August, 1905 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



85 



The entrance corridor is a broad passageway of sufficient 

 length to have dignity in itself, and which, viewed from the 

 vestibule, affords a vista across the main hall to the furthest 

 wall of the billiard-room, which closes the main building. 

 Like every part of the house, it is crowded with objects of 

 interest, with furniture, old and new, with hangings and 

 pictures and with bric-a-brac, which make the house almost 

 a museum of objects of this sort. 



Immediately to one's right is the library, lighted by a great 

 baywindow that completely fills one end. It is designed 

 with mahogany trim, and lined 

 with bookcases to about three feet 

 of the ceiling. Above is a rich 

 frieze, and the ceiling, beautifully 

 strong in color, is richly and minutely 

 modeled from a Grolier book bind- 

 ing, a design singularly appropriate 

 for a room used as this, and a design 

 finely adapted to the rich manner in 

 which the room is designed, and thor- 

 oughly in harmony with it. 



The drawing-room adjoins the 

 library and opens from it as well as 

 from the entrance corridor. It is a 

 white and gold room, very manifestly 

 a lady's room, and designed and fur- 

 nished in a very delicate style. The 

 walls are hung with damask, and the 

 fine fireplace of whitewood is deco- 

 rated with a frieze of pairs of chil- 

 dren, modeled after those of Michel- 

 angelo in the Sistine Chapel. 



The main hall, which occupies the 

 center of the house, is its chief room. 

 Reaching from outer wall to outer 

 wall, two stories in height, and 

 lighted by a great mullioned window 

 in either end, it is an apartment 

 splendid in size and sumptuous in its 

 architectural treatment. That the 

 woodwork is oak of a deep, dark 

 brown color is, perhaps, but a detail, 

 but this strong, warm color is at once 

 a background for the many objects 

 placed within it and a setting for the 

 splendid ceiling. 



Architecturally speaking, the hall 

 is inclosed within paneled walls, in 

 the lower part of which are the door- 

 ways — with flat heads — to the ad- 

 joining rooms; while above, the 

 wainscoting is stopped just below the 

 springing of the elliptical arches, 

 which open onto an ambulatory or 

 passageway on either side. These 

 arches, while closed below, are of 

 sufficient dimensions to bring the 

 inner wall of the passages into the 

 scheme of the main hall. 



The staircase occupies the center 

 of the west end, dividing to right and left half way up, and 

 connecting directly with the adjoining ambulatories. Behind 

 it, on one side, is Mr. Bergner's private office, immediately 

 connected with the billiard-room. On the other side, and 

 in direct connection with the entrance corridor, is a private 

 staircase to the second floor and a large coat room. This 

 private staircase is a convenient device for reaching the upper 

 floor without traversing the main hall, an arrangement of 

 great convenience at times, and particularly so at periods of 

 social festivities. Guests are thus enabled to reach the cham- 



bers in the upper floor set apart for cloak rooms, descending 

 the main stair to the great hall in all the bravery of full-dress. 



The architectural interest of the main hall centers in two 

 features, the ceiling and the chimney-piece. The ceiling is 

 of plaster, richly decorated with interlaced ribs arranged in 

 graceful patterns and brilliantly colored. The ground color 

 is blue, the effect of the whole room being one of splendid 

 color, harmoniously developed and boldly applied, yet thor- 

 oughly satisfying and delightful. 



The chimney-piece fills the entire central bay of the south 



The Desk in Main Hall 

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



side of the hall. It is built of Caen stone, and is large enough 

 to contain an ingle-nook within its capacious shelter. It is 

 finished in color, with two bands of ornament above and 

 below its superstructure, decorated with shields of arms of 

 the German cities with which Mr. Bergner's father had been 

 associated in early life. The niches in the curved ends are 

 in color, lined with gold toned down so as to be almost red, 

 bringing out the green statuettes in fine relief. It is a splendid 

 experiment in colored stone, carried out with a very sure 

 hand, and altogether admirable in its effect. 



