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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



February, 19 13 



First Floor Plan 



bears, who built their 

 abodes on piles, or that we 

 were always in dread of an 

 inundation from some un- 

 known quarter. It is quite 

 compatible with good cel- 

 lar ventilation and lighting 

 to have the first floor 

 scarcely above ground 

 level, that is, if the archi- 

 tect has any ingenuity in 

 drawing his plans, and no 

 one has any business to be- 

 come an architect unless he 

 be possessed of a good 

 measure of that happy 

 quality. At Fox Hill Farm 

 there is but one low step 

 from the ground to the 

 level of the first floor. 

 Consequently, access is easy 

 and comfortable and the 

 aspect hospitable. No 

 house can ever look alto- 

 gether hospitable and invit- Plans of the first and second floors 

 ing when one has to climb a formidable flight of uncom- this piazza question 

 fortable, forbidding-looking steps. If there has to be an 

 ascent somewhere, better it should be to a terrace at a 

 distance from the house walls and then let there be one 

 pace only at the threshhold. 



The roof lines at Fox Hill Farm are so good that one 

 could wish they had been altogether unbroken by dormers. 

 True, the dormers are not uproarious and obtrusive, as they 

 are apt to be if not skilfully managed, but, nevertheless, the 

 repose of the roof would have been greater without them. 

 As a people we have yet to realize the full beauty and charm 

 of unbroken roofs where the sweep of the lines is undis- 

 turbed by dormers or meaningless projections. Of course, 

 it is sometimes necessary, or at least expedient, to have 

 them, but a bit of careful planning could be made 



to obviate their necessity. 

 At the western end of the 

 south front, a loggia with 

 pointed arches occupies the 

 corner of the main mass of 

 the structure and does duty 

 for a conservatory. Beside 

 it, on the same level and 

 just outside the library win- 

 dows, is a platform one 

 pace above the lawn and 

 paved with red quarry tiles. 

 The loggia and this adja- 

 cent tile-paved, open plat- 

 form are the only trace of 

 piazza (save that at the 

 kitchen door) to be found 

 on the place. 



It is refreshing to see a 

 house deliberately planned 

 without a piazza. It sounds 

 a timely note of protest 

 against the thralldom of 

 convention. The popular 

 mind badly needs a jolt on 

 As a people we are obsessed with an 

 almost superstitious veneration for piazzas. Some folk ap- 

 parently think a house isn't a house without a piazza; to 

 their minds it is an indispensable adjunct to civilization. 

 Regardless of whether it serves any practical purpose or 

 not, their dwelling must have some kind of lean-to tacked 

 on. If all the unused piazzas were removed from the 

 houses they now "adorn," the sight would be a revelation — 

 a revelation of the extent to which a prejudice in favor of a 

 fancied need may affect and sometimes injure the domestic 

 architecture of a whole country. The beloved piazza is 

 such a bete no'ir to architects that they often feel like pack- 

 ing up and going to England where it is not a fetish. 



A piazza is an awkward thing to manage architecturally 

 and for country houses a paved terrace often answers all 



The drawing-room is one of the most beautiful apartments in the house 



