April, 19 13 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



125 



evident in the bricks and 

 plaster, the great square 

 chimney, and other features, 

 one might reasonably doubt 

 the date of construction 

 assigned to it. 



It is built of granite varied 

 with other kinds of stone, in- 

 terspersed with brick, the 

 stone originally thickly cov- 

 ered with plaster, which is 

 now crumbling away. 

 Climbing vines relieve the 

 sombre grayness of the gen- 

 eral appearance, and com- 

 bine with the grassland sur- 

 roundings to add a note of 

 color and beauty that throws 

 into relief the fine lines of Tlie dining-room 



construction. In build the dwelling is T shaped, with a 



wise discernible. The door 

 swings on hand-wrought 

 iron hinges, twenty-four 

 inches in length, matching 

 in their massiveness the 

 porch walls which are two 

 feet thick. 



Through this doorway 

 the porch proper is reached, 

 still showing suspended from 

 its ceiling the leather fire- 

 buckets used when hand 

 engines were in vogue. 

 From an inner door access 

 is gained to the hallway, an 

 apartment considerably 

 broader than it is deep, with 

 stairway rising in two turns, 

 directly in front of the en- 



room opening on either side of the hall, and another at 

 the rear. A wooden addition, built by Captain Boardman 

 for the benefit of his second wife, who was an invalid and 

 who deemed it unhealthy to live between stone walls con- 

 stantly, joins the main structure at the western end, follow- 

 ing in contour the same simplicity of design, and at the rear 

 of the eastern end are the old tenant apartments, now used 

 as servant's quarters. 



Complete, the exterior presents a series of interesting 

 features. At the rear is the great chimney, ten feet wide 



trance, its back wall formed of the brickwork of the chim- 

 ney. In build this hallway is wider than the type usually 

 found in houses of this period, but it is possible that this 

 may be due to an extension at some time later than the date 

 of construction. The hand rail and balusters are quaintly 

 turned, and the woodwork throughout the apartment is 

 rather elaborate in its nature. An interesting fact in con- 

 nection with the staircase is that the carpenter who built 

 it received for his pay instead of money, eight acres of land 

 on the main street. To the right of the hall leads an apart- 

 ment, nineteen feet square, with walls thirty inches thick- 



at the base, showing in its construction most unusual ideas the depth of the walls in all the rooms of the main portion, 



that render it unlike any of its contemporaries, while at the This is what was originally the old parlor. Great oak 



front is the porch, quaint and dignified, with arched door- beams supporting the chamber floors, show plainly here, 



ways and windows, and just above the main entrance a though their rough hewing is now hidden from view with 



small niche, where once a tiny statue may have stood. The sheathing. At one side is the original fireplace, topped with 



windows are other interesting details, and with the main a mantel of simple construction, and other interesting fea- 



features combine to emphasize the quaintness of the whole. tures are the deep seats beneath the quaint small-paned 



The porch in its build is most attractive. Artists from 

 all over the world have delighted to sketch it, and by con- 

 noisseurs it is considered the best specimen of its period 

 extant. It is built of bricks, with flooring of square tiles, 



windows. 



Opposite this room is what was once the inner kitchen, 

 now used as a living-room. Over the hearth the old brick 

 oven is still in evidence, and up to fifty years ago the inner 



and the arch above the doorway is finished with bricks walls of this room were not lathed, the plaster being put 



rounded at the edges, probably brought from England as directly on the stone. Like the old parlor, the ceiling here 



they are wholly unlike those made in the colonies. is crossed with heavy beams, and the windows are shuttered 



The outer porch door shows novelty in its arrangement, with the same quaint blinds and equipped with the same deep 



inasmuch as it is divided in the center horizontally, each seats. The furnishings here are wholly antique, as are the 



section opening independently of the other. At one time furnishings throughout the house, and include some espe- 



the upper section was undoubtedly protected by an inner cially rare pieces. 



shutter, suspended from the ceiling, for the old hinges are The present parlor, like the other main rooms, is typically 



still to be seen, and the marks of the pulley through which old-fashioned, and the fine features with which it is pro- 



the cord used to raise and lower the shutter run, are like- vided afford a suitable background for the old equipment. 



Lawn-front entrance 



The living-room 



