AMERICAN ESTATES AND GARDENS 



complete keeping with the monumental character of the dwelling. The house is white, quite 

 elaborated in its structural parts, its blocked and pilastered walls, stately arches, finely 

 proportioned columns, and quite abundant use of the balustrade. Carving in relief is sparsely 

 used, but when employed it is introduced in a thoroughly legitimate manner to properly 

 adorn and embellish the architectural features. It is a majestic and impressive building, 

 rising above the water like a dream-palace. But it is very real, built solidly upon a rock, 

 vast in size, so beautifully environed as to immediately give the impression of being an ideal 

 residence on an ideal site. 



The chief entrance, which faces the drive by which the estate is entered, is one of real 

 grandeur. A monumental flight of steps rises in the center to the opening in the porte-cochere. 

 Handsome balustrades on either side enclose sunken gardens, and bound the roadway, which 

 rises to the level of the main floor, where guests dismount beneath a porch which is an integral 

 part of the house design. The roof of this porch forms a terrace, very broad and stately, with 

 an inner part covered by a high central arch supported on coupled columns, with outer columns 

 against the end piers. A very gracious motif this, with the circular pierced windows in the 

 ends over the flat-topped openings, a truly Italian frontispiece, very happily used and very 

 successful as the chief feature, the predominating note, of the exterior. 



The house is L-shaped, with a great wing on the right, completely filled with the draw- 

 ing-room. One side of this room, therefore, immediately overlooks a formal garden, which is 

 bounded on another side by the walls of the main building. It opens on to a spacious porch 

 with a semicircular end, which 

 is directly above the rocks at 

 the water's edge. This porch 

 also connects with the pergola 

 that unites Mr. Benedict's house 

 with that of Mr. Hastings, 

 bringing the two residences into 

 immediate contact. This plan 

 is obviously one determined by 

 the site; it gives a drawing- 

 room with three open sides, the 

 windows of two of which look 

 out upon the water, while those 

 of the third give a view on to the 

 pergola and the main entrance. 



The water views are, of 

 course, the very views for which 

 the house was built, and the 

 more important rooms must 



ENTRANCE GATE AND AVENUE, "INDIAN HARBOR.' 



[57] 



