January, 19 13 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



15 



The garden front of Krisheim Cottage, a small house of distinction at St. Martins, Pennsylvania 



Krisheim Cottage at St. Martins 



By Harold Donaldson Eberlein 

 Photographs by T. C. Turner 



fHplOOD things come in small parcels. So have 

 we heard many a time and oft from our 

 grandmothers, perhaps, or from some 

 family sage given to quoting proverbs. 

 Most of us, though, are unfortunately so 

 obsessed with a passion for mere bigness 

 that, no matter what we think theoretically, we are apt to 

 pass by the little things unheeding, however excellent they 

 be and yield all our admiration where compelling size holds 

 the eye. This worship of Gargantuan bulk is really a 

 national failing. It is a failing that we shall get over, 

 indeed, in due season, but one that is bound to hinder our 

 just appreciation of merit until we do get over it. It is high 

 time the cult of small excellences had its innings. We can- 

 not too soon begin to cultivate the habit of seeking out 

 small excellences and rendering them their deserved meed 

 of appreciation. 



The little house to which our present consideration is 

 directed — and it is very little, smaller than one fancies at 

 first glance — possesses the merit of being inexpensive, a 

 cardinal merit in the eyes of many a prospective home- 

 maker, justly resentful of the false attitude that assumes 

 that almost prohibitive cost must necessarily attend grace 

 and good taste. The total cost of erection was $5,000. 



The happy combination of low cost and attractiveness 

 embodied in this cottage was possible because the architect, 

 Mr. Edmund B. Gilchrist, of Philadelphia, while always 

 keeping an eye to the artistic value of the situation, at the 

 same time observed the most rigid simplicity in plan, the 

 materials used and the method of construction. 



It will be seen from the plans that the house is rectangular 

 in shape, an arrangement at once the simplest and least 

 expensive, although the general exterior appearance does 

 not convey that impression. Nothing could be more direct 

 or more saving of space or partition building than the way 

 in which the three rooms of the first floor are carried across 

 the entire width of the house. There is thus always ample 

 light from at least two sides in each room. On the landing 

 of the stairway that winds up from a corner of the dining- 

 room is a great window indicated on the second floor plan. 

 Seen from the dining-room, which is also the living-room, 

 the effect of this stairway with its round-arched landing- 

 window is good and it is also most sensibly placed. How 

 far better is it to have a stair descending into a room rather 

 than pent up in a coop-like entry, which some unreasonable 

 convention of the recent past seemed to demand, but for 

 which there is no real raison d'etre. The vista through the 

 dining-room and up the stairs is pleasing likewise from the 



