i6o 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



September, 1905 



" Wood crest " — The Breakfast-Room 



up to the servants, both on this floor and above. Every 

 possible convenience and device is here for the important 

 work done in these rooms. A laundry is beyond the kitchen, 

 and opens onto the clothes yard, which is so cleverly con- 

 cealed by the screen of cedars noted in the approach to the 

 house. 



As for the cellars, they are seemingly without end. They 

 contain passage after passage, room after room. There are 

 wine cellars and an ice plant; a room for the storing of 

 mineral waters; a battery of boilers for warming the house 

 in winter, and a separate smaller boiler for supplying hot 

 water in the summer months; there are spaces for the storage 

 of wood and coal, and a separate handily placed space for 

 the kitchen coal; there is a vegetable room, with bins for dif- 

 ferent kinds of vegetables, and another alcove where fresh 

 vegetables are to be kept green and sweet immediately below 

 an open window ; there is a room for pressing clothes, and 

 space for drying clothes when the weather will not permit 

 them to be hung out of doors; there is a lavatory and bath- 

 room for the men servants; there is a garbage closet, air- 

 tight and wonderfully convenient. Every possible use that 

 could be made of a cellar seems amply exemplified here, and 

 on the largest possible scale. 



Upstairs again for the rooms on the further side of the 

 hall. The plan here is much the same as on the dining-room 

 side. A morning-room opens from the connecting passage 

 and corresponds in position with the reception-room already 

 noted. The prevailing color is a light yellow brown, with 

 walls, furniture and curtains of the same soft shade. The 

 furniture is of white wood. Opposite it is the den, treated in 

 green, the walls and curtains of green figured silk. 



The library is a large room at the end of the connecting 

 passage. The ceiling is coffered and richly decorated with 

 geometrical and floral designs. The great stone chimney- 

 piece is the largest in the house, and is elaborately detailed. 

 The walls have a paneled wainscot, and are hung above with 

 steel-blue velvet with a tapestry border. This color pervades 



the whole room, the rug, curtains and furniture being of a 

 similar hue. Most of the wall space is surrounded with 

 bookcases, and two great square cabinets are used for large 

 folios. As with the dining-room, this room opens onto a 

 spacious porch, furnished as an outer room. The further 

 extension of the room is called the library alcove, and cor- 

 responds to the breakfast-room ; it is furnished and designed 

 in harmony with the library. 



The billiard-room also opens from the library. It is pan- 

 eled nearly to the ceiling, with a plain white strip above the 

 cornice. The carpet is of steel-blue and the mantel of wood. 

 Beyond it is the smoking-room, a step higher than the billiard- 

 room and with a slightly lower ceiling. The walls are here 

 completely paneled, and the richly designed ceiling is similar 

 to that of the billiard-room. The curtains are of a tapestry 

 material with a flowered design in red and brown. At the 

 further end is a chimney and ingle-nook; a carved clock is 

 placed in the recess above the mantel. 



The second floor is almost of as much interest as the first. 

 There are no show apartments here, but a beautiful series of 

 bedrooms and bathrooms; the former furnished, in each case, 

 in a distinctive color and decorated in good, quiet taste. 

 Mr. Paul's bedroom is prefaced with a study in blue: a rich 

 carpet of a deep hue, walls of a lighter tone and blue furni- 

 ture. The bedroom, which contains an antique four-poster 

 bed, is finished with flowered tapestry with light fawn back- 

 ground. There are rooms for the family and for guests on 

 this floor, and further guest rooms on the third floor. 



An estate so large as this can not be properly inspected 

 afoot, and presently I was placed in a cart for the further 

 viewing of the domain. How long the drives are through 

 the property I do not know, but they are extensive enough to 

 give the impression of an estate of great size, and fine enough 

 to amply demonstrate the thorough care with which it has 

 been developed. Much of the land adjoining the house is 

 heavily wooded, and the underbrush has been retained with 



