001 Book of the Month.

American Stables has the distinction of being the most bid upon item in the NSL's 2000 Annual Duplicate Book Sale. It received eight bids, selling to the top bidder for $100.00.

The Sadlers toured the United States from coast to coast to present a broad overview of the various types of stables. They range from exquisite broodmare barns, racetrack stables, airy barns of the Southwest to stately near-castle type carriage houses, and many rather historic stables.

The Pony Express stable at St. Joseph, Missouri, now part of a museum complex.

The Sadlers write in the preface, "American stabling runs the same gamut that American houses do, and varies as widely with income, purpose, climate, period, and local custom, from the run-in shed at one end of the spectrum to the equine equivalent of a chateau at the other. Many stable buildings, whether intended for a score of blood horses or a solitary backyard pony, have a considerable impact in terms of site, aesthetic, and use."

The F. Ambrose Clark polo stable in Aiken, S.C.

"New York Graphic Society is to be congratulated on the publication of this book, which fills a long-standing vacancy in the history of American architecture...Stables and carriage houses were the most universal of all the accompanying outbuildings. They were of equal importance in the mercantile and industrial cities of the North," states Alexander Mackay-Smith in the foreword.