PINNACLE 



211 



CHAPTER VI. 



PINNACLE, THE HOUSE IDEAL, YET THOROUGHLY PRACTICAL 



HOME. 



PINNACLE. 



THE building of Pinnacle was the realization of a desire to put 

 under one roof the experiences of a lifetime in experimental 

 building, therefore I say that for twenty-five years I had been 

 building Pinnacle before the time was ripe, and that June morning 

 dawned when I staked out the house, and, emulating the railroad 

 builder, "turned over the first clod of earth." 



While its cost carried well over $100,000 it contained some 

 features that could easily be introduced into a $2.500 bungalow. 



Let us trace backward its how and why. Location was of first 

 importance. Should it be by the edge of some inland lake, gemmed 

 'mid rock-ribbed mountains ; on one of the Thousand Islands stem- 

 ming the current of a mighty river, or near the sand and rock-bound 

 shores of Long Island Sound, the centre of Eastern yachting; close 

 to the roaring breakers, or in cloud-land, on some barren, ozone- 

 bathed mountain peak, near the snow line ; to the depths of the 

 health-giving North woods; in the swim or away from it? But the 

 snow line did not jibe with rose gardens, and the restless sea seemed 

 ever to impart its restlessness to nerve and muscle. Then came the 

 idea of using the old Dillaway place in the Berkshires, consisting of 

 two hundred acres of woodland, meadow, and grassy hill top, and a 



