296 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



November, 1905 





The Hal 



One does not look for spacious grounds and wide estates 

 at Hollywood. Those of Mr. Guggenheim are ample, both 

 for the house and for the obtaining of effective landscape 

 results. A very short drive from the railroad station brings 

 one to the stately entrance — a simple gate with high piers sup- 

 porting marble vases. The porte-cochere spans the drive 

 at the center of the house, and is a monumental structure of 

 grand proportions — round-arched beneath an entablature 

 supported by Ionic columns and carrying a segmental entab- 

 lature. An inner porch serves as an entrance to the house. 



Most visitors, of course, will lose no time in hastening 

 within; but we may pause for a moment or two, to note the 

 outward aspect of the house on this side, the entrance front — 

 the front certainly less ornate than the garden front must be 

 and is speedily discovered actually to be. It is very " swell " 

 and distinguished, the great white walls — for the house is 

 built of white stucco throughout — rising in stately simplicity, 

 unmarked by ornament save a cornice between the first and 

 second stories, and again at the summit of the house. It 

 is but two stories high, the central part somewhat extended 

 forward and slightly higher, a normal emphasizing of the 

 center, which is further emphasized by the great porte- 

 cochere applied to it. There is little connection in idea 

 between these two parts — the house and the carriage porch 

 — for the openings of the house are square and rectangular 

 and those of the porch are round. But the motif of the 

 porch appears frequently in the garden front, and hence has 

 proper place here. 



Yet, utterly plain, almost severe as this entrance front is, 



it is penetratingly distinguished. More than any other word 

 that, perhaps, best describes the house. It is not assertive, 

 it demands no attention, it does not seek comment, but it has 

 the distinguished air of the grande seigneur, the thorough 

 gentleman who knows how to dress and behave himself, and 

 who conducts his affairs in a thoroughly gentlemanly fashion. 

 It is a characteristic quite as definitely marked in the severe 

 entrance front as in the ornate garden front. 



The garden front is one of genuine grandeur. It is the 

 family side of the house, the side overlooking the grounds, 

 the personal and private part of the house. It is truly splen- 

 did. The dimensions, everywhere spacious, are here ex- 

 tended in two great semicircular porches, which come for- 

 ward on each side, and inclose the terrace on which the 

 house is supported. This terrace is approached from the 

 lower grounds by a broad flight of steps. 



Beyond the terrace is the house, the center well brought 

 forward and slightly higher than the wings on either side, 

 and itself divided into three parts — a slightly recessed center 

 and two end pavilions. But the difference in wall facing 

 here is quite small, barely sufficient to give room to the 

 colonnade, which, with its cornice, is the chief ornamental 

 feature of this front. The pavilions of this central part have 

 single round-arched windows below and smaller rectangular 

 ones above, corresponding in shape with those in the second 

 story of the central part. 



The wings which are applied to each end of this center 

 have their lower story completely hidden behind the great 

 semicircular porches which inclose the terrace on both sides. 



