82 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



August, 1905 



Monthly Comment 



S THERE a tendency toward over-richness, 

 over-ornamentation, o v e r-elaboration i n 

 American houses? The answer to the ques- 

 tion depends, in large measure, upon the basis 

 on which the judgment is founded. It has 

 become rather the fashion, in certain pub- 

 lications, to decry the tendency of the well-to-do toward os- 

 tentatious display of wealth. The rich man's great house, 

 his yacht, his special railroad car, his automobiles, his horses, 

 his sports, his daily life are held up to public scorn by hys- 

 terical writers who, in most cases, view these objects and the 

 persons owning them or directly concerned with them with 

 the accuracy and nearness with which they might be seen 

 through the reverse end of a telescope. As a matter of fact, 

 these complacent guides to a simple life are not so intent on 

 accomplishing reforms as they are in trying to make a few 

 dollars for themselves by the sale of literary matter which, 

 rightly or wrongly, seems to command a favorable market at 

 the present time. If these scribes are to be believed, we are 

 certainly in a bad way, for never before, in this land of the 

 people, were there so many rich houses, so many houses 

 richly built, so much wealth used for amusement and com- 

 fort, so much apparent ostentation. 



Yet all this display — if it be display — is quite natural and 

 thoroughly in keeping with human nature. , It is natural that 

 any one who has the means should wish to live in a house that 

 suits him ; people of quite moderate circumstances sometimes 

 attain that end, and most persons would like to. The rich 

 man may not need, for the mere purposes of eating and 

 sleeping, the vast palace on which he has lavished his hun- 

 dreds of thousands; but he thinks he does, and having the 

 money with which to gratify this desire he proceeds to ex- 

 pend it for this purpose. But he wishes to entertain his 

 friends; he . may have tastes in music and in literature; 

 and so ballrooms and reception-rooms, billiard-rooms, music- 

 rooms, libraries and other apartments, together with ample 

 suites of bedrooms, are added, until the little space he needs 

 for himself personally is surrounded by a host of apartments 

 that convert the essential rooms into the parts of a great 

 building. 



This structure will be designed in a more or less splendid 

 manner. Taste for architecture is strongly on the increase 

 in America, even though real appreciation of it is not very 

 evident. Our architects are now capable of designing build- 

 ings much more ornate than they were some years back. 

 They have studied their art more thoroughly; they under- 

 stand it better; they know better how to produce imposing 

 results. Whether these results are in themselves good and 

 admirable is quite another matter. We have not, unfor- 

 tunately, got to the point where the mere amount of money 

 spent on a house means, necessarily, a good house. But we 

 are clearly able to produce better buildings than formerly, 

 and the rich man desiring a great house can, if he so please, 

 obtain more for his money in the way of good architecture 

 than his father could or wanted. 



Architecture in America has been more furthered by 

 the erection of large houses than by any other cause, save the 

 construction of great commercial buildings. They have given 

 our architects opportunities to design and build on a large 



scale and in a splendid way. It is true that, in many in- 

 stances, both architects and clients have failed to realize 

 the utmost of their opportunities, but they have greatly 

 helped building industries, and have paved the way for still 

 further progress in the future. The rich man, clearly, has 

 rhe same right to his great house as the most fervent apostle 

 of the simple life has to gratify his yearnings for plain living. 

 A man is rightly expected to live according to his means, and 

 the great house is simply an expression of this thought. 



That the great house frequently fails to have artistic merit 

 is regrettably true. And it is just in this that the great house 

 most frequently fails. Mere expenditure of money will not 

 produce good results in building or in anything else. Money 

 must be wisely expended; it must be used for good ends; it 

 must be spent for good objects; or it will be wasted and 

 worse than wasted. But the rich man is not the only person 

 who does not know how to get good results, artistic results, 

 for his money. But his sins in this direction are more culpable 

 than those committed by less fortunately situated folk, be- 

 cause if he does not know when a thing is good, if he does 

 not know a good house from a bad one, if he does not realize 

 wherein his own house is better or worse than other houses 

 he sees and knows, he can obtain — for a consideration — 

 more good advice, more ample instruction, more sound sug- 

 gestion than he is likely to mentally digest for the balance 

 of a long life. 



It is in this respect that the great house is most subject to 

 criticism, and it is unfortunately true that it is often rightly 

 entitled to' it. One naturally looks to excellence in results 

 from large expenditures, and the man able to buy good art 

 and good building is quite as naturally expected to get his 

 money's worth. A large house has.some of the unavoidable 

 characteristics of ostentation. It is big and spacious. It is 

 provided with ample porches. It has a great servants' wing. 

 It is placed in the midst of grounds so beautifully maintained 

 as to immediately suggest expense, and quite necessarily so. 

 Being structurally large, it stands erect upon its site, the 

 beheld of all beholders. There is surely no weakening of 

 the national constitution in this. The owner is certainly en- 

 titled to a house of such dimensions and on such grounds 

 if he can afford it. If this is ostentation, it is an ostentation 

 that can not be helped. And there is no reason at all why his 

 house should not be a good house, even when judged by the 

 most rigid of architectural canons. Good architecture is 

 not so costly that it can not be bought, and sometimes at 

 quite reasonable prices. But a bad big house is one of the 

 most iniquitous things in the world. It need not exist, and 

 has no reason for its existence. 



Bad houses, however, need not be big to be artistic crimes, 

 for a small bad house is quite as obnoxious, even though it 

 be in a small way, as a large one. Fortunately there is less 

 and less of such kind of building going on in the world, for 

 people are realizing, more and more, the value of good 

 building — and good looks in building — exactly as they ap- 

 preciate more fully to-day, than before, the value of artistic 

 things in everyday life. The change is a good one, even 

 though the reason be the discovery that the monetary value 

 of good houses is greater than those not so good. This can 

 not be gratifying to national pride, nor to personal pleasure; 

 but progress is being gained and results assured. 



