August, 1905 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



83 



Notable American Homes 



By Barr Ferree 



The Estate of C. W. Bergner, Esq., Ambler, Pennsylvania 



jHE WISSAHICKON is rightly regarded as 

 one of the most picturesque streams in the 

 eastern United States. Falling into the 

 Schuylkill a short distance above Philadel- 

 phia — but within city limits — it runs a tortu- 

 ous course through narrow ravines whose 

 wooded sides have the charm of deep mystery, and which 

 include some of the most fascinating scenery in that neigh- 

 borhood. Beginning with an estate of less than fifty acres, 

 Mr. C. W. Bergner increased his holdings, until they com- 

 prised three times that amount. He then called upon Messrs. 



an unusual degree. Its considerable size gives an aspect of 

 great dignity, with an opportunity for large treatment which 

 has been developed with extraordinary skill. It is a house, 

 moreover, almost completely structural in its parts; there is 

 little carved ornament, but sufficient emphasis and character 

 is given by the trim of Indiana limestone, which forms an 

 effective contrast with the local Jenkintown stone, of pale 

 gray, well stratified and laid with broad ridge white pointing, 

 of which the building is constructed. 



The plan is markedly elongated. The central portion has 

 a single gable on the Wissahickon front and two gables on 



The Front Overlooking the Wissahickon 



Frank Miles Day & Brother, of Philadelphia, architects, to 

 design him a house fitted for his place, and in due process, of 

 time one of the stateliest mansions in the vicinity was built 

 here, on high, rolling ground, which commanded — for such 

 was the nature of the site — limited home views, inclosed 

 within trees. 



It is a graceful, homelike dwelling, generous in size, stately 

 in form, beautifully detailed, thoroughly individual and a 

 fine example of its well-known designers' artistic taste in 

 domestic architecture. It is the first province of a house to 

 seem to be a home, and this quality the Bergner house has in 



the west front. Here is placed the main hall, emphasized 

 by the great gable overlooking the Wissahickon and the 

 dining-room and billiard-room. To the left of the grand 

 staircase in the main hall is the drawing-room and the library 

 and a corridor that connects with the vestibule, which, in its 

 turn, opens directly from the porte-cochere. On the right 

 of the main part of the house is the servants' wing, deflected 

 toward the west or rear, partly to take these very necessary 

 parts away from the main front, but more especiallv to con- 

 form to the topography of the ground, the hill rounding off 

 here somewhat, practically compelling this treatment. 



