May, 1912 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 177 
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The lines of the roof of this interesting California house, placed upon several levels, strongly emphasize its Japanese tendency 
The Western Home of a Musician 
By Thomas R. Thorndyke 
pesmmenarenane HE cosmopolitanism of an American city is 
Se ¥q|| generally expressed in the variety of its ar- 
<44\| chitecture, and the diversity is apt to be 
even greater, in the suburban districts, 
where space affords opportunity for wider 
expansion than is possible within the narrow 
dimensions of a city lot. This is true of cities upon the Pa- 
cific coast in even a greater degree than of those in the 
Eastern states, for these cities of the West are the ports 
through which comes intercourse with the Orient, and the 
influence of China and Japan constitutes a factor with 
which reckoning must be made. This influence is strongly 
felt in the architecture of California, for there are found 
many homes which are either frankly adaptations of Japa- 
nese motifs or combinations of several styles among which 
the Japanese seems to prevail. A home built by an artist 
and planned for the practice of some form of art is always 
interesting, and when such a home is to be built in Califor- 
nia where so great a variety of locations are available and 
where architecture of every possible kind is well represented, 
the result is sure to be of more than ordinary interest. 
The illustrations show the home of Mr. and Mrs. Robert 
H. Adams, near Los Angeles, California. Mrs. Adams is 
a musician and in building a home, which she herself has 
planned to a great extent, a room for the proper rendering 
of music was naturally one of the chief considerations. A 
house has therefore been built which fulfills this definite pur- 
pose and which is also a home, complete and satisfying, to 
those who dwell therein. A study of Japanese architecture 
and its application to what we know as the bungalow type 
has greatly influenced its planning and the designing of its 
exterior and interior fittings. 
Much of the country about Los Angeles is almost, if not 
absolutely, level and during the greater part of the year the 
days are bright and sunny and there is almost no cold 
weather. This, of course, makes possible a bungalow much 
different from one built for all the year occupancy in a part 
of the country where the climate might be very different and 
where the cold of Winter as well as the heat of Summer 
must be planned for. The Adams house is an excellent ex- 
ample of the California bungalow, which to the discerning 
varies greatly from the types found elsewhere. It is placed 
upon a suburban street where it is surrounded by other su- 
burban homes, but its marked individuality stamps it at once 
with an air which is all its own. The materials used and the 
manner in which they are combined suggests at once the Jap- 
anese and the clever way in which they secure variety of 
effect by a judicious use and careful and discriminating com- 
bination of the simplest materials. Here the combination 
is of brick and wood of several varieties. The use of so 
many kinds of material cannot be recommended for use in 
many instances, but here they have been very carefully used 
and the result is exceedingly interesting. The walls of the 
house, where they are of wood, are arranged in panels with 
horizontal bands where necessary to balance their planning. 
The portions built of brick are divided into panels by the use 
of strips of wood which agree with the strips used for the 
same purpose upon the walls which are of frame. The 
arrangement of the roofs carries the Japanese idea still 
further, for owing to the unusual planning of the house the 
