EXAMPLES OF American Domestic Architecture B Y JOHN CALVIN STEVENS and ALBERT WINSLOW COBB ARCHITECTS Portland,. Maine IVITH ILLUSTRATIONS JOHN S, PATERSON, IIMSURANSE DEPT, ALBANY, N. Y. NEW YORK WILLIAM T. COMSTOCK JOHN CALVIN STEVENS and ALBERT WINSLOW COBB, I LETTEft Press, C. A. COFFIN & ROGERS. Photo'Lithoohapher, R, a. WELCKE. Engravers. PHOTO ELECT, engraving CO. CONTENTS FRONTISPIECE, HOUSE ON THE SHORE OF CASCO BAY. Chapter I. Illustrated.— i. The Tendency to Magnificence in American Architecture : Its Effect upon American Domestic Life. “ “ 2. An Apparent Duty of our Architects. Chapter II. Illustrated. —Desirable and Undesirable Styles of Architecture. This Chapter contains Plates I-V, showing examples of good work by American and British Architects. Chapter III. Illustrated. —Wherein certain of our own Designs are sent forth to Judgment. PUATES CONTAINED IN CHAPTER III. Plate XXV.—House of J. A. Spaulding, M.D., at Portland. Plans and Inte- Cost, $2,300 Cost, $5,000 Plate VI.* —Cottage at Island Pond, Vermont. Plate VII.* —House of J. C. Stevens, Exterior.. riors, with Details. Plate XXVI.—House at Allston, Mass. Plans and Interiors. Plate VIII.— Cost, $5,000 Plate XXVII.*- House at Kennebunkport. Plate IX. —House at Roxbury. Exterior. Plate XXVIII.- Plans and Interiors. Plate X.-- Plate XXIX.— House of Hon. L. A. Emery, at Ellsworth. Exterior. Plate XXX.—House of Hon. L. A. Emery, at Ellsworth. Plans and Inte- Plate XI. —House at Ashmont. Exterior. Plans and Interiors. Plate XIL— riors. Cost, $6,400 Plate XIII.* —House of G. E. Fitzgerald. Exterior Plate XXXI.—Plouse for an Acre Lot. Plate XXXII.*—House of C. F. Davis, at Portland. Exterior. Cost, $4,5°° Plate XIV. —House of G. E. Fitzgerald. Plans and Interiors, with Details. Plate XV.* —House of Joseph Morgan, Jr., Johnstown, Pa. Exterior. Cost, $9,500 Plate XXXIII.—House of C. F. Davis, at Portland. Details. Plate XVI.-House of Joseph Morgan. Jr., Johnstown, Pa. Plans and Inte- Plate XXXIV.*—Proposed House on Western Promenade, at Portland. riors, with Details. Plate XVII. —Houses at Cushing’s Island. Plate XVIII.*— House of W. G. Davis, at Portland. Exterior. Plate XIX.— House of W. G. Davis, at Portland. Plans and Interiors. Plate XX. —House of R. W. Hilliard, at Arlington, Mass. Plate XXI.*— House of C. A. Brown, at Delano Park. Exterior. Cost, $ 4 , 5 °° Plate XXII. —Stable and Floor Plans of Brown House. Plate XXIII.— Original “Tooth-pick” Sketch of Brown House. Plate XXIV.*— House of J. A. Spaulding, M. D., at Portland. Exterior. Plate XXXV. — Alternative Sketch for same House. Plate XXXVI. —Odds and Ends of Furniture. Plate XXXVII. —Entrance of a Stone Country House. Plate XXXVIII. —A House-by-the-Sea, in California. Exterior. Cost, $8,000 Plate XXXIX. —A House-by-the-Sea, in California. Plans and Interiors, with Details. * Plates ''■Starred" are accompanied by Descriptive Text. Plate XLIII.- Houses at Orange, and at Houlton, Me. Plate XLIV. —House of E, T. Burrowes. Cost, $9,500 Plate XLV. — A Hillside House. Plate XLVI. —Sketch, Showing Proposed Alterations of House in Portland. MISCELLANEOUS BUILDINGS. Plate Plate Plate Plate Plate XLVn. — Proposed Library at Bath, Me. XLVIII. 1 XLIX. I * )>■ *— Interiors of Poland Spring Hotel. I LI. J Plate LII. —Physical Laboratory at Colby University. Plate LIII. — Chemical Laboratory at Colby University. Plate LIV. —Wording Hall, an Academy Building. Plate LV. —Study for a Stone Gate Lodge. * Plates ‘ ‘ Starred ' are accompanied by Descriptive Text, Chapter IV. Illustrated, —A Chapter on Churches. PLATES CONTAINED IN CHAPTER IV. Plate LVI. —Proposed Church and Rectory for State Street Society, Plate LVIII. —Church at Skowhegan. Portland. Plate LVII. —Church at Sanford, Maine. Plate LIX. —Country Churches. CONCLUDING REVIEW. Illustrated. PREFACE, W E believe that, in the present condition of American Archi¬ tecture, there is really demand for such a book as this. Its publication is an effort to meet what seems to us an actual imperative need of the times. The apparent need is that a reform in the prevalent style of American Architecture be instituted : that the ait be released from the influence of an extravat^ant ideality, and directed instead by rational, righteous ideals; the aim of these ideals being to make Architecture an instrument for general distribution of dome.stic comforts amo.ng our whole people. For the sake of the public welfare, this good work must .somehow be accomplished. It is a work essential to the sure maintenance of our nation—a government of the people, by the people, for the people. Its accomplishment will assure for the art of Archi¬ tecture an exalted place in the public esteem. In the harmonious co-operation between material arts and Christian ethics, which is developing as precursor of a nobler civilization than the world has ever yet seen, Architecture, thus joining in such co-operation, and lending its processes to the achievement of a holy purpose, may prove itself an art mighty in power to benefit mankind. With the object which we have in view, it will be impossible, in discussing this subject of Domestic Architecture, to entirely specialize the discussion, confining it to this one branch of the art; since the style of public buildings, as well as that of the higher class of private dwellings, has an intimate causal connection with the style of dwellings occupied by the common toilers among a people. When the thoughtful American public shall have awakened to the necessity of considering this connection more carefully than has hitherto been customary, it may be decided that the evolution of architectural magnificence has been proceeding at the cost of tithes yielded by our common toilers from out their very necessities of life; and that this process has already been carried .farther than is justifiable, even though it all be done in the interests of an apotheo¬ sized Art. This question, then, of the necessity for reform in American Architecture, we propose to discuss; accompanying the discussion with illustrations showing work actually built in various localities. Presenting thus our theories as to what is undesirable and what desirable in Architecture, we also present a number of plates illustrating our own work. To furnish such an opportunity for judging the discrepancy between preaching and practice is per¬ haps rash; but this judgment, together with the judgment as to the merits of the discussion, we leave with that great arbiter, the American public. Excepting a portion of the first five plates, the illustrations herein presented are reproduced from drawings by ourselves. As to the drawings showing our own designs, many of these were made to satisfy our clients, in the ordinary routine of office practice; but the larger number have been prepared especially for this book. Nearly all the work shown has been actually e.xecuted. In the argument herein presented, no exhaustive treatment of the subject is undertaken ; the discourse is sketchy, nothing more. It is the hope of the authors, however, that even this volume, advanced in skirmish, may stir general public engagement in di.s- cussion of a vitally important question. OH^I^TER I. THE NEED OF REFORM IN AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE. -THE TENDENCY TO MAGNIFICENCE IN AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE. -ITS INFLUENCE ON AMERICAN DOMESTIC LIFE. 'HEN throughout any com¬ munity there develop marked and painful contrasts in the circumstances of its people, so that while one large class of citizens possesses over- abundantly the requisites for supporting and embellishing life, another even larger class lacks extremely the very essentials of wholesome exist¬ ence ; immediate relief for this less fortunate class is to be sought, not by the development of additional resources, but by a different disposition of resources already -at hand. For, while the world endures, such general privation falling in contrast with neighboring abundance upon any considerable body of industriou.s, w'ell-meaning people, falls thus never because God’s providence for them has failed, but rather because human mismanagement has hindered a just distribution of His all-sufficient bounties. Men need then to seek wmys of dis¬ tributing more equitably the goods from out the common store; undertaking this with a realization that however effective the imple¬ ments and exceeding the wealth contained within any community, these of themselves afford no surety whatever for a general well- being of its members. That surety lies rather in a prevalence of such prime virtues as brotherly love and compassion, prompting the devotion of available implements and wealth to achievement of the highest possible good for all. Forever the maxim holds true, that “ not what we have, but what w'e share, makes us blest.” In the circumstances of our American* people, the painful contrasts just designated have developed to a marked degree. Thoughtful men have recognized this, and have been earnestly inquiring the cause of the trouble, and seeking remedies. Some of these .seekers after truth have adopted a plain, literal style in dis¬ cussing the problem. Another clothes the discussion in garb of a * “America” and “American.” as herein used, apply to the United States of America. This terminology is used for convenience in expression; not from any feeling that the people of the United States are “ the great and only Americans.” 10 EXAMPLES OF AMERICAN DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. lictilious Story, setting forth ideals of what society is yet to be¬ come, and sketching outlines of the means by which these ideals shall be attained. Yet, strange to say, threading the thoughts of nearly all these earnest thinkers, and woven through and through their ideals as a most marked figure of the fabric, runs this notion : —" In the new, righteous dispensation of things, we shall have, as never before, ornate, immense, wondrous works of Architecture." It is as if some mischievous power had bewitched the spiritual sight of these earnest souls, who mean the world so well. For¬ sooth, entranced by the prevailing glitter of that idolatrous apotheosis of Art which is seducing the whole Christian world, they thus approve and incorporate into their ideal fabrics an element which may perhaps never be consonant with general well-being in any society, however efficient its implements of labor and its organiza¬ tion of laborers. They encourage a long-customary application of human labor which, persisted in, might forever prevent the con¬ summation of their happy schemes for social improvement. If we will carefully scrutinize the department of Architecture, as hitherto conducted in the most highly civilized communities, we may become convinced that its processes have been a hindrance, rather than a help, to continued wholesome growth and prosperity of such communities: that Architecture has been requiring from their available resources contributions which the people could ill. afford. It may become evident to us that there is nothing incon¬ sistent in the spectacle of what has been hitherto called “ a high condition of Architectural Art” flourishing, like some rank, luxurious weed, in concomitance with decaying public health : that there is nothing accidental in such concomitance. We may see that the very process of evolving the intemperate splendors of such Art has so directed that current of daily activity, which is the public life-blood, as to engender public degradat.on and decay. Therefore it may be decided that, in perfecting plans for the just distribution of life’s bounties among a whole people, the depart¬ ment of Architecture can best help in such distribution by relin¬ quishing its operations for evolving really unprofitable splendors, and by devoting itself to certain operations much more profitable in their effects upon the public life. Established thus on what may be proven a sound economic basis. Architecture, instead of acting as a hindrance, may act as a powerful helping agent in the process of sharing the fruits of labor equitably among all, and so promoting public health and happiness.* Of all human industries, none is of more importance than Architecture—the Art of building fixed Habitations. It is important because of the labor absorbed by it ; important because of the use subserved by its products. To the construction of Buildings a civilized community devotes a very large share of its available re¬ sources ; and, once constructed, these Buildings e.xert a constant influence on all who dwell in and about them. Especially do the actual domiciles, within whose walls families are reared, exert this influence most potently. Whatever may be the character of public buildings provided for occasional visitation by the people ; the good or the bad character of the homes where people eat, drink, sleep, may be said to practically determine the life-weal or life-woe of their occupants. The lodging of all citizens in good, wholesome habitations would in itself almost constitute the desirable state of * Mark the word equitably.” Equitable distribution of wealth is desirable and possible. distribution of wealth is impossible, undesirable; the thought of it is a delusive dream, never to be realized. This idea of ironing all mankind out flat on one smooth, common plane of circumstance is nearly as agonizing as the thought of present painful inequalities. EXAMPLES OF AMERICAN DOMESTIC ARCIIITECTDRE, society for which our good idealists are striving. Therefore, in the work of attaining this desirable state, the prime function of Architecture in our social economy should be the general provision of good buildings as habitations for our people; and from the processes of the Art should be eliminated all that interferes with a proper ful¬ filment of this function. If it can be really proven that the evolu¬ tion of Architectural splendor materially interferes with this proper fulfilment, such evolution should be repressed—not encouraged ; and the labor hitherto spent upon it should be spent in fulfilling the prime function just stated. Thus the labor devoted to building will be so di.stributed as to ensure “the greatest good to the great¬ est number." The manner of distributing the labor devoted to building is now determined in our country largely by the authority of the pro¬ fessional Architect. The fashion in Architecture is set by him. He dictates the ideals which direct the activities of workmen, and so give shape to the structures which they build. Guiding thus a most important industry of society, American Architects exercise great influence. They are not merely obedient servants of their clients—as many a client by harrowing experience knows : they, as a rule, express largely in their designs their own ideas of what is desirable in Architecture; they are advisers, educators of their clients and of the general public in matters of Architectural taste. If the fashion of building in any period is unwise, not subserving the highest public good, the responsibility for this rests with our Architects no less than with the people who engage their services. And if the unwise fashion is to be reformed, we must look to the Architects, quite as much as to their patrons, for the impulse tend¬ ing to such reform. 1 I In the acquirement of technical skill in their specific art, Amer¬ ican Architects have labored thoughtfully and diligently. The scale and the decorative splendor (Fig. i) of buildings erected under their supervision have mightily increased during the past twenty years— especially in our great cities. Yet evidently neither the Architects themselves, nor the people who so often engage their services, have well considered how the evolution of the work produced under their joint di¬ rections is affecting the general welfare of society. These directions have been based upon the as¬ sumption that the European type of city—of which Paris, London, Berlin are chief examples—is the desirable type ; and that we Ameri¬ cans are to exhibit Fig. r. — S t.^te Caietog at Harteord. Cii.v,r. tokens of thrift and true progress just in proportion as we approach, in the style and dimensions of our buildings, the models (Figs. 2, 3, 4) set for us by the magnificent capitals of Europe. EXAMPLES OF AMERICAN DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. Are these cities desirable types for us to imitate ? The mag¬ nificent buildings of their aristocratic quarters, so exciting our em¬ ulation, have been built with inadequate recompense to their com¬ mon workmen, so heavily taxed and scantily paid. Their vaunted Art, in decorating a few sump- ,, A tuous buildings, has often de¬ spoiled the homes of the popu¬ lace. Take the city of Berlin, q for example. An impartial j reviewer describing the growth — I—4 of the city during the last quarter century—its palaces, mansions, museums, statues, art galleries, churches, and so on. — Pakis Oi-EHA House. says incidentally ; " The common houses are built of brick, plastered or stuccoed outside, and they soon acquire a faded appearance. The style of these has very much altered since 1864. Prior to that, the greater portion of the houses were of one, two or three stories; but these arc fast giving way to houses of four, five and more stories, the larger ones predominating. The increase in the value of house property has been enormous, and the result is that great numbers of the people are driven to take up their abode in cellars underground. About one hundred thousand of the population live in these cellars, huddled together in a manner that proves deleterious to their moral and their physical well-being.” Indeed it is questionable if cities of this type are right models for us to reproduce in our United States of America—so nobly praised by an Englishwoman, who has said : “ I have traveled much through your Northern States, and what pleases me there best of all, in the rural districts and suburbs of your cities espe¬ cially, is the spectacle of the pretty, comfortable homes of your common people. There is nothing like it on the continent of Europe; and even in our own England, it is not as it is here.” Now just to the degree that we manage to reproduce in our country the magnificence exhibited by European cities, just to that same degree also may we lessen the proportion of pretty, com¬ fortable homes of our common people, by reproducing also that abominable type of domicile of the common workman—so abound¬ ing in Europe.* Already we have evidence enough that this will be the case. In our large cities are developing, not as exceptional things, but as the rule throughout extensive districts, dwelling-places which are mockeries of the idea “ Home.” And there is a direct * In 1SS3 an Italian deputy called the attention of his government to the sad condition of the mass of the people in Italy as regards the slate of their dwellings. The houses of the peasantry in the great majority of cases were exceedingly unhygienic, consisting in many cases of a single room which serves as a living place for a numerous family, as well as a place for keeping all their household utensils and other things. The room is usually damp, narrow and musty, and one cannot wonder when disease falls upon the inhabitants.” The condition of vast numbers of dwellings in the metropolis of England, as set forth by pamphlets like “The Bitter Cry of Outcast London,” is too familiar to require more than pass¬ ing notice here. EXAMPLES OF AMERICAN DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. 13 causal connection between this squalor characterizing one quarter, and the magnificence characterizing another. It is to just this con¬ nection that the ruling people of the world have hitherto been so blind. Perhaps there has been excuse for the blindness in the past; but there is no excuse for it henceforth : there is henceforth no excuse for directing our American social de¬ velopment from basis of a theory that the more magnificent the Architecture in a given community, the more exalted will be the general condition of its people. Archaeology, Fig. 4. - MiI.AN C.M'HEDRAL . , . .| 1 in this marvellous present age so waited upon by testimony from out the past, is flooding us with the light of evidence to show that y\rchitectural magnificence and popular degradation have always, thioughout the civilized world, gone hand in hand, increasing together. This concomitance again and again repeated during thousands of years, from the time of the Pharaohs to the time of Victoria, warrants a strong doubt that the magnifi¬ cence is positively beneficent in effect : yes, even warrants a suspi¬ cion, that it is pernicious in effect—warrants a suspicion that there is causal connection between tlie magnificence and the degradation. And we feel justified in declaring that a careful scrutiny of the present processes of American Architectural Art reveals the actual operations whereby the evolving of magnificent Architecture effects squalor and degradation of the toiling populace. The operations thus revealed are widespread and potent in the work of effecting that di,stressing inequality of conditions among our people, which now endangers our nation’s stability. An Architect is, of all men, best qualified to observe the.se pernicious operations. And many an Architect will, we believe, support this assertion : In the process of erecting and paying for the splendid buildings coming into voque throughout our country, there is exerted upon the rank and file of work-people an im¬ mediate experimental pressure, calculated to determine how low a rate of wages, and how close crowded, paltry a style of domicile they will endure without open revolt.'^ This pressure bears not only upon the workmen em¬ ployed in the building trade, but upon all manner of work-people whose inadequately recompensed labor fur¬ nishes the large profits required for investment in such splendid buildings. (Figs. 5, 6.) To designate this experimental work of determining how closely the common toilers will consent to be hived, certain euphemisms have been concocted. The process is referred to, for instance, by some political economist.s, whose God is Mammon, as "the compacting of our popu- p,,, lation, that laborers may dwell close to their places q/‘’ b™' labor: business being conducted with economy.'' * A certain contractor in Boston was reading from his note-book the items of cost of a certain building for which he had just tendered an estimate. Among the items was : “Com¬ mon laborers, $1.50 per day.” “ Low wages for a man to support a family upon," remarked a listener. “ Well, it does for those fellows,” was the reply. ‘' They live with their families ni any hole they can get breeding like rats. Anything is good enough for them." And this is part of the process of putting up a fine—very fine building, whose displayed decorations are to help exalt the toiling populace! 14 EXAMPLES OF AMERICAN DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. Against the tendencies to this unwholesome hiving, our Archi¬ tects, once realizing how much power they have to remedy the evil, should set their strongest influence. Doing this, they will act the noble part of defending the homes of a large class of our common people : homes which are the very essential fabric of our nation’s being, and on the character of which depends the public welfare. It may be that these poorest of our citizens are crude, undeveloped—troublesome in many ways ; but we prof¬ it by their services : they are our hewers and car¬ riers and diggers; and we owe them some fair re¬ compense for their toil. It is no fair recompense to proffer them, as their ine.'iorable lot, unwhole¬ some dens for their dwel¬ ling-places ; and as a pal¬ liative, false and alluring, to hold the cup of drunk¬ enness to their lips.’* *S(juALOR AND Ineuriety—Mr. Chadwick’s Confessiov. When I was examining the slums of Edinburgh, I met an occupierof one of them, whom I well remember. He was a strong, well-built man, who answered the questions I put to him with great clearness. He was a porter, and earned more than twenty shillings a week. I asked him how he expended the wages he got, and he stated the details of his expenditure with apparent honesty. But these only amount, I said, to one-half of your earnings. What do you do with the rest of your wages ? - It goes in whiskey.” he said. I could not help expressing my surprise and concern that so sensible a man as he was should give himself up to such a course. ‘‘Well, sir, this is the only place I could get ; and if you we-re to live here you would drink whiskey, too.’ It so happened that while I was there I did feel a coppery taste in mv mouth, a premonitory symptom from so depressing an atmosphere, and immediately I felt it It IS the fact that, rightly or wrongly, I sought correction in a diffusive stimulant—some warm brandy and water — Kd'ivin Chadwick. As one important step toward providing means for making the dwelling places of these men, women and children fit to dwell in, we must learn to spare something from the ornateness of future buildings of all descriptions in the best quarters of our cities. “ But," it is said, in apology for this ornateness, " beautiful, rich decorations, displayed to public view, have an uplifting, refining in¬ fluence on the poorer people, and incite them to live a higher life.” The same old plea ! Let us examine it a little, — For example, a hod- carrier, leaving at morning his fetid domicile, and passing, on his way to work, the rose window and traceried spires of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, or the marble portico and extraordinary frieze of the Al¬ gonquin Club (Fig. 7), this hod-carrier, in New York or in Boston, is so uplifted by this architectural spectacle, that he goes on to his plodding work with a song in his heart, and feels his load some pounds the light¬ er. And when he returns that way at night, again as he passes by and gazes is his spirit exalted ; so that amid the stenches of his domicile, when he has reached it, he feels at peace. No qualms of his liver, which might otherwise be disturbed by the foulness, move him to gulp a potion of bad whiskey to the resultant sorrow of his family; for has he not this day passed under the bright in¬ fluence of a piece of noble Art, which has refined his whole nature — >'10. 7.—Algonquin Club. EXAMPLES OF AMERICAN has helped develope the higher manhood in him ? So, little little will he be uplifted by the glorious spectacles which appeal to him as he fares abroad; and will reck not how crowded, sunless, and beset by sewage stinks the rooms of his own immediate home may Something very like this is implied in the vague dissertations about tbe refining influence of magnificent Architecture upon our poorer people. With society in its present condition, have we leall) faith in the truthfulness of such panegyrics when we utter them ? Is not this rather the truth—that it merely thrills the vanity of people well-to-do, when they gaze contentedly upon an environ¬ ment of architectural splendor provided for them? Let us be honest ; let us understand our own motives. We who are fortunate provide these “divine things of Art” to pamper our own lives, and not with any real purpose or effect of uplifting the poor and lowly. They, gazing from the standpoint of their .starveling lot upon surrounding splendors of Art, are stirred, not as by an afflatus fiorn Heaven, but rather as by an emanation from some demon¬ power, which displays before their eyes its works of pride, offering them stones where they plead for bread. Yet it is often urged—and this is an argument of .seeming great weight—that lavish carving, painting, upholstering of magnificent buildings is all most beneficent work, since in the doing it employ¬ ment has been furnished to people glad of the opportunity to earn wages. \ es! after the wages of the common day-laborers em. ployed on such buildings have been urged down to the lowest notch, that there may be money left to hire skilled labor for this lavish decoration (Fig. 8), the skilled labor is set to its work—and to what purpose ? To flaunt in the face of Heaven stark, lifeless shapes in stone and tim¬ ber ; to overload rooms with inanimate fanta¬ sies of design which minister no benefit to people already com¬ fortably housed and fed ; while from the un¬ wholesome dens which that same hired labor, luorkmg in different channels, might have ,|li replaced with some- thing w h o 1 e s o m e— from the abodes of 0|'I living souls untutored, yW ^ { |t I erring, half-sheltered, ' half-fed, half-conscious of what their birth¬ right is, ever the voice of suffering, despair, defiance goes up to God. Such an allotment by society of its avail¬ able labor is mo.st un¬ wise, most unholy. It may be safely assert¬ ed that on the Back i6 EXAMPLES OF AMERICAN DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. Bay district of Boston, for example, two-thirds of the money which has been expended upon the buildings (Fig. 9) there existent would have sufficed to provide an equivalent number more beautiful in their moderation and refinement than most of the present struc¬ tures, which are so uselessly gorgeous, especially in their interior workmanship. The few refined, temperate examples in this famous district show what might have been done with all. And that redeemed portion of one-third in money and labor might have been devoted to doing in the North End tenement districts of Boston what George Peabody did in London. This might have been done patiently, systematically, firmly; with better results than have followed his well-meant efforts to provide decent homes for the rank and file of working people. What is thus true of Boston is true no less of New York. It is true of every one of our cities wherein sharp contrasts of luxury and poverty are manifest—wherein the chief people hav'e been lavishing upon unessentials of decoration the loving care and solicitude which should, by every law Divine, be devoted to the essential welfare of the toilers who help them gain their wealth. To be sure it is sometimes argued—and this is a phase of thought which is a most serious menace to our social well-being — that the fortunate classes owe no compassionate care to the unfortunate classes of society. “For,” the argument runs, “the power to surround one’s self and family with every luxury which the toil of humanity can be made to contribute, is a power to be freely exercised, being the reward of superior virtue. While the unfor¬ tunate, slavish condition of the poorest, feeblest classes is brought upon them by their own shiftlessness and their own misdeeds. Let them look to themselves: they have put themselves in a position to serve and suffer.” Many centuries back, this same pride of the Sadducee and Pharisee, always a principle of retrogression and decay, had built itself a Temple “adorned with goodly stones and gifts.” And EXAMPLES OF AMERICAN DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. when foi the work was asked the praise of One who came to establish God’s kingdom in place of the kingdom of Mammon, His answer was: “These things which ye behold, the days will come, in which there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.” 2 . AN APPARENT DUTY OF OUR ARCHITECTS. Of the. three arguments just considered—arguments so often urged to justify magnificence in Architecture—the last only is the one to be met in debate without mercy, blow for blow. When the spirit manifest in it becomes predominant among a ruling people, history shows that it is often answered at last by the roar of the risen populace, “that awful mingling of the cry of the wild beast and the voice of God.” The other arguments—that magnificent Architecture helps exalt the common people, and that the creation of such magnificence is beneficent in that it gives employment to labor,* are worthy of respectful consideration ; yet are indeed fallacious. They cannot justify, in the present state of society, an ardent devotion to the development of Architectural splendors. With so much misleading thought directing the development of American Architecture, the duty of our Architects is evident. That duty is to conceive and urge ideals in their Art which shall lead * This was Colbert’s possessing idea ; and by its earnest advocacy and application he justified the splendor-loving pride of French royalty; stored the houses of the rich with the spoil of the poor; and started his nation on the broad way to the Reign of Terror. Poor bedizened France ! flushed with apoplectic glory; replete with palaces while her miserably- housed populace was corrupting : what blood-flow and anguish has she suffered during migl^y efforts to eradicate a social disease, primarily engendered by the voluptuous ideals of the Grand Monarch and the false economy of his Minister of Finance ! ^7 society to build with more justice and consistency than has been the custom of late years. The laws of artistic unity, no less than those of brotherly compassion and charity, demand a modifying of the present painful contrasts of magnificence and wretchedness; demand a more equable allotment of domestic comforts among our people. Labor should be diverted from its work of extraneous decoration in the elegant districts of the cities, and devoted to the work of persistently clearing out, rebuilding and expanding the tenement house districts. Ancient Rome accomplished somewhat successfully a similar work in her noblest period—the period of the Republic. Are we unequal to such a task, with the marvellous appliances of these latter days at our command ?* No class of laborers will suffer through the measures requisite for achieving this reform. There will be no less labor for men of any handicraft—only a different distribution of the laborers. For example, there will be less demand in the mansion-house districts of our cities for stone-cutters, joiners and carpenters, to do use¬ lessly elaborate, decorative work ; and an increased demand in the tenement districts for the same men to do plainer work. The services of the Architects would be more than ever in demand. Right effort by the individual property owners, as well as the forming of building syndicates, and the enactment of stringent laws as to drainage and widths of streets would be involved. And the result of all this direction of energy would be the advent of a period of more general domestic virtue and happiness, of brotherly feeling and good will, supplanting the present period of growing * Since this was written, the news has transpired that King Humbert of Italy is aiding the work of renovating the poor quarter of Naples. In this process, thousands of unworthy houses will be gradually demolished and replaced by decent dwellings. EXAMPLES OF AMERICAN DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. distrust and estrangement between the leaders and the rank-and- file of our population. Already, with gladness be it said, there are signs betokening the development of wiser ideals in Architecture. Some of our foremost Architects are exhibiting in their later work that simple gracefulness of design so much better than elaborate richness and grotesque invention. And the clients who invite and love work of this temperate character are very often people who spare in their building, that they may have money to devote to many quiet deeds of charity.* It is evident that this good leadership of cer¬ tain foremost men in the profession is gaining followers. If this right instinct in design can be reinforced by moral thoughtfulness, and made to serve a moral purpose, unmeasured good may be * It is related that for generations a certain Japanese family had a box into which they put percentages. Said one of them : “ If I want to buy a garment that cost $i. I buy it for 8o cents ; or give a feast that would cost $5. I give it for $4 ; or to build a house for $100, I build it for $So, and put the balance in the box. At the end of the year we meet, open the boxes, and give the contents to the poor. It costs us some self-denial, but we are always prosperous and happy.” They call this worshiping “ The great bright God of self-restraint,” accomplished by the Architects of America. And this is the moral purpose which should dominate us,—that our Art should have for its ideal, for its objective aim, to which all else should be sub¬ ordinated, tJie Home Welfare of all the people of our land. In the pursuit of this ideal, there is no call for Spartan austerity in design,—for an abstinence from beauties of form and color in our public buildings and in the dwellings of prosperous people. Such beauties, rationally e.xhibited, are of great worth and helpfulness. What is required is temperance—a following in design “ that rational course of middling action which men call ‘common sense.’” As to what constitutes the desirable temperance in Archi¬ tectural design—this must be determined by careful study and com¬ parison. At risk of some appearance of dogmatism, the work of comparison, with a view of designating existent models which manifest this desirable temperance, will be undertaken in the succeeding chapter. OH^FTER II. DESIRABLE AND UNDESIRABLE STYLES OE ARCHITECTURE. OPPOSING the desirableness of re¬ straint and simplicity in Architecture to be granted, the question naturally occurs:—“What style of Architecture shall serve as basis of design ?” There is much material from which to choose. The Architect, in this day and generation, gains ideas not only from the buildings seen on his travels, but from a profusion of books and photographs which furnish specimens of the architectural work of many centuries. These specimens compose a collection ranging from the Pyramids of Egypt to the Parliament Houses of England; to say nothing of later work. Being thus beset by examples of what has been built before our day, it is vain to discuss the po.ssibility of inventing “ a new style" in Architecture. To build rationally in an “original style” is no more possible than to furnish society with a useful code of “ original statutes,” in which shall appear no trace of the com¬ mands of Moses, or of the laws of Greece and Rome. Mark well the expression, “to build rationally.” It is easy enough to build in a merely original fashion ; we have most abundant and most lamentable evidence of that. But the rational, virtuous types—the worthy models in Architectuie, prepared for us by past experience and best fitted to our present needs, are few; and are positive, graceful, orderly in their nature. Holding faithfully to these tried and proven types as bases of our modern design, we may never¬ theless find plentiful opportunity for variety in the work based upon them. Just as, by the ever-varying disposition of a few con¬ stant elements of ocean and lake and river, snow and verdure, plain, hill-slopes, crags and cloud-swept sky, God builds us a setting for our lives,—a setting new to us every morning and fresh every evening—infinitely changing, ever appealing to us in some new grouping as we go. There is a lesson here for those of us who will be restlessly seeking to invent new vagaries, unseen before, wherewith to compose the little structures w^e are building beneath the eternal dome of heaven. As well weary of the elm tree as of the chaste Ionic column. As well weary of the sky itself as of the sturdy Norman arch that so denotes support. Among the things of our architectural heritage which furnish us with valuable elements, may be reckoned the ancient Athenian 20 EXAMPLES OF AMERICAN DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. Architecture; as also the early Roman work, antedating the period of Augustus. Of equal worth with these examples are the round- arched and early ] 5 ointed Gothic buildings of Europe; buildings belonging to the period when the Gothic architects dared oc¬ casionally build a buttre.ss or a wall of plain, honest masonry (Fig. lo) without laboriously slashing its whole surface into panels and niches. There are now being brought to notice abundant specimens of a style which developed in France during the period of the Reformation and subsequently ; a style characterized by broad masses of honest, plain wall, en¬ livened here and there by touches of chaste, decorative detail (Fig. 11). The moulding influence of Fro. ,o.-c,vrHi!Dij,\i, AT novo,n, THE BiKTHPLACB tlic couragc, vlgoi' uiid Integrity of spirit which characterized the Protestant reaction against the manifold extravagances of Roman¬ ism, is plainly manifest in this Architecture. It is built and hewn into shape chiefly by those brave Huguenots who, tried by all cruelties of persecution, were proven to be the very noblest of the French people. Would we appreciate the quality of their virtue, we have only to recollect that they contributed to our American life the personality of Anthony Benezet. As a coincidence which helps prove how thoroughly the architecture of a period is ex¬ pressive of the human thought and character then current,— England, in her period of first reaction against the excesses of Romanism, also produced a type of architecture corresponding to the praiseworthy Chateau style of France. The detail of this so-called Elizabethan style of England is at times overdone and grotesque; but there is much that is meritor'ous in the EXAMPLES OF AMERICAN composition of these homes (Fig. 12) of the English gentry of the early Protestant period. In both these 16th and 17th cent¬ ury styles of France and England, the decorative detail is often based on the Roman Orders; while there are reminiscences of the free, wild Gothic spirit in the picturesque plans and outlines DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. ,j of the buildings. The half-timbered domestic work (Fitr. 13) of this same period, in England, France and Germany, is honestly constructive, usually decorated in good taste and moderation, and is well worthy to serve as a basis for modern design. Among architectural examples to be avoided as models, may be counted a great quantity of profusely ornate, puttered, feeble stuff, more or less ancient, furnished us by India and other oriental countries. As for the jionderous works of Egypt, born of the absolute power of monarchs and the abject servitude of the masses, these stand as historical evidences and as monu¬ mental warnings. They are not for our imitation ; we have out¬ grown the excuse for such tremendous follies. The gorgeous Corinthian and Composite styles of the Roman Empire, and the florid extravagances of Late Decorated, Perpen¬ dicular and Flamboyant Gothic, are the fruit and expression of a period of license, corruption and injustice in a State and in a Church ; they are not for us to copy. Neither is there much else than warning for us in those vast, ornate structures, bequeathed by that breed of tyrants whose sins were visited upon the best monarch of their line in the wrath and woe of the French Revolu¬ tion. Equally serviceable as warning is a large part of the Ivcnaissance work of Italy; work at the portals of which swarm specimens of the breed of beggers evolved in the process of its erection. In truth there is little to commend in any of the Renaissance architecture of continental Europe; architecture in¬ spired by an admiration of tyrants for the works accomplished by their archetypes in the splendid, corrupt days of Old Rome. The ornateness of this European Renai,ssance ran to seed in the Rococo style (Fig. 14), the most brutal, senseless flaunting of 22 EXAMPLES OF AMERICAN DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. wasteful frippery before the eyes of a starving populace that ever disgraced the earth. Rococo expresses fittingly the character of that mad fever of voluptuous tyranny which reached its height just before the awful corrective outbreak of the French -people; an outbreak which humanity can almost forgive, so frightful was the disease of social life at which it was aimed. Again, in seeking models, most certainly to be shunned is that vast agglomeration of ornate¬ ness,* imitated from everything vain-glorious under the sun, which has accumulated during the last century on English soil, as tokens of that pride and materialism against which the voices of Eng¬ land’s prophets are warning her. Yet, at the same time, many of the English Architects have been doing work temperate and beautiful (Plate V), which some of their American brethren have been studying with exceeding profit to themselves. For that Anglo-Sa.xon nation in which evil and good are so mightily striving together, is in all things setting at once the worst and the best of examples to the world. In its turbulent life is work¬ ing the leaven of holiness. Through its blood runs the current * The most notable specimen is the Royal Parliament House at Westminster. Here labor has been riotously lavished upon stone-carvinjr which is now crumblintj beneath the sorrosive touch of London fog. from the veins of those old ancestors of whom the Roman saint exclaimed: “Angles! They would be Angels if they were Christians.” As to recent American Architecture, suffice it to say that, mingled with the great quantity of architectural extravagances evolved in the process of groping after a surpassing “national style,” there are also many excellent specimens (Plates I-IV) which are an honor to the American architects who designed them.* E.xceeding valuable among the things of our architectural heritage are the examples, in our own America, left us by the men who thought and fought oUt the Revolution, and established our nation. They found their models in the simpler forms of Roman and of Greek Architecture. They wrought these forms usually in wood; a material which commands less respect than the stone in which their ancient originators wrought them. Yet the classic doorways and windows (Fig. 15), cornices and porticoes of our colonial buildings are instinct with a delicacy — a genuine refine¬ ment, which in itself bespeaks the high character of the men who * Dangerous as it is to emerge from the realm of abstractions into the realm of concrete example, we cannot refrain from citing the very conspicuous instance of two American build¬ ings which, standing shoulder to shoulder, show, the one what Architecture should be, the other what it should not be. We trust that no offence will be taken at the comparison ; forit is made in the friendliest spirit. The two buildings referred to are the Times Building in City Hall Square, New York ; and the Potter Building next it. The Times Building may even have cost more, structure for structure than its neighbor ; nevertheless, had Mr. Post worked in the spirit exhibited in the design of the Potter building, his structure would have been vastly enhanced in cost, with no corresponding enhancement in beauty. As it is. given a notable building to be constructed of noble material, Mr. Post has produced an edifice which stands temperate, beautiful, a constant rebuke to irrational, extravagant methods; a wholesome object- lesson in architectural design. Excepting a little offence of inutile grotesques upon its dormer windows, there is nothing that one could wish spared from the effectively-applied carving which here and there touches with life its massive, quarry-faced stone-work. This exemplifies the spirit needed in our architectural design, from the instance of the hugest public building to the instance of the tiniest cottage. Examples of American Domestic Architecture. Plate f At Bap- Habbor , Mainei. Wm. Ralph Emerbo-n. Archt. Trinity Rectory, the Residence of PHtLLiPS Brooks.. Henry Hobson “Richaruson, Architect. 7~//e -60 s’^oyy ci. A^€-f^forja.7 IDr-HTi^p, cc't H£i-f^y£3.-f~ip7 — h^i 777 (TL-py? " 7 ^. 'V^CL’y'G^ a.'p’if/ 77&t7Ty i.'£L» 73-ru.yftj y^ssocTaic-c^ A-f'c7-3y'te-d.^:i>. JB-at 777 -tc 7 -^ 7 f 6 ' 77 as-i.& of- ^ei €7774 yo-rcs.^ t 7 f^/-e. \/\/£is ~P 7 o -p-T-t^pcL-fyy?^ CLP! a.WZai.Cya.€^ eJ-fa yV77i& of i:7of^ 7'io"i>fe^ vVv?/^ < 0 ^- /^a.fvoiT'oi /'fe.-yfor-i'tz7 7£>-K7T-• Wrt*ryil .S) prrniijsion.frfm'Rmrit^n A^rhitret" ptrmiyjion from fmarlean frahiUcf' Ho-use (A-t Ora.T\f^,UX-H- ■E.c1w.T, hfa.-p^oocS,, ^rcVi'fc. jAfiTCIt .f (ir •Jj^W-PlpluHIW' frenf^Utlduf^'. BRUNNEft^JibtW- -■' ' ' - ■■-. •. I'l •' V ; • :■ H' i.''-^'Ti '^.■ ■;r vi: ' ^ ■-.S'', ■ " .• ' 'f- ^ •• 7-^>fWrP;^.jiri 7 *-• • " -■* '^- ■t • il«*-i!'i • .’.''S'iu'S , 7 '\. •'. '■ ■• .;■ .>Vt • >-'- ■ - . -1 *■ ’> W> : kflBKSik Cl cl EXAMPLES OF AMERICAN DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. 2 id such emocratic work. And it is worthy of note that wherever the spirit was earliest developed and most marked, there the work done by our Carpenter-Architects of the Colonial and early National times exhibits most of pure beauty (Figs. i6, 17). In and about Philadelphia, and along the New England Coast from Plymouth to Portland; throughout that territoiy where the protest against black slavery rang out long before the protest against tyrannies of the Crown ; there, especially, we find the genuine refinement and delicacy, the temperate, telling use of detail ; so desirable in architectural composition. America has been suffering her period of admiration for such magnificent structures as those inflicted upon the world by the =4 EXAMPLES OE' AMERICAN DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. Popes and the Medici ; by Richelieu, Mazarin, Louis XIV and Colbert, Napoleon the Great and Napoleon the Little. It is gratifying that now, at last, the public taste is becoming awakened to the sterling beauty of our own Colonial buildings. Studying them, we may learn to apply ornament with the same temperance and grace that characterize these works of the founders of our country. This study will profit the Architect, however extensive the structure he is designing, or whatever be its distinctive style. This “Old Colonial" style, based on the Classic Orders, is particularly well adapted to domestic work. Few and simple as are the parts which the Orders place at our disposal, we shall find that they possess a flexibility which makes their rational use easy, however broken be the floor-plan or sky line of the building. A decided preference for the American Classic examples of the 18th and early 19th century is doubtless manifest in those specimens of our own work which we venture to publish. Yet there seems no good reason why any Architect should, under a notion of consistency, pledge himself to champion some distinctive style, to the exclusion of opportunity for working at times in some other style of apparently equal merit. Indeed, it seems advisable to vary occasionally the key of design; but when once the key¬ note for a building is struck, be the note any of the desirable foims of Classic or of Gothic, it should be consistently sustained throughout the work. There is a great deal of work falling to the lot of the Archi¬ tect which must be designed in what may be termed a merely constiuctive style (big. 18). From considerations of economy, he must dispense almost entirely with decoration ; whatever beauty his design possesses being gained through graceful proportions of masses and by pleasing shapes and judicious arrangement of wall openings. In this vein of de.sign the Architect may render most valuable service. The beauty which he thus gives to a building shaped under his direction, costs only his own thought. It is no more expensive to build gracefully with a given amount of material than to build awkwardly. Fig. 18. As to the permanence of buildings—much has been said and written about the nobility of erecting structures which shall endure for ages, as a rich heritage to succeeding generations. In some buildings of a public, monumental character this permanency is desirable. But in case of a dwelling, it is in many respects best that the structure endure not much more tlian a century. For though it is in a measure true that “ an old home is like an old EXAMPLES OF AMERICAN DOMESTIC AKCHITECTURE. 25 violin—the music of the past is wrought into it,” yet it is also true that in a few generations a certain mustiness is wrought into it, too ; so that its walls had better be cleared away, to be re¬ placed by something fresher. To design structures of a somewhat transitory character is no ignoble task for the Architect. If it be even a mere shell of a wooden summer cottage (Fig. 19) that he is called upon to con¬ trive, he need not despise the work ; he may well give his best V..= thought to making the house graceful, to grouping its rooms effec¬ tively and conveniently, and to inventing bits of pretty detail here and there; for though the structure be only ephemeral, while it does endure it is the home-shrine where parents are administering to children the freshest, sweetest things of this fair earth. Let us not be over-disturbed, then, by flings at the temporary character of much American architecture. Indeed it is of far more importance that during our own day and genei'ation we live wholesomely together in brotherly love and something like com¬ munity of comforts, than that we build splendid, long-enduring monuments to catch the wonder of coming generations. We may bequeath them better things than these splendors : the virtue that gleams God-like from the eyes of a living people e.xcels infinitely the glory of carved and emblazoned piles of insensate masonry and timber, evolved at sad sacrifice of human health and happiness. And though, in the beneficent process of taking the corrupt souls of society and making them holy, we should be compelled to strike an average of wholesome, air-swept wooden huts for everybody— which however is far from needful—we should then be preparing a better heritage for posterity than we now prepare through our ill-advised process of finding cities brick and leaving them marble. To sum up then—the building designed by the Architect, whether it be long-enduring or ephemeral in character, should be conscientiously studied, and shaped in accordance with the most worthy architectural models. Not slavishly copied from them, but shaped according to the evident rational principles governing their creation. And we shall find these most worthy models in work built during periods when men were most chaste, brave, reverent, brotherly. Patterning after such work^ society will find itself ennobled by the process; even as contrariwise, society will find itself degraded by patterning its Architecture after work done by men licentious, vain-glorious, tyrannical. Art which springs from virtue, imitated, guides the imitator toward the virtue whence it springs. OH^l^TER III. WHEREIN CERTAIN OE OUR OWN DESIGNS ARE SENT FORTH TO JUDGMENT. —^he considerations expressed in the preceding chapters have influenced strongly the character of our own domestic work present¬ ed to the public in this book. Added to these considerations, as influ¬ ences giving shape to our designs, are the conditions of life in this commonwealth of Maine. Taking heed of the warnings as well as the good examples exhibited elsewhere ; and appreciating in some measure the virtues characterizing life here; our endeavor has been to evolve work which shall be in harmony with and shall encourage what is best in our people. Life throughout this commonwealth is nearer the normal wholesome type than is life in some other portions of our great country. In this declaration is easily detected a flavor of the sectionalism which seasons every man’s statements about his own especial home-land. And yet allowing duly for this, the declaration is, we think, warranted by facts. For men here, whatever may be their faults, have not far forsaken the doing justly by each other in their daily traffic; employers usually treat their employees as fellow-citizens; there have not been established those extreme con¬ trasts of wealth and poverty which tempt the few to command magnificence at the expense of the many : there is, instead, a happy mean of general comfort. At a time when other sections of our country are developing an evidently demoralizing luxury, there is exhibited here through¬ out Maine a primitive simplicity and wholesome vigor of life which may serve as an object-lesson to the student of social problems. The path to social health which is being sought vaguely through abstract ideals, may perhaps be here fairly indicated by the concrete example of an existent commonwealth. Already Maine is eagerly sought as a recreating-ground by people whose nerves need soothing. The natural scenery of this healthful region is an important factor in this recreative process; yet doubtless, too. EXAMPLES OF AMERICAN HOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. 27 another important factor is the prevalent wholesomeness of soeial conditions. One feels here no impending menace of some popular paroxysm; but feels rather the calm spirit of a contented people Fig. 20.—Houses in Portland. environed by the unperverted things of nature. Contrast the atmosjiherc of social security here with the social atmosphere of— well, say the northeast corner particularly of Illinois. The cities of Maine are small ; but present undoubtedly a higher average of public health and happiness than is presented in many a vast, cumbersome metropolis whose records of wealth and population appear so imposing in the census. Such a city as Port¬ land, for example, exhibits much that is most desirable. It is a city of true homes (Fig. 20), comparatively free from the offence of forcing, on even its poorest citizens, noxious dwelling places as their lot. Then in many manufacturing towns there is a generous regard for the rank and file of work people—a care for their home welfare, unknown in some other sections of America, where ambi¬ tion and avarice are rife. Simplest, most ungarnished of all, yet in many respects lovely, is life in the towns which are scattered along the sea-coast, among the farm-lands, and along the southern borders of the vast forests. Here abound dwellings (Fig. 21) which express in a simple, primitive fashion, more or less graceful, the idea of home-comfort. Worthy of all reverence is the truly noble domestic life of which these dwellings are the scene. Within their walls men, women and 28 EXAMPLES OF AMERIC AN DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. children, drawing their inspiration front the woids of the Bible, cherish holy ideals and live reverent, brave lives; caring with all the heart and soul for each other. On the wall of many a fore-room hangs the picture of some boy or father who fought to the death in the nation’s armies, for the noblest cause that ever palliated the awful sin of war. From these fair homes have gone forth with a “God-speed" some of the best souls that have helped people the great West, or have contributed their sturdy, virile lives to the society of our mighty cities. And throughout the souls of these people of Maine, in city, town and village, there runs a deep, strong under-current of rever¬ ence and love for all that makes for freedom and equality and holiness of life ; and an equally deep, strong antipathy for all that tends to social degradation and slavery and decay. These people do not forget what our nation’s history has been, even as also they have ever in miud ideals not all vain-glorious of what her future is yet to be. They forgive past offences against free¬ dom and equality, expiated in blood ; but they do not forget what the repression of such offences has cost them. In their cities and towns are monuments, in their plain halls of state are battle-flags, eloquent to tell of men who, upheld by the prayers of mothers and wives and children, gave their lives in braving one power that tended mightily to engender national degradation and decay. And among their living men are many equally brave in offering, for this same cause, lives which were happily spared by the fate of battle. And the spirit of these people of Maine is all awake, as in the past, against any power, be it an old one persisting or one new-grown, which shall tend mightily to degrade in any section of our country the mass of men. Sins there are among these people: here, as ever, the same old devil tempts, the same old lu.sts war against the soul. But of their offences nothing now. It is not the occasional sinner, but their many good that we are declaring. Their justice and mercy towards each other, their esteem for freedom, their reverence for religion—not superstitious, but a reverence for its priceless worth as a guide to every-day living ; all these virtues find best fruit and fullest expression in a prevalent love for home, and in the resultant beauty of their domestic life. They are a pronounced type of that citizenship which is, throughout our country, the element tending to national health and virtue and prosperity. These words, meant to indicate some measure of regard for the character of life around us, are no merely vain words, irrelevant to the subject under discussion ; nor do we fear that any thoughtful reader will so regard them. For only as the Architect is in sympathy with what is good and eternal in the society wherein he labors, can he evolve work which shall reinforce and encourage that goodness, creating for it an environment of true beauty e.x. pressive of his honor for the virtue to which he is ministering. And if he has not this sympathy with the good and eternal; if there is a falsehood at his heart that attunes it wrong, so that it thrills with greed after riches and scorn for the poor and lowly, with contempt for plain domestic virtue and with lust of pomp and wassail, then his work, be there ever so much intellectual power manifest in it, will bespeak the falseness too, and will be as a poison to the public life. It may encourage pride and vain¬ glory ; it may startle the eye and inflame the public taste by its richness or grotesqueness; it may be as the fulsome ballad of an hireling court-minstrel (Fig. 22) lauding, in utter heedlessness of EXAMPLES OF AMERICAN DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. 29 y/ic. f UI 50 THC. K'L'Xf^ tile- lllb'.ory o-f'SY'iLqes Murm ■lRe,-pe-T-ftct SCu-f-f ISkt, •Uiii w^l!s evolveM — ITvie. p£- • ■ ' ’Irv' TSod 0+ a T onDV-jivifj fec-ticnKoF /48B Von W^'|■l ke.cVii a^- Von-t V/'s. cKtc^s' of w)u\-t VMc-’ S 0 ‘V\ce. C\e, ri-\ost, cTt/ o-c -the-, •' ui^- Main.tsl in .Po-il ei JCSTIC'E _ Springs, is a delight to all who know it. favored men who have been by him year the poor and weak, the luxury and notable pow¬ er of the fortunate ; or as a ribald song,—for this Architecture of ours is “ frozen music,” and stirs the heart no less than do the songs of a people. His work may be all this; and then, however imposing it may be, it is influential on the side of evil ; and the world in which he has labored is not so good as it might have been, had he, in passing through it, made wiser use of his oppor¬ tunities and left a holier touch upon its life. There is an archi¬ tect in this country, whose beautiful domes¬ tic work, scattered over a wide area from Mt. Desert to Colorado There are some few after year, who have seen him daily at his work,—and who know the process of its ereation. They have seen him, drawing-board before him and pen¬ cil in hand, his face aglow with earnestness as he rapidly sketches h:s conception of a design, explaining as he goes, so that all is a vivid picture of what the Home he is planning will be. Here is a Dining-room, with broad, cushioned-seated window to let in the morning sunlight; here a Library, with cosey reading-nooks to nestle in ; here a Parlor, with a generous chimney-piece and with win¬ dows arranged to command this or that charming view, which is graphically described while the pencil flies unceasingly. The stair¬ cases and offices go to the north side, where they take the brunt of the cold draughts. Now come the chambers on the floor above. Here is the parents’ room : then next it a room or two for the baby children : he fancies a mother answering a little one’s cry at night, and so the rooms are cleverly connected, despite the demands for intervening closets and dressing-rooms. Then there is a chamber perhaps for a girl maiden-grown; and in his course of arranging closets, spacing windows and doors for the convenience of furniture, and placing the fireplace out of range of draughts, he will pause a moment to say with enthusiasm how beautiful and good the girl is, and tell what charming people are all the family. Then the plan¬ ning is resumed, and there is evolved a nook for her writing-desk, and with the process a few words as to the pretty glimpse of land¬ scape she will have from the window in it. There is a room, too, for one of the lads—“a first-rate little fellow.” This room has a cabinet contrived for jointed rods, rifles and the many traps that accumulate around a growing boy. The bath-room is placed where there is least chance for any gases from the model plumbing to reach the chambers. The servants are given pleasant rooms in their 30 EXAMPLES OF AMERICAN DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. own quarter, where they may stir freely, yet not interfere with the rest of the family. The exterior of the house, studied in a series of clever per¬ spective sketches (Fig. 23), receives the same earnest care as the interior. Trust one who can so minister to the family life within, to make also truly beautiful the walls without. And all this done with a thoughtful economy, which ensures the beautiful house at no great cost. Now this man's work is lovely, because there is instilled into it the power of a chivalrous, joyous nature, revering everything pure and brave and holy in his fellow-creatures; while scorning all that is extravagant, meretricious. The virtue which another of his line instils through his philosophy, he himself instils into American life through his Art. And, be it repeated, only as the Architect possesses a heart that thus beats in sympathy with the righteousness in society about him, can his work tend to ennoble that society. With this right .sentiment at heart, the dwelling contrived by him will have the true domestic feeling. The happy life of its occu¬ pants will verily gleam through the windows to stir pleasant thoughts in the soul of the passer-by. The exterior may be built in the plainest constructive style, or its architecture may be more elabo¬ rate : but the structure will not look like a house in a Classic or Gothic straight-jacket; it will bespeak a comfortable home arranged freely for convenience and wholesomeness first of all, and then graced by telling touches of decorative detail. Nor should these touches be too frequent. Broad spaces of plain wall render all the more effective the rare ornamentation which is here and there contrasted with them. Leaving now this general treatment of the subject, our aim is, in these succeeding plates, to present some of our own specific schemes for rendering the Home artistically beautiful. There will struction ; we shall confine ourselves to exhibiting arrangements of plan, and architectural treatment of exterior and interior, including some touches of furnishing. No apology will be offered for the manifest democratic plainness characterizing our work. We have, in setting forth our opinions, striven to declare unmistakably that we consider this characteristic most desirable. The dwellings shown are nearly all designed to stand free. Even here in the city of Portland, blocks of dwellings are not plenty. Portland is not engaged in compacting and building her¬ self up in the air ; the baneful results of such a method, exhib¬ ited elsewhere, are a needed warning. Garden space all around the dwelling is here the rule. House at Island Pond, Vt.. for H. E. Fitzgerald. 'pHIS simple cottage at Island Point, Vt., cost $2,300 complete. It e.xhibits the most primitive elements cf I design. Such an authority as James Ferguson. D.C.L., F.R.S.. M.R.A.S., F.R.I.B.A., might classify it as a ■‘mere building,” not architecture: but in our own terminology the word “architecture’’comprises in its meaning even a structure as this. architectural specimen of so primitive Examples of American Domestic Architecture. Plate vi. % JOHN CALVIAl 5TEVEAJ5. f ALBERT W|/^5L0WC0BB: ARCM'T5 1 CMAMBEK ah CMAMBER »3 H BATA HALL CL. 1 CL. 0 "c ! , hi CMAMBEl^ 1 lijciA J j\\ BED BOOM. %'SS-K i/+ Second Ploor,. pJRST PORTLAAjD, .MAINE. ^ ’-'1 irrTi’'’ |j ■ ■TnrT'l T !f ' fir' T'fn House of John Calvin Stevens. Portland, Me. RE- house shown .IjS in Plates VII-VIII is located on the high land of the Western Fronrenade at Portland. The first story is of brick, which protrude here and there at random, giving dots of shadow playfu ,n then effect Above the brick work the walls are shingled. Creeping vmes and stately holl)- hocks help make the summer aspect of the house particularly enticing, even to a d.s.nter- ested spectator. treatment The Hall and Den are finished in Within the rooms arc varied in tieatment. in white-wood, deepened slightly in color. The Den walls are swept haphazard w.th burnt Sienna, here deep, there lighter. The ceiling is light blue. The Parlor has woodwork painted ivory white, with a figured paper of deep gray-buff; the ceding lemg igi oi ^ brown In the Dining room all wood work is stained a deep mahogany. This room ,s finished with a dado some five feet high, the wall above dado being colored with burnt sienna deep and uniform in tone; ceiling gray olive. The rooms in second story are Sait. "■ r Examples of American Domestic Architecture. Plate vti. i 1 H i ’» w * .* IS r J •--il >* r -- F- ■ . «» M •( ■• V; *‘ Vr '.* f;- .*■*. ■*'. •■ - -K *' •• , T, * 0 ^ V ' •■' • ■! -' _-■- >■ , •-••«> . r ■ " :.. 'aMl- V }^ tx^I V' -r' -•£■ 1^: '-’fit' ■ •-» -k-. Examples of American Domestic Architectu Bo-th Roe : ?ToLin >5ta.irs H0U6Z AT A5Hn01MT. Plate x RE House of G. E. Fitzgerald. Island Pond, Vt. SLAND POND is situated in a valley begirt with stately mountains. Through the valley runs in sinuous course the Grand Trunk Railway. The town is an important station of the road. One of the men prominent in giving motive power to the life of Island Pond has recently built this house. In some sections of our coun- ti'y a man in his position might con¬ sent to be termed a “lumber king,” and might, to support the title, con¬ jure into being a mansion bristling with turrets and iron cresting with¬ out, and bedizened with stencilled Ar-lbHE-R^AA'-SC^BIA: frescoing and elaborate black walnut wood-work within. Being, however, only a genuine American lumberman in the genuine American State of Vermont, this client of ours is content with the rather unpretentious, comfortable structure here shown. The exterior of the house has shingled walls and roofs, the shingles being left natural color, the wood finish of exterior is painted gray-white, the blinds are deep bronze.green. Inside, the walls of Parlor are papered with stuff of a graceful Renaissance pattern, the prevailing color being warm-gray, deepest in the figure. The wide frieze of this room is a lighter gray ; the ceiling a light gray blue; the wood-work ivory white. The Dinir]g-room is finished in birch-wood ; the walls treated in texture-work colored with subdued red-blue and green playing one into the other ; the ceiling is a deep stained ivory color. The Hall is papered a rich, soft brown in two tones; its ceiling is a light yellow-olive; wood-work ivory-white. The Library exhibits soft gray-olive tones of wall ; the wood-work being painted pearl-gray. The Chambers are finished in natural pine, merely shellacked ; the plaster walls being painted in consonance with the carpets and furnishings. House at Johnstown, Pennsylvania. ^ HIS dwelling is built of brick ; the porches, cornices, etc., being of wood. No attempt has been made to “relieve” the brick wall by contrivances of terra-cotta panels, pilasters, saw¬ tooth brick work, or any of the devices whereby so often the expanse of a brick wall is tortured. There is really nothing to be ashamed of in plain, honest, ruddy wall, from which the eye may turn, rested and attentive, to the detail of porches, wall openings and cornices, effectively contrasted with it. The interior of the house presents some rather attractive features : the nook in the Dining-room working out successfully. The method adopted for building the interior cabinet-work and mantels for this house has much to recommend it, in cases where a building is located a long distance from the headquarters of the Architect. Any Architect who has lived, labored and suffered in his calling ever so few years, has experienced more than one twin Very Truly Yours, It*"- fm'frn. ■ i !■! ^ikmi House of Walter G. Davis, at Portland. HE sketch showing the exterior of this house gives of course no hint as to the color-value of the structure itself. Its colors are notably pleasing. The walls are brick, of a particularly deep, rich red ; the roof of dark blue slate, unusually even in tone ; and the wood finish deep bronze. The house pleases by the very prim faultlessness of its material; not a shade of variegation in the color of its slate; hardly a touch of efflorescence on its rich red brick-work. With a full apprecia¬ tion of the happy, variegated effect often attained by the “don’t-care” use of materials, we are yet not averse to an occasional exhibition of such careful, immaculate neatness as this house presents. The dining-room of this dwelling is finished in black walnut. Besides the usual door and window finish, there is a panelled dado four feet high, a hanging cabinet, and a mantel-piece extending to the ceiling, wdiich is divided by wooden ribs into panels. These panels are filled with rough plaster stamped at random with dies. The walls above dado are covered with rich hrowm-red paper patterned in two tones flecked with gold. The ceiling is gray olive touched now and then with gold. The hall finish is cherry, natural color; its plastered walls gray-blue ; the frieze being a sti'onger tone of the same color ; its ceiling is a deep warm cream-tint. The parlor finish is white-wood, stained a deep mahogany ; the walls are rich olive ; the ceiling a lighter olive. The rooms in the second story are finished in pine, natural color, shellacked; the walls are papered; the ceilings tinted quiet colors with a few border-lines of color and gold. Examples of American Domestic Architecture. Plate xviit. For£lsLi\(^i .Haijii Examples of American Domestic Architecture. Platexix. Living It- FTrc-pu-ire CofAfV 111 OiiriYx^ TKTlor TTc-\in tel. M ook 111 Chain'b'^r' FIan:& Imterlors. WraHeTro.Davis. C. A. Brown House. APE ELIZABETH SHORE is among the attractive features of Portland’s environment. The land-most end of the Cape forms the southern bulwark of Portland Harbor, and here is located the village of South Portland; while the eastern flank of the Cape offers itself for miles to the open ocean. This eastern flank is a wall of cliff, with coves and pebbly or sandy beaches at intervals. The cliffs are wrought into grotesque shapes by the battering of the waves, which with even a moderate easterly wind, dash and roar along the jagged coast. Peacefully, above the rampart of steadfast rocks beset by warring waves, stretches a rolling expanse of grass-land studded with trees. Along the outer border of this grass-land, perched at the very brows of the cliffs, aie many summer cottages. As is usual in the present chaotic condition of American artistic taste, these cottages are of varying degrees of worthiness-from the frippery-beladen structure, gaudy in color, “ shrieking, to be looked at,” to the modest house nestling repose- fully amid its surroundings of rocks, grass, trees, and harmonizing with them. Happily, along this shore, the worthier type of house predominates; there is little that fails to harmonize with the native beauty of the landscape. Some four miles out, on the ocean shore of Cape Elizabeth, is the settlement called Delano Park, a group of summer cottaires Here is located the house of C. A. Brown. The underpinning of this house, to the level of the first story window sills. Is of weathered field stone, the very color of the ledges out of which the building grows. The walls above the are of shingle, untouched by paint, but toned a silvery gray by the weather. Attractiveness of the interior ,s afforded by the grouping of rooms with regard to vistas, the coloring of the walls ; and the outlook from the effectively arranged windows. There is no attempt at elaborate detail. The walls of Living room and Dining room are plastered between the timbers, the plaster being decorated with a thick coat of oil color, stippled, while the timbers are stained. The stable is covered with shingles, silver-gray, like those of the house. The roof shingles of both house and stable are stained dark moss-green. - - Residence of Dr. J. A. Spalding, Portland, Me. N case of this building, an old stone cottage, formerly occupying the site, contributed the split-face gray granite which composes the lower story of the new house. This stone wall, running up to level of second story window sills, forms a ledge inside, which is made an interesting feature of the second story chambers. In one front chamber the wall is furred out at either side of the broad window ; at the window itself the ledge forms an ample seat; while along the side of this room it forms a shelf for books and knick-knacks. In other rooms the ledge is played with in a similar fashion; and so successful is this frank acceptance and use of the projection afforded by the difference in thickness of the stone wall and the brick wall above it, that we emphatically recommend treat¬ ing such a feature thus, rather than furring out to make an unbroken wall inside. The wall of house above second story window sills is red brick. Quoins of red brick at the first story windows and doorway modify what might otherwise be a too sharp distinction between the lower and upper walls,—put them on terms of intimacy with each other. As for the interior finish of this house: the Hall woodwork is painted ivory-white, while the plastered surfaces are treated with texture-work painted yellow-gray on the walls and pale sea-green on the ceiling. This texture-work is made up of whiting and other materials, and - is applied as a thick paint which can be freely worked with palette-knife and brush into any manner of pattern. Very crisp effects are obtained by sweeping wall decoration free-hand in this material, which dries hard and firm, and is then painted in oil-color. The Parlor has rich red mahogany wood-work: the wall-paper presents a soft effect of salmon-pink and gold : the ceiling a much lighter tone of salmon-pink, grayed ; with simple border-bands of color and gold. Opening from the Parlor is the Dining-room, with dark oak wood-work; walls and ceiling of texture—the walls colored variegated russet; the ceiling a cool gray. On the chimney-breast over the mantel is affixed, with remarkable effect of l.fe- likeness, an enormous crab. There is no particular significance in this feature of decoration ; but as a bit of playful conceit his crabship is a decorative success. In the panel containing him are sea-forms-star-fish, etc.-sketchily modeled m texture, the whole panel being a deeper russet than the rest of the walls, and touched here and there with bronze. One chamber is finished in elm, which exhibits a beauty of grain that well repays the trouble of working this pro¬ verbially tough stock. The other chambers are finished in pine and whitewood, shellacked. Kl:,Wm:L‘ or DrJAJFAlDm. FOKTLAND. 'Mt. Examples of American Domestic Architecture. Plate xxv. Cor ner °/ Pining Kooro TAd.nfeL Aook iiTCb6.mber. KesMeme FrJ.AJjp&Mmg. (5fAirdefAil Summer House of J. W. Deering, Kennebunkport. Me. ^ ENNEBUNKPORT is one of the many sedate, “out-of-the-way" settlements which awhile ago were generally regarded as being past usefulness in the process of our social development ; but whieh are now earnestly sought out and appreciated as antidotes for the nerve-jarring, maddening effects of life in our huge, “thriving" commercial settlements. Though not rich in the elements which favor the accumulation of wealth and the decay of men, this “ dear old Kennebunkport ”—as it is now oft affectionately called—is rich in those ele¬ ments which are needed to bring repose, health, sanity unto a people beginning to go mad through selfish greed. God grant that amid the rest and peace that descend upon the fortunate in favored spots like this, men may take opportunity to think now and then of the myriad toiling soldiers of our industrial warfare who know never rest nor peace ; and to question how such lives may be granted some respite from the present bitterness of their lot,—some touch of healing repose. It is high time for such thoughtfulness on the part of our ruling people. Heaven can not be much longer patient with this too unmerciful social struggle,—this strife of each for himself, waged with the wild war-cry of “Competition." In our conduct toward one another, we shall be guided by better ethics than the ethics of the beasts ; else ultimately, in some terrific outburst, hosts of us shall perish as they perish. It is indeed refreshing to escape awhile from some huge, overgrown metropolis, and to steep one’s self in the sedative influ¬ ence of such a place as Kennebunkport. The native people of the town, gathering character from their customs and environment, are of the reposeful type. The town is built on a peninsula of rolling land, presenting an austere, rocky front to the ocean. Next the nrain land however, at the south shoulder of the peninsula, is a gap in the jagged wall of rock, admitting the tide-flow into a sheltered, sinuous creek which forms the harbor to the town. When filled with the high tide, this sinuous stretch of peaceful creek, welcoming the ciaft which has been cruising in rough water along a jagged coast, is one of those hap|ty hits of Nature which surprise one into a gleeful laugh on first acquaintance. Along the banks of this little creek, in days agone, big ships were built, and succe.ssfully launched, too, from yards located at bends in the stream. The houses put up by the old-time ship builders and .sea-faring men form the old settlement along the creek; the summer-houses of the city visitors form the new settlement out on “the Bluffs,” beyond the mouth of the harbor. To these last settlers the southwest wind of summer blows cool across the open hay from Agamenticus. This house of J. W. Deering is located on the high land of the Bluffs. The tower commands the view toward Agamenticus and the ocean. Cedar shingles, left natural color, cover the e.xterior. The trimmings are cream-white ; the blinds bronze green. The interior is finished with plastering, the principal timbers showing. The Dining-room is particularly successful in execu¬ tion, with its large bay in the tower, and its ample fire-place alcove. Examples of American Domestic Architecture. Plate x x vni ROO/>'. U-A'NTRY* FPCns Examples of American Domestic Architecture, Plate x x x. Dining Corner ii? Pen ROUSE °r- Honl.AIomery^ £fj7d a/I,7i»-ary. 'Ihworfh. Me. >K>Ariui'jylr..‘fl House of Cyrus F. Davis—Portland. ERHAPS the one word which best expresses the correct prin¬ ciple to follow in grouping economically under a roof the rooms required for a given family, is the word “unify.” Don’t playfully make as many jogs as possible in your wall-line ; endeavor to reduce their number to the minimum. Don’t study to contrive a sky line uneasy, full of antics; but contrive to cover your walls with as few planes of roof as possible. Not only does follow¬ ing this principle give economical results; but also the design studied with this underlying determination to unify will always be reposeful and grateful to the eye, in contradistinction from the restless effect of the structure designed with evident determination to evolve as many bays, porches, balconies, dormers, turrets, et ceterum, as can be crowded upon the available expanse of wall and roof. The house here shown is an extreme example of the applied unifying principle. Its form is the very simplest that can be devised for an architectural structure. Yet little touches of variety in the shape and disposition of the windows, and some telling detail at the front'entrance, relieve the house from any offence of tameness. Proposed House on the Western Promenade. 1 lie sketch studies following iMr. Otivis' House cite for a dwelling which a Poitland man proposes building on the Western Promenade. The house is to be brick, with slated roof. Here too the unifying principle has been applied ; the breaks in the front wall-line being comprehended under one boldly overhanging roof. The overhang, used with drscretion, solves satisfactorily the problem of covering an irregular wall. It gives deep, telling shadows : it shelters a broken wall outline under one unbroken roof not liable to leak. It is a feature particularly well adapted to our climate. Yet the overhang must be used discreetly, and its perspective effect carefully considered, else in execution it will surprise the designer and shock the public by a grotesque uneasiness when view^ed from certain points. When the overhang seems liable by its projection to give the building an appearance of instability, it should be supported by columns rather than by brackets. The view from this proposed house would be no less superb than the view from Mr. Burrowes’ house described elsewhere. Examples of American Domestic Architecture. Plate xxxill o/ Pw//7^ Koonj. ('Ac)7nl>e7^ d7'!d.nfeJ. -iTn/rAnce. Ke^id'ence Cyrus J"PAVij>. Fortf&nd^jTIe. Examples of American Domestic Architecture. Plate x x x i v. Cbas./’V.Pa>.yaQp,l7'^c|i; JOH/t CALVIN STEVE/I S 1 ar(-,i'TS' AL5EKT WI/^^LOW COBB j j![i'P!nnT'r’!^wr'""T ir ■i""nin”'T" I PtM tsi I jj [Siiiflg ! &i\xi iplfll 'Vi-'mb&v Cj'Ks."" Examples of American Domestic Architecture. 3111". fZ. . Examples of American Domestic Architecture, Plate xxxvi ’'.1? ■T',Jk •f • •' •Wi , ♦ L <••• ■ A. •'■-.•’• ?* ^li •'i - rv,;, ■w.' . • i • ■Si tfi?-- '■ ’■ ■-- r 4<> * ■■. •' ^ .. ♦ -1 .v.r* %* ; • ',i'. .. ^ "•■'<,. r.,v. %■■> .o . '■ A. .. . . >14^ - > • . " ■ •t'fc ■■ ’^ 9 . • f-ft' i .,-;5iyW,igy:5^'^ ' ^7' iaiL^Li3: Examples of American Domestic Architecture. Examples of American Domestic Architecture 'late XXXVIII p / • -/ i Examples oj- American Domestic Architecture. Plate xxxix. Woeii; ChScTn'be!'aver Payloif. B/TJ BCKE «’‘'THE-KE\ .'VTJ.'doj Examples of American Domestic Architecture. Plate xliii. House of E. T. Burrowes, on the Western Promenade at Portland, \ROM the windows of this dwelling the view is superb ; since the house is located at the very brow of the hill, on the Western Promenade. A mighty land¬ scape is here spread before the eye —an im¬ mense stretch of earth dipping below the horizon some miles off, to reappear in the vast buttresses and domes of the White Mountains, eighty miles away. Above the verdure of May-time or the blazing hues of October tower spirit-like, when the veiling clouds forsake them, the white shapes of these stately mountains ; while through mid- summer-time the light plays blue and purple and gold upon them. Seldom is the line so sharply drawn between city and farm-country as here at this western end of Portland, The city reaches nearly to the brow of the bluff, where a strip of park-way is reserved ; the tracks of the rail-road run a little distance from the base of the bluff, giving excellent oppor¬ tunity for a proposed additional park-way between the base and the tracks ; beyond the rail-road stretch the farm-lands. Over their green expanse blows to Portland the prevalent south-west wind of summer. Brewed among pines, sweet-ba}^ and fragrant iyrass, this good breeze sweeps wholesomely, a veritable elixir of life, through the city streets. Its virtue is manifest in the bright eyes and ruddy cheeks of rollicking children, glad that they live and breathe. Happy the young mortals whose lot it is to be reared in a good streak of air, like this which bathes the lofty crescent-shaped peninsula of Portland. To return to this house of E. T. Burrowes; it is of wood, painted a mellow brown, with lighter trimmings. The walls harmonize pleasingly with the red slate of its roof. Within, the vestibule walls are finished in a bold swirl of acanthus-leaf modelled in texture of variegated color swept with bronze. This work is a bit of frolicsomeness on the part of the architect who did the swirling and sweeping with his own hand. On the first floor, all rooms are papered, except the dining-room, which is finished with rough stipple on the walls, colored deep rich greenish blue. The modelled frieze is finished in warm brown glaze, the ornament being wiped out; the ceiling is warm deep cream-color. The Library walls are soft tones of gray olive, the finish is gum-wood, natural color. The parlor has wall-paper of rich tapestry-effect in subdued yellow and gray, with light drab ceiling. The second-story chambers are finished in natural pine, except one room in cherry. The walls are papered in harmony with the furnishings ; the ceilings are tinted. Examples of American Domestic Architecture Plate xlvi Cumberland Mills. ^ ^ HE town of Cumberland Mills is really I one community with the town of Saccarappa I —the familiar “ Saccarap ” of local parlance. The little church, for instance, shown in Plate LIX, is near the line between the two sections, and is patronized equally by both. If there be any definable difference between the charac¬ ter of the two towns, it is that in Cumber¬ land Mills the care for welfare of the mill operatives is the more pronounced. Both are mill towns, located at superb water powers on the Presumpscot, at a distance of some seven miles from Portland. The chief establishment at Cumber¬ land Mills is the great paper mill—the largest in the world. A survey of this establishment and its surroundings reveals the prime cause of the superiority of its manufactured products; the operatives are so treated that they are glad while they are doing their work. Under the beneficent management of the mill proprietors, homelike cottages have been built, and a system of rents and payments established which encourages the operatives to acquire and control their own homesteads. A public building, con¬ taining a good library and large concert hall, has been erected. School and church accommodations are ample. A pretty feature of summer-time here is the rich bloom of Howers about the pretty cottages; their gardens are a glory of color. Here is an example suggesting the solution of certain social problems. In all the history of Cumberland Mills there is no record of a strike. Examples of American Domestic Architecture. Plate xlvii. Ca .7 v/n -5