ARTISTIC UNTRY-SEA TYPES OF RECENT AMER¬ ICAN VILLA AND COT¬ TAGE ARCHITECTURE WITH INSTANCES OF COUNTRY CLUB-HOUSES VOLUME ONE PRINTED FOR THE SUBSCRIBERS NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY MDCCCLXXXVI COPYRIGHT, 1886, BY D. APPLETON & CO. PREFATORY NOTE. In the Renaissance of American art, which, beginning with the year of the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, has produced the Society of Ameri¬ can Artists, the National Opera Company, and the Society of American Wood- Engravers, the architect has been conspicuous. He has created the American country-seat, and he rests upon it his claim to distinction. This fact was recognized a short time ago by a committee of architects from Great Britain who had been sent to this country to inquire into the condition of our archi¬ tecture, and who found in the country-seat the American architect’s chief triumph. The object of this portfolio is to present, in as direct and attractive a form as possible, an exposition of this triumph. The one hundred subjects have been selected with a view to illustrate the representative styles of the country-seat of the American Renaissance, embracing the best that our architects have done, at a cost of from five thousand to five hundred thousand dollars, during the last ten years; and a word of earnest thanks is due to the profession through¬ out the United States for their kindness in collaborating with the editor in his arduous undertaking. George William Sheldon. CONTENTS. VOLUME ONE. Mr. Charles J. Osborn’s House, With two Plates. Mr. Robert Goelet’s House, With two Plates. Mr. Harry Fenn’s House, Mr. C. S. French’s House, Mr. Isaac Bell’s (Jr.) House, Mr. John W. Burgess’s House, Mr. F. C. Geiger’s House, Mr. Theodore F. Wood’s House, Mr. Lyman C. Josephs’s House, Mr. Charles A. Potter’s House, Mr. George W. Folsom’s House, Mr. Charles T. Cook’s House, Miss Julia Appleton’s House, The Casino at Newport, With two Plates. Mrs. Herter’s House, Mr. George F. Baker’s House, Mr. Henry C. Gibson’s House, Mr. Samuel Colman’s House, Mr. Richard L. Ashhurst’s House, Mr. Charles A. Newhall’s House, Page Mamaroneck , N. Y. I Newport. 7 Montclair , N. J> 13 East Orange , N. J. 17 Newport. 23 East Orange , N. J. 29 East Orange , N. J. 35 Orange , N. J. 39 Newport. 43 Chestnut Hill , Philadelphia. 47 Lenox, Mass. 5i Elberon , N. J. 57 Lenox , Mass. 61 67 Seabrightj N. J. 7i Near Seabrightj N. J. 77 Wynnewoodj Pa. 81 Newport. 87 Overbrook, Pa. 93 Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. 99 CONTENTS. General J. H. Van Alen’s House, Mr. Joseph T. Low’s House, The Casino at Short Hills, Mr. Henry P. Talmadge’s House, Mr. Charles W. McCutchen’s House, Mr. William Pratt’s House, Mr. F. W. Smith’s House, Mrs. Bowler’s House, Mr. Samuel P. Hinckley’s House, Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt’s House, Mr. S. Bayard Dod’s House, Mr. William Simpson’s (Jr.) House, Mrs. Stoughton’s House, Mrs. Charles Taylor’s House, Mr. Samuel B. Brown’s House, Mr. G. N. Black’s House, Mr. Edwin H. Benson’s House, Mr. James Hopkins Smith’s House, Mr. Isaac H. Clothier’s House, Mr. P. E. Van Riper’s House, Mr. A. G. Foster’s House, Mr. Potter Palmer’s House, Mr. C. W. Griggs’s House, Mr. Sylvester T. Everett’s House, Mr. Frederick Driscoll’s House, Mrs. Hemenway’s House, Mr. Henry Mallory’s House, Newport. Page IO3 Near Seabright , N. J. IO9 Netherwood, N. J. 115 ri 9 Plainfield , N. J. 123 Manchester-by-the-Sea. 127 St. Augustine , Fla. '3i Bar Harbor , Me. 135 Lawrence , L. /. r 39 Newport. r 43 East Orange , N. J. I+7 Overbrook , Pa. 151 Cambridge , Mass. I 57 Chestnut Hill , Philadelphia. 161 Haver ford , Pa. 165 Manchester-by-the-Sea. 169 Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. 173 Portland , Me. 177 Wynnewood , Pa. 181 Montclair , N. J. 187 St. Paul, Minn. 191 Chicago , III. r 95 St. Paul , Minn. 201 Cleveland , O. 205 St. Paul ’ Minn. 209 Manchester-by-the-Sea. 213 Portchester , N. Y. 217 LIST OF PLATES SECTION FIRST Mr. Charles J. Osborn’s House, v Mamaronecl, N. Y. ^The same, view from Long Island Sound. Mr. Robert Goelet’s House, The same, rear view. Newport. Mr. Harry Fenn’s House, ✓ ^Ab. C. S. French’s House, / Mr. Isaac Bell’s (Jr.) House, l-Mr. John W. Burgess’s House, (/Mr. F. C. Geiger’s House, v f '] Mr. Theodore F. Wood’s House, Mr. Lyman C. Josephs’s House,'/ /Mr. Charles A. Potter’s House, c/ Mr. George W. Folsom’s House, Mr. Charles T. Cook’s House, v Miss Julia Appleton’s House, The Casino at Newport. The same, second view. Mrs. Herter’s House, Mr. George F. Baker’s House,. Mr. Henry C. Gibson’s House,. Montclair, N. J. East Orange, N. J. Newport. East Orange, N. J. East Orange, N. J. Orange, N. J. Newport. Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. Lenox, Mass. Elberon, N. J. Lenox, Mass. Seabright, N. J. Near Seabright, N. J. Wynnewood, Pa. ■ I RESIDENCE OF MRS. HERTER. Kxjv? RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE W. FOLSOM. ^° RK ^ Cnrir,; ' OP AfPUBD . P&UGX i-OK WOMMN w&mM New York S '. . - of Applied V i ^ *ok Women RESIDENCE OF MR. CHARLES J. QSBORN __ Nsw York Scitooi. of Appueo Assign for Womr* MR. CHARLES J. OSBORN’S HOUSE. Most of the modern villas and cottages are modifications of the two original styles known as the Greek and the Gothic: the Greek style being characterized principally by the number of its horizontal lines, and the Gothic by the number of its vertical lines. The Roman and Italian styles are modifications of the Greek; and so are the Flemish, Swiss, and other Con¬ tinental styles. What is known as the Early English domestic architecture has much sympathy with the Gothic, particularly in its clustered chimneys, traceried windows, and carved gables, which are in fact but beautiful adap¬ tations and enlargements of useful features, and which admit of indefinite development on the same lines. It would be erroneous, however, to suppose that the country residence in America need partake of any distinguishing feature of any style whatever, and certainly the dictates of good taste could not sanction a suburban villa built after the plan of a Greek temple, in which the comfort of a low and shady piazza is sacrificed to a mere display of Corinthian or Doric columns. No more magnificent private residence exists in this country than that of the late Mr. Charles J. Osborn, at Mamaroneck, on Long Island Sound, about an hour’s ride by rail from New York city; and it is a pathetic instance of the caprice of Fate that he should have been able to enjoy it only two or three days before he was stricken down by a fatal illness. The site is not high, and the surrounding country is barren, rocky, treeless, and, for the most part, uninhabited; but Mr. Osborn transformed the appearance of the entire region by constructing what might be called an immense modern feudal castle, by laying out with grand simplicity the extensive grounds, and by erecting greenhouses, stables, a farmer’s house, and an extremely beautiful porter’s lodge, at a cost of about four hundred thousand dollars. Modifica¬ tions of the styles. A modern feudal castle. The MR. CHARLES J. OSBORN’S HOUSE. As seen from the Sound. panels of cockle¬ shells. The length of the front, facing the Sound, is about one hundred and fifty-three feet; the widest depth is about one hundred and forty-four feet, and the general plan is L-shaped, the servants’ quarters being in the lower part of the L. This gives a main house practically rectilinear, whose di¬ mensions are—length, one hundred and twenty-five feet, and breadth about seventy-six feet, the dimensions of the servants’ wing being about forty-eight feet by thirty-five. As seen from the Sound, the principal feature is the large, round tower, carried high above the roof, and serving at the base as a bay- window for a parlor. The entire altitude is fifty-three feet, and the greatest diameter twenty-three feet. The first story is of stone, and the second of shingles, projecting about two feet, and supported on simple rough-stone cor¬ bels. The sides are not perpendicular, but, beginning at a line on the eaves of the main roof, they curve inwardly to the eaves of the tower-roof, which is twenty feet high. To the right appears the hall-chimney, all of stone, about fifty-two feet high j at the top, six and a half feet wide; at the eaves- line, eight and a half feet wide, and seemingly narrower at the bottom, be¬ cause a part of it is hidden in the parlor-wall. The real width of the base, however, is eleven feet. A third notable feature is the driveway through the entire depth of the building, fifteen feet wide, under a stone arch whose key¬ stone is thirteen feet above the ground. It serves the purpose of a porte- coch&re , and also separates the principal part of the main building from the part which the late Mr. Osborn used to call his winter quarters, and which it was his intention to occupy in the winter. Within this driveway is an entrance, at the left, to the main part, and another at the right to the subordinate part. Over the arch of the driveway are panels of cockle-shells and pebbles gath¬ ered on the beach near by, and set in rough plastering of a warm gray tint. To the left of the driveway is a series of casement-windows, opening into the hall, and to the right a circle-headed window opening into the billiard-room, in both of which are ornamental panels in lead-work and glass. Above the casement-windows is an open loggia , and higher still appear the dormer-win¬ dows in the roof, the center one being larger than the others, and containing a panel corresponding in treatment and design with the panels of the second story. At MR. CHARLES J. OSBORN’S HOUSE. 3 At the extreme right of the building is another tower of about the same dimensions as the parlor tower, and the driveway is midway between the two towers. Extending diagonally from the parlor is the piazza, forty by twenty feet—a curious and excellent effect — the object being to utilize a point of land near by, which extends into the water. To the extreme left, a portion of the dining-room and servants’ quarters is seen. If we go around to the rear and look at the western elevation, we see the two towers still, the driveway, and a long two-story balcony directly over the driveway, and projecting four or five feet, supported on heavy carved oaken brackets, the ends of which are ornamented with carved lions’ heads. Brackets with lion Most of the walls are built of a grayish local stone, of a much better quality heads. than the ordinary trap-rock, rough-faced, with big, wide joints, and not regu¬ larly laid. The lintels, sills, and arches have also a rough surface. An open loggia , with a helmet-shaped cover, projects south of the south tower in the rear; and three dormer-windows over the balcony are all shingled, but have no shell-work decoration as have those in front. A retain- ing-wall for the court, about ninety feet by eight, runs parallel with the face of the building, save at the northerly end, which takes a gradual turn to the east. The northerly elevation presents two towers again — there being four towers in all— the easterly one for the smoking-room, and the westerly one for the winter dining-room; between them, a stone arch supports an open, three¬ storied balcony of heavy timber-work. All the towers are of the same height, Stone towers. and three of them entirely of stone to the eaves-line, and built so that their face has a curve up to the eaves of the roof. The roofs of the towers are all of cut shingles, and have water-gutters with ornamental wrought-iron gutter- hooks. The projection of the servants’ quarters is prominent here, though at some distance back; so also is the diagonal porch which opens from the parlor. The southerly elevation shows the tops of the four towers, but these are not seen by the spectator in the immediate neighborhood. The diagonal porch appears, and the roof of the servants’ quarters, which has a tremendous over¬ hang of about six feet, supported on heavy brackets. A broad window, six and a half feet by seven and a half, opens into the dining-room, its upper part, like that of all the other windows, having small lights. The chimneys are all of stone, their caps being very simple and effective. The roof of the kitchen 4 - MR. CHARLES J. OSBORN’S HOUSE. A very old- fashioned fire-place. Smoking- room in red mahogany. kitchen wing is divided here and there by dormers, entirely of shingles, cut in a pattern. We enter the interior by the driveway. From an open vestibule, with handsome mosaic varicolored floor, we approach the main hall, which has two stories, and is of unusual size, being twenty-five by thirty-one feet long, and twenty-five feet high. Very important is the mantel-piece, two stories high, the fireplace so large that you could almost drive a horse in, and the single flue enormous. The dimensions of the fire-opening are—width, six feet ; height, six feet; depth, two feet four. A wind-gauge, worked in as a part of the design of the mantel-piece, connects with the weather-vane high up on the hall-chimney outside. The paneled wainscoting has elaborate carved moldings of English oak, finished in natural color. To the left of the fire¬ place a wide seat, with casement-windows opening out on the Sound, and near it an ornamental niche, constitutes a striking feature. To the right of the fireplace is the entrance to the parlor, whose finishing is in white mahogany, and whose dimensions are twenty by twenty-five feet. Directly op¬ posite the vestibule-entrance is the reception-room, in pine, painted white and gold, eighteen feet long by fifteen feet wide. The staircase-hall, eighteen feet by twelve, adjoins the main hall, and is really a part of it. The dining¬ room to the right of the reception-room is twenty-one feet by thirty, and in Santo Domingo mahogany. From the staircase-hall a private hall leads to the kitchen and servants’ rooms. If, when in the driveway, we enter the building at the right instead of at the left, we find ourselves in the winter-quarters. There is no porch, and the front door opens directly into the billiard-room, of oak, twenty feet by twenty-one. Thence one walks into the smoking-room in the northeast tower, eighteen feet in diameter, and finished in red mahogany. West of it is the dining-room, also in oak, and of the same diameter, in the northwest tower. Between the two towers is a hall about seven feet wide, from which stairs communicate with the second floor, and also with the basement. Opening from it is a pantry. On the second floor are two bedrooms, bath and dressing rooms, in the winter-quarters; over the driveway are two bedrooms; and thence we enter the gallery around three sides of the main hall, its eastern windows overlooking the MR. CHARLES J. OSBORN’S HOUSE. 5 the Sound, and its ceiling showing open timber-work, while its railing is di¬ vided by posts. West of the gallery is the main staircase, with its large stained- glass window. Over the parlor is the bedroom of Mr. Osborn, twenty-two feet in diameter, with a dressing-room fourteen feet eight by nine feet, the passage thence lined with closets to the bath-room, which is fitted up with painted tiles, beautiful hand-painted figure-panels, and a mosaic floor. The Hand- bedroom itself is in cherry, the wall-spaces covered with a delicate, soft woolen figures r . . panels. rabnc. On the third floor are seven bedrooms, in the main house, with trunk and storage rooms, and three bedrooms in the servants’ quarters, together with the approach to the loggia , or belvedere, in the third story. The basement of the servants’ quarters has cellars for vegetables, a laundry, a bath-room, and stairs to the first floor. The basement of the main house is one large cellar, with furnaces, coal and wine cellar. Under the winter-quarters are a kitchen and a cellar. The house is heated by two hot-air furnaces. The architects are Messrs. McKim, Mead, and White. GROUND PLAN. MR. ROBERT GOELET’S HOUSE. One of the most interesting, beautiful, and costly houses in Newport is that of Mr. Robert Goelet, situated directly on the shore of the ocean. The entire front is about one hundred and fifty feet long, including the piazza, and the entire width about eighty feet. The length of the house-line proper is one hundred and forty-four feet. The principal feature of the facade is the two round towers worked out into the roof, the center q> wo T0V1ld of the roof being carried much higher than the wings, and the length of tmLers ‘ the ridge being thirty-five feet. There are three dormers in the center roof, the middle one, a large double window, having, like all the other windows in the first and second stories, small panes in the upper sashes. The material of the building is brick in the first story, and pine shingles above the second- story line. All the roofing is of shingles also. At intervals on the main front are decorative panels of cut shingles, and a line of cut shingles and molded work divides the first and second stories. The piazza extends across pi azzclt the main front between the two towers, and the approach to it is by two flights of stone steps, giving a fine and ample effect. Its roof is shingled, and supported on molded and turned posts. One of the end gables has a projecting bay-window, which subserves an important purpose in the general plan, and there is a loggia projecting from one of the towers. The main staircase is carried up in the right-hand tower. There is also an entrance near the extreme left of the main front into the kitchen wing. This wing has a very extensive roof, the distance from the ridge-pole to the eaves being not less than twenty-three feet. A terrace wall is carried round to the left of the main tower about five feet high. The rear of the house, fronting directly upon the ocean, has an immense octagonal MR. ROBERT GOBLET’S HOUSE. Loggias octagonal bay-window opening from the dining-room, continuing up from 'octagonal the second story, and terminating in loggias in the third story, with an octago- roq f' nal roof. It is very striking and beautiful; and in it, on a line with the second story, is a carved wooden panel. To the left of the octagonal bay- window is the gable of the main end of the hall, with a series of casement- windows on the second story having leaded glass of a handsome pattern. Above the bay-window the ridge of the main roof appears about six feet higher. The brick chimneys with ornamental tops are of different designs, some round and some square, in order to vary the effect. The piazza extends all along the rear, with the exception of the kitchen wing, and continues around the end of the house, broken up with a gable, at each end, of cut shingles and molded work, the shingles being laid in wavy lines instead of straight ones. The same treatment of windows prevails as in the front, with small lights of glass. A terrace wall supports the columns of the porch gables. These columns are elaborately turned, light, and delicate, and the three dormer-windows are of varying sizes and styles. Instead of breaking the line at the different levels of the eaves, the Shingles shingles are woven around, giving a very pleasing appearance. To the left 'around the windows opening into the main hall is seen an oval window, and near it a carved panel of wood. The right side elevation shows the height of the chimneys, the tallest being about twenty-three feet from the edge of the roof, and the treatment of the end being a sort of double gable with the chimneys carried above the line of the eaves • another panel of cut shingles appears, and there is a view of the octagonal bay-window and its roof. The most noticeable characteristic of the right side elevation is the extension of the rear piazza, which is at right angles to the house. Much success has been obtained by the architects, Messrs. McKim, Mead, and White, in giving to each elevation attractive and strong traits of its own. A view of the left side elevation includes all the kitchen wing, which has a great gable extending the whole width of the A gable vl ^y an< i being not less than forty-two feet wide and twenty-three feet high 'feet Icicle. — a s ^ ze not often seen in a private residence in this country — and in the gable appears a series of shingled panels and windows treated with ornamental sills and caps, with wooden panels between them. Cut shingles are used in the MR. ROBERT GOBLET’S HOUSE. 9 the roof. From this end also one catches a glimpse of the octagonal bay- window of the rear, whose roof is supported on turned posts with an ornamental balustrade between them; also, of the projecting piazza and of the left tower, while looking into the library. The eaves of the roof of this tower have cut shingles and molded lines. A part of the dining-room chimney—the highest of all—also appears, and the entrance to the kitchen wing. The brick treatment is carried all around the house on the first floor, as also is the stone sill-line of the first-story windows, which form a dividing line to split up the effect. The lintels of the larger windows are flat arches of brick. Entering the building, the spectator is at once attracted and delighted by the magnitude and the beauty of the main hall, which is forty-four feet long, thirty feet wide, and twenty-four feet high—a size very seldom seen in a villa on this side of the water—and the taste and luxury with which it has been finished and furnished are not less noteworthy. The immense chimney-piece extends two stories high, and the fireplace is large enough for a man to walk into. A gallery, supported on a series of columns and open arches, extends around the second story, and the ceiling shows the open timber-work. One of the arches forms an entrance to the main staircase; and on the other side of the fireplace is a large square opening into the parlor. Up to the line of the second story the entrance-hall is paneled solid with oak, and the balustrade of the gallery is of turned spindles of the same wood, those of the projecting balcony in the center, directly opposite the chimney-piece, being in a line slightly curving outward. Enormous pieces of valuable tapestry, gathered in various countries of Europe, and displaying tones of color delicious to the eye, with designs of singular interest, cover all the space from the second- story line to the cornice, this space itself being heavily paneled in oak. The fireplace is faced up with brick instead of marble, in order to show the construction of the chimney, and in it are an antique fire-back and antique andirons. Very noticeable is the richly carved leaf-work of the huge brackets that support the wood-work of the chimney-piece. The wainscoting of the hall runs up the staircase to the second story, and the hall itself is practically one immense room; the floor is handsomely laid in patterns of hard wood; and an unusual piece of furniture is an old-fashioned carved and canopied bedstead The main hall. Rich tapestry. MR. ROBERT COELET'S HOUSE. The keynote of the dec¬ oration. Smoky chimneys. IO bedstead which has been converted into a divan, and on whose top appear pots of large ferns. The lighting is by ornamental massive brass brackets in the form of candelabra, imitative of waxen tapers. One can not help being reminded, in contemplating a chimney-piece like Mr. Goelet’s, that the growth of the fireplace has been a matter of extraor¬ dinary interest, and that the place itself for many ages has furnished the key¬ note for the decoration of the hall. In France, in earlier days, the peasants’ cottages had colossal fireplaces, and there was often in the palaces a concealed chamber behind the fire-opening. The Duchess de Berry, and her attendants, were captured by some soldiers in one of these chambers, the men having made too large a fire on the hearth and heated it to an intolerable degree. The use of the fireplace for purposes of ventilation is of a very early date, but it was not until modern times that adequate remedies were provided for the prevention of draughts. Count Rumford once said that thousands of people died every year of consumption caused by the draughts of open fireplaces. Mr. Goelet’s chimney has received the benefit of the latest researches in this direction, and it claims to realize the ideal fireplace, as described by a recent writer, who insisted that, when properly constructed — first, no heat is wasted; secondly, the supply of fresh air is perfectly pure, and warmed to a temper¬ ature somewhat below that of the room, and moistened and abundant enough, and so distributed and located as to cause no draught at any point; thirdly, that there is a gas ventilator in the flues of the chimney; fourthly, that the room is effectively ventilated in winter or summer without opening doors or windows; fifthly, that the chimneys never smoke; and, sixthly, that the general construction is simple and safe. Obviously, it is not customary in this house, as it used to be in England in the fourteenth century, to apologize to lady guests because the smoke is rather thick. These large chimneys date back as far as the eleventh century, and sometimes their hoods projected into the room six or eight feet, in order if possible to prevent smoking when great logs of wood were piled upon the andirons. The first systematic effort to cure a smoky chimney was that of Dr. Louis Sabot, in Paris, in 1679. He decreased the width of the fire-opening in order to diminish the quantity of cold air that entered, and he made the interior of the flue smooth in order to lessen the friction of the smoke in its ascent. The well-known fireplace MR. ROBERT GOELET'S HOUSE. at the Louvre was constructed upon these principles of Dr. Sabot, and is a very good exemplification of them. The history of the fireplace, from that of the Louvre to that of our best modern country-houses, would show a gradual adaptation of means to ends, after hundreds of unsuccessful experiments. To the right of the hall one enters the staircase and the parlor ; and to the left, the library and reception-room, and also the hall communicating with the servants’ wing. The feature of the second floor is the gallery around a gallery three sides. Opposite the front entrance is a large stained-glass window “hr™sides. divided into square casement-windows and very rich in chromatic effects. There are six principal bedrooms, besides servants’ rooms, and three bath¬ rooms. All the bedrooms have connecting bath- and dressing-rooms, and the dimensions of the three largest are respectively twenty-three feet square, nineteen by twenty-five feet, and nineteen by twenty-one feet, all of them with open fireplaces. Up-stairs is the great attic, with ten sleeping-apart¬ ments for guests and servants. The cost of Mr. Goelet’s house was about two hundred thousand dollars. GROUND PLAN. MR. HARRY FENN’S HOUSE. On Orange Mountain, at Montclair, New Jersey, overlooking twenty dif¬ ferent communities and four millions of people, stands the beautiful cottage of Mr. Harry Fenn, the artist. There are many other charming residences in Montclair, but that of Mr. Fenn has unusual individuality and picturesque¬ ness. The architect, Mr. H. Edwards Ficken, of New York city, has en¬ deavored to get as far as possible away from the Queen Anne style, although using cypress shingles unsparingly, both in the long, sloping roofs, and in place of clapboards. His plan was to suggest, if not to express, the domestic sentiment of the lowland counties of England, and the building abounds in reminiscences of the style of architecture generally known as Early English, though having at the same time other salient traits. Mr. Fenn’s house is of wood, unique in proportions and outlines, with two stories, and a gambrel roof so placed as to give some large rooms in the attic. The ground-plan is L-shaped, the servants’ quarters being in the lower part of the L. The parlor wing, in front, is finished entirely with cement, filled in between the outside beams, and the prevailing color is chocolate-brown. Some of the panels are ornamented by designs in the cement, and above the porch are the words, in Old English lettering, “This house was built in 1884,” with the artist’s monogram below. There are no piazzas in Mr. Fenn’s house, but the large, open-timbered tower on the south side makes up for their absence by giving on the first and second stories a spacious out-door room, while on the third story is the studio of Mr. Fenn, where the delightful land¬ scape drawings for “ Picturesque America,” and other publications, which have made his name known throughout this country and other countries, are welcom¬ ing successors of the same spirit, Mr. Fenn having been in this studio only a few months. The fact that the building is situated on the side of a mountain, has Early English. An out¬ door room. MR. HARRY FENN'S HOUSE. 14 has led the architect to make free use of projecting galleried balconies. A look at the ground-plan shows a vestibule at the left of the porch, opening into a central hall, on the right of which is the parlor, on the left the dining-room, and beyond it the out-door room of the tower, which answers A southern the purposes of a piazza, and has a delightful southern exposure. The kitchen, exposure. ^ rear G f t } ie dining-room, opens into the laundry at the north side, and into the butlery at the west side. On the second floor are six bedrooms, a bath-room, and a sewing-room, together with a linen-closet. Closets are abundant on the lower floor. Two of the bedrooms open upon the balconies of the south side, and the bath-room is between the sewing-room and a small bedroom at the end of the hall, fronting east. Some of the noblest views in this country can be obtained from the east and south windows. Beyond, to the south, lie the cities of Orange, Newark, Elizabeth, and Elizabethport, and the heights of Staten Island. Eastward, the view embraces the Narrows, New York Bay, the city of Brooklyn, the city of New York, Bergen Hill, the Newark meadows (irrigated by the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers), Englewood, Bloomfield, Roseville, Franklin, and ten or twelve other communities. In front are the wooded heights of the Orange Mountain. On the third floor, the principal room is the studio, with two bedrooms behind it, and plenty of balcony space. The scroll-work in some of these bedrooms deserves special mention, as also does the bracket under the overhanging windows above the parlor, the railing of the kitchen porch, the bracket at the window in the attic over the parlor, and the details of the front porch and the second story of the tower. It would be presumptuous to say which view of Mr. Fenn’s house is the most interesting, but the one given in this portfolio is undoubt¬ edly the most comprehensive. The cost of the building, according to contract, was eight thousand two hundred and fifty dollars. It is evident from these figures that extravagance has not been allowed in the interior decoration, but no visitor who has had the pleasure of being inside Much the cottage would suppose that so much beauty could have been produced at b mtkcost. so little expense. The only woods used are white and yellow pine, stained in order to harmonize with the old furniture which Mr. Fenn has picked up in almost every quarter of the habitable globe, and which in itself constitutes an attraction of no small moment. The drawing-room is painted in ivory-white, and MR. HARRY FENN'S HOUSE. 1 5 and Mr. Fenn himself stenciled the design of the frieze which had been pre¬ pared by the architect in order to carry out the idea of the interior. The chimney of the hall has a series of steps in the external brick-work which are used as shelves for bric-a-brac. The heavy beams of the wooden ceiling have not been covered ; they are of white Georgia pine. Curiosities of many kinds, in souvenirs of travel, abound in all the rooms. There is an old chest in the hall, found in a barn in England, and once used as a bin for oats; it bears the date 1693, chiseled into its cover. Around the fireplace in the parlor is a large, semicircular arrangement of seats, the fireplace itself being in an immense bay, and looking particularly hospitable when occupied by the artist’s family and guests on a winter evening. The plastered walls of the dining-room are relieved by timbers running crosswise ; a quaint cabinet, in place of the usual sideboard, is built in a niche opposite the fireplace, across whose front, in antique lettering, are the words, “ May good digestion wait on appetite, and health on both.” All the principal rooms on the first floor can be used practically as one room, if occasion requires. We may note, in conclusion, several general features in Mr. Fenn’s house, partly recapitulatory and partly additional. Being situated on the slope of the mountain, which lies in a northerly and southerly direction, it is absolutely free from the cold western winds. These blow over but do not touch it. The magnificent panorama stretching away to the east and south has had its influ¬ ence upon the design of the architect, and particularly upon the noble south tower with its open rooms. Although the prevailing style, as in almost all of Mr. Ficken’s important works, is Early English, Mr. Fenn’s house is a frank and scientific adaptation to the requirements of a home for a working artist in prosperous circumstances. Few of the ordinary passers-by, all of whom are struck by its uniqueness, appreciate its artistic value, or are able to recognize the qualities that constitute its true vitality • nevertheless, it has something which vaguely suggests to the ordinary spectator a certain propriety in its being the home of an artist ; and it is much to the credit of the architect that such a result has been obtained. But Mr. Ficken has a vivid appreciation of certain conditions which make architecture a fine art, and a useful one as well; and with all his liking for the Early English, the Elizabethan, and the Jacobean periods, he never forgets that servitude is death, and that each building should exhibit, A chest dated 1693. A -working artist's home. i6 MR. HARRY FENN’S HOUSE. exhibit, both in exterior contour and interior disposition, as nearly perfect an adaptation as possible to the purposes for which it is used. Few painters in this country are prosperous enough to live in houses which their own hands have built, although, when they go to England and display the talent of Mr. George H. Boughton, they soon find themselves' in palaces. Mr. Fenn has been Alight a bJ e with the collaboration of his architect, to express himself in form as well and a charm. as i n co lor, and the generous beauty of the result is a light and a charm. GROUND PLAN. MR. C. S. FRENCH’S HOUSE. Twenty years ago the late Mr. A. J. Downing remarked that with us Americans almost every man either builds or looks forward to building a home for himself at some period of his life 3 it may be only a log hut, or at most a rustic cottage; or perhaps it may be a villa or a mansion. As yet, how- Early 1 1 American ever, he continued, our houses are mostly either of the plainest or most meager nnal 1 architect- description, or, if more ambitious, are frequently of a more fashionable quality UTe - —shingled palaces of very questionable convenience—and not in the least adapted by their domestic and rural beauty to harmonize with our natural landscapes. He expressed a desire that every one who lived in the country and in a country house should be in some degree cognizant of domestic architect¬ ure ; not only because it would be likely to improve the comfort of his own house, and hence of all the houses in the neighborhood, but because it would enlarge his mind and give him new sources of enjoyment. It was not strange that an artist of his exquisite taste and thorough training should have recalled Goethe’s remark, that men are so inclined to content themselves with what is commonest, and so easily do the spirit and the sense grow dead to the impression of the beautiful and perfect, that every person should strive to nourish the faculty of feeling these things by everything in his power; for no man can bear to be wholly deprived of such enjoyment; and for this reason, says the author of “ Werther,” every day one ought to see a fine picture, read a good poem, hear a little song, and, if possible, speak a few reasonable words. If, twenty years ago, these words were fit, they are all the more so now in this new epoch of American Architecture, which has done so much for the honor of this country and for the comfort of its inhabitants; and it is inter¬ esting to note that the first volume ever published in America devoted to rural architecture MR. C. S. FRENCH’S HOUSE. Original features. Effect of different material. architecture was that of Mr. Downing, who, in the preface, explained that he was conscious of offering a slight and imperfect contribution to an important subject, which he trusted would be the precursor of “more varied and com¬ plete works from others, adapted to our peculiar wants and clime.” It is easy to see in Mr. C. S. French’s house, at Arlington and Park Ave¬ nues, East Orange, New Jersey, that the architect has not spared pains to search for all possible roominess within the space at his command, and at the same time to discard many features of conventional and historical import. He has not even tried to express himself in a specific style, but his sole effort has been to produce something striking and comfortable. Other cottages built by Mr. W. Halsey Wood show how respectful to the best conventionalism he can be when he chooses ■ but in this cottage he has given range to his fancy, and has found a client who, like himself, was willing to experiment. At the same time, he has kept fully within the limits of the architectural principle of fitness, there being no part of the building which is not in a line with the general intention of domestic use ; and it is further to be noted that the very instinct by which one man desires to distinguish his dwelling from that of another, and from which, accordingly, we evolve the principle of expression in architecture, is the one that in this instance has been most active in the mind of both architect and client. Each determined to have this particular building dis¬ tinguished from every other, and each has succeeded in his purpose. The solidity of Mr. French’s house is almost equal to that of stone, and the material is perhaps as durable, with no doubt less trouble to keep it in repair than is often expended upon the brown-stone fronts of Fifth Avenue. It is a mistake to suppose, as some writers have done, that stone always gives an appearance of more solidity than does either brick or wood. It is also a mistake to suppose that a little cottage of brick or stone is as preposterous as would be a castle of wood. Everybody remembers how astonished De Tocque- ville was when, on his visit to this country, he saw, while passing through the Narrows, a number of elegant houses of what he supposed to be white marble, on the heights of Staten Island, and how crestfallen he became when informed that they were only of painted wood. Mr. French’s house is as honest as the day is long, and while a good many persons would have covered the exterior with stucco, ruled out in blocks of large size, he has purposely let MR. C. S. FRENCH’S HOUSE. x 9 let the rude material stand for what it is worth, and by expressing itself attain an individual expression. The extreme width, including that of the tower, is forty-four feet six inches, and the extreme depth, including that of the tower and piazza, fifty- one feet six inches. The most prominent feature is the circular tower on the southeast corner, eighteen feet in diameter, outside measure, odd both in size and location. Other features are the two projecting small oriels of the second- story front, corbeled, and connected by a shingled arch- and the dormer and balcony in the roof. The material is black refuse brick, full of dark spots, Black and laid in every direction—horizontal, perpendicular, oblique, and so on—in 7 ricL black mortar; but the windows are trimmed with “ stretcher ” brick, a good brick of a warm red, but not pressed. The quality of the material appears frankly, without effort at concealment; and the ever-recurring dark ends of the burned parts give an impression of great novelty. On the south side is a very large chimney, also of refuse brick, five feet at the base, and irregular at the top. In the basement, at the rear of the house, are red brick. The shingles of the roof, the gables, and the oriels, are stained a very dark brown, almost a black, shaded up in each course from dark to light on the same shingle, and producing a finely graduated and agreeable effect, which the weather modifies almost weekly. A large uncovered piazza Uncovered of brick, with stone coping, connected by an archway with the open vestibule flu ~ za - one step higher, deserves attention, as do the tower-windows of the second story, which are very low and small. The entire height of the front is thirty- six feet thirty-eight inches. You enter directly from the open vestibule, the hall being fourteen by fifteen feet, and in two levels, the back part forming a large platform for the stairs to start from. On this platform, near the entrance to the dining-room, is a canopy of wood, on columns extending over the fireplace, and the chimney is faced with pressed brick to the ceiling. The stairs start from the left of the canopy, and are three feet six inches wide, with solid panels underneath. At their foot is a wooden seat, and opposite is the dining-room in the tower, sixteen feet by sixteen, with a round dining-table of corresponding size, made T ^J n the to suit the room. One notices the very peculiar finishing by which the mantel¬ piece and adjoining window are connected. The seat in front of the window has 20 MR. C. S. FRENCH'S HOUSE. Varied level of the floors. Decoration of the walls. has a projecting canopy, whose opening, nearly of a horseshoe shape, runs even with the mantel, its face conforming to the circular outline of the room. The dining-room, butler’s pantry, and kitchen, are on the same level with the raised platform of the hall, so that about one half of the first floor is a foot higher than the other half, the object being to give variety, at the expense, perhaps, of convenience. One is reminded of the earlier style of the coun¬ try cottage in this country, in which the visitor went down a step in going from the parlor into the dining-room, and then down another step in going from the dining-room into the kitchen, and then down another in going out¬ doors. The butler’s pantry is commodious, being seven feet ten by nine feet six, and connects with the kitchen, which is eighteen feet four by thirteen feet ten. The kitchen connects with the second story by the servants’ stairs, and with the yard by an exterior flight of steps. On the left of the hall is the parlor, fifteen feet four by seventeen, finished to correspond with it; and the door between the parlor and hall is noticeable for its small panels of cane basket-mesh. The second-story finish is also plain, and in keeping with that of the first. It is also on two levels. There are a spacious hall, three bedrooms, a bath¬ room, a sewing-room, and several closets. The bedroom over the dining-room is domed. Throughout the house the plaster is rough and tinted, and some attention has been paid to the decoration of the walls; those of the dining¬ room presenting an old blue-china effect, in white and blue, in free-hand painting; and those of the parlor being in tints of cream and gold. In fur¬ nishing his house, Mr. French has been wedded to the idea of the antique, almost all the furniture consisting of special pieces specially selected. The entire cost, including extras, was about five thousand seven hundred dollars. The principal items were as follows, and are here given because of their interest both to architects and possible clients: Mason’s contract, one thousand nine hundred and thirty-five dollars; carpenter’s contract, two thousand eight hun¬ dred and sixty-five dollars; plumber’s contract, four hundred and twenty-five dollars; heating, one hundred and fifty dollars; carpenter’s extras, sixty-five dollars; total, five thousand four hundred and forty dollars, the remaining two hundred dollars or more having been expended for the decoration of the walls. It MR. C. S. FRENCH'S HOUSE. 21 It may be added that in the third story there are one good-size bedroom and a servant’s room, and in the basement a laundry, twenty-one feet six inches third by thirteen feet six inches, with all the necessary fixtures, and opening directly into the yard. Mr. French’s intention from the first has been to cover the exterior walls of this cottage with English ivy or morning-glory, and in a short time the very striking effect of the partly blackened bricks will have disappeared. The picturesque possibilities of this treatment are altogether pleasing to contem¬ plate. GROUND PLAN. MR. ISAAC BELL’S (JR.) HOUSE. This villa, built about four years ago, at Newport, by Messrs. McKim, Meade, and White, is of a modernized colonial style, the principal feature on the east front being the double gables, in one of which is an old treat¬ ment of triple windows. Each gable is thirty-two feet wide and twenty feet high from the eaves, and faced with cut shingles ; and between them is a very elaborate leader-box of galvanized iron. There is also an elliptic window in the north gable. Three chimneys, the highest about twenty feet above the Chimneys roof, are plainly treated, though one of them has an intricately-wrought iron usith. brace, serving purposes both useful and ornamental. A glimpse of a tower on f ron S the south side also appears—but more of this further on. The windows in the gables all have small lights of glass, and above them are ornamental arches of carved wood. The second story is of shingles, and the first story of brick. The piazza, extending across the whole width of the east front, is, on the north side, octagonal and two stories high, with an open balcony on the second floor and a shingled roof, and projecting eleven feet from the main piazza line, being twenty-two feet wide in all, with a total depth of twenty-five feet. At the south side, a small, square projection, eleven feet from the main piazza line, and sixteen feet wide, runs around the south side of the house, one story high, with a shingled gable, whose roof is supported on turned posts, having small projecting brackets at the upper portion. There is an entrance to the piazza on this east side, but the main entrance is on the south. The extreme length of this south side is one hundred feet, the extreme length of the east side eighty feet, and the extreme height of the building, including the tower, fifty-two feet. By far the principal feature of the south The round r n tower. side is this tower—round, eighteen feet in diameter, of brick on the first floor, and 24 MR. ISAAC BELL'S [JR.) HOUSE. Small lights in the sashes. Piazza- columns. and shingled above. The entire first story of the house is of brick, the angles being finished with quoin-blocks of different-colored bricks. All the second story is shingled. A two-story window, with a carved wood panel between the upper and lower part, about on a line with the eaves of the main roof, constitutes a feature of the tower. All the courses of the roof have cut shingles, and there is a wrought-iron finial on the tower. At the extreme east of the south side of the house is a small octagonal bay, with turned posts at each angle, and with small lights in all the sashes. Between the bay and the tower is an ornamental panel of diamond-shaped shingles. The piazza extends along the south side, from the tower to the east end, and one also sees the upper story of a north piazza. Instead of a rail¬ ing, a brick wall receives the columns of the piazza, giving it a more sub¬ stantial appearance. In the roof are two “ winkers,” which admit of a single pane of glass each, being more for ventilation than anything else, and accom¬ plishing this object without introducing any hard lines, since they consist simply of a slight raising of the roof in two places. A noble chimney, twenty feet high and five feet wide, has a surface treated as a series of perpendicular ribs, projecting very slightly—just enough to get a simple shadow. The main entrance is on the same side—an old-fashioned split door, heavily paneled. There is a landing-step for the convenience of those about to leave their carriages. Directly over the entrance the porch-roof projects in circular shape, being supported from the piazza-columns by ornamental brackets, in order to give protection from the rain, thus answering in part the purpose of a porte-cochere. To the west the kitchen wing is lower than the main build¬ ing, and very simple in treatment, the first story of brick and the second of shingles. The roof of the house is shingled throughout. Certain aspects of the interior of Mr. Bell’s house deserve special mention. You enter a vestibule about nine feet by seven, containing an elaborate seat, and opening into the hall, thirty feet by twenty-four. At the right is a door into the reception-room, and beyond it one into the drawing-room. Directly opposite the entrance is the dining-room, and at the left of the entrance Mr. Bell’s room, and between Mr. Bell’s room and the dining-room, the staircase- hall. Considerable pains have been taken with the decoration of the main hall, while at the same time the effort has been to preserve simplicity. The finish MR. ISAAC BELLS (JB-) HOUSE. 25 finish is in oak, with a base eighteen inches high. Immediately around the fire¬ place is an extensive space of tiling, and a row of marble seats runs between the staircase and Mr. Bell’s room. The mantel is of carved wood, and on either side of the fireplace is a small window of leaded glass, while in front of it stretches a hearth five feet wide, of red tile. Opposite the staircase, eight feet wide, appears an open transom, supported on carved brackets. The cornice of the hall is very richly carved and molded, and in front of the staircase a series of doors into the drawing-room can be rolled back, thus making the entrance-opening sixteen feet wide and eight Entrance- feet high. To the right, a smaller door leads into the reception-room before "Sen feet mentioned. The dining-room doors are elaborately paneled, and a sheathed Vjide ' wainscoting eight and a half feet high gives height to the hall. A beautiful and much-carved screen, with panels of wood, separates the staircase from the fireplace, while over the fireplace the ceiling is lowered somewhat, being eight feet four inches instead of ten feet and a half, as in the main hall, in order to give a comfortably cozy look to the recess. Standing at the dining-room door, and looking toward the vestibule, the entrance to the latter appears very wide—eight feet square, with an open lattice-work transom. To the right appears the door leading into Mr. Bell’s room, and also the end of the fireplace recess, which is all tiled, with a large marble panel in the center. The dimensions of the dining-room are twenty feet by twenty-eight; it is paneled six feet high in mahogany, and above this, between the top molding of the wainscot and the cornice, are panels of rattan in the wall-spaces, and in each panel of rattan is a small square panel of perforated brass ornament—old curiosities collected by Mr. Bell. Very hand¬ some is the mahogany cornice. The ceiling is treated like the side-walls — with a mahogany border three feet wide ; separating this from the inner ceil- Mahogany ing, which is divided into square panels, is a richly carved molding; while the ceiling. ^ inner ceiling itself is laid out in squares of rattan, two feet wide, by a very light molding. There are about sixty of these rattan squares, the central one being arranged for gas-fixtures. To the right of the room, as you enter, are three windows open to the floor and out into the octagonal piazza on the east side. On the opposite side the buffet is recessed in the wall, and divided into compartments for drawers, cupboards, shelves, and so on; the doors of the 26 MR. ISAAC BELL'S (JR.) HOUSE. , Low recess w ith a marble shelf. Frieze of festoons and flowers. the lower central part being elaborately carved, and all the hardware on them and on the drawers in antique brass of hammered and cut work. Directly above the buffet the space is finished in the form of a cove, with a shelf, supported on a small wooden bracket, running the whole width. Opposite the entrance-door, the fireplace, easily the chief feature of the room, has its lower part faced with marble, and a long low recess with a marble shelf above, while higher still the mantel proper is divided into three compartments which have glass doors, with a pattern in cathedral and square beveled plate glasses, the plan being a very flat octagonal, supported by two beautifully carved and turned posts at either side of the marble facing. Two windows at either side of the mantel open out into the yard at the north, and the upper part of their trim has a small balustrade, used for holding plates. Mr. Bell’s room shows a handsome mantel of painted pine, and a tile hearth two feet wide extending as far as the windows. A double window, opposite the entrance-door, has a seat, with drawers and lockers underneath. The entire left side of the apartment is filled with bookcases four and a half feet high, also of painted pine, the lower part being fitted up with drawers and the upper part with shelves. A simple sheathed wainscoting extends from the fireplace to the window, four and a half feet high. There is a wooden cornice, and about a foot below it a picture-strip. In the drawing-room, the facing of the fire-opening is of tiles in a brass frame; above them projects the mantel-shelf proper, and higher still a beveled mirror in a handsome frame of carved wood. Below the mirror is a small shelf, supported on a number of carved brackets; and below the shelf an orna¬ mental carved frieze of festoons and ribbons. To the left of the fireplace swings the heavily-paneled door of the dining-room ; to the right a window opens out into the octagonal piazza. There is a base about two feet high, with its upper portion fluted ; also a wooden cornice and picture-strip, between which runs a painted frieze of garlands and flowers, about a foot wide. Two windows, cut to the floor, open upon the east piazza opposite the entrance from the hall, and are five feet wide; while, opposite the fireplace, the trim of the sliding doors into the reception-room consists of a projecting cornice of about six inches, supported on light carved brackets, there being also a small balustrade on the cornice itself. The wall-spaces are in silk 5 the wood-work throughout MR. ISAAC BELL'S {JR.) MOUSE. 27 throughout is pine, painted in white and gold. It may be added that painting is more common now than three years ago, when the rage was for “ wood- fillers ” and natural woods. Particularly in parlors and bedrooms, light effects Light are desired, but the rich dark tones of mahogany and oak are still considered parlors. suitable for dining-rooms and halls. Mr. Bell’s reception-room has a tiled opening, with a brass rim around its fireplace, and the mantel-shelf is handsomely carved, while the mantel extends up to the height of the picture-strip, and is of wood. There is a base fifteen inches high, and the space between the picture-strip and cornice is a painted frieze of leaf-work. The cost of the house was about seventy-five thousand dollars. GROUND PLAN. MR. JOHN W. BURGESS’S HOUSE. One of the most interesting views in New Jersey is that from the balcony of Mr. John W. Burgess’s house on Munn Avenue, East Orange. Directly to the west are the wooded Orange Mountains; in front, the towers of New York city and the slope of Bergen Hill ; while to the south the eye stretches along a beautiful and cultivated valley, and to the north the vision terminates in the heights of Englewood. The first story is built of pressed brick, and the second story has a gable treatment, with a roof of Chapman slate from the Pennsylvania quarries. The question as to which is better, slate Slate or or shingles, has nevertheless been decided by the architect, Mr. W. Halsey slungles ' Wood, in favor of shingles, since they are neither so hot in summer nor so cold in winter, and besides are more durable and less likely to permit leakage after a strong wind. The entire length of Mr. Burgess’s house, including the piazza and porte-cochere , is ninety-six feet, and the depth about fifty feet. The piazza extends along the entire front, and returns on the south side in the form of an octagon, the width being fourteen feet in front and nineteen feet on the side, keeping the sun from striking the house, which looks toward the east. One is attracted, first of all, in passing Mr. Burgess’s house, by the long balcony-piazza of the second story. This is covered with canvas, in order to keep the rays of the sun from heating the surface, and from reflecting into the bedrooms which open in casements on it. So much better is this canvas Canvas than tin that one wonders it is not oftener used for a similar purpose. It is b ^ ert}ian pleasant to walk upon, and when, as in the present instance, covered with four coats of paint, makes a large roof in front of the bedroom windows prac¬ ticable. Think of the glare and stare and heat of a tin roof fourteen feet wide, in summer ! — and a shingled roof would not be suitable for a promenade. One 3° MR. JOHN W. BURGESS'S HOUSE. One feels, when walking on Mr. Burgess’s balcony floor, almost as if on the deck of a steamer ; and the architect has taken special pains that the promenade shall be made under the most favorable conditions, while, at the same time, the bedrooms which open out upon the balcony are protected from the re¬ flected heat. The cost of the canvas covering is even less than that of tin. The view of Mr. Burgess’s house, given in this portfolio, shows some im- Decorative portant decorative panels in solid relief on the facade, their texture being the facade, somewhat like that of Lincrusta Walton, only rather more plaster than paper, and their modeling being in free Italian style. They are of good size—one of them four by six feet, and the other, including the window, eight by twelve feet; and the architect has added to their decorative strength by causing them to be painted in four coats, and then tinted in bronze and gold. In this way the sculpture and the color combine to produce the effect, and almost the first thing noticed by the passer-by is these decorative panels of modeled and painted plaster. The free Italian style suits admirably the purposes for which they were intended, being entirely conventional and without literary import. At the rear of this house a servants’ court, so to speak, has been formed by erecting stone walls, against which the ground has been terraced. The inclosure so made is open to the sky, and about fifty feet square, and adjoins the kitchen and laundry, which are in the basement. It has been made pos¬ sible by the fact that the ground slants toward the west, and has been improved in appearance by the large, bold rock-face. Within this area, also, vines and flower-pots are to be found, all of them out-doors and in favorable circum¬ stances for growth. One seldom sees the declivity of a site more happily disposed of for building purposes. Octagon The octagon tower breaks the roof on the southeast corner, but otherwise tawer ' the breaks are simply bold gables. Especial attention should be directed to a fact of prime importance, namely, that the system of plumbing has been developed entirely on the outside of the building, where all the pipes are in plain sight, and therefore able at any time to be examined or repaired. Being gilded and decorated with wrought-iron ornamentation, they detract nothing from the general effect, but rather add to it; and the excellence of their position from a sanitary point of view is beyond all praise. Persons who live in this house are absolutely free from the dangers incident MR. JOHN W. BURGESS'S HOUSE. incident to leaking sewer-pipes; and, in order to carry out the scheme in per¬ fection, even the brass pipes in the kitchen are exposed. In fact, everything in the plumbing is visible—nothing is concealed; and there is no possible chance for foul air to escape into the building. Mr. Wood, the architect, has insisted with much earnestness upon the adoption and execution of this scheme in the interest of health, and has been able to develop it without detriment to the sesthetic value of his work. Perhaps no suburban house in the neighborhood of New York city has been so laboriously and persistently arranged with a view to the impossibility of the entrance of deadly gases ; and, in harmony with this general plan, the sewage has been disposed of according to the Waring system, by which a net-work of many pipes has been laid three or four feet below the surface of the ground, so as to distribute the waste matter toward the grape-arbors at the end of the lot. It is the foul air that you do not notice that kills you, say the sanitarians. If you did notice it, you would stop it, but, when blown into the windows of your house from the cesspools of your own and adjoining yards, its deleterious effects are most to be dreaded; you do not perceive it, but it is there all the same. The system of disposing of sewage-matter adopted in Mr. Burgess’s yard, and generally in Orange, is said to be very successful, and the next best thing to regular sewer-pipes. All the brick-work of Mr. Burgess’s house has been made water-proof by the use of paraffine matter burned into the brick to the depth of one quarter of an inch—and this is another item of special interest. It was noticed a short time ago, by an architect who was examining a brick house in Newark, New Jersey, that in many places the action of the frost upon the moisture in the porous brick, particularly on that side of the house which was exposed to the east wind, had resulted very much as the action of bugs and other vermin does in old chests of wood. The surface of the brick had become rotten, and was ready to peel off in scales, and, in some places where the wall was as much as twelve inches thick, had been perforated by the action of the frost upon the moisture, even beyond the space between two walls, leaving its conse¬ quences upon the inner wall also. The owner of the house was minded to spend four thousand dollars upon paraffine matter, which acts as a Jixatif for the peeling slices of the brick, and also preserves its warm red color abso- Visible ■plumbing. Action of frost on brick. 32 MR. JOHN W. BURGESS'S HOUSE. perforated walls. Italian mantel. lutely, while in addition preventing the appearance of the white salt and other stainings that so often disfigure brick walls. The brick becomes no longer porous, the water runs off as from a tin roof, the action of the frost is pre¬ vented, and the danger of discoloration removed. Some architects go so far as to say that their experience shows that, in a climate like ours, brick houses are even more liable to dissolution than brown-stone fronts, and that in order to preserve them for any length of time they must be cured with paraffine, and not only they, but their joints as well. Few persons who have not examined the effect of the action of the weather in this latitude upon the surface of ordinary bricks would suppose that it could be so disastrous. There are houses not far from New York city in the walls of which you could easily make a hole large enough to admit a man, by simply using a knife or a trowel. The interior is finished, in the basement, the second story, and the third, in ash, but the first story entirely in sycamore, a comparatively new wood for this purpose, with a very rich-figured grain, and subject to all kinds of tints when staining. It is more generally known as the button-ball wood, and is hard and durable, and, when oiled and rubbed down to a dead polish, pre¬ sents a pleasing appearance. None of the wood in the interior of Mr. Bur¬ gess’s house has been painted. We note next the mantel in the drawing-room, where the finishing is in strictly Italian style, with arched and alcoved niches in very light tints. The specialty of the mantel consists in the fact that it is entirely of glass, cast in a metallic frame, and backed with quicksilver, so that the whole mantel in its various parts, as they follow the designs of the framework, is a series of mirrors, which reflect the library and the hall beyond them, and particularly the chandelier of oxidized silver and crystal. In the dining-room a large canopy hood, five feet by eight, projecting from the chimney-breast near the ceiling-line, is suspended by a wrought-iron chain from the ceiling; and below it the entire treatment of the mantel is in majolica-work, with relief-panels of hammered bronze, the mantel itself being in bronze and tiles. The size and pattern of the hood are notable enough to attract attention, and its presence is due to the efforts made in old Swiss houses to keep the smoke from soiling the ceiling. Each room has a special mantel MK. JOHN W. BURGESS'S HOUSE. 33 mantel of its own, relieving the monotony, in color and tone, of the syca¬ more finish. The general treatment of the plan of the house is a square, with a hall in the center and liberal rooms on either side. On the first land¬ ing of the stairs, the guest is confronted by a large and very beautiful stained- glass window, made by Mr. Charles Booth, of London—one of his best things —very delicate in design and tone, in Italian style, the subject being Hospi¬ tality, and representing three figures—two children at the feet of a woman, enriched with garlands of flowers, pouring out wine and offering fruit, the chief tints being soft grays, the warm color being reserved mainly for the figures. This window is a distinct source of pleasure. The cost of the house was about thirty-three thousand dollars. Stained- glass window. GROUND PLAN. MR. F. C. GEIGER’S HOUSE. This cottage is situated on Central Avenue, in East Orange, New Jersey, between Munn Avenue and Harrison Street. Its material in the first story is mountain trap-rock, from the Orange Mountain, three miles away, laid in rock- Mountain faced irregular ashlar. The windows and doors are finished at the openings ^ "" L in warm red brick, and the general effect is one of solidity, simplicity, and comfort. The entrance-steps are single slabs of rubbed blue-stone, as also are the trimmings. The covered piazza of wood is shingled underneath down to the ground. Going through the archway, an open piazza is encountered at the right, extending to the end of the building, inclosed with a parapet-wall, and tiled. The openings of the first story are arched throughout, namely, the win¬ dows, the entrance, and the piazza, giving a special rich, rounded effect. The second story is of wood, entirely shingled, and stained a creosote, so that the building has none of the raw appearance of youth. The lines of the large gable in front are carried directly down over the piazza that forms the roof of the same, giving the characteristic effect, without broken results. This, indeed, is the chief feature of the front elevation of Mr. Geiger’s house— which is rich in lines rather than in details, the effect being obtained from the Rich in lines of roof, gables, and tower, rather than from detailed ornament. Below the large gable, the front bedroom is built out with a smaller gable- on the right side of it are two eye-windows, and on the left appears a small circular window. The simplicity and value of the lineal treatment are carried out in the plain lines of the brackets, which are shingled under the eaves, but without detail. The roof is shingled, like the sides. Viewed from the northwest, the most striking phenomena are the tower and T * I i (U ... Parapet- wall. 36 AH?, a; C. GETCEK’S house. and chimney, the latter of warm red brick with panels of buff brick, the lines of the house being carried across the chimney in shingled bands. There is no parapet-wall on this elevation, and no balcony. The leaders have enriched box-heads of galvanized iron, and all the chimneys present marked artistic features, and are of red brick, with panels of buff brick. To add to the general round effect produced by the arching of the win¬ dows and the front door, the corners of the house are rounded, and the archi¬ tect has introduced no sharp angles anywhere. You enter a tiled vestibule, practically a continuation of the open piazza with the parapet-wall, and under the arch, into an inner vestibule, and thence into a hall twenty feet by twelve. The stairs, directly in front of the entrance at the back of the hall, are entirely inclosed underneath with ash, in panels, being themselves of ash. You enter the library, fourteen feet by fifteen, at an angle, to the left. The main chimney is in the middle of the house and triangular in shape, giving the fireplace to the hall, the library, and the dining-room. The hearths are tiled, and semicircular. The library is connected with the dining-room (nineteen feet by thirteen) and with the hall by sliding doors. The staircase and mantels are entirely of ash, but the rest of the wood-work is of pine, filled and stained. Octagon¬ shaped piazza. The dining-room and library open on to the veranda by hinged panel-backs under the windows, and the veranda is octagon-shaped at the northeast corner. It may be noted here that, in order to give a connected effect to the whole, the sides of the steps are formed with the same rock-faced finish as the house itself. The drawing-room, fourteen feet by eighteen, is to the right of the hall, and connected with it by double sliding doors. Its fireplace is in the west chimney, already mentioned, and opposite the door leading into the hall. Standing in front of it, the fireplace of the hall is seen, and the visitor has a view through the dining-room also—that is to say, the entire width of the house, which, though small, appears of good size on account of the ease with which the principal rooms on the first floor may be thrown into one. While ascending the stairs, one may stop at the first landing and take a look into the library, and out of its front window j into the vestibule and out into the street: MR. F C. GEIGER'S HOUSE. 37 street; into the drawing-room and through its window; into the dining-room and across the piazza; and to the hall-fireplace. The kitchen is built in an extension, and the bath-room above it, giving those parts of the house an excellent ventilation, with three sides to the open air. The butler’s pantry, between the kitchen and dining-room, occupies a position convenient and useful for keeping out the odors of the kitchen. The ground plan is simple, and mostly in squares. The leading general feature e the ground of Mr. Geiger’s house is the simplicity of the lines of contour, which, without flan in squares. straining after effect, seem to have grown there, gradually working themselves up to the culminating point like those of a hill, and thus giving an air of comfort and ease, as if to the manner born. One so often sees houses where little dormers have been stuck in here and there, simply to break the lines of the roof, without serving any useful purpose; but in Mr. Geiger’s house there is not a single line that has not an object. The cost is about six thousand dollars, and the architect Mr. William Halsey Wood. GROUND PLAN. MR. THEODORE F. WOOD’S HOUSE. Mr. Theodore F. Wood’s house, on Highland Avenue, Orange, New Jer¬ sey, represents some characteristics of the best examples of modern English architecture. It cost about twelve thousand dollars, but could not be rebuilt for fifteen thousand. The first story is of brown-stone, with rock-face and irregu¬ lar ashlar; thence the building is shingled to the roof, which also is shingled. The southeast elevation becomes conspicuous for having no bay, the one plain facade being broken by the recessed laundry at the right. The porch rises at the left of the center, and the piazza terminates at the extreme left. Above the porch a balcony appears, carried on two heavy shingled brackets. The first- story windows of the library and dining-room are arched, that of the dining- Arched room being particularly notable, eight feet wide and five feet six inches high, with an elliptic arch, and small lights in the upper sashes. In the lower part of the left hall-window, which is double, a panel takes the place of the sash, owing to the staircase within. Two laundry-windows, small and high, with small lights, give a certain seclusion to that place; and at the extreme right appears the back piazza, extending across the building, and covered by the roof of the principal front gable, which thereby forms a long line that constitutes a desirable feature. On the second story, to the extreme right, an octagonal bay-window grows out of the cornice and is carried to the ridge of the piazza roof, with high windows on the cut-off sides. Over the porch, a semicircular-headed window, with a large mullion, opens down to the balcony. Under the principal gable a group of windows attracts attention, of which the middle one is high and wide, with a heavily molded sill for flowers outside. The gabled main roof Features has two features in front—a small double dormer, with an arched opening between the two dormers forming a small balcony and revealing between their roofs r * MR. THEODORE F WOOD'S HOUSE. roofs a low ornamental railing; and the gable over the dining-room part of the house, which slightly projects, and is carried on brackets, thereby throwing a deep shadow. The upper part of the gable curves out, forming a hood over the third-story double window. The southwest elevation is first seen on the approach from the railway station, and has on the extreme left a piazza which runs the entire length into an octagonal extension, and on the extreme right a square gabled extension. Upper These two extensions have each parapet-walls of stone. In the second story stories. is a square bay at the left, growing out from the rear facade, and at the right the octagonal bay, before mentioned, while between them the wall is recessed, forming a covered balcony. The third story presents a bold gable to the street, from which projects the roof of the octagonal bay. All the windows on this elevation have small square lights in the upper sashes. The northwest or rear elevation becomes interesting by reason of its two gables finishing on a band of wavy shingles, which runs all around the house, and forms the main cornice. As in the gable in front, the windows of the left gable are grouped with a high center window. The second-story square bay-windows at the right are all high, with small square lights, and the projecting gable of the bay-window is supported on brackets. Both the chimneys are solid in appearance, with terra-cotta panels, and unusually wide—five feet by four feet six. The entire front is sixty-one feet long, without the piazzas, and thirty-two feet eight inches wide. There are two stories, a splendid cellar, and an attic floor. The combination of square and rounded or partly rounded forms adds a wholesome variety to the appearance of the principal front, which is not all square like a Druidical trilithon, nor all rounded like the monument of Lysic- Faluable rates. Especially valuable is the effect produced by the contrast of the hardy and rugged lines of the parapet-walls, which give a feeling of strength without weakening the sense of domesticity. Since rocks are naturally rough, angular, and marked by strong contrasts, their features serve very well in these parapet- walls, which express strength, as opposed to the elegance and beauty of curves. Mr. James Brown Lord, the architect, has gained strength also by his frequent square forms in windows, so that, when he uses arches, their thrust and press¬ ure do not seem to be tearing the building apart, and one does not object to them as do the Hindoos, “ because they never sleep.” The MR. THEODORE F. WOOD'S HOUSE. The hall, sixteen feet by fourteen, with a hat-closet under the stairway, opens into the dining-room at the right, sixteen feet by fourteen, with all the corners cut off, there being a fireplace in one corner, a small window in the other, and china-closets in the third and fourth, with glass doors and small panes, in keeping with the mantel. The light comes from an immense win¬ dow, eight feet wide, which shows square on the inside, although the outside is arched, and the spandrels of which, inside, hold mirrors that produce an open effect. To the left of the hall, the library, twelve feet seven by fifteen feet six, has an octagonal bay, and French windows opening out to the piazza. The opening thence into the parlor has no door, but only a spindle-work screen with portieres. The parlor, eighteen feet six by fourteen feet six, has one corner enlarged into a commodious bay, which contains high windows with Parlor window-seats, while between the bay and the parlor is a spindle-work screen. wLkw. It has also a French window opening into the piazza, and communicates di¬ rectly with the main hall, where the main stairs run up to the second story. In the back hall the stairs run from the cellar to the third story. From the rear of the main hall is a passage to the butler’s pantry, seven feet ten by eleven, to the dining-room and to the kitchen. The latter room, fourteen feet six by twelve feet eight, opens into a laundry eight feet six by ten feet eleven, and also into a back piazza seven feet wide, which runs the entire width of the laundry and the kitchen. The wood-work of the hall is oak, with a high wainscoting, the sides of the stairs being paneled and the ceiling treated with false beams running crosswise. The carved mantel has a central mirror with two small shelves on each side, one above the other, and small square mirrors above them. The wood-work of the dining-room is also oak, with a wainscoting five feet high fPood- of molded battens planted on the plaster, forming irregular panels, and finish- dining- ing with a chair-rail. A large bracketed shelf on the mantel supports two ^ small cupboards, with glass doors cut up in small lights, the center part between the cupboards being a mirror also cut up in small lights. The library has been finished in mahoganized cherry, with a wainscoting like that of the hall, and a mantel having two mirrors of beveled glass, and, in addition to the ordinary shelf, a high shelf supported on three carved brackets. The parlor is in pine, painted in cream picked out in gold. It has no wainscoting, 42 MR. THEODORE F WOOD’S HOUSE. wainscoting, but the mantel is very beautiful, its lower part having two square fluted columns supporting the shelf, which are continued to the cornice, in¬ closing a circular mirror of beveled glass, with carved spandrels, and five small square mirrors of beveled glass on each side of it. All the moldings are richly carved and picked out in gold. There are a chair-rail and a picture-molding. The second story is in painted pine. The architect, Mr. James Brown Lord, has built recently an interesting house and very important stable for Mr. J. W. Goddard, at Litchfield, Connecticut, and a cottage at Short Hills for Mr. John Farr. MR. LYMAN C. JOSEPHS’S HOUSE. It has been said that in America we have no inheritance of ruins and no embarrassments of tradition, and are free from historical prejudice ; that we are therefore in a position to appreciate earnest and honest effort •, but it is forgotten that the embarrassments of tradition have been preserved for us in Old- . . World books, and that, in lieu of ruins in our own country, we are constantly going traditions to the Old World to study the ruins there. Until within four or five years, this practice, together with the utter lack of self-confidence, has resulted in a failure to establish a native style of architecture; and if to-day we are entering upon a distinctive creative epoch of our own, the fact is due to the dawning emancipation from those embarrassments of tradition. One could hardly have said, however, as was said ten years ago by a well-known architect, that the history of this country shows that we have made the largest and most catholic use of European precedents, while at the same time these adopted forms have sensibly submitted in greater or less degree to practical and social conditions, and thus have created certain local peculiarities of form or style. It is true that certain forms peculiar to ourselves, and capable of a higher degree of artistic development, have been produced j but it has become true to a notable extent only within the last four or five years. No candid observer can deny that in very recent years the American archi¬ tect has succeeded in convincing the best of his clients that, even in so small a thing as a stable, beauty may be produced sufficiently to arouse the artistic instinct that lies dormant in perhaps every soul. Nor can it be gainsaid independ¬ ent the influence of the architect upon his client has increased in direct ratio ‘architect with the progress of the new epoch in which we are living ; and that to-day a person who wants a house built has less disposition to dictate to his archi¬ tect on questions of taste than he had five years ago. The fact that no artist 44 MR. LYMAN C. JOSEPHS'S HOUSE. Beauty in architect¬ ure not necessarily costly. Symmetry in Greek architect¬ ure. can work to advantage under dictation of any sort, other than that of his own artistic instinct, is appreciated by more persons in this country than ever before; and the presence of so many truly beautiful villas and cottages in the suburbs of our cities has done much to bring about this desirable result. The archi¬ tect has actually begun to convince the public that a thing of beauty may be erected with as little money as a thing of ugliness—and in many instances with less money, because of the absence of the abhorrent fripperies that might otherwise have fringed it. He has shown by demonstration that a simple, effective, comfortable, and artistic cottage may be erected for, say four thouand dollars, which shall produce upon the spectator precisely the influence of a piece of Greek statuary or a theme of classic music ; that, in a word, the effect of beauty is not dependent upon quantity; and that in little things, in modest dwellings, as well as in more ostentatious abodes, the beauty that is a joy forever may have a local habitation and a name. In doing this he has become an apostle of civilization, and has made his appeal to what is noblest and purest in the human heart. He has demonstrated the educatory capacity of the public, and has put himself in a position where he finds a fulcrum for his lever. In proportion as he has made his client respect him, he has made his art respected; and in proportion as he has built up the waste places on principles of beauty, he has entitled himself to the meed of the good citizen, who is a benefactor of his race. If the Greek artist admitted symmetry, he did not allow it to enslave him. Hundreds of cases might be shown from the annals of ancient art to illustrate this point. Especially in the Greek temple, where the architrave-stones are required to carry a heavier weight than others, he felt entirely free to disobey the laws of symmetry by increasing the diameter of the columns so weighted, and by grouping them nearer together than are others in a corresponding part of the edifice. A slavish adherence to the laws of symmetry would have pre¬ vented such an arrangement; but the architect cared more for common sense than for academic formula. Again, in the case of the Acropolis at Athens, everybody understands how freely these laws of symmetry were violated, and how almost capricious was the work of the architect, unless considered with reference to the ruling spirit of his design. It is a great day for the architect when he enters into a vital apprehension of the freedom of Greek art. He may MR. LYMAN C. JOSEPHS'S HOUSE. 45 may have studied Greek ruins for a lifetime without once having tasted its joys. In building this house, the architect had to contend with a site almost en¬ tirely uninhabited, and, by using a plan in which the barn, instead of being a separate structure, was added directly to the house, he obtained the effect of great length at comparatively small cost. This idea, of course, has long been well known in Belgium and other European countries, and there is a certain Flemish feeling in part of the general scheme of this beautiful villa. Another Use of point to be especially noted is the fact that the stones used for the foundation Zorn and first story were all gathered off the ground, where they had long served * the useful purpose of a wall, and where also they had become finely colored with rich and deep grays and other tints by the hand of Time. In this manner Mr. Clarence S. Luce, the architect, obtained some of the choicest effects of tone which make the house, although only two years old, reflect the charms of many years. Nothing could be simpler than the outline of the first floor. You enter by an archway on the north side and find yourself in a veranda which entirely surrounds Mrs. Josephs’s sitting-room and the drawing¬ room. The principal outside door is at the left of the drawing-room, and opens into a hall finished in stained ash, which, at the right, opens into the library, fitted in California redwood, like the parlor and sitting-room. Beyond the library is the dining-room, also in California redwood, furnished with plenty of pantry-room, and all other modern conveniences in the way of closets. This brings us to the end of the house proper, where we are con¬ fronted by an archway that extends entirely across its width, and serves to divide the stable from the house, and also for ventilation. In order still fur¬ ther to purify the air, a tower has been erected, which is as ornamental as it is useful. The servants’ quarters are directly above the carriage-room and the stalls. No inconvenience whatever from the advent of unwelcome odors from the stable has been experienced, although this is the first house in that region to exhibit the idea of living under the same roof with the cattle. The ailantus-tree in front of the main piazza, together with the old- fashioned well near it, give unusual picturesqueness. Nothing like them can be seen elsewhere in Newport. The effect of the house from the garden in the rear is interesting chiefly for the lines of the corner above the ventilating arch. +6 MR. LYMAN C. JOSEPHS'S HOUSE. Cost, of building. arch. The architect set out with the simple intention of giving what Mr. Josephs wanted, and at a moderate cost. There is not a freak in the building anywhere. Everything is frank, candid, and rational. To provide a comfort¬ able home by using the weather-toned old stones of the stern and rock-bound coast was the sole purpose. This he has done at a cost of precisely ten thou¬ sand two hundred dollars. The length of the building is one hundred and fifty feet, the width thirty-seven feet, and the style a modified old colonial, the tower being the only original feature. This tower is octagonal, about thirty-five and a half feet high. Mr. Josephs has been living here since the summer of 1883. The plan has the further advantage of getting servants’ rooms in a two-story house, and not being incommoded by them. GROUND PLAN. MR. CHARLES A. POTTER’S HOUSE. To what extent sculpture may be used in architecture is a matter of no doubt whatever, if we consider the fundamental law that the merely decora¬ tive shall be subservient to that of which it is a decoration. All classic work exemplifies the operation of this law, and the sculptures on a Greek temple never alter a single one of the architectural outlines. These remain intact, no matter to what extent the decoration is carried ; and the Greek architects have exemplified the principle in their works a hundred times, no one of them show¬ ing the slightest disposition to exalt decorative sculpture above architectural out¬ line. It is the old principle of inherent fitness, or, if we choose, of natural necessity, that the whole must be greater than a part. Architecture must deal ArcUtect- with form, and whatever interferes with the unity and harmony of a form must Zithfom. be discarded, however beautiful it may be in itself. So conversant were the Greeks with this principle, that they preferred the nude in sculpture, save where the proprieties of the occasion demanded to be considered. The early statues of Venus were draped, because of the requirements of religious worship; but when the sense of religion became less acute, as in the time of Pericles, mere ecclesi¬ astical considerations were ineffective. One of the most sterling traits of the American Renaissance is the restraint which the architect has imposed upon himself in the matter of decorative sculpture. The student of architecture knows that the chateau of the middle ages was much more like the mansions of Greece and Rome in their prime than like the mansions of the most civilized nations in more recent centuries; and the chief source of difference was the consistency with which the architect of the middle ages respected the fundamental law of adaptation to needs, and j f un d a - the diligence with which he applied it. He thought less of academic formulas than of making a house comfortable as a place of residence and charming as an object f 4 8 MR. CHARLES A. POTTER'S HOUSE. Precepts of philoso- fkj. Principles of grada¬ tion. an object of sight. The artistic instinct was alive within him, and even in those dark ages he had a clientele which sustained his hands. Those for whom he built knew what they wanted, and knew a beautiful thing when they saw it. Until the American public, or that part of it which proposes to build houses, has attained a similar delectable state, the future of the architect will be clouded ; but, as we have said elsewhere, there are already signs of a dawn. M. Viollet-le-Duc has undertaken to classify the principles of architecture by adopting the certain precepts of philosophy laid down by Descartes. The first principle is, never to receive anything for truth which does not clearly and distinctly recommend itself to the mind as such. For instance, it is true that a very long, high, and wide room should have larger windows than a short, low, and narrow one; and the contrary of this is untrue. It is true that a portico is intended as a shelter, and therefore the relations between its height and width should be such as to protect the promenader from die sun, the wind, and the rain. The contrary of this is untrue. It is true that a col¬ umn is intended for a support ; it is therefore absurd to use it as a mere piece of decoration, like a frieze or an arabesque. Descartes’s second precept is to divide one’s subject into as many heads as it is capable of, in order that its difficulties may be the more easily solved. In other words, analysis is the pre¬ requisite to synthesis. The application of this precept to architecture is suf¬ ficiently obvious. The third precept consists in so ordering our thoughts that, beginning with the most simple and comprehensible objects, we may gradually ascend to the contemplation and understanding of the most complex, assuming a regular order of induction in those subjects which do not seem naturally so to arrange themselves. The last precept of his philosophic mode of study is always to make such thorough and comprehensive reviews of one’s studies as to prevent the possibility of omitting or not giving due weight to any of the considerations which bear upon them. As M. Viollet-le-Duc justly says, the architect, in decorating, should never lose sight of these principles of gradation and subordination, for, clothe a deformed man as you will, you can never give him a noble bearing. But, to many minds, the precepts of Descartes have the air of “ Poor Richard’s ” maxims, and are rather too general of application and too moralizing in tendency to fill the profounder requisitions of the case. The laws of architecture are simply generalizations from the best architectural works, and MR. CHARLES A. POTTER'S HOUSE. 49 and no one need fear that his style will become too academic if, while study¬ ing the triumphs of the past ages, he fills his soul with the thoughts of the great authors of them, and allows their inspiration to be, what inspiration always should be, a re-enforcement of the man. These principles are illustrated in Mr. Potter’s house. Somewhat Flemish in character, long and low, presenting the long side to the front, fifty feet, by eighteen feet wide, the ground-floor of brick, and the second story hung with tiles, Mr. Charles A. Potter’s house is one of the feat¬ ures of Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. The entrance is an open terrace, flanked on each side with brick parapets, the house overhanging a portion of the terrace, under which is a commodious settle, looking out from beneath an arch. A Dutch door opens into the vestibule, which leads into the large hall of irregular shape. There are, in fact, two halls—a stairway-hall and a living- hall, divided by an archway, and finished in stained pine. The living-hall opens into the parlor, which has a recessed fireplace, and a bay with settles, its wood-work being lightly painted with black, so as to give the appearance of charred wood — an effect quite unique and at the same time accidental, the black having been put on as a primary coat, and having looked so well that it was allowed to stay. The stairway-hall opens into the dining-room, and thence into the kitchen through a back hall and pantry. One notices that the newel-posts are carried up to the ceiling with brackets thrown in between them, the idea being to give an effect of continuity of design, as if the stairway were a vital part of a vital whole, and not a mere addendum. In the rear of the house is a long veranda, and here also the effect is special and interesting, Mr. Eyre never placing his verandas in front of the building, but always behind, because they are considered to be places for lounging and for taking one’s ease, and there¬ fore for withdrawal from the public gaze. In Mr. Potter’s house, moreover, the veranda is covered by a part of the main roof of the building, so as to be a constituent element of the design. The spectator notices also another im¬ portant fact which influences the general effect, namely, that the overhangs are very deep, and produce heavy shadows. This is true both of the front and of the rear. The gable over the entrance-door is filled with stucco, modeled by Mr. Terrace and para¬ pets. Verandas in the rear. 50 MR. CHARLES A. POTTER'S HOUSE. Boyle, the sculptor, in free Italian renaissance, introducing two figures which have a decorative rather than a literary import. Immediately under them, a sun-dial, worked in plaster, throws a dark shadow upon the numerals. Every passer-by notices this sculpture and sun-dial. The front of the house also con¬ tains a string of four windows divided by caryatides, a balcony under one of the three gables, and an eye-window in the roof. There is no paint on either outside or inside of Mr. Potter’s house, the wood-work being merely stained, so as to show the grain. The cost is about twelve thousand dollars, and the architect, Mr. Wilson Eyre. GROUND PLAN. MR. GEORGE W. FOLSOM’S HOUSE. Residents of the Berkshire Hills are very fond of circulating an enthusi¬ astic description of their beauties, which declares that t{ the pens of Bryant and Catherine Sedgwick early made it their favorite theme, and that in later years Holmes and Longfellow, Hawthorne, Melville, and Thoreau have invested it with their genius. Within its limits lie Monument Mountain, Icy Glen, the Stockbridge Bowl, Green River, October Mountain, and a thousand other scenes of storied or unsung loveliness. Bounding the valley on the north, from in¬ numerable points of view, the double peaks of Grey lock rise majestically three thousand five hundred feet into the air—the mountain summit of the Com¬ monwealth. Along its western borders, in curves of marvelous grace, lie the dome-like hills of the Taghconic range. Less graceful in outline, but even more romantic, with broken and precipitous ascents, wild glens and tumbling brooks, the Hoosac shuts out the world upon the east. Within this mountain- walled amphitheatre lies cradled the upland valley of the Housatonic, with its fertile farms, its mansion homes, its frequent villages. If the traveler seeks some object for a day’s or a week’s wonder, some tremendous cataract or heaven-piercing Cordillera, he must look elsewhere j but if he asks a retreat among wild and picturesque scenery, adorned by much that is pleasant and refined in his city life, but far removed from its heat and turmoil, where Nature ennobles by her greatness but never chills with a frown, he may find it all amid the varied beauty of the Berkshire Hills.” This description, enthusiastic though it be, has many details which the traveler in the picturesque region of the Berkshire Hills will not fail to recog¬ nize, even though his soul be not tuned to the full diapason. Particularly in the neighborhood of Lenox are the natural beauties of a rare and command¬ ing quality. Lenox itself, built upon the brow and sloping sides of a hill, is surrounded T he Berkshire country. 52 MR. GEORGE W. FOLSOM'S HOUSE. surrounded entirely by more or less distant mountains, with intervening lakes, Lenox. forests, glades, glens, and vales. Nature seems to have protected it, while at the same time elevating it; but in summer the breezes always blow, and in winter one of the oldest residents maintains that often the temperature is twenty-five degrees higher than in the valley two miles away—a result which he explains by the fact that cold air descends, while hot air rises, and there¬ fore the valley has a greater weight of it than the hill-top. Of course, he adds that in the case of the snow-clad Alps, and other lofty mountains, the conditions change, as indeed they do when approaching the sun itself—a jour¬ ney which would soon freeze the traveler. The people of Lenox, who justly become more enthusiastic than any of their neighbors in the Berkshire Hills, are in the habit of saying that there is only one Lenox. Its situation is certainly unique, and there are so many drives, both by-roads and main roads, down the slopes toward Stockbridge on the south and Pittsfield on the north, that each day the visitor can treat himself to fresh scenery. Three lakes lie nestled at the foot of the hill, and the view in many cases extends thirty miles. Lenox has not yet been “built up”; its houses are sometimes miles apart, and it preserves to the fullest extent its rural charm. The advent of New- Yorkers and Bostonians is marked by the erection of many very beautiful and costly cottages and villas, so that within a few years the place has come to rival even Newport and Manchester-by-the-Sea in the novelty and effective¬ ness of its architecture. Just now several elegant new villas are being erected, notably one for Mr. William B. Sloane, by Messrs. Peabody and Stearns, the site for which consists of one hundred acres of hill-side, with a fine view of three lakes and scores of mountains, costing fifty thousand dollars for the land alone. Early Mr. Folsom’s house is known as a representative of the “ Early English ” architect- style, but the phrase is somewhat obscure. There are still in England many examples of purely classic art, which dates back as far as the middle of the sixteenth century, in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, and is said to have been intro¬ duced by John of Padua; for both in England and in France the Italian architects of those days found an opportunity for exercising their gifts simul¬ taneously with the English architect, who at that time was simply a master mason. When King James began to rule, the classic style had already become firmly MR. GEORGE W. FOLSOM'S HOUSE. 53 firmly fixed, partly, no doubt, owing to the influence of the revived study of the works of Greece and Rome. English gentlemen who read Horace and iEschylus in the original were fond of posing as amateur architects, after a study of the work of Vitruvius. Nevertheless, the general principles of con¬ struction still remained English, and the presence of such classic features as the moldings, the columns, and the entablature, was for ornamental reasons, and without prejudice to the unity of the prevailing idea; so that the Eliza¬ bethan and Jacobean styles, although containing many suggestions of the classic era, were themselves very far from classic; and when Inigo Jones, who flour- Inigo ished about the beginning of the seventeenth century, began to make his influence felt, the architecture which he introduced with much boldness was in every sense both a novelty and a surprise. A more enthusiastic believer in the art of which he was a master could not have been found even in Italy itself, where, by the way, he had long been a faithful student of classic archi¬ tecture. One of his most beautiful examples, which until very recently remained untouched by the hand of the restorer, is the celebrated landing-place on the Thames, known as York Gate, containing a collection of arches, through the central one of which the descent is made to the water’s edge. He was careful to preserve the principle of symmetry, which the Gothic architects deemed so unimportant, but which their classic predecessors considered essential to the true dignity of a structure. He never apprehended the Gothic principle of allowing the exterior of a house to adjust itself in correspondence with its interior needs — a principle to which Mr. C. C. Haight, in all his adaptations of the Early English style, is strictly loyal. Mr. Haight may be said to have adapted to American uses some traits still to be found in many pleasant houses of England which, like Mr. Folsom’s, are built of wood. This villa is long and low, showing several gables toward the street, with an abundance of veranda- room, and is of additional interest as a reconstruction of an old house which formerly stood on the site, but of which no traces now appear. The beauty of this site is well known to all visitors at Lenox — on the Beauty of slope of a hill looking toward the western range of the Berkshire Hills, and also down upon the Stockbridge Bowl, with protecting hills all around it. The dining-room has an eastern exposure, as most well-regulated dining-rooms, according to the architect, are expected to have, giving it the benefit of the morning 5 + MR. GEORGE W. FOLSOM'S HOUSE. Situation of the dining¬ room. Servants’ rooms. morning sun, and ridding it of the afternoon sun, so that when dinner-time arrives in summer the place is almost sure to be cool. This provision in the interest of domestic comfort has a very wide application, but not a very exten¬ sive practice, in American architecture. It does not, to be sure, aid to warm the dining-room in winter, an object accomplished by the ordinary heating apparatus of the house, and needing, perhaps, no assistance ab extra; but to be ushered into a dining-room at six o’clock of a summer’s afternoon, after the sun has been streaming into the place all day long, or against the imperfectly pre¬ ventive blinds and shades, is enough to make the entire meal uncomfortable, and can be avoided in a vast majority of cases by a little forethought on the part of the architect. All the servants’ rooms in Mr. Folsom’s house are gathered in a wing by themselves—another English feature, upon which such writers as Professor Kerr and similar English authorities insist with vigor. “It is,” according to Mr. Kerr, “ the foremost of all maxims, that however small the establishment, the servants’ department shall be separated from the main house, so that persons on either side of the boundary shall be both invisible and inaudible on the other. The out-door work of the domestics must not be visible from the house or grounds, nor must the windows of their offices be overlooked. Their sleep¬ ing-rooms must be separated both internally and externally from those of the family, and indeed separately approached.” The idea which underlies all this, according to Mr. Kerr, is that the family constitute one community, the ser¬ vants another; whatever may be their mutual regard and confidence, as dwellers under the same roof, each class is entitled to shut its door on the other, and to be alone. With these views Mr. Haight fully sympathizes, although as yet they have not been generally adopted by American architects, nor by all English authorities on the subject, as witness the following remarks by Mr. J. J. Steven¬ son, Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects: “I venture to doubt that a house should be planned as Mr. Kerr recommends, so that the servants may shut themselves off from the family in a separate establishment, where the mistress feels herself an intruder. She is responsible for their conduct, and should be able to encounter them at their work, and to enter into their rooms, without having to go prying after them. Some good housewives, therefore, like their store-room among the servants’ offices, and object to the servants’ bed¬ rooms MR. GEORGE W. FOLSOM’S HOUSE. 55 rooms being isolated from the house.” This writer is not surprised that ser¬ vants do not stay long in their places, that they display no pretense of affec¬ tion for the family, and do not a jot more than their strictly bargained share of work, when they are treated as an inferior class, whom it is shocking to the fine feelings of their superiors to see or to come in contact with, and who have no interests whatever in common with those of their mistress. He reminds Mr. Kerr that formerly there was a friendliness and familiarity between servants and their master and mistress, but he insists, nevertheless, that under no circum¬ stances should the servants overlook the private life of the family; that none of their windows should command the lawn or private garden; and that they should be able to go about their work without passing through the main stairs and corridors. The parlor and living-rooms, including the bedrooms, have a fine southern exposure. Attention has been paid to many other demands of comfortable living, and a more pleasant place of residence in the country it would be difficult to find. The general features of the east elevation, which is represented in this port¬ folio, are the large open porch carried up to the second story, the double bay- window of the dining-room, and the prominence of the three chimneys. A wide piazza extends around the south and west sides, and there is also a south¬ east piazza. The facades are shingled along the second story, and clapboarded in the lower part. The roof is shingled, and the gables are paneled with heavy timbers projecting from their face. A fourth chimney, not seen on the east elevation, rises beyond the ridge of the principal roof. Viewed from the west side, four principal gables are very prominent, together with a veranda on the second story, approached by steps partly outside of the building. The entire western veranda is very commodious, and toward the northwest corner of the building projects some distance, and is covered by a gabled roof. Entering by the porch into the long hall, whose finishing is of quartered oak, we notice the massive chimney-piece at one side, and the staircase broken up by large platforms. The wainscoting extends entirely around, and is high and paneled, the ceiling also being paneled with oak, and the old English furniture of oak harmonizing admirably with its surroundings. A single door at the right opens into the dining-room, which is painted in dark colors, and has The east elevation. Finishing in light wood. 56 MR. GEORGE W. FOLSOM’S HOUSE. has a large sideboard built into one of the walls and adjoining the chimney- piece, of which it is practically a part. Of unusual size is the drawing-room, twenty-two by twenty-eight feet, with a large and peculiar chimney-piece, whose long shelves are covered with pretty bric-h-brac. A very delicate effect is produced by the finishing in light wood—white pine, filled in and polished, without paint. One might almost mistake it for satin-wood, so carefully have the filling and polishing been done. A double recess-window opens at the right of the mantel-piece. The library, approached from the parlor and the hall, is finished in dark walnut, and wainscoted with books to the ceiling, and its shelves run all the way up, even hiding the frieze. The room is arranged also with alcoves, and there is a beautiful view of the mountains through the west window. The mantel ex¬ tends to the ceiling, and has two panels with a carved frieze, and facings of tile. There are six principal bedrooms on the second floor, in addition to the servants’ rooms, which are approached by the back stairway. All the larger rooms have fireplaces, and are both commodious and sunny. GROUND PLAN. MR. CHARLES T. COOK’S HOUSE. A well-known American architect, while admitting that architecture is a comparatively new art in this country, and has had but little earnest and intelligent study, yet thinks that out of our necessities there have grown “ certain idiosyncrasies of building ” which point toward an American style. For instance, he says that in our pure atmosphere, where odors are readily absorbed, it would be foolish, except in large establishments, to build the kitchen apart from the house in order to escape from its fumes, when a simple butler’s pantry between it and the dining-room would effectually prevent their entrance. So, too, it would be the merest folly, in building an English cot¬ tage, not to have a veranda, simply because its prototypes in England have none. We evidently, he says, have need of this appliance in our dry and sunny climate, and from such requirements a distinctive feature of American architecture must arise. He then proceeds to defend and advocate what he calls the free classic or Queen Anne style, which he declares is our ver¬ nacular style. In it, he thinks, we find the most simple mode of honest English building worked out in an artistic and natural form, fitting with the sash-windows and ordinary doorways, which express the real domestic needs of which it is the outcome, and so in our house-building conserving truth far more effectively than can be done with the Gothic. Moreover, one great advantage in adopting the Queen Anne style, he says, is that, in its construc¬ tion and in the forms of the moldings employed, it is the common vernacular style with which our workmen are familiar. He describes the Queen Anne style as showing the influence of the Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Francis the First styles, and of what is known as the “ cottage architecture ” of that period, when the cottages were partly timbered and partly covered with tile hangings, and had tall and spacious chimneys of considerable merit. Their details par¬ took the Queen Anne style. 58 MR. CHARLES T. COOK'S HOUSE. took strongly of the classic character, while the boldness of their outline re¬ sembled the picturesque Gothic. These words were written in 1878, and already the Queen Anne style is practically obsolete. Mr. Charles T. Cook’s house, of a modified Norman style, with colonial features, was finished at Elberon, New Jersey, in the summer of 1885. On North the north side the piazza stretches across the entire front, with a main entrance fronL in the center between two octagonal towers, the one to the left being carried up as a double piazza for the first and second stories, and the one to the right being used as a dining-room on the first floor and a bedroom on the second. Three dormers over the front door, one large, of shingles, with a plaster gable, and the other two square, with projecting roofs and angular, are conspicuous features. The entire outside of the cottage is shingled, and in the second story one notices a diamond-shaped panel, with cut shingles and a heavy molded cornice. The balustrades on the piazza are all shingles, and the columns sup¬ porting it on both stories are Doric. Two chimneys of brick are simple and massive. The height from the ridge to the eaves is sixteen feet, and to the foundation thirty-nine feet. South On the south elevation are several projections, the one to the left being elevation. ^ k itc hen w j n g anc j t b e back staircase tower, and the one to the right the octagonal tower of the north side. To the left of the back porch is the main staircase window, triple and colonial, its center window being four feet wide and eight feet high, and its two side windows one and a half feet by five feet, the sill line being the same for all three windows, while the central window is arched. Over the back porch is an enormous elliptical window, eight feet long and five feet high, filled up with small lights of glass in wavy lines from the center, the shingles of the second story being carried over it without a break, and in wavy lines. Two dormers, square and shingled, are seen, to¬ gether with the kitchen chimney, eleven feet high from the ridge, while the back porch, forming the rear entrance to the hall, with its simple, plain, shingled roof, is surmounted by windows of various dimensions. East front. On the east elevation the two-story piazza projects to the right, and the lines of the main roof; and to the left, the back staircase and the kitchen wing, a story and a half high. The roof is not a gable, but hip-backed. The water-table is molded, and the shingles are brought down so as to pro¬ ject MR. CHARLES T. COOK’S HOUSE. 59 ject over it. On the line of the second-story beams is a molded string-course, with projecting courses of shingles above. Over the heads of all the windows the shingles extend two inches, so as to form a protecting cap, and also to enliven the general effect. A view of the west elevation shows again the octagonal tower in which the dining-room is located, and the double dormer on the roof, very simple, seven by ten feet; also the dining-room chimney, seventeen feet above the eaves-line of the roof. To the left is the projection of the octagonal tower, and to the right the kitchen wing. The same treat¬ ment of windows and shingle-work prevails as on the east side. Within the house, the large hall on the north side is twenty-nine by twenty- four feet, and directly opposite its old-fashioned Dutch double door appears the staircase, seven feet wide, with a landing beyond, and thence a turn, and with a rail of cherry and balusters of light turned spindles, five on a step, making a net-work of very peculiar appearance. Moreover, these spindles start from a spiral plan, and the balusters are so close together as to give the appearance of a light and close rail and newel, instead of the usual heavy newel. The rest of the hall is in California redwood. At the foot of the stairs on the right is a seat one step above the floor ; at the left, the entrance from the back porch. The very elaborate mantel of carved California redwood appears in the center of the hall at the left, and has a projecting shelf, with turned spindles supporting it. A brass frame surrounds the fire-opening, and the wood-work is carried up eight feet, with a projecting shelf, supported on light brackets, running all around the hall. The base-board is two feet high, and above it are plain panels. A door to the parlor opens at the left of the mantel, and a smaller door to the billiard-room at the right. Above the wainscoting is a rough plaster frieze two feet high, and the ceiling is divided into a series of large panels, formed by beams fastened to it, about a foot by nine inches deep ; while between the beams a molding is carried around, and frames the panel. To the right of the hall is the entrance to the dining-room, through sli din g doors about six feet wide, very simply paneled; and farther along, the entrance to the back hall and kitchen extension. To either side of the main front door are two windows about three feet square, their sills four and a half feet from the floor, forming a part of the wainscoting into which they are fitted. Standing at the foot of the stairs, we get a view of the colonial window with c fhe large hall. Colonial window. 6o MR. CHARLES T. COOK'S HflUSE. with its squares of glass, the effect being obtained through the design, and not through color. The arched center window occupies the space between the land¬ ing and the third floor. The octagonal-shaped parlor has been finished in pine, painted white and gold, with an ornamental frieze in simple gold lines. Over the windows are leaded glass transoms of a warm yellow, the design being worked out in the leading. The size of the parlor is twenty-two feet by eighteen, and there is an elaborate colonial mantel. The billiard-room to the right, twenty feet by eighteen, and finished in pine, is painted a rich dark brown. In the dining-room the finish is of American oak, with an imported mantel, on whose left side is a corner cupboard, with perforated door, and carved panels above. The window-trims are simply molded with ornamental sills and caps. In the back part of the main hall, the door leading out to the rear porch is treated like the front door, and the windows on either side of it are small square openings, the sashes being filled with bull’s-eye lights. A single chim¬ ney supplies the fireplaces for the hall, dining-room. -and billiard-room, that of the hall having an opening five feet wide and three feet four inches high. The architects are Messrs. McKim, Meade, and White. The cost was about thirty thousand dollars. ~1l POTch -]1Tl GROUND PLAN. MISS JULIA APPLETON’S HOUSE. Undoubtedly the private residence in Lenox, Massachusetts, which of late has caused most discussion and awakened the greatest interest is that of Miss Julia Appleton, built by Messrs. McKim, Meade, and White, of New York. Its oddity of design is due primarily to the fact that the owner desired to pre¬ serve a large elm-tree, and accordingly has caused the structure to be erected, so to speak, around that tree. This gives, at a distance, a semicircular appear¬ ance to the front facade, but on nearer view the lines reveal a part of an octagon. The illustration in this portfolio explains fully the necessities of the Peculiarity situation, as these were felt by the architects, and reveals the importance as t ion. well as the magnitude of the elm-tree in question. Had it not been for this tree, the house might have been put farther back on the extensive lot—a change in the interest of effectiveness indisputably. There are only two stories, and the sides are clapboarded instead of shingled, while the general treatment is unquestionably Old Colonial, with not the faintest vestige of Queen Anne or Early English. The color of the exterio r is a creamy brown. Viewed from the front, the main feature is an enormous window, circular¬ headed, five feet by ten, at either side of which are Corinthian pilasters, the treatment of the whole running up directly to the cornice. Under this win¬ dow is a fountain of brick, with a basin of speckled brick. To the left of the fountain, the entrance-porch, twelve feet by six and a half, and fourteen Entrance- and a half feet high, has a roof supported on turned columns, with turned forch " caps, above which is a richly molded cornice with small modillions. To the extreme left a projection is carried up a little below the main cornice, the roof being hip-backed, and the ungabled cornice richly molded, as also is the string-course which divides the first and second stories. A stone terrace-wall rises at the extreme left and at the extreme right. The window-caps are of intricate 62 MISS JULIA APPLETON'S HOUSE. Oval and square windows. South facade. intricate design, with projecting brackets in the frieze, and with molded archi¬ traves and sills. Very elaborate is the main cornice of the north elevation, the upper members being carved, with ornamental brackets and richly carved frieze of decorative garlands, the treatment being very flat. It will be noticed that the porch is not in the center of the house, but in one of the angles on the left side. In the angle to the right, which balances the porch, are oval and square windows divided up into small lights, the sills, cornice, and architraves being richly molded, while to the right of this angle a smaller projection, about sixteen feet wide, runs up to the same height as the main cornice, with small hip roof, and contains the back stairs. The height to the ridge of the center of the building is thirty-eight feet, and to the cornice-line thirty-five feet; the projection at the left side is thirty- two feet to the ridge and twenty-three feet to the cornice; the height of the servants’ wing is thirty-three feet to the ridge and twenty-six feet to the cor¬ nice. You get a view of two brick chimneys, simple in treatment, their height being divided by slightly projecting horizontal bands of brick. We now proceed to the south side, whose facade is divided up into differ¬ ent angles—a feature, in fact, characteristic of the whole house, as seen on the ground plan : everything is on an angle. A projection at the left side is about twenty-three feet wide and about thirty feet to the cornice-line, the dining¬ room being on the first floor. Opening from the dining-room is a window twelve feet wide by five feet high, and above it, on the second floor, an open loggia, with a projecting balcony supported on brackets. To the right, another slight projection balances that on the other side, and has an ornamental triple window in the first story, the center window of the three being circular¬ headed, while the other two are smaller and narrower, and all three are treated with a colonial cornice and pilasters. Above, on the second story, another triple window appears, which is square-headed, its cornice finishing directly below the main cornice of the house. These two triple windows constitute the principal feature of the projection. To the extreme right, another pro¬ jection of about eleven feet contains bedrooms; and directly in the center are the windows opening into the main hall, and an open piazza which has been finished as a balcony on the second story, with a colonial balustrade, and newels twisted MISS JULIA APPLETON'S HOUSE. 63 twisted and turned in colonial style. On the second story, a series of square windows opens from the bedrooms above them, and in the roof of the central portion are two square dormers with small gabled roofs. Here again, at the left, we see a chimney, and, at the extreme left, the kitchen quarters. The roof of the house is very peculiar; the shingles, instead of being put Peculiar on in the usual way in regular courses, have been laid in wavy lines, so as to ^/shingles. produce by depressions of the surface the effect of old age, as if the roof at various places was beginning to fall in. This artifice, which produces an im¬ pression not at all unpleasing, has been tried several times since with excellent effect in other houses by the same architects, and certainly has the advantage of using no hard, straight lines, while at the same time it is not in the least more expensive than the usual method of laying the shingles in straight courses. The west elevation is plain and simple. The principal cornice-lines are con¬ tinued, and the beauty is dependent upon the angles of the roof in the main house. At the extreme right, on the second story, we see the open loggia , with projecting brackets, and also a projecting piazza, very simple in treatment, covered by the main roof, and extending across the entire width of the central portion and around the angle to the right. The east elevation shows at the extreme left of the first story an open piazza, which leads from the dining¬ room and finishes on the second story as a balcony, its cornice being very richly molded. Just above, in the main roof, we get a view of the large chimney of the dining-room, eight feet wide and fifteen feet high, and to the right, the open piazza of the front elevation, and a cornice treatment similar to that on the front, while, directly in the center, the main house is carried up, and the roof is hip-backed to the main roof. You enter by the porch on the south into a large hall, finished in pine, Main hall. with a paneled wainscot three feet high. The ceiling, because curved like that of the cabin of a ship, is called a ship-ceiling, being divided into panels, about three feet wide, the entire length of the hall. Some of the beams are ten inches wide and sixteen inches deep; the rest are six inches deep and four inches wide. Opposite the front door, a projecting bay, ten feet by fourteen, serves the purpose of a flower-stand, and is fitted with shelves ; to its right a door leads out to the porch. At the left of the hall are the sliding doors to the parlor, eight feet wide, and paneled; while to the right, adjoining the front door, 64- MISS JULIA APPLETON'S HOUSE. Elliptic door, a wide elliptic arch opens into the staircase hall, whose floor is one foot above that of the main hall. Adjoining this arch is the immense fireplace, with an elaborate mantel, having carved pilasters and brackets above supporting a shelf, the frieze below the shelf being decorated with relief-work very deli¬ cate in treatment. The wainscot and door-trim are entirely simple, the effect depending upon the mantel, the ceiling, and the bay-windows. Similar in character and treatment to the other sides is the entrance side of the hall. Passing through the arch into the staircase hall at the right, we see the stairs, on whose first landing is a large circular-headed window, four and a half by ten and a half feet, treated with an elaborate trim of pilasters. The paneled wainscot is similar to that of the hall. Directly opposite the stairs we enter the dining-room, and adjoining the dining-room is the kitchen wing. The entrance to the stairs is through an elliptic arch similar to that of the main hall ; the newel, balusters, and rails are very handsomely turned and molded, and the stairs are paneled up to the level of the second floor. Bay in The dining-room has a wide and low window in a bay the whole width dining- room. of the room, at either side of which are cupboards with glass doors and molded pilasters and key-blocks, the ceiling of the bay being considerably lower than that of the main part of the room. The mantel, at the left of the entrance from the hall, is very plain and simple above a wide, low fireplace. At one side of it a cupboard has solid paneled doors, with drawers below; at the other side, an arch gives an exit to the porch. This wall of the room is finished entirely in oak, and has a base two feet and a half high. < fhe The parlor, entered from the hall, has a recessed triple window at the right, room. !ng whose opening is an elliptic arch, and whose sash is a simple ornamental pat¬ tern of wood, except the lower sash of the center window, which is one large light. At either side of this window are low open bookcases about five feet and a half high, and in the recess is a seat. Opposite the entrance to the hall is a window whose trim has a pilaster treatment and an ornamental cor¬ nice with dentals. It also has a seat. To the left, entering from the hall, the side of the room is angular, and the angle nearest the door has a small elliptic window, the center angle being the fireplace, which shows an orna¬ mental mantel with a heavily molded frame around the fire-opening, the man¬ tel-shelf, elaborately carved, being supported on ornamental brackets, above which MISS JULIA APPLETON'S HOUSE. 65 which are an antique mirror and frame with ornamental sconces at either side, while, at the angle opposite the elliptic window, a door shows a treatment similar to that of the window. The cornice is of wood and heavily molded. Opening from the drawing-room is a small writing-room, fifteen feet by sixteen, which has the same treatment as the drawing-room, with a simple and plain base, one foot and six inches high, and an Old Colonial mantel, which was found in an out-of-the-way place and transferred bodily to this bright apartment, chiefly perhaps because its moldings are fine and delicate — like those of most of the Old Colonial work. A corner cupboard has a solid circular-headed door, with a carved panel in the upper portion. The bed¬ rooms are large and in country-house style, the largest being twenty by twenty- four feet, the smallest sixteen by twenty feet, and another one nineteen by four¬ teen feet. All the rooms are finished in painted pine, and every appointment has been made in the interest of comfort and health. Miss Appleton’s house is doubtless the most important example of the Old Colonial revival in the new American Renaissance of Architecture. Old Colonial mantel. GROUND PLAN. THE CASINO AT NEWPORT. The treatment of grounds around a house has been said to admit of but classic two general styles, namely, the Italian or classic, and the English or picturesque; ^esque* and one of the leading authorities for this limitation, in proceeding to describe ^/“grounds. what is meant by them, says: “ The Italian derives its characteristics entirely from an effort to obtain the stateliness of symmetry; the central axis of the house, for example, is continued in one direction through a large entrance- court, and also along an imposing avenue of symmetrical trees, while in the other direction it runs through terraces, gardens, fountains, and so on, to a distant height crowned with a column,” or similar piece of sculpture. Radi¬ ating from this central axis, or crossing it, other lines appear, all of them symmetrical, and becoming in their turn bases for other systems of terraces, fountains, gardens, and so on. Everything depends upon the main central axis of the house itself, and upon the symmetry with which not only the different parts of the building are constructed about it, but also the out-door effects of landscape. Of the English or picturesque style of landscape gardening we are told that “ the stately avenue of trees, leading from an indefinite distance grandly up to the door, gives place to the circuitous approach or drive, wind¬ ing between stray knolls and rocks and clumps of wood, and pausing at the porch only to pass on to seek the stables or to meet another line of access. The level forest is now a park of varied surface, and the geometrical net-work of paths and alleys, and the long vistas terminating in formal features of statu¬ ary, fountains, and architectural arbors, have made way for scattered groups of trees, whose merit it is that no shade of symmetry shall appear to weaken the charm of their infinite variety, and whose only greater charm is the piquancy with which at every step they open to the eye some sudden glimpse of un¬ expected landscape.” The 68 THE CASINO AT NEWPORT. Funda¬ mental principle of land¬ scape gardening. The front. Central gable. The strength of this style arises from its effort to imitate Nature and to avoid the artificial, and this advantage will always stand as long as Art con¬ siders herself under personal obligations to Nature, and artists believe that the true is inseparable from the beautiful; but to insist upon the adoption of special formulas in order to realize the so-called picturesque style is absurd. The fundamental principle of landscape gardening, as indeed of landscape itself, is the principle of fitness; and it is to the possibilities of each particular site, rather than to a hand-book of rules and regulations, that the landscape gar¬ dener must go for his inspiration. It may be noted here that the American architect of the present epoch desires to be his own landscape gardener, and for precisely the same reasons that he desires to be his own house-decorator. He views the arrangement of the grounds around the structure as part of the whole effect which he is striving to create. For several years the Casino at Newport has been widely known as an extremely beautiful adaptation of Early and Modern English ; and thousands of persons in all parts of the country are familiar with the leading features of its architecture, and with its smooth, grassy court and tennis-grounds. The front is a long and low arrangement, the first story being of brick and bands of stone, with three gables on the street, and between each two of them a balus¬ trade of turned balusters. The principal effect depends upon the entrance-arch of molded brick, nineteen feet wide and eleven feet high, above which runs the center gable, forty-one feet wide, and forty-six feet from the ridge to the ground. A projecting balcony on the second story, extending a little wider than the gable, is supported on brick corbels on the wall below, and has a shingled balustrade. The entire length of the front of the main building is one hundred and eighty-five and a half feet. The central gable is supported on ornamental turned columns, its extreme right and left ends being filled in with a circular framework of spindles, above which rises the main cornice, with rosettes carved in the frieze, and above this again, in the gable itself, a piazza, with the upper part of an arch framed in with spindle-work, and at the side a close framework of spindles. The gable lines are very heavily molded, and the upper part of the gable is filled in with wavy lines which pleasantly vary the effect. At the extreme right and left corners are ornamental panels of carved wood. The other two gables are some¬ what THE CASINO AT NEWPORT. 69 what smaller, indeed about half the size, with ornamental bay, and panel-work on either side of the bay, and with the same description of carving to fill up the angles. The two chimneys, brought out conspicuously in the front, are very simple in their lines, their size being what chiefly counts. You enter through the main arch into a hall twelve feet wide and thirty- eight feet deep, which opens directly into the grassy court. To the right is a covered two-story piazza, about nineteen feet wide and one hundred and fifteen feet long, at right angles to the street, which continues in a semicircular piazza of one story, of the same general design, directly opposite the main exit. On the left of the court are the restaurant, about twenty-six feet by forty-eight, and the cafe, about twenty-five feet by forty, which open out by a semicircular piazza into the court. Above the restaurant and cafe is an open piazza of the same height as the one on the opposite side, being about forty feet to the ridge and twenty-five feet to the eaves. These piazzas have a stone founda¬ tion and shingled balustrades on the first story; and the upper part of the first story, between the piazza-posts, has been filled in with spindle-work, the second story having open balustrades with turned spindles. Taking a position in the semicircular piazza, opposite the fiiain entrance to the court, we look toward that entrance at the reverse side of the front, and are at once struck by the beauty and importance of the central clock- tower, the base of which forms a circular room, used by the Executive Com¬ mittee of the Casino. The height is about sixty feet and the diameter about twenty-two feet, and the circular plan of its first story becomes twelve-sided in the second story, the lines dying into the roof, which is circular above the eaves. The first story of this side of the Casino is entirely of brick, and the main door is much elaborated in an ornamental design which takes in the three windows of the second story. Over these windows, a shingled arch carries the eaves of the main roof. To the left, three gables break up the main roof, generously ornamented with cut shingles and carved work. At the extreme left angle of the court, still maintaining our position oppo¬ site the main exit, we get a view of a double gable arrangement, and, in front, of the second story of the side balcony before described, while at the extreme right angle appear the windows of the cafe and its small semicircular piazza, which forms an entrance to both the restaurant and the cafe. 'Entrance through main arch. Central clock- tower. The 7° THE CASINO AT NEWPORT. Court¬ yard. The green court-yard is a delightful place of promenade under the open sky, often illuminated with the electric light, its dimensions being fully one hundred and seventy feet in length and one hundred and fifteen feet in width. Of especial charm is the English ivy, which, within the last year or so, has become luxuriant about the foundations, and even far above them. Turning face about in the same semicircular piazza opposite the main en¬ trance, we look directly upon the tennis-grounds, very extensive, comprising several acres,, and approached by an easy flight of steps. Walking into the tennis-grounds, and looking back toward our former position, we see the rear of the semicircular piazza and a small octagonal open tower at the right with a helmet-shaped roof. The ends of the side piazzas, at either angle of the court, also appear, and in the half arc in front of us a small fountain. The cost of this famous Casino was about one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, without the grounds. The architects are Messrs. McKim, Meade, and White. GROUND PLAN. MRS. HERTER’S HOUSE. The most interesting general characteristic of the new era of American architecture is undoubtedly the fact that the architect has come to assume the responsibility of the entire structure for which he has drawn the plans, so that New he himself is both decorator, and, to a certain extent, upholsterer as well. ZStf Under these new conditions he undertakes to produce a special artistic effect, archUecU ‘ and insists upon having the supervision and control of all subsidiary matters that enter into its creation. It is therefore almost amusing to read in such a work as Mr. Robert Kerr’s “The Gentleman’s House; or, How to plan English Resi¬ dences from the Parsonage to the Palace,” which, since the year 1864, has been an authority in its own sphere, that “ the architect ought never to allow himself, except in extraordinary cases, and with a very clear understanding in the matter, to make unusual provisions for furniture. Even in the case of mirrors, for ex¬ ample, although there are instances when an architectural effect may be aimed at, the architect must not venture to reckon without in the first place his client, and in the second his client’s upholsterer.” If Mr. Kerr had been in New York city in the year 1883, and seen the progress of the interior work of a large private house, like that of Mr. Henry Villard, he would have smiled at his naive advice to the architect never to make unusual provisions for furniture; and if he had seen, as the present writer has, an upholsterer and professional house-decorator calling upon an architect, and modestly awaiting his selection from certain samples of hangings to be used in the house which he was con¬ structing, Mr. Kerr would have been perhaps as surprised as pleased. Such an incident, in which a well-known and prosperous house-decorator appears in the studio of the architect and waits to receive instructions, is one of the most significant signs of the times, and, to the architect, one of the most hopeful. It promises a larger field of operation for him, and a more homogeneous outcome 72 MRS. HERTER’S HOUSE. Adapta¬ tion of details to an ensemble. Architect¬ ure with¬ out orna¬ mentation. outcome of his exertions. Belonging to the new epoch, he must necessarily be au fond an artist; as an artist he can not build a house to advantage without the opportunity of considering it as an ensemble , and adapting every detail both of external form and internal ornament to its inherent needs. No other method of work ever could produce satisfactory results, so far as he is con¬ cerned. His aesthetic training teaches him that a private residence, a cathe¬ dral, or even a barn, should be a perfect unity in the same sense that a picture is; and he would as soon expect a painter to accept the dictation of a canvas- maker, a pigment-maker, or a frame-maker, in the production of his work, as to be loaded himself with the extraneous and independent commands of the decorator or upholsterer. Beauty, he feels, is not independent of unity, and if a dwelling is so interfered with by outsiders as to display heterogeneousness of plan, either in generals or particulars, the result has a tendency to paralyze his ambition. The question has been argued whether or not architecture is possible with¬ out ornament, and it has been maintained that such a building as a fortress, for instance, does not rank as architecture, unless provided with some such addition as a molding ; that in its plain and undecorated state, simply adapted to the uses for which it was intended, it can not be considered art. On the other hand, it is insisted that the mere arrangement of masses is enough to entitle a structure to be called architectural. Magnitude itself, it is claimed, is an important element of artistic effect, giving that dignity which often the most useful and most elaborately decorated structures do not possess. The fact that the towers of the walls of Nuremberg, designed by Albert Differ, are destitute of all ornament whatever, having neither a molding nor even a simple chamfer, has been adduced as an argument to show that ornament is unnecessary to entitle a building to rank as architecture. These towers are simple, large, well massed, varied, and perfectly adapted to the end which their designer had in view. They are therefore claimed to be, in a true sense, architectural—that is to say, artistic. But, however this question may be decided, it will be generally agreed that ornament in architecture serves an important function in lightening the effect, and the Greeks certainly appreci¬ ated its value when they decorated the frieze of the Parthenon with the Elgin marbles, as did the Romans of the Renaissance when they adorned the walls of the MRS. HEX TEX’S HOUSE. 73 of the Sistine Chapel with the frescoes of Michael Angelo; and it may be added here that a principal feature of encouragement in the present epoch of Ameri- Enrrnr- can architecture is the strongly marked tendency among the most representa- features. tive and advanced architects to work in collaboration with painters and sculp¬ tors in the building of houses and churches. This was particularly the case in the house of the late Mr. William H. Vanderbilt; in those of Mr. Charles L. Tiffany, Mr. Henry Villard, and the late Mr. Charles J. Osborn, not to mention many others; but the fashion was first set, so far as the present epoch of Ameri¬ can architecture is concerned, by the architect of Trinity Church in Boston; and our readers will remember that so intelligent a visitor to this country as Mr. Edmund Gosse noticed with admiration the results which this collaboration of the architect, the painter, and the sculptor, had already reached. Both experience and reason proclaim the wisdom of such a course, and the archi¬ tecture of this country has set out upon a promising path when it allies itself with the sister arts of painting and sculpture. To what extent these arts should be treated as co-ordinate in the building of a house is hardly an open question, for the unity of the design can only be achieved and preserved by making the architect the sole responsible head. In constructing Mrs. Herter’s house, the architect has manifested a just con¬ ception both of the importance of ornament and at the same time of its essen¬ tially subordinate position. He has constructed the building as if the effect were Defend- ' r 11111 eVCe °f to depend solely upon the mere arrangement of masses, and has added the orna- effect upon * . . i , _ - .. . masses. ment in the spirit of classic art which requires that it should be first or all in harmony with the nature of the structure itself. This, indeed, is the first law of ornament in architecture—first both in time and in importance; and the architect who respects it to its full deserts is not likely to go far astray. It involves simply the principle of fitness which is common to all the fine arts, and prevents the use of such ornamentation as is not homogeneous with the structure itself. For the same reason, ornamental forms are not strict imitations of natural forms, but rather conventionalizations of them; it being impracti¬ cable to attempt in sculpture the exact reproduction of such forms. Even if the detailed beauty of a natural form, like that of a flower or a bird, could be reproduced by the sculptor, the effect would be less valuable than is that of a conventional form; for it is the spirit rather than the letter that gives life 74 MRS. HER TEH'S HOUSE. life to such art j and, besides, the too laborious and elaborate reproduction of a natural form, designed only to occupy a subordinate position, as in the frieze or the balcony of a building, would produce a disproportionate result. The region in which this house, at Seabright, New Jersey, is located, is sandy and barren, but the visitor is struck by the abundance of flowers which have been made to grow in front of the building, partly owing to the pro¬ tection afforded by the extreme southern wing (recently added), but chiefly on account of the intelligent care of the owner. The view here given was taken Archi- in midsummer, and is remarkable for clearness and fidelity. The architectural character- characteristics echo in some respects the old colonial farm-house, and have istics. , been aptly described as “ the poetized farm-house style.” The old motives, of course, are very much elaborated, and develop themselves under the influence of the modern spirit; but persons at all familiar with the earlier colonial archi¬ tecture will recognize them at once. The length of the front is about seventy- five feet, and there are two stories and an attic, the first story being of brick, with panels of cement at the northern end, and the test of the house being shingled. Very prominent, and treated with the utmost simplicity, are the gables of the third story. Indeed, simplicity prevails throughout, and gives a strong contrast to the fripperies and foolishness of much of the surrounding architecture. The same good taste which is shown in the house of Mr. Wil¬ liam H. Vanderbilt appears also in this charming villa and in the villa of Mr. J. M. Cornell, at Lowmoor, near by, the architect of all three houses being Mr. William B. Bigelow. At the south end of the building, a bay-window on the second story attracts notice, together with its piazza. The rear of the house is on the ocean, and ^nierwr tfie f ront on the main thoroughfare. The interior is furnished without ostenta¬ tion, and in a manner adapted to the needs of summer residence. The hall, of irregular shape, is entered directly from the long front piazza, which, sup¬ ported on light pillars, is carried around three sides of the house, extending outward on the rear side in order to accommodate itself to the lines of the bay-window of the parlor, and varying in width from nine feet to fifteen. On the right of the hall is the large dining-room, about eighteen feet by thirty, and on the left the studio, about fifteen feet square, the late Mr. Herter having made provision for the practice of his art as a painter, and the apartment open¬ ing out MRS. HERTER'S HOUSE. 75 ing out directly into a north light. Beyond the studio, and leading directly from it on the north side, is a bedroom about twelve by fifteen feet, which opens again at the south into the parlor, a pleasant room, situated in the center The fern of the first floor, and leading on the west side into the hall and on the south side into the dining-room, with a large bay-window opening out on the piazza at the rear. The stairs are directly at the left of the entrance, and the butler’s pantry directly at the right, so that, on entering the hall, one leaves behind him both the butler’s pantry and the staircase. The architect has finished the interior entirely in painted pine, and, with the exception of the north wing, which is of brick, the rooms show the framework on the inside, as is common with houses in that region, and the spaces in the principal apartments are filled, between the studding, with Japanese chintzes. The fireplaces and the mantels are simply done, and there is a carved motive over the steps that lead to the piazza. Attention is attracted by the long ridge of the roof running north and south, which is in harmony with the simplicity and chasteness of the gen¬ eral effect. The cost of Mrs. Her ter’s house is about twelve thousand dollars. The building was erected in 1879. GROUND PLAN. MR. GEORGE F. BAKER’S HOUSE. To what extent, if at all, the art of the present should reflect the art of the past, is a matter of dispute among architects. Mr. Basil Champneys, for example, expresses his conviction that, in the study of the works of nature and of art, system and theory are better absent; and that such things speak most truly and powerfully to those whose position toward them is both passive and catholic—uninfluenced by any analytic theory or exclusive limitation. He even goes so far as to say that it is impossible to test the relative value of English and foreign architecture by any standard but that of individual feeling. He believes that, to carry something of the art of the past into the future, is per¬ haps the best which we of this generation may hope to accomplish; that the conditions under which we live are constantly teaching us this lesson, if we would learn it j and that the self-confidence of the age is forever crying out against such a limit to its ambition. He freely confesses, however, that a building can never be like a picture, complete within the limits of its frame, and independent of influences beyond. It must be studied upon its own site, and under all the conditions of history, landscape, and neighborhood. He admits that, of the various phases of the architecture of the past, it is as yet undecided which shall be ultimately estab¬ lished as the starting-point of the future; and he sees very clearly that at the present moment there are almost as many rival factions as there are ancient styles, and that the advantage seems to rest no more with one than with another, while many of those who best appreciate the conditions of modern art are seen to use as precedents for their work examples the most diverse, and to found their practice upon the widest appreciation of the past. Notwithstanding these views, however, Mr. Champneys has written an entire book, in order, as he expresses it, to arrest something of the color and senti¬ Relative value of old and new art. Rival factions. ment 7§ MR. CEORCE F. BAKER'S HOUSE. Radical views. ‘The Greek column and cornice. ment of-a time more favorable to art than the present, and now on all sides melting away, and so to help to carry something of the past into the art of the future. But the most radical views of modern architecture are those promulgated by the school which makes light of all past styles, and insists upon the crea¬ tions of pure architecture itself; and among the most earnest and vigorous representatives of this school is Mr. Eidlitz, in his work on “ The Nature and Function of Art.” To the question, Can a style be maintained in any sense in a living and progressive art ? and to the other question, Is it desirable to accept styles in their ultimate forms as complete, when reflection shows that they are not complete ? he answers in a decided negative. Believing that architecture is the art which teaches the development of structural forms, he lays down this dictum: If, instead of developing forms, we borrow forms, we are not pursuing architecture as a creative art. Furthermore, he insists that, since the forms developed by the architect must fully express the func¬ tion of organic structural parts, the architect can not return to Roman practice, which fails to deal directly with masses; and must reject Gothic forms, if the expression of the idea which he attempts to materialize results, as it neces¬ sarily will, in other forms, his idea being modern and not medieval, though he need not reject the medieval method of modeling structural masses; he must also forswear the use of Greek and Roman forms, because they not only do not represent modern ideas, but are not modeled upon the most perfect system now known to art. Indeed, Mr. Eidlitz declares that antique architecture failed to model all its masses, although it did model salient elements of structural mass, such as columns, cornices, etc.; and that, while the Greek column and cornice may be admitted to be beautiful, and eminently so, we must also recognize that these forms express only a narrow range of structural function. As for Roman¬ esque architecture, it expresses monumental vigor rather than refinement in the modeling of masses; while Gothic architecture seems to be an effort to absorb matter in a minute and bewildering expression of thought, which, in trying to clearly represent its idea, borders upon a demonstration instead. Accordingly, he argues that the pursuit of style will be of no service in this case, because we can not adopt any style without a modification. The MR. GEORGE F BAKER'S HOUSE. 79 The coast of New Jersey, in the neighborhood of Long Branch and Elberon, is dotted with a large number of artistic villas, among which that of Mr. George F. Baker, near Seabright, is one of the most notable. The illustra¬ tion here given is that of the front view, and shows a very solid structure— the lower story of Haverstraw brick in red mortar, with trimmings of Carlisle stone, while the roof and the second story are covered entirely with Akron tiles. The principal features of the elevation produce a very distinct effect, Features which can be characterized neither as classic, as Gothic, nor as Renaissance, elevation. the extreme northern end being occupied by a double bay-window, with three sides, which ascends to the roof. The central portion of the facade projects in both stories, and is surmounted by a large dormer with three windows and an ornamental finial, while on either side of it are two small dormers. At the extreme southern end there is a loggia , with plenty of flowers, and a porte- cochere , whose roof is a part of the principal building itself. This loggia , together with a smaller one in front of the dining-room, is prettily paved with Akron floor-tile. Very little wood has been used by the architect, Mr. Bruce Price, in the fagades of this building, the principal exception being the case of the large piazza on the ocean front, which is very simply constructed of yellow pine, with a rail of the same material. This ocean front, like the main front, shows Ocean . . front. a large open loggia at the southern end, in which are a double window and a single window, while below it the second story is supported by a double column of stone, on either side of which is a large entrance into the open area under the first floor. Two dormers appear in the roof, and a third dormer in the extreme southern end. The interior of Mr. Baker’s house has some very interesting work in the interior. mantel-pieces of the dining-room and the hall, while the staircase of the hall has been constructed in balustrade, pillar, and paneling, so as to be an extremely notable feature. In planning this staircase, the architect has been in full sym¬ pathy with the modern spirit which gives importance to this part of the in¬ terior, and which, therefore, provides for other means by which the servants may ascend or descend. The back stairs are so situated that there is no necessity for the servants ever to use the main stairs, unless, perhaps, when the door-bell is to be answered, though even then the back stairs may be used at all 8o MR. GEORGE F. BAKER'S HOUSE. at all times, with a little care; and practically there is no temptation whatever for a servant to transgress the regulations that forbid his or her appearance