AMERICAN ESTATES AND GARDENS 



A large hall fills the center of the house. It is designed in the style of the Italian 

 Renaissance. The richly decorated ceiling is supported by Ionic columns. The walls are paneled 

 and decorated with ornamental niches. The stairway fills one side, with a platform below 

 the triple window. The furniture coverings and curtains are of green velvet. The reception- 

 room and library are orr one side ; the dining-room, with pantries and kitchen beyond, on the 

 other. The reception-room is paneled in oak, with paintings let into the large panels. The 

 smaller panels are delicately ornamented, and the mirror frame is very elaborately treated. 

 A cornice in relief completes the wall decoration. The dining-room is more formal in style, 

 the cornice upheld by- Corinthian pilasters, and the walls paneled and with built-in mirrors. 

 The doorways are surmounted with semicircular arches with decorated panels. The library is 

 a room of quite unusual beauty, and is a close copy of the celebrated library in the Chateau de 

 Blois. Like its famous prototype, the walls are completely covered with small decorated 

 panels, and the fleur-de-lis forms the motif of the ornamentation of the overmantel. 



The house stands on a little peninsula, so that two adjoining sides directly face the ocean, 

 and, indeed, open directly upon it. The grounds are laid out as a formal garden, and are decorated 

 with many notable pieces of sculpture and handsomely carved marbles. 



" Rosecliff," the House of Mrs. Hermann Oelrichs. 



The design of "Rosecliff," Mrs. Hermann Oelrichs's house, is based on that of the Grand 

 Trianon at Versailles. It is in no sense a reproduction of that famous palace, for no attempt has 

 been made to reproduce its vast scale, and the second story, which is treated as an architectural 

 attic, does not appear in the prototype, but was quite obviously necessitated by American 

 conditions, which, in a residential mansion, required a structure of more than one story in height, 

 as is the case with the French palace. The Grand Trianon is a somewhat cold building of not 

 very great architectural interest. Quite the contrary can be said of Mrs. Oelrichs's house, 

 for it is smaller, more compact, and more ornate ; and, being an American residence containing 

 a large suite of splendid rooms, it is apparent that the design is original, although, like many 

 original designs, it is based on a distinct historical idea. 



The house is built of white terra-cotta, and its general plan is after the form of the letter 

 H, giving an open court on each side. The architectural treatment of the exterior is throughout 

 quite similar, and consists of round arched windows in the first story, enclosed within pilasters 

 supporting an entablature, above which is the second story, with flat-topped windows and smaller 

 pilasters corresponding to those below. The open court on the seaside is filled with a great 

 terrace, enclosed within a marble balustrade, with large vases on the corners and at the top of 

 the steps, and decorated with bay trees and other plants. On the lawn below are three 

 large groups of sculpture, the central one, an impressive seated figure of a woman, forming the 

 chief feature of a fountain. 



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