"The Monastery" 



The House of Charles P. Searle, Esq., Swampscott, Massachusetts 



HE very unusual house of Mr. Charles P. Searle, at Swampscott, Massachusetts, 

 attracts attention both by the novelty of its. design and its very extraordinary 

 situation. For much of the inner part of the house overhangs the sea in a quite 

 literal sense, although the entrance front, embowered in large trees, hardly suggests 

 such a situation. The grounds are enclosed with a stucco wall, whose plainly cut arches and 

 curved crest are repeated again in the forms of the entrance porch. Placed as it is on 

 a rock, the design of the house has called for clever planning, with an adaptation to the various 

 levels of the site, and an economical utilization of the available area. The color scheme 

 is quite unusual: the walls are gray, the roof brilliant red, the latticed windows pea green. The 

 entrance porch is applied diagonally to the main structure, and faces a forecourt within the 

 enclosing wall. 



The principal door opens on to a vestibule in green and white, beyond which is the hall. 

 This is a great vaulted apartment, two stories in height, finished in a very unusual and original 

 manner. The walls are pan- 

 eled to the springing of the 

 vault arches, and colored 

 French gray ; the upper walls 

 are entirely filled with lattice- 

 work of pea green. There is 

 a large mantel of gray stone, 

 with a carved overmantel, 

 with festoons in relief, above. 

 At the farther end are the 

 stairs, partly enclosed within 

 open woodwork. The walls 

 of the upper landing are cov- 

 ered with palm-leaf paper in 

 green and white; the balus- 

 trade is painted green, and a 

 green carpet is laid on the 

 stairs. 



A few steps up the 

 stairs is the morning-room, "THE MONASTERY" THE ENTRANCE TO THE GROUNDS. 



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