College of Architecture Library Cornell University - GJomell Utttueratty ffitbrarg 3tl;aca, Kem $orh BOUGHT w.TH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF HENRY W. SAGE 1691 DATE DUE f^ft 80 fVi 'f S CAYLORD PRINTED IN U.S.A. Cornell University Library NA7610.E53 One hundred country houses; modern Americ 3 1924 015 196 318 ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES flDofcern Hmerican jByamples BY AYMAR EMBURY II PUBLISHED BY THE CENTURY CO. NEW YORK M CM IX V' \ Copyright, 1909, by The Century Co. Published September, I<)on THE DE VINNE PRESS ' TO MY KINDEST CRITIC AND FELLOW-WORKMAN, ALFRED BUSSELLE CONTENTS Introduction: The New American Architecture . 3 1 New England Colonial 16 11 Southern Colonial 37 in Classic Revival 56 iv Dutch Colonial 74 v Spanish or Mission -93 vi American Farm-house 107 vii Elizabethan 123 viii Modern English 14.9 ix Italian 174 x Art Nouveau 194 xi Japanesque 215 xii The House and the Garden 233 xiii The Plan of the- House 247 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS CHAPTER I. NEW ENGLAND COLONIAL PAGE HOUSE FOR AUSTIN W. LORD, WATER WITCH, N. J 19 Lord & Hewlett, Architects. HOUSE FOR MR. CHAUNCEY OLCOTT, SARATOGA SPRINGS, N. Y. ... 21 Keen & Mead, Architects. THE PITMAN RESIDENCE, BROOKLINE, MASS 23 Kilham & Hopkins, Architects. THE BRIGGS RESIDENCE, BROOKLINE, MASS 25 Kilham & Hopkins, Architects. HOUSE FOR WILLIAM H. GRAY, DEDHAM, MASS 27 James Purdon, Architect. THE CHENEY RESIDENCE, SOUTH MANCHESTER, MASS 29 Charles A Piatt, Architect. HOUSE FOR MR. WITHERBEE BLACK, PELHAM MANOR, N. Y 31 O. C. Hering, Architect. HOUSE AT NEEDHAM, MASS 33 James Purdon, Architect. THE SWIFT RESIDENCE, LARCHMONT, N. Y. 35 Ewing & Chappell, Architects. CHAPTER II. SOUTHERN COLONIAL "EASTOVER," WYOMING, N. J 39 Joy Wheeler Dow, Architect. THE SAMUEL ADAMS HOUSE, SEWICKLEY, PA 41 Alden & Harlow, Architects. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE HOUSE OF DR. A. C. CABOT, CANTON, MASS 43 Charles A. Piatt, Architect. HOUSE OF HOWARD CLARK, BRISTOL, R. 1 45 Charles A. Piatt, Architect. RESIDENCE OF E. R. THOMAS, SHEEPSHEAD BAY, N. Y 47 Lionel Moses, Architect. RESIDENCE OF ERNESTUS GUL1CK, GARDEN CITY ESTATES, L. I. ... 49 Kirby, Petit & Green, Architects. THE FRANKENBERG HOUSE, GREENWICH, CONN 51 Hale & Rogers, Architects. C. L. WISE RESIDENCE, EAST ORANGE, N. J 53 Percy Griffin, Architect. HOUSE OF PROFESSOR L. W. REID, HAVERFORD, PA 55 Bailey & Bassett, Architects. CHAPTER III. CLASSIC REVIVAL RESIDENCE OF DR. MARSDEN, CHESTNUT HILL, PA 59 Charles Barton Keen, Architect. THE MATHERS FARM-HOUSE, GERMANTOWN, PA 61 Charles Barton Keen, Architect. RESIDENCE OF MR. JOHN CHAPMAN, TARRYTOWN, N. Y 63 Charles A. Piatt, Architect. RESIDENCE FOR MRS. PROBST, ENGLEWOOD, N. J 65 Davis, McGrath & Shepard, Architects. M. TAYLOR PYNE HOUSE, PRINCETON, N. J 67 Raleigh C. Gildersleeve, Architect. THE RAMSAY HOUSE, CLEVELAND, 69 Elzner & Anderson, Architects. RESIDENCE OF ALFRED BUSSELLE, CHAPPAQUA, N. Y 71 Alfred Busselle, Architect. MR. WYATT'S RESIDENCE, BALTIMORE, MD 73 Wyatt & Nolting, Architects. x LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS CHAPTER IV. DUTCH COLONIAL PAGE A REAL ESTATE OFFICE, WOODMERE, L. 1 75 Charles Barton Keen, Architect. HOUSE FOR MRS. J. E. SPEER, LOS ANGELES, CAL 77 Myron Hunt & Elmer Grey, Architects. THE CRENSHAW COTTAGE, GERMANTOWN, PA 79 Wilson Evre, Architect. COTTAGE OF MR. HENRY S. ORR, GARDEN CITY, L. 1 81 Avmar Embury II, Architect. "APPLEDORE," BOUND BROOK, NEW JERSEY 83 Avmar Embury II, Architect. RESIDENCE OF MRS. ETHEL R. GRAEME, ENGLEWOOD, N. J 85 Avmar Embury II, Architect. J. C. BULL HOUSE, TUCKAHOE, N. Y 87 Avmar Embury II, Architect. HOUSE FOR ST. GEORGE BARBER, ENGLEWOOD, N. J 89 Avmar Embury II, Architect. HOUSE AT COLONIA, N. J 91 George Nichols, Architect. CHAPTER V. SPANISH OR MISSION MR. H. O. HAVEMEYER'S HOUSE, BAYBERRY POINT, L. 1 95 Grosvenor Atterbury, Architect. MR. MACKENZIE'S RESIDENCE, OYSTER BAY, L. 1 97 G. C. Mackenzie, Architect. THE REIDERMEISTER HOUSE, ENGLEWOOD, N. J. . • 99 William K. Benedict, Architect. RESIDENCE OF E. S. HALL, WATER WITCH, N. J 101 Lyman A. Ford, Architect. RESIDENCE AT CEDARHURST, L. 1 103 Louis Boynton, Architect. RESIDENCE OF MR. TAYLOR, NORFOLK, CONN 10S Taylor & Levi, Architects. xi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS CHAPTER VI. AMERICAN FARM-HOUSE PAGE COTTAGE FOR MISS MARIA GREY, FOX POINT, WIS 109 Myron Hunt & Elmer Grey, Architects. MR. JONES' COTTAGE, BRYN MAWR PARK, N. Y HI Sullivan W. Jones, Architect. BENDIN RODE COTTAGE, HAVERFORD, PENN 113 Walter Smedley, Architect'. THE LYGERT HOUSE, GERMANTOWN, PENN 115 Cope & Stewardson, Architects. F. P. LORD HOUSE, EDGEWORTH, PENN 117 Charles Barton Keen, Architect. THE UNDERWOOD RESIDENCE, FOX POINT, WIS 119 Elmer Grey, Architect. THE BATES COTTAGE, WYOMING, N. J 121 Joy Wheeler Dow, Architect. CHAPTER VII. ELIZABETHAN THE FINE RESIDENCE, PRINCETON, N. J. . . . 127 Cope & Stewardson, Architects. RESIDENCE OF MR. E. P. COE, ENGLEWOOD, N.J 129 Aymar Embury II, Architect. F. M. NICHOLAS HOUSE, UNION VILLE, 131 Frank B. Mead, Architect. BALDWIN RESIDENCE, DETROIT, MICH 133 Stratton & Baldwin, Architects. GATE LODGE FOR W. K. VANDERBILT, JR., "DEEPDALE," L. 1 135 John Russell Pope, Architect. SCOTT RESIDENCE, PELHAM MANOR, N. Y 137 Louis Metcalfe, Architect. MR. JACKSON'S RESIDENCE, CAMBRIDGE, MASS 139 Allen W. Jackson, Architect. xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS cage THE FASSETT RESIDENCE, NORFOLK, CONN 141 Tavlor & Levi, Architects. COTTAGE FOR MRS. BISLAND, LAWRENCE PARK, N. Y 143 William A. Bates, Architect. THE RABBITT HOUSE, WYOMING, N. J 145 lov Wheeler Dow, Architect. RESIDENCE AT OYSTER BAY, L. 1 147 Grosvenor Atterhury, Architect. CHAPTER VIII. MODERN ENGLISH THE HOWARD RESIDENCE, BROOKLINE, MASS 151 Charles A. Piatt, Architect. THE JACOBEAN HOUSE, BROOKLINE, MASS. 153 William Whitney Lewis, Architect. RESIDENCE OF MRS. GARLAND, HAMILTON, MASS 155 Winslow & Bigelow, Architects. GATE LODGE OF MR. ERNEST A. HAMILL, LAKE FOREST, ILL 157 Spencer & Powers, Architects. THE BORIE RESIDENCE, JENKINTOWN, PENN 159 Wilson Evre, Architect. THE RICE RESIDENCE, IPSWICH, MASS 161 William G. Rantoul, Architect. THE C. P. FOX HOUSE, PENLLYN, PENN 163 Cope & Stewardson, Architects. RESIDENCE FOR DR. DAVID MAGIE, PRINCETON, N.J 165 Cope & Stewardson, Architects. RESIDENCE OF MAXWELL WYETH, ROSEMOUNT, PENN 167 Wilson Eyre, Architect. THE P. B. WALKER HOUSE, GLENCOE, ILL 169 Spencer & Powers, Architects. COTTAGE FOR MRS. PRESBREY BISLAND, LAWRENCE PARK, N. Y. . . .171 Wilder & White, Architects. HOUSE AT CEDARHURST, L. 1 173 Louis Boynton, Architect. xiii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS CHAPTER IX. ITALIAN FACE MR. BIGELOW'S RESIDENCE, READVILLE, MASS. 175 Winslow & Bigelow, Architects. RESIDENCE OF SAMUEL CABOT, CANTON, MASS 177 Winslow & Bigelow, Architects. THE WILLIAMS RESIDENCE, NAHANT, MASS 179 Parker & Thomas, Architects. RESIDENCE OF MR. HERING, PELHAM MANOR, N. Y 181 Oswald C. Hering, Architect. RESIDENCE OF J. O. BLOSS, HARRISON, N. Y 183 Alfred Busselle, Architect. RESIDENCE OF A. DURANT SNEDEN, AVON-BY-THE-SEA, N. J 185 A. Durant Sneden, Architect. "CASA DEL PONTE," ROWAYTON, CONN 187 Slee & Bryson, Architects. THE CARPENTER HOUSE, LAKE GENEVA, WIS 189 Howard Shaw, Architect. THE A. C. BARTLETT HOUSE, LAKE GENEVA, WIS 191 Howard Shaw, Architect. THE A. C. BARTLETT HOUSE, LAKE GENEVA, WIS 193 Howard Shaw, Architect. CHAPTER X. ART NOUVEAU "RAGDALE," LAKE FOREST, ILL 195 Howard Shaw, Architect. THE HEDGES RESIDENCE, BROOKLINE, MASS 197 J. Lovell Little, Architect. THE DUNNING COTTAGE, BRIARCLIFF, N. Y 199 A. Van Buren McGonigle, Architect. A HOUSE AT GLEN RIDGE, N. J „ 201 A. Van Buren McGonigle. xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE RESIDENCE OF CARLETON MACY, WOODMERE, L. 1 203 Albro & Lindeberg, Architects. ENTRANCE TO THE CLUB HOUSE, KENSINGTON, ILL 205 George W. Maher, Architect. RESIDENCE OF FRANCIS LACKNER, KENILWORTH, ILL 207 George W. Maher, Architect. RESIDENCE OF MR. HARRY RUBENS, GLENCOE, ILL 209 George W. Maher, Architect. HOUSE OF A. B. EASTWOOD, ROCHESTER, N. Y 211 Claude Bragdon, Architect. RESIDENCE OF RUDOLPH TIETIG, CINCINNATI, 213 Tietig & Lee, Architects. CHAPTER XI. JAPANESQUE TICHENOR HOUSE, LONG BEACH, CAL 217 Greene & Greene, Architects. RESIDENCE IN PASADENA, CAL 219 Greene & Greene, Architects. TEA HOUSE AND POOL, LONG BEACH, CAL 221 Greene & Greene, Architects. RESIDENCE OF DR. GUY COCHRAN, PASADENA, CAL 223 Mvron Hunt & Elmer Grey, Architects. RESIDENCE OF DR. GUY COCHRAN, PASADENA, CAL 225 Mvron Hunt & Elmer Grey, Architects. THE FARRINGTON STUDIO, BERKELEY, CAL 227 Bernard Maybeck, Architect. A CAMP ON LAKE WILBERT, ADIRONDACK MOUNTAINS 229 Davis & McGrath, Architects. A COTTAGE FOR MR. DELAFIELD, TUXEDO PARK, N. Y 231 Donn Barber, Architect. xv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS CHAPTER XII. THE HOUSE AND THE GARDEN I' AGE GARDEN OF MR. JAMES HAMILTON, DETROIT, MICH 235 Stratton & Baldwin, Architects. GARDEN OF DR. GUY COCHRAN, PASADENA, CAL 237 Myron Hunt & Elmer Grey, Architects. CASA DEL PONTE, ROWAYTON, CONN 239 Slee & Brvson, Architects. THE A. C. BARTLETT STUDIO AND GARDEN, LAKE GENEVA, WIS. . . .241 Howard Shaw, Architect. THE GARDEN OF WELD, BROOKLINE, MASS 243 Charles A. Piatt, Architect. THE CASINO AT FAULKNER FARM, BROOKLINE, MASS . 245 Charles A. Piatt, Architect. ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES INTRODUCTION THE NEW AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE TX THEN the medieval architect Vilard d'Honnicort was ™ " commissioned to build the church at St. Stephen at Prague, he spent two years traveling around Europe study- ing and sketching other churches. His sketch-books, which have been preserved, are lull of notes like this: "Here's a good tower; it it were changed thus: I could use it for my church." Alter this manner all architectural design has been done: by the study ol old work, varying the design to meet the requirements oi the individual case; and each style of architecture has been logically evolved from the study and revision oi the work immediately preceding it. Thus Roman architecture was derived from Greek, Romanesque from Roman, and Gothic Irom Romanesque. During the fourteenth century this chain was interrupted; somebody dug up the Forum and all the near-by architects at once 3 ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES were fascinated by the Roman work and started to copy it. Their knowledge ot it was imperfect, but they were very good architects and so created, almost by accident, the free and charming, but by no means classic, architecture which we know as Renaissance. This spread and developed very slowly. Means of communication were poor and the men ol the countries outside Italy, trained, as Italians never were, in Gothic architecture, were loath to give it up. In time, however, the earlier process of development and elimination was repeated, with the difference that now the development was both aided and cramped by the increasing knowledge and strength of the classic tradition. Thus the splendid architecture of the Classic Revival was formed, gaining in dignity what it lost in treedom. It was toward the end of this period that in America our ancestors became rich enough and had time enough to think about things artistic; and after the Revolution the eyes of the world were turned to this country with the expectation that here, in a land unfettered by tradition and unhampered by the monuments of a dead past, would be developed an architecture original and beautiful. From that time to this, both here and abroad, art writers have 4 THE NEW AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE given voice to this feeling, and just as often they have ex- pressed their mournful regret that we have so completely failed. Neither the expectation nor the regret was justified. It would indeed have been a line thing had we made an art lovely and without precedent; but when the critics decry our originality compared to that of Gothic and Greek builders, they forget that the buildings they have in mind were not spontaneous but the culmination of centuries of studv, experiment, and earnest effort. Had we been the aboriginal Americans, without knowledge of the great past and of different blood from its makers, we would have developed, as the Indians did, an architecture novel and without reminiscence of European work. But we were transplanted Europeans of the blood of the old builders, with memory of their work, all the more compelling be- cause of the lack of daily familiarity therewith. Nor can it be said that we entirely failed to create a new tyle. Hardlv had we become a nation before, working; with the old designs of the Renaissance in new materials and with little accurate information to guide them, our architects evolved the Colonial style; a result almost as ac- tv ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES cidental as the Italian Renaissance and as truly an inde- pendent style as that. And some of the monuments that period has left us, notably the New York City Hall and Independence Hall in Philadelphia, stand quite on a level with any ot the work of the Italian builders. The American architects were still working in this Co- lonial development of the old Roman school when, about the year 1789, Stewart and Revett, two English travelers, published their monumental work on the Antiquities of Athens, which changed the current of work the world over, from Roman channels to their prototvpe in Greece. This movement influenced American architecture verv strongly and we find Fenimore Cooper complaining that we were filling the land with "Greek temples" utterly un- suited to the environment. Some truth there was in this, as there has been in all the criticisms of that character. Yet Cooper failed to realize that in certain of the work done at that time, notably the noble University of Virginia, was shown a creative power as real as that of the Parthenon, and that the old Greek motif, modified and adjusted to needs of that day, was as vital an architecture as that of the Greeks themselves. 6 THE NEW AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 1 he Greek forms were, however, tew in number and the architects and their clients, the public, soon tired of them. From that time on to within a few years, American work has almost justified those critics who accuse it of being a slavish copy of the foreign. With the exception of the bril- liant adaptation of Erench Romanesque used bv the late H. H. Richardson, there was practically no good work done which was not a close copy of an old original. But how beautiful some of it was! Upjohn in his Gothic work, and McKim, Meade & White in the Madison Square Gar- den and in the Boston Public Library, and R. M. Hunt in his copies of the Erench Renaissance, fairly outdid their originals. Now, at last we have developed rationally and naturally an architectural style which may be fairly called our own. Until within a few years American architects had practically no training, tew and poor books, and no monuments of foreign work to copy. As with "dancing dogs and preach- ing women" the wonder was, not that they did it badly, but that thev did it at all. To-day the training is of the best, both in the schools and in the offices; there is a flood of architectural books of unquestioned merit, and with all the 7 a ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES instruments for good work ready to our hands, we have t length learned to use them, realizing that the truest architecture is that which neither rejects the good which has been done, nor tries to imitate it exactly. All this knowledge and training might not have resulted in any- thing further than more and better copies, had it not been for that restless search for something new, modern, and ex- pressive of present-dav condition which we know as Art Nouveau. This resulted in France, Austria, Italy, and Germany in a type of design filled with beautiful, yet often meaningless, lines; and in England and the United States, coming at a critical period, it vitalized archaeology into architecture. The use of the old work, changed and mod- ified with the greatest possible freedom, is the key-note of modern architecture, and we find those inveterate archaeol- ogists, McKim, Meade & White, doing work as brilliantly original as the Gorham Building and the Colony Club, in which the old motives are so freely and skilfully treated that the result is truly a new style. J J While in all classes of buildings this modern sentiment is apparent, it has advanced furthest in the country dwel- 8 THE NEW AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE ling-house; and the reasons for this are evident. The great number recently built gives almost unlimited opportunity tor change and experiment, and it is the type of buildings least trammeled by the requirements of the owner and the feeling that the building should conform to some extent with others of its class. The results even of these few years of work have been amazing to the observer, and the illustrations here reproduced fairly represent this new w T ork. They are very different and vet in a subtle way very much alike. It is plain that their authors have started from different prototypes; yet working with a common aim they have achieved a result which is beyond mere copying, and instinct with lite. Architects are employing a number of different historical stvles modified and modernized to suit the conditions and needs ot to-day. Exact reproduction of old work is apt to be drv and tiresome; but there is nothing new under the sun — in architecture at least — and so even the most modern work has its prototype, sometimes so far separated from it that the connection is barely perceptible. Accordingly 9 ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES those styles most usual in home-building will be dealt with later under the following headings: i New England Colonial 2 Southern Colonial 3 Classic Revival 4 Dutch Colonial 5 Spanish or Mission 6 American Farm-house 7 Elizabethan 8 Modern English 9 Italian i o Art Nouveau i i Japanesque This classification will be necessarily a very loose one; probably almost every modern home owes something to two or more of these styles, yet the root idea or motif will be found mainly owing to one of them, and the points of like- ness to, and divergence from, the older work will be shown. This list divides itself naturally into two classes: one more easilv treated in a formal manner, and the other suited to a less formal treatment. As a general, but not a io THE NEW AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE hard-and-fast rule, the formal work is a far-away descendant of the old classic period, while the informal is not. Under the first class would come the divisions of "Colonial," "Classic Revival," "Spanish" and " Italian," and under the second fall the remaining styles. A lot nearly level lends itself readily to almost any style of house, but a sloping lot requires a house treated in an informal way. Harmony of house and grounds is most important, and a house should grow naturally from the ground, not to be set upon it as if it had been dropped there haphazard. The architecture of the first settlers in any part of the country is apt to be that most suitable to it, and unless some strong personal preference for another style prevents, is probably the most satisfactory to employ. This is true from a practical as well as from a sentimental standpoint: our ancestors both here and in Europe did not think as much of looks as they did of comfort; and the flat pitched roofs of the Southern Colonial and Mission styles would never have been employed by the New England or Middle States farmers, who had to make the snow slide off if they did not want their bedrooms full of water. Yet while i i ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES appearance was secondary, several factors made toward suitability to location. The difficulties of transportation compelled our ancestors to use the materials around them, in country work at least, and there is something in the use of native material which makes for fitness. Whether this is purely sentimental or whether the colors and kinds of the materials used are really harmonious with the woods and ground from which they are taken, is hard to say. Such nevertheless is the fact. The simplicity of most old work is another element in its beauty: the structure of the build- ings was always apparent in the exterior, and the suggestions of the bones ot a house under its skin is as a rule a good feature; certainly it is one preached unceasingly by all modern Art writers from Ruskin down. The fact that cheap decorative motives for the exterior of the house did not exist, compelled the old designers, call them carpenters or architects as you will, for they were both, to study with j ' j > j great care the masses of their work. It is in the main upon the mass — or general proportion — of a building that its beauty depends, for all detail is lost at the distance of a hundred feet and only the outlines and the large shadows remain. 12 THE NEW AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE The desire of every one is naturally enough for individu- ality; and a house should express the character of its occupant. Individuality, however, is not contrast; and the cry of so many prospective home-builders for "something different" can be met just as well in harmony with the ad- joining houses as out of harmony. There are an indefinite number of designs possible in any style; each of its own individual character, heavy or light, high or broad, accord- ing to the desired expression of the style. Take for example the Lord house designed by Mr. Keen in the farm-house section, and the house for Dr. Cabot in the second chapter, designed by Mr. Piatt; the one low and broad with heavy columns and much roof; comfort and strength in every line. The other slim, square, and simple, refined in detail and good in proportion. Both have character, as distinct as that of anv two friends; yet they look like friends; born and bred under the same sky; going each his own way with community of interest to tie together their different lives. It is the likeness of these different styles of work that it is thought here especially desirable to emphasize, and while, as has been stated above, the houses shown later will be : 3 ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES loosely grouped under their parent styles, they really com- pose a single and modern type of architecture. The characteristics ot this style are honest expression of the plan and structure in the exterior; and great freedom and care in the use of materials; with an effort constantly to expose rather than to conceal their nature. We no longer turn and mold wood to appear like stone; nor do we make the mechanical perfections of pressed brickwork our aim, but rather try to get a texture to our flat surfaces by the use of rough brick with deep-set joints and wide rough shingles. The knowledge that age improves archi- tecture as well as wine, is not new, but the realization that the improvement is due to the texture of the surfaces and the softening of the rigid lines is recent and has not vet by any means become general. The greatly increasing use of lattice-work, both as a purely decorative feature, and as a trellis tor vines, is another characteristic of the modern work, and is apparent in a great many examples here shown. The contrast between delicate shadows cast by the lattice-work and the heavy shadows of the cornices and projecting portions of the house makes it a particularly effective decoration, while forming, x 4 THE NEW AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE by the growth of vines upon it, an invaluable link between the structure and grounds, conveying a sense of fitness of the house to the site. The order given- above, in which the different styles are to be treated, is not based upon any logical sequence, nor is it possible so to do; but in a general way each style forms a link between those adjoining. T 5 CHAPTER I NEW ENGLAND COLONIAL OF the various styles from which the houses of to-day are descended, probably the one most commonly used is the one treated in this chapter. The title "Colonial" is in a sense a misnomer, for the title is generally understood to include all the work done in this country prior to i 840, and up to this time there were a number of styles as distinct from each other as Gothic and Romanesque. These styles were divided both geographically and chronologically. In the different divi- sions of what now constitute the United States the work displayed nearly as great a variety of treatment as it did in the separate countries of Europe, the New England States employing an architecture very severe, simple, and quiet. The detail was almost invariably light and had considerable refinement. The masses of the houses were square, and often without any projecting wings of any sort. Around 16 NEW ENGLAND COLONIAL New \ ork the Dutch farm-house style of architecture was prevalent before the Revolution. In the neighborhood of Philadelphia was a different type resembling more closely the work of the same period in Maryland and Virginia than the more northern work. The houses of which we are now speaking are those which in general are derived from New England motives, but almost every one of them contains such an admixture of elements foreign to the early New England style that their inclusion under the term "New England Colonial" is open to question, and only by a careful analysis of them is it possible to trace their origin more to New England than to other sources, Colonial or foreign. In most of them there are very strong Italian influences to be seen, especially in the detail of the cornices and in the treatment of the porches. Generally speaking, the great point of separation between the modern work along Colo- nial lines and the older work is the constant use of details, foreign to the style, applied to a house in mass quite simi- lar to the old work. Of course this use of extraneous elements must be very carefully done to be successful. When, however, they are incorporated into the design from l 7 ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES its very inception, and are not simply introduced because of a desire for something novel, they result in a crispness and charm ol detail that can hardly be surpassed. The Lord house (the first illustration) is of all those shown probably the purest in style, and yet there are many points of divergence from the type. The width of the shingle courses and their rough texture remind us very strongly of the old-time country house. Yet the doubling of the shingle courses is a very modern note. The house is picturesque in composition, and while unsymmetncal, shows a balance of design that is both clever and charm- ing. The doorway and entrance porch are not upon the axis of the building, while the two big chimneys are at equal distance from the ends of the ridge. The little pantry extension to the right brings the doorway back to what may be called for lack of a better term, the center of composition. The string-course above the heads of the second-story windows is a recollection of the New England village type of house so familiar to all visitors to DeerfieM and Farmington. An especially interesting feature of the house is the treatment of the cornice; this, richly treated and of wide projection in the front and rear, is flat along 18 HOUSE FOR AUSTIN W. LORD WATER WITCH, N. J. LORD & HEWLETT, ARCHITECTS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES the gable-ends; and the cornice up the rake of the gables is lighter than the main cornice. The old houses were arranged in this way, but the treatment here is infinitely more skilfully handled than in any of the old work, and the feeling that the cornice does not fit neatly around the corners, which is often observable in the old work, is here entirely absent. The Olcott house is very similar in character to the one just described, and it is perhaps the most famous small house in America. Exceedingly simple in mass and in detail, the proportions are so admirable and the relation of the window openings to wall surface so perfect that the house compels attention, without having any exaggerated or novel features. The house is simply composed of the old motives a little more freely used than by their orig- inators. The arbors at each end are nothing more or less than the old grape-arbors, but so placed as to form a single composition with the house, and to assist in forming a con- nection between the house and the surroundings. The trellis across the front is a feature which, while not com- mon to New England, is often used in the neighborhood of Philadelphia. The cornice, indeed, is considerably 20 HOUSE FOR MR. CHAUNCEY OLCOTT SARATOGA SPRINGS, N. Y. KEEN & MEAD, ARCHITECTS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES heavier than most Colonial architects would have dared to employ, and the feeling of unity which it gives to the house is its ample justification, and the placing of the leaders at each end also helps in binding the house to- gether. The treatment of the front porch with the flower- boxes and beam-ends is one of which the old builders would hardly have thought, and it seems very charming. Perhaps the house owes almost as much of its charm to the beauty of its setting as to any other one feature of the design, and while the trees were certainly not included in the architect's drawings, he unquestionably had their effect in mind and placed his house in such a position as to best bring them into the grouping. While it is not always possible to obtain a setting like this, it very often happens that an equally good setting is spoiled by unskilful placing of the house upon the lot, and trees like these are sacri- ficed to reasons of much slighter importance. The Pitman and Briggs residences at Brookline, Massachu- setts, resemble very closely the larger and handsomer village residences around Boston, such residences as used to be spoken of as mansions. It may be that the well-known Longfellow house was the suggestion for the Pitman house, and if so 22 ■^^"-^H^tfjlWHiifM n|J!i!lllll!i ( !!!!!l!!i!!!!i!!!lilSI!i ! ■! Hlipiiiir nsnM^nn "inmiiHiiiiiiiiiiii i iii iii ii iiiffl Siiniimm JS ill i nminiii THE PITMAN RESIDENCE BROOKLINE, MASS. KILHAM & HOPKINS, ARCHITECTS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES it was used in the proper way, not as a basis for a copy but rather as an inspiration to a different and better treatment. These houses are alike in the symmetry and simplicity of their design, the grouping of five elements, two windows on each side of the door, in the front of each being a favorite one with the old Colonial builders. Especially interesting is the front doorway of the Pitman house with the charm- ing little trellis on either side of the Palladian motive; had the building been an old one it would have become a shrine for lovers of the Colonial. Even the fence with the inter- esting posts and the little arched entrance-gate recalls very strongly the old work, yet the treatment of the porches is new, and though new, perfectly in harmony. The Briggs house shows in the entrance doorwav and the piazza the influence of the Italian work, the doorway being characteristically Italian and well adapted to the po- sition in which it is used, although the columns seem a trifle small and out of scale with the windows on either side. The porch is not so happy as that of the Pitman house. The Gray residence is very far from the simple adher- ence to the Colonial style shown in the other work. The 24 THE BRIGGS RESIDENCE BROOKLINE, MASS. KILHAM & HOPKINS, ARCHITECTS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES tremendous overhang of the cornice and the flatness of the roof show strong Italian, or even Spanish, influence, while the treatment of the front porch as a pergola is character- istically modern. Compare the trellis with those of the Olcott house, and the difference between the strictly Colo- nial usage and the modern one will be apparent. Here it is arranged to form a belt course, and its original use as a trellis for vines is, to some extent, lost sight of. Yet with- out a single feature that is Colonial, this house plainly be- longs to that class of work; it may be because the familiar green and white of its coloring so strongly recalls Colonial to our minds, yet it 'is probably because with all the use of unfamiliar detail, the basic motive is precisely that of the old work. The Cheney residence by Mr. Charles A. Piatt resem- bles in this respect the Gray residence, so far is it from type that at times we are tempted to call it Italian. Of all those illustrated here, it is, perhaps, the most thoroughly modern although it is also the most restrained. Sturdy, simple, and square, it is emphatically the most suitable resi- dence imaginable for a modern gentleman descended from the old Puritan stock. The beautiful balance and the air 26 HOUSE FOR WILLIAM H. GRAY DEDHAM, MASS. JAMES PURDON, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES of utter sincerity, with nothing done for "effect," but evi- dently with no sparing of time and study to make all things perfect, rank this unpretending house very high in the coun- try work of to-day. The interweaving ot the old New England motives with those of Italy is complete and inex- tricable, and it is this combination ot any historic styles that seem to the designer proper, treated with the utmost freedom, that is the root indeed of the new American archi- tecture. While we cannot all think so skilfully and in the pure terms ot Mr. Piatt's using, it is the idea present to the mind of every man to-day who is giving true and honest expression to his creative art. The house at Pelham Manor, New York, by Oswald C. Hering, resembles very closely the Cheneyhouse. The cornice treatment, the pergolas, and the arrangement ot the win- dows in the front are all very similar. The chief differ- ence between the two houses being the difference in materials, Mr. Hering's house being ot stucco where the other is of brick. With a light-colored house, such as this one, the use of blinds as a decorative motive, even when thev are not required from any point ot pure utility, is very desirable, and the combination ot gray or buff cement, dull 28 THE CHENEY RESIDENCE SOUTH MANCHESTER, MASS. CHARLES A. PLATT, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES green blinds and white trim is very frequently used in mod- ern work and almost invariably with success. A complex color scheme is very difficult for an architect to handle, for materials are not as flexible as the painter's palette, and it is often necessary to confine the colors of a house to those few simple ones which are inherent in the materials and not obtained by art. The house at Needham, Massachusetts, of which Mr. Purdon is the architect, is similar in design, but with more extended proportion. Like the others, it is composed of a simple, central mass with wings; and here the piazzas are treated at the ends of the wings instead of flanking the central mass. The grouping of windows (what is technically called fenestration) is different from that of the other two houses most closely resembling it, and in this respect is less like the older work. The rooms inside are generally bettered in appearance by grouped windows, but it is a more difficult motive to treat in the exterior, as openings wider than their height are apt to give a sense of lack of strength. The broad white belt-course at the second-story line, which Mr. Purdon has employed, has done much to counteract this weakness, tying the building together, and giving a feeling 3° HOUSE FOR MR. WITHERBEE BLACK PELHAM MANOR, N. Y. O. C. HERING, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES of stability which would otherwise be lacking. The dor- mers in this house are worthy of close attention, for while they are very different from the majority of Colonial dor- mers they seem to agree excellently well with the remainder of the design, both in mass, detail, and grouping. The front entrance-porch deserves the closest study, uniting a very charming covering for the front doorway with the second-story balcony so often found desirable in country houses. The laying of the brick in pattern in this house is very charmingly done, and shows a careful study of the texture, essential to beauty in new work, which is spoken of in the first chapter. The Swift house at Larchmont, New York, is quite different in type from these last three, preserving much more the Colonial sentiment, although the root motive is not as purely of New England origin as that of the others. This is rather a combination of New England with Dutch Co- lonial, the New England predominating. Probably the feature best worth study and imitation in this house is the very charming piazza. We find in New England trellised posts to support the roof and we also find square posts. This use of the square posts in connection with the trellis 32 HOUSE AT NEEDHAM, MASS. JAMES PURDON, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES has the advantages of both and the disadvantages of neither. Trellis without the posts seems thin and weak, while the use of the square posts alone is meager and lacking in in- terest. Every one has probably noticed the charm of the spider-web tracery of cables and ropes against the heavier members of an unfinished steel structure. It is this same grouping of light and heavy members which has been used here and the beauty of its effect depends upon the same causes. The setting of the house has evidently been very carefully studied, the house being placed so that the large trees hide the service wing, while they leave the main part of the house free, except for foliage sufficient to relieve the house from any bare newness of appearance, so that, while the house had been but just completed at the time the photograph here shown was made, it seems as if it had been here for years. The examples which have been presented show the wide range of results obtained from the same motive, treated by different hands to suit different requirements. That they are kindred will be evident to all; likewise that they are individual. All of them show the impress of the new spirit which is pervading the architects of to-day. Of 34 THE SWIFT RESIDENCE LARCHMONT, N. Y. EWING & CHAPPELL, ARCHITECTS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES course there are many houses being built which are very close copies of the old, often very charming copies, yet these almost always impress the observer as being dry, hard, and lacking in interest. Any copy, even a mechanically correct one, lacks the beauty and charm which age alone can bring; therefore, in new work it is best not to try to imitate, but rather to create, not disregarding the old work, but drawing upon its meaning and ideas as they may suit the requirements presented. 36 CHAPTER II SOUTHERN COLONIAL r I ^HE earliest buildings of architectural importance in -*- the colonies were the old manor-houses in Virginia and Maryland, and up to twenty years before the Civil War the South continued to lead in architecture, as in the fame ot their hospitality, among the country houses of the land. The earliest were of brick, imported because — as their builders thought — there was no suitable clay in this coun- try, for brickmaking, and in design they followed very closely the English houses of the same period. Piazzas were at first little used, since the English, with all their love of outdoor lite have never and do not to-day build porches. The famous old mansion "Westover" on the James River is the best-known example of the period, and is exceedingly close in its resemblance to the work of the English architects who succeeded Sir Christopher Wren. The climate, however, soon convinced the colonists of 37 ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES the necessity of outdoor sitting-rooms, and it was in the South that verandas attained their greatest dignity and im- portance. Sometimes they were one story in height as at "Homewood," sometimes they extended the full height of the house as at "Mount Vernon," and sometimes they were two-storied, the upper part called, as it is to-day, a " gal- lery." This two-story porch was probably an importation from the West Indian colonies, where it was a reminiscence of the Spanish "patio" with its two or more stories of gal- leries surrounding the courtyard. With the growth of plantation life came a correspond- ing increase in the plan of the house. Elsewhere, the ser- vice portion was contained in the main body of the house; and business was rarely transacted at home. Here the heat of the summer made it desirable to remove all fires from the living and sleeping rooms, and the administration of the plantation was the business of the house's occupant; so in time there grew into the plans two wings, one for the kitchen and store-rooms, and the other for the transaction of business. " Mount Vernon " is, of course, a very familiar example of this arrangement. A similar development took place in building materials. 38 " EASTOVER" WYOMING, N. J. JOY WHEELER DOW, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES Wood was found to be easier to obtain and cheaper to use than brick; while equally good results, both in comfort and appearance, were possible with its use. So wood ar- chitecture began to make its appearance, and while it never crowded out brick as it did in New England, it was still much used even for the larger and handsomer class of dwellings. A marked point of difference between Southern and Northern work was in the height of the ceilings. In New England and the Middle States it was highly important to have as few cubic feet of space as possible to heat through the long, cold winters, while in the South the airiness and coolness of the high ceilings was a necessity in midsummer. The old architecture of the far South at New Orleans and along the Gulf, has had little influence over modern work except in its own locality. This is much to be re- gretted, for some of the most beautiful Colonial work in America is to be found there, and is little known by most architects. Some is, of course, situated far from the cities, and the very knowledge of it would come only by accident, but there remains a great body of material readily accessible 40 THE SAMUEL ADAMS HOUSE SEWICKLEY, PA. ALDEN & HARLOW, ARCHITECTS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES to the student of bygone times. The early work around Philadelphia, on the other hand, has had great influence on the modern; but as it is similar in character to the Virginia work, houses derived from it will be classed with the Southern ones. Ol the very earliest type is "Eastover," the brick resi- dence at Orange shown in the first illustration. This is pretty plainly indicated by its analogy to old "Westover" not only in name but in design. While much smaller than the original, it preserves the simple dignity and grace of the older house, and that with many departures irom old lines. Bay-windows were almost unknown in Colonial days, yet here is one absolutely fitting to the house, and charming in itself. The double break in the wall where the bay joins the flat surface of the house may be the secret of the success of the treatment, but it probably lies deeper — in the thorough sympathy between the designer and the style. While the Adams house is like "Eastover" it is much more modern in treatment. The front up to the cornice is a very simple and charming design of the old type, with a doorway of unusual beauty; while the side is entirely 42 HOUSE OF DR. A. C. CABOT CANTON, MASS. CHARLES A. PLATT, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES unlike any of the old houses, yet the whole scheme hangs together, and the exceeding cleverness of the treatment of the side elevation becomes apparent only after careful study. Where a change in the direction of the ridge of the roof occurs a break in the wall surface at once suggests it- self, in fact, is almost requisite, yet the plan itself may be such as to make this break impossible. Such a case is evidently before us, and by the simple expedient of a leader at the rear termination of the gable the effect of this break is produced. The window treatment on the front is symmetrical to the point of formality; on the side the windows cut through the walls apparently at their own will, yet the whole is in harmony. The placing of the house with the trees is also well done, and the terrace helps the agreeable effect produced. Dr. Cabot's house at Canton, Massachusetts, is in com- position much like the house by Mr. Purdon, at Needham, shown in the previous chapter. Composed of a simple central mass dominating the wings, at the ends of which are the piazzas, it is much like this New England Colonial house; and the grouping of the windows, too, is similar. It is in this similarity that lies the difficulty of dividing modern 44 HOUSE OF HOWARD CLARK BRISTOL, R. I. CHARLES A. PLATT, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES work into classes derived from older sources. The sources themselves are often much alike, and it is impossible to be absolutely certain of the root idea in every case, and it may be that the architects of the houses would differ very widely from their classification as here given, although the arrange- ment has been the subject of much thought and study. So these two houses, although they so closely resemble each other, are placed under different headings because in them there is that subtle difference of sentiment which seems to stamp one as the descendant of Northern, and the other of Southern, work. The Cabot house almost speaks for itself. It seems un- necessary to call to the reader's attention the beauty of mass and of detail apparent everywhere in the design. The very great area of the windows as compared with the mass of the building presents a problem not easy of solution. Too great a window surface is apt to break up a single mass into its component parts; here by the strength of the white lines of the terrace at the bottom and the cornice at the top of this building the unity of the house is preserved, while the large window surface suggests air and sun in the rooms within. The four great chimneys flanking the main roof 46 RESIDENCE OF E. R. THOMAS SHEEPSHEAD BAY, N. Y. LIONEL MOSES, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES are a favorite motive in the old work, but it is not always easy to adjust a modern plan so that it not only fits, but requires them. When this is possible they form, as in this case, a verv delightful feature of the design. The Clark house at Bristol, Rhode Island, suggests the Cabot house, as might be expected from two examples of the work of the same man. The treatment of the triple openings is quite different from that in the Cabot house, and is very original. The brick loggia at the right of the house recalls the gallery between the main building and the service quarters of the old-time plantation house. Like the old work, too, are the dormers, bare to simplicity, and the best that could be designed for this type of roof. Higher or more decorated dormers would have given a ragged sky- line, and spoiled the singleness of the composition. The residence of which Mr. Moses was the architect is in design more like those houses which were later built under the influence of the Greek Revival, than the true Colonial type, while the details follow this last-named period. As has been noted with regard to other houses, this is beautifully fit for the location. The trees and the broad, sweeping road, as well as the generous lines of the 48 RESIDENCE OF ERNESTUS GULICK GARDEN CITY ESTATES, L. I. KIRBY, PETIT & GREEN, ARCHITECTS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES design, suggest ample comfort in the house. The harmony in style between this new house and the quaint old barn beyond shows exceedingly well how new work should be treated to correspond with its surroundings, a feature not often enough thought about, and which always deserves the most serious consideration. The Gulick house at Garden City Estates is similar in type, but with the two-story portico across the front and smaller porches at the ends. The roof of this house, is the familiar Dutch double-pitch roof, probably never used in the South at the period when houses of this class were built, but it is evidently suitable for its purpose. "Mount Vernon" was evidently in the designer's mind as a standard and he did not fall below it. The gardening, too, is very well done. The Frankenburg house and the Wise residence are alike in composition, but different in detail, as befits their execu- tion in different materials. The very delicate and simple cornice of the Wise house corresponds beautifully with the pattern of the brickwork, and the porch treatment comes just at the right place upon the facade. The lattices used in railings and to decorate the windows constitute perhaps 50 THE FRANKENBERG HOUSE GREENWICH, CONN. HALE & ROGERS, ARCHITECTS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES the most interesting feature of the Erankenburg house, while the treatment of the porch with projecting beam- ends in place of a cornice, and the same arrangement over the arcade in the center is one which, while thoroughly modern in sentiment, accords with the character of the building. The arcade is a feature which has been evolved from the study of the architecture of the Renaissance and one which is now coming to its own as a treatment for the exterior walls of a sun-parlor, or living-room. It is un- fortunate this photograph should have been taken so soon after the completion of the building, for the stone wall which here looks too heavy and clumsy for the remainder of the building, would when covered with vines and hidden by shrubbery be a most charming adjunct. The Reed house at Haverford, Pennsylvania, is of local material and design. Executed in brick, this would recall very strongly the work of Maryland and Virginia, but in the buff sandstone of which it is actually constructed it is of the true old Philadelphia type. This stone was constantly used bv the Colonial builders, and is still much used in the beautiful suburban work of the Philadelphia architects. An unusual and interesting feature of this house is the 5 2 C. L. WISE RESIDENCE EAST ORANGE, N. J. PERCY GRIFFIN, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES painting of the blinds green in the second story and white in the first. The semi-circular windows on each side of the chimney in the gable-end are delightful in pattern, while the treatment of the cornice across the gable-end, forming a shingled hood, is charming. It is to be regretted that the exigencies of the third-floor arrangement required the double dormers, but it is in such minor details that modern needs, calling for more light and sunshine than seemed to suit our ancestors, require the sacrifice of ap- pearance to comfort. In most of these examples there have been many extra- neous elements introduced, yet all of them owe their genesis to the few and simple motives of the older architecture. While some of their designers have been content to accept the old motives substantially unchanged, others prefer to use them only as aground-work; but all are using them in a way which makes them their own, and with a proper subordination of precedent to design. 54 HOUSE OF PROFESSOR L. W. REID HAVERFORD, PA. BAILEY & BASSETT, ARCHITECTS CHAPTER III CLASSIC REVIVAL ABOUT the beginning of the nineteenth century in America the forms of the old Colonial work were merged into, and superseded by, the style known as the Classic Revival. The Colonial architecture of New Eng- land and of the South which has been illustrated in the two preceding chapters was, although a descendant, a very far- away descendant of the Greek and Roman forms. The Classic Revival was a very close adaptation of the original types to the needs of that day. The causes of this were touched upon in the introduc- tion. The passion for the Classic political ideal, which forms so curious a phase of the French Revolution, was only one manifestation of an everywhere dominant interest in the manners and life of the great Classic era. Know- ledge had become more wide-spread throughout Western Europe than it had been since the days of Roman occupa- 56 11 CLASSIC REVIVAL tion. This knowledge brought in its train an eager ques tioning curiosity in regard to all things Classic. Corruptio was rite, and in the reaction against it people naturally turned their eyes back to that time which seemed to them the Golden Age, not realizing that the eighteenth century was purity itself compared with imperial Rome. The interest in all things artistic followed the interest in things intellectual, and jewelry, dress, and architecture were alike remodeled along pseudo-classic lines. As the only remains ol antique architecture existing were temples (for Pompeii had not yet been discovered) it was the temple form upon which was based the revival of the Classic type. Since the original temple had no windows it was naturally something of a problem to adapt it to use as a dwelling. The solution arrived at in most cases was simply to use the temple portico as a piazza and to employ the usual type of dwelling-house, with a complete change of detail from the slim proportions of the Colonial to the heavy Roman, and still heavier Greek. The portico then occupied the position of the older piazza on the long side of the house; but some- times an attempt was made to adhere more strictly to the temple shape and the portico was placed on the end and 57 ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES windows were punched in the walls where necessary. In this type the full entablature of architrave, frieze, and cornice was retained; and as this was very wide, in small houses the second-story windows were cut in the frieze, resulting in the low broad windows close to the floor which have been so aptly called "lie-on-your-stomach-windows," after the posi- tion needed to look out of them. The Mathers farm-house and the residence of Dr. Marsden are very frankly like the old work. In each case a simple four-columned portico supporting a pediment is used as a frontispiece with the main body of the house running across it. The use of the red brick with the white porch was exceedingly common and of unfailing charm. The portico is here treated with a full entablature (that is, architrave, frieze, and cornice) over the columns, while the cornice only continues around the house. In the Marsden house the order is the familiar Roman Doric, while the broad steps across the entire front of the piazza remind us very strongly of the original temple. The semi-circular window in the pediment over the portico is, of course, a reminiscence of the earlier Colonial work, no windows being used in temple pediments. It is such a 58 RESIDENCE OF DR. MARSDEN CHESTNUT HILL, PA. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES happy adjustment as this of old forms to new needs which makes the difference between copying and design. Evidence of careful and painstaking study is shown also in the treat- ment of the fence and gate-posts and the sweep of the drive to the house. The wing at the right, forming the doctor's office, while only one story high, is admirably in keeping with the rest of the design, and yet is subordinated to the main house in surface treatment by the lattice-work, as well as in height. The Mathers farm-house is greatly like the first example, but the order is Ionic instead of Doric, and the roof is gabled instead of hipped. Unusual is the use of four stories, three in the body of the house, and one in the attic, and it presents an immensely difficult problem, here beautifully solved. The use of the big "order 1 ' in the front of the building serves to attract the eye away from the building itself, and aids in tying the whole structure to the ground. While perhaps the stable archway, through which this pic- ture is taken, should not be included in the criticism of the house, the quality of the stonework is so lovely as to be well worth comment. Half the charm of stonework lies in the proper relation between the size of the stone and 60 THE MATHERS FARM-HOUSE GERMANTOWN, PA. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES its position, here absolutely perfect, while the rough sur- face of the stone and the wide joints give an exceedingly pleasing texture to the whole. These two houses just described adhere pretty closely to their prototypes. They might almost have come from the campus of the University of Virginia, and yet it is evident that they are not simply copies, but the expression of an original and creative mind. It is difficult to place one's finger upon points of unlikeness to the older work, yet they are, in common with houses of the most original de- sign, imbued with the modern spirit. The Chapman house, of which Mr. Piatt was the archi- tect, is somewhat different in character, although the motive is the same: namely, a portico on the longer face of the building. The original Classic detail is blended with strong reminiscences of both Italian and French Renaissance. The portico is compressed toward the face of the building with three-quarter "engaged columns" in- stead of free standing ones. The one-story porch at the left-hand end employs a motive which is every day becom- ing more usual in modern country-house work: the treat- ment of the roof with projecting beam-ends, like a 62 RESIDENCE OF MR. JOHN CHAPMAN TARRYTOWN, N. Y. CHARLES A. PLATT, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES pergola, although the root itself is closed, offering a beauti- ful opportunity for the growth of vines along the top of the porch, and at the same time giving a protection against sun and rain. The little iron balconies on the central motive are deserving of attention, as are the flower-boxes between the windows of the first and second stories on the flanking wings. In this house the full entablature is con- tinued completely around, not stopping against the main body of the house, as was the case in the previous examples. The Probst residence at Englewood, New Jersey, is still another application of the same principles, but in unusual combination with the so-called "Dutch" or "gambrel" roof. The walls are of clapboards, like the New England houses, and the porch instead of having the columns spaced nearly equal has them combined in pairs at either side of the center, marking the entrance. It is to be regretted that no photograph does this house justice, the beauty of the detail being largely lost, and the effect of the mass of the house injured, by the shadows cast by the clapboards, which in reality play a very small part in the appearance. The dormers, however, can here be seen to good advantage, and are as thoughtfully studied as in any example given, while 64 RESIDENCE FOR MRS. PROBST ENGLEWOOD, N. J. DAVIS, McGRATH & SHEPARD, ARCHITECTS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES the treatment of the pediment over the main portico is, perhaps, the most interesting of all. In the Pyne residence at Princeton, New Jersey, the pediment is omitted, the front of the building being deco- rated with a colonnade of six beautifully proportioned Ionic columns, with a simple and sturdy entablature above. An interesting feature of this entablature is the use of the " cushion frieze," so called from its curved section, instead of the more usual straight frieze. The house is the largest of which a photograph is here included, and has been re- tained because of its quiet, simple, and home-like character. The great difficulty in the design of a house of this size is to make it a home and not a show-place, and Mr. Gilder- sleeve's success in combining with the breadth and dignity of the treatment an intimate and personal quality is note- worthy. The Ramsay house is under the influence of the Greek Revival. The columns somewhat more attenuated than is usual, are treated with the bell-formed capital, which was the earliest Corinthian capital used by the Greeks. Here, too, is used the "cushion frieze." It is to be regretted that the windows of this house were not divided into small panes, 66 M. TAYLOR PYNE HOUSE PRINCETON, N. J. RALEIGH C. GILDERSLEEVE, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES as is customary in work of this character, but large panes are very frequently insisted upon by clients who think more of an unobstructed view than of the exterior effect. All houses are a series of compromises, and after all the wishes of the client should be the governing factor. Dormers play a very great part in the appearance of all houses, and the many types which may be properly and consistently used with Colonial houses form a constant source of pleasure to the student of this work, while nothing mars more seriously the appearance of a building than dormers when they are badly designed or placed. These on the Ramsay house are unusual but good in character. The residence of Alfred Busselle is a very radical departure in mass from the work of the Classic Revival, while because of its preservation of the older detail it clearly belongs under this heading. The dormers breaking through the cornice are entirely unheard of in the older work and form inter- esting secondary motives of the design. The use of the piazza under a portion of the house is another very modern feature, as is the tying of the design together by the heavy entablature at the top of the single-story columns of the piazza. These columns are typically Greek Doric, as are 68 THE RAMSAY HOUSE CLEVELAND, OHIO ELZNER & ANDERSON, ARCHITECTS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES the details, and that details as pure as these can be applied to a Dutch roof as successfully as is here proven indicates how free is the modern use of the old materials. Mr. Wyatt's residence at Baltimore is modeled upon one of the big square houses which were built at the very end of the period of the Classic Revival. Most of them, built of brick with their severity and lack of grace only relieved by the lovely detail of the windows and entrance-doors, look like enlarged packing-boxes. Here, however, this old, clumsy motive is so skilfully used and so accurately placed in its surroundings, that in spite of its uncompromising lines it is truly a beautiful and refined piece of architecture. To successfully design a building of this shape requires the most careful and thorough study of the proportions of the window-openings to the mass; of the cornice to the build- ing which it surmounts, and the most skilful handling of the porches and entrance. Even these would go for noth- ing were the proper setting unobtainable, but when, as here, all things are in harmony, the tree shadows, the de- tail, and the mass all work together to make a lovely pic- ture. The high measure of success attained here means much more than it would with a building of more inter- 7° RESIDENCE OF ALFRED BUSSELLE CHAPPAQUA, N. Y. ALFRED BUSSELLE, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES esting roof-lines and greater possibilities for picturesque treatment. It will remain a never-failing lesson in what may be done with few and simple features. The work of the Classic Revival was marked by dignity, reserve, and a certain ample simplicity. The examples pre- sented are all, with the exception of the Busselle house, rather more monumental than picturesque. They suggest square high-ceilinged rooms, severe and simple furniture, rooms light, clean and orderly. The first four are of Roman detail, the second four of Greek, but all convey an impression of dignity without the least suggestion of the grandiose. 72 MR. WYATT'S RESIDENCE BALTIMORE, MD. WYATT & NOLTING, ARCHITECTS ^ CHAPTER IV DUTCH COLONIAL OF totally different character from the Colonial work done in other parts oi the United States, and the work of the Classic Revival, was the architecture of the Dutch settlers in the neighborhood of New York. The old farm-houses — so many of which have fortunately been preserved in the early Dutch settlements at Flatbush and Flushing on Long Island, and at Hackensack, Schraalenburg, and Demarest, in New jersey — were of a type very differ- ent from the formal and symmetrical houses built by the Colonial settlers of English descent. The architecture of Holland has always been famous for its picturesque quality and blood tells in art as well as in manners. The feature which gave most quaintness to the American work was the familiar Dutch or gambrel roof. Just why this roof should have been so common around New York is hard to say. In Holland it is rarely, if ever, 74 A REAL ESTATE OFFICE WOODMERE,L. I. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES seen, and while it was occasionally used in other portions of the Colonies it was the exception always. It is a shape which lends itself admirably well to a picturesque treatment, carrying the lines of the house well down to the ground, especially when terminating in the broad sweeping curves usual in most of the old work. These curves are seldom reproduced in modern times, principally because of the great labor involved in their construction. Labor was a small item to the old settlers and when every beam had to be hewn out by hand with an ax, it was not much more diffi- cult to hew a curved than a straight timber; to-day, when all lumber is wrought out by macbjne, the curved line in- volves a very heavy expense. Another feature of the old houses which impresses itself strongly upon the observer is a cheerful disregard of uniformity of material. It was by no means uncommon to find a single small farm-house with the four walls of different materials, stone on one gable-end and brick on the other, with stucco for the front and rear walls, and perhaps the extension of shingles. Just why it is that the use of stucco is so common in the Dutch work is another of those fascinating problems which constantly confront students of Colonial architecture. Stucco was 76 HOUSE FOR MRS. J. E. SPEER LOS ANGELES, CAL. MYRON HUNT & ELMER GREY, ARCHITECTS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES very rarely employed in the English settlements — except near Philadelphia — though the English, at home, built a very large number of their farm-houses of stucco; and its use in Holland was as rare as it was common in England. Stone, too, was practically unknown in Holland, the flat, low character of the country offering no building-stone at all. Yet here a good halt of the houses are of stone, and many of these of both stone and stucco. In the details, too, the Dutch was widely dissimilar from the other Colo- nial work. Their simplicity was quaint, rather than severe, and while it is uncommon to find in Northern or Southern work any molding which cannot be directly traced to some Classic prototype, in the Dutch work much of the detail of the moldings was distinctly Gothic. The columns had gen- erally square or octagonal shafts, with caps and bases of pure Gothic form. In the modern adaptation of Dutch architecture more freedom has been used than with any other of the early American styles, because this style, itself exceedingly free, lends itself very easily to variations and adaptations never employed by its originators. The Gothic detail, so constantly employed in the older work, has been generally lost in the modern. Architects of to-day are 78 eaateiS THE CRENSHAW COTTAGE GERMANTOWN, PA. WILSON EYRE, ARCHITECT ■ ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES trained in classical schools, and while their design is often spontaneous and without scholastic severity, at the same time it is almost impossible for them to forget the formulae with which they started their training. Then, too, the mate- rials, as used now, are fewer in number than in Colonial times. What was in old work naivete, in a present-day design would be affectation. As has already been said, the use of the wide, swinging eaves of the earlier work has been generally abandoned because of the difficulties attending its execution. In spite of these points of diversion from type much of the countrv-house work that is most truly modern and most truly American, is unquestionably of Dutch genesis. Such a house as that by Charles Barton Keen, shown in the first illustration in this chapter, is unmistakably Dutch. And yet if we except the shape of the roof and the general proportion of the building it has not one truly Dutch characteristic. Since the Dutch used no dormers it is need- less to say that those used here, both the projecting one in the center and the recessed ones at the sides, are not Dutch. The big, circular pillar at each corner with the quaint brackets under the eaves is Dutch only in spirit, while the hood with its shell-formed arch over the front-door reminds 80 COTTAGE OF MR. HENRY S. ORR GARDEN CITY, L. I. AYMAR EMBURY II, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES us of New England. The use of stucco for the first story and wide white shingles tor the second-story gable-ends, with the dark-colored shingled roof, is almost the accepted blend of materials in present-day work of this kind, and while the house is not lacking in dignity, it is far from be- ing of that somewhat rigid kind observable in the New England and Southern work. The Speer residence at Los Angeles, California, shows how far-reaching has been the effect of those unpreten- tious Dutch farm-houses built, almost without thought of their design, around New York. Of the examples shown in this chapter it is the simplest, both in materials and in color, filled with the spirit of the old work and yet thor- oughly modern. All of soft gray tones, even to the trim of the windows, it would be monotonous were it not tor the texture of the walls, produced by the use of wide and heavy shingles. The beautiful grouping of the windows in the second-story gable, united by the shingled hood above them, and the extremely quiet and natural treatment of the dormers, are points especially worthy of notice and imita- tion. A house built as this one is, with casement-windows of square panes, always possesses a certain advantage over 82 "APPLEDORE" BOUND BROOK, NEW JERSEY AYMAR EMBURY II, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES one with the usual double-hung windows because, for some reason difficult of explanation, the heavy cross-bar, cutting horizontally in two the double-hung window, is not so agree- able as the vertical lines of the casement-windows. This may be seen by comparison with the Crenshawe cottage, Mr. Wilson Eyre, architect, where again restfulness is the salient feature of the design. Few though its ele- ments are, thev are few because of careful study, and there is no hint of poverty of thought apparent. In many respects the Crenshawe cottage and the Woodmere real-estate office are very similar, differing only as the minds of their de- signers differed as to the handling of the details. The use of the brackets under the eaves is confined to these two houses among the examples here given. The brackets themselves are quite different, one being concave and the other convex, those in the Crenshawe house more a struc- tural feature, those in the Woodmere cottage used rather as a decoration. Here, the treatment of the second story, in one long simple dormer instead of presenting a com- bination of several elements, is exceedingly interesting. The terrace, with its stucco wall, leading to the side entrance- way, is an unusual and pleasing feature. 84 RESIDENCE OF MRS. ETHEL R. GRAEME ENGLEWOOD, N. J. AYMAR EMBURY II, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES The Orr cottage at Garden City, New York, is of similar type and materials. The separation of the main living- piazza from the entrance-porch is often very desirable, so visitors and messengers may arrive and depart without in- terfering with the comfort and occupations of the house- hold. This house has a third storv, necessitating a somewhat higher treatment of the roof than is emploved in the other three, perhaps to its disadvantage. But the placing of the chimneys at either end is a feature almost invariable in the old work, and one which seems a suitable termination to the long line of the ridge. The house at Bound Brook, New Jersey, is a combination of modern English with Dutch motives, the treatment of the first story being quite characteristic of present-day English work. A feature deserving of comment is the ar- rangement of flower-boxes on the same level, for windows of different heights. The symmetry of the design being main- tained bv little trellises back of the flower-box on the right-hand side. The Graeme cottage is a house of New England Colonial shape translated into terms of Dutch architecture. The use of the stone gable-ends with stucco front and back is 86 THE J. C. BULL HOUSE TUCKAHOE, N. Y. AYMAR EMBURY II, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES characteristically Dutch, as is the shape of the roof with chimneys at either end. The stone piers running through the piazza roofs with columns between are employed to tie in the piazza to the body of the house by repeating the materials of the house. Too often a light wood piazza on a stone or brick building looks false and unnatural and while a treatment like this one does not occur in any of the old work, it is very possible the Dutch builders would have used it had they happened to think of it. In the Bull house at Tuckahoe, New York, the treatment of the front of the first storv with stone piers at each end, and columns and glass between, making practically the whole south side of glass, gives admirably bright and cheer- ful rooms, while the details of the brick panels under the windows were the subject of careful study. The use of little trellises up the sides of the dormer windows and across the top is novel, and should make a pleasant frame for the view as seen from inside. The Barber house is, like the Bound Brook house, a com- bination of English with Dutch motives, the piazza treat- ment being that combination of pergola and covered porch elsewhere spoken of as being a modern innovation. The HOUSE FOR ST. GEORGE BARBER ENGLEWOOD, N. J. AYMAR EMBURY II, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES cement piers at the corners of the piazzas fulfil the same function architecturally as the stone ones used on the Graeme house. The oriel window at the right of the porch is always a pleasing feature of an interior, although here it breaks up the design of the exterior more than is desirable. The residence at Colonia, New Jersey, of which Mr. Nichols was the architect, is only placed in the Dutch chapter by straining a point. It is one of the examples of modern design whose elements have been drawn from so many sources that it is difficult to place it under a single heading without fear of successful contradiction. The main roof is, however, Dutch in type, and while the detail of the entrance-porch and of the cornices is Northern Colonial, and the treatment of the side-porch rather Italian, the pic- turesqueness and the freedom of the whole composition suggests a Dutch origin. The design is exceedingly com- plex, and had the colors not been confined to the simple white for the walls, and green for the roofs, it might have suffered in effect. An architect, however, is as much responsible for color as for proportion, and after seeing how completely such various elements are unified into a single composition by 90 HOUSE AT COLONIA, N. J. GEORGE NICHOLS, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES the use of color in this instance, it is readily perceived what an important factor it is. The daring experiment of using two porches so utterly different justifies itself, and the various heights ot the eaves are successful only because of the thought expended upon their arrangement. These examples show how widely a style may differ in itself, and how infinite are the designs, and the good designs, which may be evolved from a single style. There is no need to employ an entirely different type of house from that of one's neighbors to express one's difference from them, any more than it is necessary to wear crinolines to express one's individuality of taste in dress. Good taste will conform one's house to that of the neighbors, improv- ing upon them, as may be possible, but building in harmony with them. 92 CHAPTER V SPANISH OR MISSION WHILE the styles of architecture which seem to most of us peculiarly American are the various kinds of Colonial, there was used within the boundaries of the United States even earlier than the Colonial styles, a style almost unrelated to them, that we now know under both the titles "Spanish" and "Mission." Like Colonial archi- tecture, it was a far-off descendant of Classic, through the Renaissance, but the Renaissance of a different country, — Spain instead of England. Every art passes through like processes of evolution. In its youth it is virile and free, though often crude; in its maturity it is restrained, quiet, dignified; and with its de- cline comes a tendency to overload ornament, and trust to decoration rather than to structure, for appearance. In English architecture this period of decline was halted by the inquiry into Classic forms and their freshening influ- 93 ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES ence on the decaying art of the Renaissance. In Spain and its American Colonies the revival of Classic architec- ture had little influence, and Renaissance art became cor- rupted and debased into the complicated and often ugly forms of "Rococo" and "Baroque." It is to these last stages of the Spanish Renaissance that the so-called Mission architecture of the United States can be traced. But under the influence of the unusual conditions of a new country, which make any very extended use of ornament impossible, and the forced use of new materials, there resulted a certain freshening of the older springs of design. For these reasons the Spanish Colonial architecture was in many respects better than that of Spain at the same period. Most ot us are familiar with the few surviving examples of the Mission architecture, and none will deny their charm. They have become familiar through magazine illustrations, through visits of tourists to Florida and the Southwest, and their reproduction by California, Arizona, New Mexico^ and Florida, as state buildings for the different expositions. We Americans are a restless race, searching always tor something new in art, as in construction and in politics, so this style after centuries of disuse became again popular 94 MR. H. O. HAVEMEYER'S HOUSE BAYBERRY POINT, LONG ISLAND GROSVENOR ATTERBURY, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES under the influence of the seli-named "Craftsman" move- ment and during the past ten or twelve years many houses have been built along the lines of this style, some of which have also been influenced by the original Spanish work. The architecture is a difficult one to work with. Quite foreign to the usual run of design, it requires a peculiarly sympathetic handlina and very careful adjustment to loca- tion of the building. While examples are found in the Northern States, as well as in the extreme Southern, its low pitched roofs and stucco walls seem out of place when they are not surrounded with the palms of the South. A careful search through many examples showed only a few worthy of the inclusion in this series of American houses of to-day. While there are doubtless others equally good, they are not among those easily to be found. Mr. Havemeyer's house at Bayberry Point is a very in- genious and delightful adaptation of the Mission architec- ture with a strong tincture of Moorish design. This is one of eight houses built on Bayberry Point fronting the Sound, all of which are executed in the same style, and all of which are of similar design. Such a scheme was a wonderful opportunity for the architect, and Mr. Atterbury has seized 96 MR. MACKENZIE'S RESIDENCE OYSTER BAY, LONG ISLAND G. C. MACKENZIE, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES it and worked it out in its completeness with all the suc- cess that might be expected of this pastmaster of country- house architecture. The tremendous scale of the detail and the large expanse of rough concrete give power and strength to the design, while it is picturesque to the highest degree. The manner in which the pergola terminates a walk from the front door, and is flanked on one side by a boat-house and on the other by a summer-house overlook- ing the water, gives a beautiful opportunity for out-of-door life, and one can easily imagine the view and air obtainable from the third-story gallery. Mr. MacKenzie's residence at Oyster Bay is along similar lines, but exhibits a certain amount of influence from Spain direct. There are many things about this simple house that are well worth notice and imitation. The railings of tiles are both curious and unusual, the way they are used is an excellent method of securing a masonry railing at a minimum of expense and a maximum of effect, while the iron balconies are precisely what are needed both in size and in scale. The corbels supporting the brackets under the cornice are of brick and add a pleasing touch of color to the wall surface, while the method of laying the roof tiles 98 THE RE1DERME1STER HOUSE ENGLEWOOD, NEW JERSEY WILLIAM K. BENEDICT, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES gives a color to the roof that is exceedingly happy. At either end of the building are roofless piazzas, or pergolas (if a feature of this kind can be called a pergola), with canvas loosely stretched for covering. An architect's house usually possesses some features of interest beyond the ordi- nary house. The architect can do for himself what he dare not attempt with his clients. The Reidermeister house is much like the MacKenzie residence with the difference that the window trim, copings, gables, and other details are dark instead of light. The com- position is an interesting one, with the two unequal gables against the main body of the house. Shrubbery over the wall in the foreground will greatly improve the general appearance. The residence of E. S. Hall at Water Witch reverts to the original Spanish type, but with the detail subdued and kept in good taste, while quite in accord with the general design. The setting is excellent and doubtless adds to the attractiveness of the place, but even without this setting the house would not lose its good qualities. The house at Cedarhurst, Long Island, is again of the Spanish character with tendencies toward Italian. It resembles rather the architecture of the island of Majorca ioo RESIDENCE OF E. S. HALL WATER WITCH, NEW JERSEY LYMAN A. FORD, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES than either the Spanish Colonial or that of Spain itself, and is a simple, quiet, and expressive piece of design. Many unsymmetrical country houses appear casual, and while this does not detract from their interest, when placed beside a design so sober and thoughtful as this they lose in value. The most remarkable feature of this house is the employ- ment of color in the frieze between the third-story windows and in the lunettes above the second-story windows. The architect felt the need of some colored band to reduce the apparent height of the building, and to decorate what would otherwise have been a very plain surface. This was effected by mixing earth colors, ocher and sienna, in the cement of the final coat. How excellent was the resulting ap- pearance can only partially be seen in the photograph where the pattern is visible but not the color. Its durability was tested within a few hours after the laying of the cement by a heavy rain-storm without any damage. This is a very inexpensive form of decoration which Mr. Boynton only has used, and deserves great attention, for it is by employ- ment of such features as this, cheap in themselves, with great lasting qualities, and splendid decorative effect, that small American houses can be made beautiful. I02 RESIDENCE AT CEDARHURST, LONG ISLAND LOUIS BOYNTON, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES The Taylor residence is in many respects the most suit- able adaptation to northern conditions of Spanish architec- ture that has been done in the neighborhood of New York. While Mr. Atterbury's Havemeyer houses were built of stucco of a gray color, quite in harmony with the beaches and general barren conditions of the sea-shore, Mr. Taylor's house is built of rough stone with a tile roof to blend with the material surroundings. The situation of this house is excellent, set as it is on a bench of the slope of a rocky hill. The house is exceedingly vigorous in character, but without losing the refinement essential to the best results, and has many details which are of uncommon interest. The balconies of the second story afford a delightful view, while the arrangement of piazzas and terraces seems ideal. The treatment of the railing and the chimney-caps are both ex- ceedingly interesting. The problem was a difficult one in this house, since it had to be long and narrow, both be- cause of the slope of the ground and so that all the rooms might obtain thorough ventilation. Every color used was one which was in harmony with the natural ones, with the result that this style, quite foreign to Connecticut, is most happy in combination with its surroundings. 104 RESIDENCE OF MR. TAYLOR NORFOLK, CONNECTICUT TAYLOR AND LEVI, ARCHITECTS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES Some idea ot what has been done along Spanish lines may be gathered from the foregoing examples; and a fair summing up of them would show that while beautiful as they are and skilful as is their handling, they are more suited to warm climates than to the Northern States, not only from a practical but from a sentimental viewpoint. 106 CHAPTER VI AMERICAN FARM-HOUSE BECAUSE of the rough conditions which prevailed in the newly settled regions, and the crudity of the im- plements to be found in districts remote from the closely settled portions of the country, there was developed in Colonial days an architecture distinct from the recognized Colonial type. In the "back settlements" and on the fron- tier the type persisted for a long time, until with modern processes of manufacture and transportation, galvanized iron and canvas took the place of the materials wrought out by hand in older days. There was very little of what schoolmen would call architecture to be seen in these buildings. They were simply built as rapidly and cheaply as possible to house the settlers until more finished struc- tures could be built, and were only a step in advance of the log cabin and the sod hut. While most of them were totally lacking in an element of design derived from older 107 ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES sources, many of them possessed an unsophisticated charm of proportion and material which commends itself to minds tired of the city and every reminder of it. Picturesque- ness is their dominant quality. They are rarely dignified, never formal, but possess the same charm that rough camp- ing life in the woods has for the dweller in the city. Native to no particular locality, they vary little from Maine to Florida and, whether one hundred and fifty or only fifty years old, have served to inspire much of the pleasantest of the country work of the present generation. They are familiar to us all. While the Colonial type was of the villages, these were of the open country, the homes of farmers and fishermen. It was to them that American country architects looked for inspiration when, some thirty years ago, the art of country-house design began to be revived. In the new work the original lines were almost lost under a maze of jig-saw work and elaborate turning, but the basis was the farm-house type. Of late they have not been so often copied. So much of the first work done with them as a motive was so bad that designers fought shy of the style. Now, when the "back to Nature" and "The Simple Life" ideas 108 COTTAGE FOR MISS MARIA GREY FOX POINT, WISCONSIN MYRON HUNT & ELMER GREY, ARCHITECTS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES have much force, interest in them has naturally been re- vived and they are gradually coming to their own as one of the great sources of modern design. The residence of Miss Grey at Fox Point, Wisconsin, is very close in its simplicity of design and color, to those plain, almost crude, farm-houses of the poorer class of set- tlers. Like many of the old examples it is built around a central chimney. The use of a single central chimney in old times was, of course, common, because the chimney was the most difficult thing in the house to construct, and the joint between the roof and the chimnev gave most trouble to a generation too poor to buy lead or copper, and to whom tin was almost unknown. The rough stone terrace wall across the front of Miss Grey's house is another reminder of the time when, to clear the fields of stones, the farmers built their walls of them. The same careful touch is observable in every part of the design, resulting in an almost perfect preservation of the old spirit of sim- plicity. The residence at Bryn Mawr Park is quite similar in character, but with certain additional features which have been introduced to the type through its use in sea-shore i 10 MR. JONES' COTTAGE BRYN MAWR PARK, NEW YORK SULLIVAN W. JONES, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES cottages. The piazza under a portion of the main room is one of these, as is the use of casement-windows through- out, and the rough stone chimney. A semi-bungalow, like this cottage, is gradually becoming the accepted way of building mountain and sea-shore houses for summer occu- pancy, and the farm-house is the logical and fitting style to use. The Bendin Rode cottage is of the same character, the lower story and chimney being of stone, and the upper story of shingles. This house is probably the best suited to its position of any illustrated in the book. It follows exactly the crest of the little hill on which it is set, and is arranged so as to secure the shade of the trees at the proper places. It seems fairly to grow out of the ground, so perfectly are its lines adjusted to its position. As has elsewhere been pointed out, harmony between the site of the house and the style employed is essential to perfect composition, and this example more than any other brings out this point. The dark color of the stonework, the rough texture of the hand-made shingles, the simple cornice up the gables, and the use of a gutter along the eaves instead of an elaborately molded cornice, all blend with the informal and natural 112 BENDIN RODE COTTAGE HAVERFORD, PENNSYLVANIA WALTER SMEDLEV, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES treatment of the surroundings, while every feature recalls the farm-house from which it was derived. The shutters upon the extension at the rear are thoroughly in keeping with the remainder of the design, and the pergola at the end of the extension blends so well with the surroundings as to make it almost unnoticed except upon close inspec- tion. Formal garden there is none, but gardening in the sense of development of the surroundings to fit the house is here in its highest degree. The Lygert house at Germantown, Pennsylvania, is very like the Bendin Rode cottage in the shape of its masses but the detail is of a more conventional kind. This house is not built far out in the country, but in a suburb of the city, and the materials are therefore of a more properly finished kind to suit its location. Like many of the old farm- houses, around which villages have grown, it is placed very close to the street, a position generally avoided nowadays if possible, because of the dust from the road and the pub- licity of the piazzas. The thick growth of vines along the fence and the small openings between the pickets are here em- ployed to overcome, as far as may be, these annoyances, while they improve at the same time the setting of the building. 114 -*. _ ■> -' - THE LYGERT HOUSE GERMANTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA COPE AND STEWARDSON, ARCHITECTS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES The Lord house is another successful treatment of a house set close to the street. Here the heavy columns of the pergola and the high wall at its termination shield the occupants from the dust and view from the road, while they give a charming spot in which to grow flowers and live out of doors during the summer. Such a treatment as this is, of course, foreign to the primitive type, but the simple lines of the roof, the rough stonework of the first story, and the informal character of the building all the way through are alike impressed with the farm-house character. The stone- work of the chimneys is of unusual charm as is the treat- ment of the porch under the overhang in front with stone arches at either end and a tremendous stucco column in the center. In many of the details of its handling this house is like the Woodmere Land Company's office, illus- trated in the chapter on Dutch Colonial, and exemplifies how with different root-motives a characteristically modern treatment can be obtained. The sturdy and solid treat- ment apparent in all Mr. Keene's work, and which, com- bined with the original and playful fancy that has made for him his great reputation as a designer of country houses, is in this house carried to its furthest point. It is in the ex- 116 F. P. LORD HOUSE EDGEWORTH, PENNSYLVANIA CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES treme of modern design as logically conceived, and is exe- cuted with a beauty and simple richness of detail that is neither bizarre nor extravagant, although utterly unlike the conventional forms. While not the best of Mr. Keene's houses it is perhaps the most interesting and fullest of sug- gestion for the lover of country-house work. The Underwood residence is marked by many English characteristics. The dormer and gable over the porte- cochere have, instead of cornices, an English "verge-board," while the brackets under the eaves and the square posts of the piazza and porte-cochere are also English in treatment. The main bodv of the house is carried over both the piazza and porte-cochere, as is often done when more sleeping- rooms are required than living-rooms upon the first floor. This affords an easy, cheap, and pleasant way of obtaining the desired result. Of course for an all-vear-round resi- J dence this is not apt to be satisfactory because the rooms over the piazzas are difficult to heat, but in summer they are the coolest ones in the house. The color scheme is ex- cellent and well adapted to the style. The Bates cottage at Wyoming, New Jersey, is composed of such various elements that its inclusion in this chapter 118 ••^staber THE UNDERWOOD RESIDENCE FOX POINT, WISCONSIN ELMER GREY, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES is on account of its general character rather than because ot any specific likeness to type. The treatment of the dormers might be either English or Holland Dutch, and the big bow-window in the front might also be derived from either of these styles, yet the general composition is that of the old time farm-house. The finish of the stone walls at the ends with a wide board along the top is one sometimes employed in primitive work, and if not the only, it is certainly one of the very few modern instances in which it has been used. The treatment of the little gate leading to the road pierced through a continuation of the gable-end on that side is unusual in the extreme, and its combination with the brick terrace across the front, lead- ing to the garden, is very charming. There are three dis- tinctly different types of windows used on this elevation. One of small square panes in the bow-window, one of diamond leaded panes in the dormers, and the other of single panes in the circular headed windows at the left of the door-way. It is difficult to recall any other house where that has been done, and though perhaps not a very desirable thing to imitate it is here very delightful. As in the Bendin Rode cottage the harmony between the build- i 20 THE BATES COTTAGE WYOMING, NEW JERSEY JOY WHEELER DOW, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES ing and its surroundings is excellent, and by the liberal use of vines and the preservation of the trees close to the house, the architect has succeeded in obtaining the effect of fitness which constitutes the appeal of old work to the artistic eye. It was mainly in their intimate fitness to their surround- ings that the older farm-houses are beautiful, and the suc- cess or lack of success in present-day work depends very largelv upon the handling of this element. The propor- tion must, of course, be pleasant and the composition happy, but in a style such as this where detail plays a small part, it is essential that the house and its surroundings should form a complete picture without any intrusive or discordant element. 12 2 CHAPTER VII ELIZABETHAN ALL the houses illustrated in the chapters preceding this one have been derived from earlv work in the United States. There are, however, many houses whose precedents must be sought elsewhere, and in most instances these may be found in England. English domestic architecture is the most delightful in the world, and is the only one whose traditions have continued without interruption up to the present day. It has varied during the course of years, but each variation has been evolved slowly and naturally from the preceding period. The architecture under the Tudor kings, such as is familiar in Haddon Hall, is the earliest country-house architecture which has an appreciable influence on present- day designs. Before that time the larger houses were castles, built for defense and not for comfort. At the dawn of the Renaissance the Tudor architecture was modi- 123 ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES fied by the Renaissance impulse and became what is now called Elizabethan; and with the growing knowledge of Classic forms Elizabethan was transmuted into Jacobean. During the time ol the civil wars there was little or no building in England, but under Charles II English build- ings became very strongly influenced by the Romans, owing to the growth of knowledge of the Classic period gained by Charles II and his nobles, during their stay in France. This type of architecture was brought to a fuller perfection under Queen Anne, for whose favorite general, Marlbor- ough, the famous palace "Blenheim" was built. Under the four Georges architecture became much more refined in detail and lighter and more delicate in every way, and what we now call Georgian architecture reigned supreme. It is from this type that our American Colonial architecture was derived. During the nineteenth century there was a revival of interest in Gothic forms which has continued up to the present time. Now English architects are using both the Classic and the Gothic styles and are fusing them into one single type, which, in addition to its original components, is strongly i 24 ELIZABETHAN influenced by the modern art spirit, which we know best under its French title "Art Nouveau." This deliberate combination of two styles so strongly opposed as Classic and Gothic is something which has never previously been attempted, and the fact that it is in the highest degree suc- cessful, is one of the strongest ocular demonstrations of the tremendous art movement which is now visible throughout all the world. It is true that the Elizabethan and Jacobean stvles were combinations of Classic and Gothic, but they were only the preliminary attempts of architects trained in Gothic to design in a Classic way; and the preliminary attempts of men, who, without books, pictures, or any in- formation other than that given orally, were groping in the dark for what was to them a new style. The result would J be much the same if our dressmakers should attempt to imitate the French styles without any knowledge of them aside from what instruction their customers could give. The result unquestionably would not be French, but were the dressmakers people of taste and experience, one could reasonably expect charming and unusual patterns. Such was the result in architecture under Elizabeth, and there was evolved a system of building, largely of wood, which I2 5 ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES was of extraordinary charm and has been a continuing de- light to the present day. All styles of architecture are influenced to a marked degree by available materials, and as what we know as half- timber construction was the easiest and most common at that time, the term "Elizabethan" has become almost sy- nonymous with half-timber construction. It is in that sense here employed. Half-timber construction is the framing of the building in wood, generally of heavy oak beams, and the rilling in of the vertical walls between the beams with brick or stone, which was generally plastered on the exterior, leaving the outside of the wood exposed. Of course construction in this manner was not limited to England; many of the most beautiful examples are found in France; but our architects are not so apt to seek in France for their precedents as in England. And so, for purposes of comparison and illustra- tion, it has seemed desirable to group all photographs of half-timber houses under the generic title Elizabethan. Real half-timber construction is not as enduring as true masonry, nor is it so easy to repair as a construction en- tirely of frame: and it is more expensive than either. For i 26 — ; _M%@mm THE FINE RESIDENCE PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY COPE AND STEWARDSON, ARCHITECTS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES these reasons practically all modern houses where the quaint- ness and richness of the old half-timber work is sought for are built of frame, and the exterior plastered and covered with thin strips of wood between the panels of plaster. The construction is in a way a sham, as the woodwork which appears on the face of the building has no relation to the structure, but as this construction is exceeding decorative, and as it forms a durable and water-proof covering for the outside of the house, its use is common and growing in favor. The Fine house at Princeton, New Jersey, is one of the best examples of houses of this type in this country. Pho- tographs cannot do it justice because the color scheme is largely lost. The lower stonework is of gray, the wood- work of greenish-black, the plaster nearly white, and the roof red. The house is very close to the Elizabethan period in its design, the double gable on the front being common in that period, and for a few years later, while the orna- mental timber-work just above the second floor line and the verge-boards (as the overhanging cornices on the gable-ends are called) are both characteristically Eliza- bethan. The oriel windows on the first floor are very de- 128 RESIDENCE OF MR. E. P. COE ENGLEWOOD, NEW JERSEY AYMAR EMBURY II, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES lighttul both within and without, tar surpassing in effect any octagonal or square bay-window because of the great quantity ot glass area. These would iorm window-seats in the rooms and windows of this, or similar design could be used on almost any kind of house. Chimneys, while a little-noticed part of the building, are yet very important to the general appearance, and these seem exactly right for the house since they are both archaeologically correct and admirably well fitted in size and shape to the general pro- portion. Chimneys ought always to be carefully studied; it is not necessary to make them very elaborate, but their height and width and thickness should always be such as to get the proper relation between their size and the size of the building. It is unfortunate that in this reproduction the beautiful carving on the hood over the front doorway cannot be very well seen, nor is the method of laying the stone visible except in the shadows. It has big quoins on the corners, contrasting well with the small stones and wide, white joints ot the rilling between, and is neither too rough nor too smooth. Very rough stonework such as is used in "rustic" houses is apt to look as if the wall had no mortar in it and was liable to fall down at any moment; 130 F. M. NICHOLAS HOUSE UNIONVILLE, OHIO FRANK B. MEAD, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES on the other hand, stonework where all the faces are per- fectly smooth and the joints narrow and straight looks too hard and sharp, and lacks all the interest of old work. As has often been said before, the charm of old work lies in the texture of the wall surface, and much of that charm can be obtained by the careful use of materials not to imitate the old work, but to obtain a texture which is in itself pleasing. In the Coe house an attempt was made in a similar way to get a texture in the brickwork; and in other respects the working out of the details is like that of the Fine house. The dormer-windows are the only portions which call for especial comment and are both good in design and eminently fitted to the house, although not at all like old Elizabethan work. The Nicholas house is almost entirely of half-timber, a form of construction which even in the most beautiful of the English half-timber country houses is apt to become tiresome because of the glaring contrast between the light and dark members. Half-timber work is best adapted for use in only a small part of the building, and a house all of half-timber is a pretty difficult thing to handle; but in the 132 BALDWIN RESIDENCE DETROIT, MICHIGAN STRATTON AND BALDWIN, ARCHITECTS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES Nicholas house the ill effect of too much half-timber work has been to some extent overcome by the big chimneys and stone base, and the great extent ot roof surface, and the whole scheme is well executed and proportioned with many bits of delightful detail. Exceedingly charming is the car- riage entrance underneath the wing at the left, with the house carried entirely over it. The manner in which the service wing is cut off from the front portion of the house by big hedges also merits attention, and serves to strengthen the oft-repeated statement that it is largely upon the sur- roundings that the beauty of a house depends. The Baldwin residence is a very delightful combination of brick, cement, and half-timber, half-timber being used in the gable-ends, and stair-tower in the corner, where a lighter form of construction might naturally be expected. The blank brick wall on the wing to the right with the mass of ivy over it is an experiment which most clients would have refused to try, but a large wall surface properly treated can be quite as charming as any group of windows. An architect should never forget that the proper relation between walls and windows can be obtained in other ways than by the symmetrical placing of the windows, as is made *34 GATE LODGE FOR W. K. VANDERB1LT, JR. "DEEPDALE," LONG ISLAND JOHN RUSSELL POPE, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES evident in this case. The house is modern English of the pronounced type that is being used in England to-day; and still has a certain atmosphere which marks it as American. To what this is due is impossible to point out, yet, while thoroughly "English," it could not be mistaken for the work of English hands. The gate lodge at Deepdale is probably the only house of genuine half-timber construction throughout that is here illustrated. It is built with a frame of heavy chestnut timbers filled in with brick eight inches thick and plastered on the bricks. The color scheme was very carefully studied, the timbering being stained dark brown, and the stucco gray, warmed up a little with yellow ocher, while the roof was of red tile. The effort to obtain the charm of old work was here made by the use of old roof tiles, from a demolished Moravian church in Pennsylvania, and as may be seen from the photograph it was exceedingly successful. It is unfortunate that the photograph does not do justice to the timber brackets under the overhang, for they are delightful pieces of carving. The chimneys here, as in some of the other cases, have been carefully studied, and the combination of brick and stucco is well worth imitation. 136 SCOTT RESIDENCE PELHAM MANOR, NEW YORK LOUIS METCALFE, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES The whole design is French in treatment rather than English, and shows how closely the two styles were allied. The Scott residence at Pelham Manor has the two wings of cement and the connecting portion of the second story half-timber, a good motive for a house, and here excellently executed. The only weak spot is the piazza in the right- hand wing, where the piers seem to be too light to support the wall above. The whole color scheme is also good, the gray cement with the black timbering and the white sash harmonizing very well, and givino- enough difference in color without too sharp a contrast. Mr. Jackson's residence at Cambridge, Massachusetts, is like most of the houses which architects build for them- selves, quite unusual, and is as charming as it is unique. Architects often are held too much in check by their clients; were a freer rein given to them, especially in the matter of exterior, results would be, on the average, better. A client inevitably desires his own personality expressed by his house, and the architect is unable to entirely eliminate his, and the result is a compromise, often satisfactory to neither. This condition cannot be bettered except by one of them giving up to the other, and as a rule the client 138 W7 MR. JACKSON'S RESIDENCE CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS ALLEN W. JACKSON, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES should select an architect whose work appeals to him and leave the design entirely in his hands. Were this the case, we would have oltener a house like this; in many respects unusual. While the combination of brick, half-timber, and cement is often used, it is seldom so happy as here. The little entrance porch is a feature which might be copied to advantage on a much smaller house than the one here illus- trated, and though the carriage gate at the left of the building would probably not commend itself to the average person who was considering building, it forms an agreeable change from the ordinary. The Fassett residence at Norfolk, showing strongly the influence of the Art Nouveau in England, recalls the work of Lutyens, the great English architect, and that of his followers. The treatment of the stone piers running up through the two stories at the sides of the gables with the projecting woodwork between, supported, on brick and wood brackets, is unique. The wood brackets below the second-story windows and the projecting beam-ends in the verge-boards are painted a dull red, which adds to the interest of the house and gives an unusual effect. The more carefully the whole composition is studied, the more 140 THE FASSETT RESIDENCE NORFOLK, CONNECTICUT TAYLOR AND LEVI, ARCHITECTS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES the cleverness of the design becomes apparent, and while to the minds of many it will not make as great an appeal as more staid work, it is brilliant beyond most. The little cottage at Lawrence Park is one of those simple English houses constantly becoming more general in our suburban towns. While it is by no means free from defects of design, it is so quaint and delightful that these may be easily forgiven it. The Rabbitt house is quite different from any other in the chapter. Consciously or not its designer has been strongly influenced by the German Renaissance half-timber work, but has succeeded in eliminating the crudity and vulgarity often found in that period. The bay-windows on the second story are clever beyond the ordinary, and the arrangement of the first-story openings below them, while unsymmetrical, has the quality of balance which is needed to make a perfect design. The broad cornice re- turning across the gable-ends is unconventional and daring, and the use of leaders to form brackets is excellent. Worth noting is the trim of the four grouped windows on the first story at the left with the Jacobean type of pilasters and the breaking of all the moldings around the heads of the 142 COTTAGE FOR MRS. BISLAND LAWRENCE PARK, NEW YORK WILLIAM A. BATES, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES pilasters. This same type of pilaster was employed both in Germany and in England during the seventeenth cen- tury and is now generally condemned by architects who have not the skill to use them as has here been done. The residence at Oyster Bay, Long Island, is so wonder- fully charming in every way that no single viewpoint serves to bring out all its delightful features. The photograph reproduced here was chosen because it showed better than any other the mass of the house, although much of the best of the detail is hidden. This house, like the gate lodge at Deepdale, is of genuine half-timber construction with the brick filling left unplastered. The house is in a gen- eral way derived from big French farm-houses, many of which were almost chateaux, but is so greatly modified by the introduction of modern elements that its prototype is almost lost sight of. The great strength in modern design lies in precisely such adjustment of old motives to suit modern conditions and their combination with new motives as is here done. It is unfortunate that in this photograph the color of the woodwork, the brickwork, and the roofs is not more clearly difFerentiated. A tower seems almost impossible of successful introduction into the design of a 144 THE RABBITT HOUSE WYOMING, NEW JERSEY JOY WHEELER DOW, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES modern house; that it is possible, and not only possible, but under certain conditions the best thing to do is here proved; yet it is only by the careful study of the roof forms and the treatment of the corners with vertical lines that so beautiful a result can be obtained. Any further detailed critique is not essential; the house itself is its own best exponent. Black-and-white photographs cannot properly show the best feature of the English houses, — their color. As Colo- nial work is mainly a study in green and white, sometimes with red brick, one cannot go very far wrong in the color scheme for that style. When, however, it is necessary to combine into a harmonious whole the varied colors of the materials used in half-timber work, the architect is at liberty to indulge his fancy to almost any degree, and upon his color sense rests, to a large extent, the success of the design. There is a great chance for unusual and striking combina- tions such as the red beam-ends of the Fassett house, and the white leaders under the black cornice in the Rabbitt house. If a man be not careful he will inevitably ruin the best of designs, while the architect who treats his house as an artist does his picture, keeping in his mind not only the 146 RESIDENCE AT OYSTER BAY, LONG ISLAND GROSVENOR ATTERBURY, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES various colors of the house, but the colors of the back- ground and the garden work in the foreground, will, by the use of halt-timber, achieve a success impossible in any other style. 148 CHAPTER VIII MODERN ENGLISH IN the preceding chapter, houses of English precedent in -*- which half-timber is vised were included; in this chap- ter the English houses of cement, brick, and stone will be taken up. In England most of the houses are of masonry, frame houses being almost unknown, and the roofs are usually of slate or flat tile. Here a large proportion of the houses are of stucco over wood framing and the roofs are of shingle. This has resulted in a loss of the deep-set win- dows of English houses, but as long as wood construction continues to be cheaper than masonry, it will continue to be employed for houses of low and moderate cost. For- tunately the time is rapidly approaching when we, like the English, will be compelled to use wood only for trim and floors; when that time comes, instead of the frame build- ings now used, we will, in all our houses, have masonry 149 ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES construction and its corresponding advantages of deep-set windows and general sturdiness of appearance. It is characteristic of English work to emphasize the lines of the walls rather than of the roofs. A wide over- hang is seldom emploved; often the walls project above the roofs forming parapets, such as were used in medieval times and in English architecture alone have persisted to the present dav- The roof is always subordinated to the wall treatment, and in all those houses whose genesis can be traced even indirectly to Gothic times, the cornice is either entirelv omitted, or its position is faintly indicated by a string course of small moldings. These peculiarities are found alike in stone, brick, and plaster houses, and probably no other style takes the material into account in the design so little. At the same time the use of material is invariablv care- fully studied by the English architects in an attempt to harmonize the colors throughout the design and also to enrich wall surfaces by diaper patterns formed of the materials themselves. In brickwork this is done by using different colors; in stonework by using different kinds of stone or by using some stone with much rougher surfaces 15° THE HOWARD RESIDENCE BROOKLINE, MASSACHUSETTS CHARLES A. PLA7T, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES than others, so that the pattern is introduced by the different quality of the shadows. This treatment may be greatly elaborated and the patterns can be infinitely varied, and some of the most interesting of the English work both new and old depends largely upon this ieature. The English influence over American domestic architec- ture has been constantly growing in power, very greatly to the advantage ot American work, and whether the types here copied are derived from English work ol the present time, or hark back to some earlier "period" of English architecture, thev are rarely used quite as an English archi- tect would handle them. There is a certain American spirit noticeable in all which it seems impossible for an architect in the United States to avoid, no matter how deeply he imbues himself in the work ot the English past. Formality is the least requisite quality ot English archi- tecture, and in the sense that dignity is formality, thev lack that quality. A charm impossible of definition takes its place; quaintness, homeliness, and comfort are its charac- teristics, and in order to be successful they are inevitably picturesque. The Howard residence at Brookline, Massachusetts, of *5 2 WMBSBamSm THE JACOBEAN HOUSE BROOKL1NE, MASSACHUSETTS WILLIAM WHITNEY LEWIS, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES which Mr. Charles A. Piatt was the architect, is a very simple and sober example of English work of the modern type. Mr. Piatt has done very little work along these lines, most of his houses being of Colonial origin with Italian influ- ence, as has before been said; but as if to illustrate his ver- satility he has given us in this house a delightful example of the English type. Brookline being, par excellence, a Colonial town, the house is very properly simplified so as to be in harmony with the spirit of the place, and the door- way is treated in a classic manner. The street front is composed with a double gable in a manner quite charac- teristic of the English, the gables being set very close to- gether. It is symmetrical without being formal, and still is picturesque enough to satisfv the most exacting enthu- siast about English work. No overhanging eaves or "verge- boards" — as the cornices up the rakes of the gables are called in English work — are employed. They are seldom used in England except on half-timber houses, and are very properly omitted from this design. The architect of the second house illustrated in this chapter is not known to the writer, but the house is also at Brookline. It is proportioned in a similar manner to U54 RESIDENCE OF MRS. GARLAND HAMILTON, MASSACHUSETTS WINSLOW & BIGELOW, ARCHITECTS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES the Howard residence, but instead of being modern English in type, is closely studied from the Jacobean work. The decorative form ol the gables was very popular in the time ol James I, and the use ol brick with stone coigns, small finials on the tops of the gables and the ornamental chim- nev-pots are all characteristic ol the time. While the house is by no means so dignified or so good in design (if there is any absolute standard of good in architecture) as most of the others here illustrated, yet it has a certain charm and quaintness which make it well worth while illustrating. The Garland residence is a splendid example of the big handsome, many-windowed Elizabethan type of house. The plan with the wings at either end and the shorter pro- jection in the center — in this case reduced to a bay-win- dow — resembles the letter E, and was formerly supposed to have been adopted in honor of Queen Elizabeth. Whether this is so or not, it was a favorite type of plan in Elizabethan days and one which, apart from any senti- mental reason, is an exceedingly good one, permitting the large rooms to go on the corners where they should be, with the other rooms between. Judging from the exterior 156 GATE LODGE OF MR. ERNEST A. HAMILL LAKE FOREST, ILLINOIS SPENCER & POWERS, ARCHITECTS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES the staircase goes up over the front door to a large land- ing lighted by a great number of leaded-glass panes. The gables are like those of the old houses in the process of evolution from the true Gothic type to the Jacobean type of gable shown in the Brookline house just spoken of. Both in mass and in detail this is a very nearly perfect example of the highest class of English country work. Built of masonry throughout, even to the mullions and transoms between the windows, it adheres much more closely to the old lines than is common in present-day architecture. It is nevertheless vigorous, sturdy, free from any trace of mere copying, and full of the right quality of pure design. The dormers, in marked contrast to the highly ornamented ones of Colonial work, are as simple as a dormer can possibly be, yet are in perfect keeping with the rest of the work. The brickwork is laid in a rich pattern all the way through, although this is difficult to see from the photograph because of the a efflorescence, ,, a white stain on the brick, due to the salts in the lime and the action of the weather. This deco- rative treatment of the brickwork is one feature of which architects are taking more and more thought, not only in big houses such as this, but in the smallest type of cottages 158 THE BORIE RESIDENCE JENKINTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA WILSON EYRE, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES where only the chimneys are of brick. It is but a little J J more expensive than running the bricks straight, and the appearance of the house is markedly enhanced by this feature. The gardens also are well carried out. There are no great masses of bloom, but the treatment of the paths, steps, and terraces is such as to display to the best advan- tage the beauty of the building. As has often been said before, and cannot be too often repeated, a proper treat- ment of the grounds to form a proper setting for the house is indispensable in all country work, be it large or small. Take the little gate lodge of Mr. Hamill, where the garden is reduced to a minimum. There are only simple flower- boxes, one group of shrubs in the foreground, and a plain fence to shut off a clothes-yard, yet they are exactly what is needed to keep the lodge in sympathy with its surround- ings. Without foliage the house would probably look bald and plain; as it stands it is charming. While the lodge is of brick, like the two preceding examples, the bay-window is of wood, as is proper in a projection from the main build- ing; and while derived from the work of the same period as the Garland house, it is much more modern in treatment. A house of this size and of this character would be very 160 THE RICE RESIDENCE IPSWICH, MASSACHUSETTS WILLIAM G. RANTOUL, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES little more expensive than the cheap wooden house usually built, and would be infinitely more unique and attractive. The Borie residence at Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, is very modern in type, and is an exceedingly interesting combi- nation ot brick and stucco — brick for the first story and stucco above, with the copings and chimneys also of brick. While in general the house is English, there are certain de- tails suggestive of Colonial work, especially a sort ot Ger- mantown hood in the angle. As in several of the other cases noted, the brickwork is very interesting, the joints being exceedingly wide and pointed up with white mortar, a combination which is always pleasing, and which Mr. Evre was one of the first of our architects to adopt. The Rice residence, Ipswich, Massachusetts, is another of the very large type of English brick houses, and by the use of this stvle all the homelike character of a small house is preserved as would be impossible with Classic architecture applied to a building of this size. The little forecourt at the right ot the picture is an unusual and charming feature while the extremely open treatment ot the one-story dining- room set in the angle is bound to be agreeable on the interior. Where practically all ot one or two sides ot a room 162 t THE C. P. FOX HOUSE PENLLYN, PENNSYLVANIA COPE & STEWARDSON, ARCHITECTS . ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES is of glass, the room is apt to be pleasant, and although this treatment is becoming less unusual than it was a few years since, it has not yet been widely enough adopted. Single windows giving much glass area would appear to weaken the wall, and even a parapet such as is here used would seem to crush a single window below: but where it is broken up into three or four smaller ones, and these in turn treated with small panes, a structural strength of ap- pearance is produced which is essential to proper design. The treatment of the front of the Bull house, shown in a former chapter, is along these lines; and it may be inter- esting to compare the same treatment executed in entirely different styles in Mr. Bulls small semi-Colonial cottage and this big important English building. The Fox residence is of the Tudor type, modified to present-day requirements, that is most used in England at the present time, and which is among the most satisfactory tyles to use. The well-known English architect Voysey has done many houses of precisely similar character, but with his window-openings much smaller, reduced, in fact, to a size which no American owner would permit, largely because of our hotter summers. This house is built of con- 164 s RESIDENCE OF DR. DAVID MAG1E PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY COPE & STEWARDSON, ARCHITECTS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES crete, the exterior in rough cast, and the door-opening at the extreme right of the picture is of stone. The Magie house, by the same architects, is similar in character but with the changes which befit its construction in different materials. The stonework is of soft gray, with very wide white joints giving a beautiful texture to the wall surface. The wood piazza at the left is especially worthy of attention as it is admirably designed to form a single composition with the house, a very difficult thing to do with a piazza in English work, without employing the same material of which the main body of the house is built. Of special interest too are the leaders with their big copper leader-heads. For some reason the artistic treatment of leaders has been neglected by most American architects, although in the older work in this country every little farm- house, no matter how small, had its carefully designed lead leader-heads and leaders. Nowadays it is the excep- tion rather than the rule to find any attempt to use the leaders as a decoration. Thev are usually treated as a nec- essary evil, and not as a feature which can, it desired, add to, rather than detract from, the design. The Wyeth house at Rosemount, Pennsylvania, is by the 166 RESIDENCE OF MAXWELL WYETH ROSEMOUNT, PENNSYLVANIA WILSON EYRE, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES same author as, and similar in materials and design to, the Borie residence. The use of brick walls to close in the foreground and what is probably a clothes-yard at the right, gives a delightful privacy which is essential to the complete- ness of country life. The mass of the house is exceedingly varied and has "that balance of composition" which is gen- erally produced only by symmetry. The house, although plavful in treatment, has quietness, dignity, and real char- acter. The next two houses illustrated, the Walker residence at Glencoe, Illinois, and Mrs. Bisland's cottage at Lawrence Park, New York, are of about the same size and the same materials, derived from the same motives, and are as far apart in appearance as if one had been Chinese and the other Greek. The Walker house is strongly tinged with the Chicago variation of Art Nouveau in the introduction of strong horizontal lines. The older English architecture was an architecture of vertical lines, and it is this change that has produced the difference in sentiment. The Bisland cottage is a derivative of the little English farm-house which has flourished without any marked vari- ation from the time of the Norman Conquest until the 168 THE P. B. WALKER HOUSE GLEN COE, ILLINOIS SPENCER & POWERS, ARCHITECTS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES present day. The imitation, in shingles, of the thatched roof, is very clever, although possibly not a sincere or straightforward piece of design. Both houses are of frame construction with stucco on the outside, bringing the window-trim flush with the outside wall, and no recessed windows are possible. A much less extreme treatment of the shingle roof with softer lines is shown in the next illustration, a cottage at Cedarhurst by Louis Boynton. In this the roof is by no means so dominant a feature as in the cottage at Lawrence Park and no attempt is made to produce the appearance of a thatched roof; only the softness of outline char- acteristic of thatched roofs is sought for. Another way of softening the rigidity of outline is shown where the longer slope of the gables comes over the piazza, the roof sweep- ing out in a broad curve to connect the house more inti- mately with its surroundings. English of the present-day type, this house, while simple to the extreme, possesses all the charm of the much more elaborate houses before illus- trated. It is by no means necessary that a house should be big to be successful. Our large real-estate companies are coming to realize this, and are employing the cleverest 170 v, T?^ pf^ COTTAGE FOR MRS. PRESBREY BISLAND LAWRENCE PARK, NEW YORK WILDER & WHITE, ARCHITECTS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES men they can find to design their work, and their success is seen in this house. The lattice around the porch-open- ings and the hood over the front door are the only features added tor merely decorative purposes- all the rest is straight structural work as cheap as can be well built, but the archi- tect, through the proportion of his mass, and the careful ad- justment of the details of the window-openings, has achieved a result that could not be bettered by any expenditure. These eleven houses illustrate pretty well the various pos- sibilities of the English type. They are from all parts of the United States, and show that the style is by no means localized but that its influence is wide-spread and deep- seated. While we are only to a small degree of English blood, our laws, our customs, perhaps even our minds, re- flect England more than any other country, and it is there- fore only natural that in architecture as well we should turn to England tor inspiration, especially as it is in England that the best domestic architecture of the world is to be found. 172 A HOUSE AT CEDARHURST, LONG ISLAND LOUIS BOYNTON, ARCHITECT CHAPTER IX ITALIAN THE use of the Italian motives in modern American country houses is entirely due to the influence of J J travel and education upon architects and their clients. Italy has long been a land of dreams to art lovers the world over, and even the medieval architects working in the Gothic period, owing no trace of their design to Roman times, thought and wrote of Rome with a kind of awe. Italy has furnished us, in her villas and gardens, the com- pletest and most beautiful schemes for life in the country which have ever existed; and as long as these monuments of Italy, and even the records of them endure, they will serve as inspirations for the dweller in the country. For our use they have one fault; their great size and rich ornamentation makes them difficult of reduction to the more modest demands of America to-day. Formerly only the very rich could live far from their occupations; 174 MR. BIGELOW'S RESIDENCE READVILLE, MASS. WINSLOW & BIGELOW, ARCHITECTS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES now the improved methods of transportation have made it possible for people of moderate means to live in the coun- try and still earn their livelihood in the city. The style is one foreign to America and only by certain adjustments of details can it be made to meet our require- ments. The roofs were very low-pitched, because in the climate of Italy snow is infrequent and no provision is necessary against its lodgment on the roof; and the windows were small to keep the houses cool in the same way as a cellar is cool. Adaptations of the Italian styles built here are necessarily widely different from the originals. We require large windows to give a maximum of sun and air in the rooms. It is true that by improved methods of roof-building we have made flat roofs possible; these, the wide overhanging eaves, and the general masses with a certain proportion of detail, are all that remain to us of the original Italian. As was noted in discussing Colonial work, the Italian buildings have had a great influence upon American in the question of detail. A good proportion of the so-called Colonial houses being built to-day have had their cornices, columns, and other decorative features copied very closelv from Italian work, and it may be said, to their lasting advantage. i 76 RESIDENCE OF SAMUEL CABOT CANTON, MASS. WINSLOW & BIGELOW, ARCHITECTS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES Italian work of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in these details was not so very different from the English Georgian, yet it is never possible to mistake one for the other. The description which fits an Italian might apply equally well to an Englishman; but, without being able to point out a single feature of difference, we can unhesita- tingly tell one from the other. So it is with Italian and English work, and to a lesser degree with modern Ameri- can work derived from those sources. Occasionally, however, we find a house in which the two styles are combined. Such a one is Mr. Bigelow's resi- dence at Readville, Massachusetts. It has certain points of resemblance to the house in Brookline, of which Charles A. Piatt was the architect, in the preceding chapter, espe- cially in its lack of overhanging eaves — an English rather than an Italian characteristic. The chimneys, too, remind us of England, but the house in the main is clearly Italian. The use of the projecting gable-ends balanced throughout, although entirely unsymmetrical, is an interesting feature of the house, while the fore-court bounding the street en- trance is excellently contrived to keep all vehicles out of view except at that point. This, though the entrance-side, 178 THE WILLIAMS RESIDENCE NAHANT, MASS. PARKER & THOMAS, ARCHITECTS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES is really the rear, as the living-side of the house is facing the garden. The service wing is at the right, separated from the fore-court bv a high wall, thus hiding from view the clothes-yard and the other objectionable although necessary features of the service portion of the house. This arrangement, which is in many respects ideal, is growing in favor as Americans realize that family life should be with- drawn from, rather than exposed to, the public, and that their houses are made to live in and not look out from. The Cabot house, bv the same architect, is similar in character and beautifully fitted to its location. While the main portion of the house is symmetrica], the service wing is not in any way recalled upon the opposite end, and so well is it treated that no need for symmetry is felt. As the country, to judge from the photograph, is one in which beautiful views may be obtained, one room is located high above the others and this higher portion, so treated that it does not dwarf the main bodv of the house, is a very remarkable piece of design. It would be easy to erect a tower were the design informal, but where the style is that here employed, the problem is one of utmost difficulty. The Williams residence at Nahant is an excellent piece 180 RESIDENCE OF MR. HERING PELHAM MANOR, N. Y. OSWALD C. HERING, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES of design, showing what has grown to be practically the typical American use of Italian work. The overhangs are broad with exposed beams supporting them, there are plenty of large windows for sun and air, and the roof is of the low- pitched type with the slope changed at the eaves. Where no third story is required for living purposes, this kind of house possesses all the good qualities of the Colonial type, permitting large square rooms, high ceilings, and ample ventilation. The service quarters are of course placed in the wing over the kitchen, an arrangement which, though not so economical as the use of the third story, is more desirable. The trellis at the extreme right, hiding the ser- vice portion with the little hood over the gate, is a very charming bit of design and is one of those manifestations of increased care and thought in regard to details that is one of the strongest things in modern work. The whole house is one of the best examples of its kind; and, as has been said, the kind has of late become very common. Mr. Herring's house at Pelham Manor, New York, is a scholarly and dignified adaptation of the Italian villa to a modern country house, simple, refined, and elegant, but without much of that intimate and domestic quality which 182 RESIDENCE OF J. O. BLOSS HARRISON, NEW YORK ALFRED BUSSELLE, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES is after all what should most be sought tor in a dwelling- house. The mass of the house is excellent, the central portion dominating the wings to exactly the proper extent; the proportion of window-openings to wall-space is admir- able, while the doorway, without being aggressive, is sufficiently emphasized and well detailed. The only feature which one could regret is the stone wall across the front, which apparently does not extend to the limits of the plot on which the house is set, and is in consequence somewhat meaningless. It only serves as a retaining-wall for the terrace in front of the central portion, but when vines and shrubbery are over it, will unquestionably lose much of this unfortunate appearance. The Bloss residence at Harrison, New York, is simple in mass and refined in detail. As in Mr. Herring's house the rough stone wall at the present time is somewhat objec- rionable, but will lose this appearance when the planting is completed. Here the third story is utilized, and the dormers are designed with much success to harmonize with a style in which dormers were unknown. The circular- headed windows in the second story placed in pairs above single windows at each side, and a bay-window in the center 184 / RESIDENCE OF A. DURANT SNEDEN AVON-BY-THE-SEA, NEW JERSEY A. DURANT SNEDEN, ARCHITECT ONE HUNDRED COUNTRY HOUSES on the first story form an admirable composition, all tied together by the dark leaders at either end. The use of the porches to carry out the long lines of the house, is as good as is their design. Somewhat similar in type is Mr. Sneden's residence, but of a larger and more formal character. The manner in which the central mass is recessed between the wings and finished with a terrace in front is excellent. The railing and flower-boxes at the outside of this terrace cannot be too highly commended and the use of dark wood brackets to support the roof is interesting; yet delightful though the house is, one cannot but think that it is exotic upon the New Jersey coast. In looking at Casa del Ponte, however, another Italian house upon the sea-shore, there is no feeling of that kind, probably because the house is absolutely unsymmetrical and is much more intimately connected with its surroundings. It is exceedingly small, so small indeed that off-hand one would say it would be impossible to successfully execute a house of its size along Italian lines. And one would be mistaken. There is no single portion of this little and in- expensive house without its feature of interest. Simply by 186 <