April, 1 9 13 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



J3 1 



The dining-room 



semblance to wholesome legs. It is really a wonder they 

 were not clothed with pantalettes. 



The parlor at "Wye" is a great generous room running 

 the full depth of the house from front to back and of a 

 width proportionate. A brighter or more cheerful room 

 could hardly be devised; indigo moods and dumpishness 

 would be impossible in such environment. There are two 

 big windows on the east through which the morning sun 

 comes streaming in, two French windows on the south, 

 shaded by the piazza roof so that the noonday glare is 

 just pleasantly subdued, and a whole range of windows 

 at the back where the westering sun continues to pour in 

 his livening beams till his last ray is gone. Opposite the 

 door and in the middle of the south wall is a big fireplace, 

 the chimney-breast standing well out in the room and filling 

 the space between the windows. The mantel is a replica 

 of one in the old parent house, the "Homestead" of 1663. 



In such a household and on such a mantel we should 

 expect to find a pair of Worcester vases at the ends and 

 we are not disappointed. A glance at the illustrations will 

 serve to call attention to some of the charming household 

 gods — notably the two Hepplewhite chairs at the windows, 

 the Sheraton secretary, a high clock, the Empire pier-glass 

 and above it the delightful mirror surmounted by a deli- 

 cately wrought and gilded wheat spray falling from a vase. 

 This mirror by the way, once served the "Father of his 

 Country" for a shaving glass when he was a guest of the 

 household — at any rate it was in his room and he ought 

 to have shaved before it if he did not. Another sensible 

 feature about this room besides its many windows is the 

 fact that they are not blocked up and obscured by a super- 

 fluity of draperies. 



Opposite the fireplace is the doorway, a doorway of 

 most unusual proportions. Its width is fully a third, or 

 perhaps more, the total length of the room. At times 

 it makes the parlor and hallway seem like one apartment. 

 None of the doorways for parlor, library or dining-room 

 are curtained and the wisdom of this non-use of upholstery 

 is at once apparent from the sense of freedom and space 

 and the unity of the whole first floor which seems to be 

 one large apartment partly subdivided rather than a number 

 of separate rooms. Directly across the hall from the parlor 

 doorway stands an interesting Queen Anne lowboy which is 

 kept in countenance by some of its contemporaries or 

 more probably its elders — a number of club-footed, fiddle- 

 splatted, locustwood chairs made by an Oyster Bay artisan 

 while William and Mary were still on the throne. 



One cannot visit "Wye" without being impressed by the 

 great quantity of old furniture and a description of the 

 house without including it would be utterly incomplete for 



The living-room 



it is so in keeping that it seems part and parcel of the whole, 

 not to be divorced from its setting, and it imparts a very 

 essential element to the character of the entire establish- 

 ment. Furthermore, it shows how thorough the transplant- 

 ing of a household can be and how congruous with a new 

 but fittingly planned environment. Lastly, its lesson in 

 interior decoration is too useful to be slighted. 



The library, another room full of heirlooms, chief of 

 which is a seventeenth century oak settle, is in the front of 

 the house on the other side of the hall from the parlor. 

 Windows on the east and north admit abundant light and 

 preserve the same tone of cheerfulness as in the parlor. 

 Back of the library is the dining-room, glass double doors 

 at one side of the fireplace connecting the two. Back to 

 back with the library fireplace is the dining-room fireplace, 

 the chimney-breast necessarily being of great depth and 



The garret contains many old-time bits of furniture and curios 



