August, I912 
The stairway 
quirements of the discoverers, a house they would find 
wholly livable with but few architectural changes, then 
added to the interest always incident to planning ingenious 
changes there would be the incentive of economy as against 
the expenditure requisite for an entirely new dwelling house. 
Old houses that have knit themselves to 
their sites through the years of their exist- 
ence seem to transmit, as an atmospheric 
heritage, a charm to their remodeled exist- 
ences. [hat seems to be true of the old 
stone Colonial farmhouse here illustrated. 
This was built in 1786, and was recon- 
structed by Mr. A. F. Norris, architect, 
New York. Even in its original state, as 
will be seen in the reproduction of a photo- - 
graph in Mr. Norris’s possession, of the 
house before remodeling, which accompa- 
nies this article, the quaint homestead was 
picturesque and attractive and could not fail 
to awaken an interest as offering to the 
architect and home-builder alike, an excel- 
lent opportunity to display skill and good 
taste in adapting the old structure to meet 
all of the necessary modern requirements. 
A study of the floor plans discloses the 
original exterior stone walls, as one finds 
them indicated by the heavier lines of the diagrams. Nearly 
all old houses of the type such as this was, followed the 
same general plan of a parallegram divided through the 
center by a square, narrow entry-hall, flanked on either side 
by large, square rooms, or by a square room on one side, 
The living-room 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
— 
PIAZZA LIVING DINING 
Room Room | 
Floor plans of the house 
and two rooms half the size on the other. 
this house, the room to the right has been retained and has 
become the dining-room, the house having been extended 
by a rear wing to supply the adjoining kitchen, which is 
reached through a well-placed pantry. 
In remodeling 
The living-room 
and the hallway have been thrown together 
and as they open upon the dining-room 
through a wide arch, a sense of spaciousness 
is given to the whole first floor that is one 
of its pleasantest features, and it has also 
made this floor light and exceedingly cheery. 
From the end of the living-room two 
French windows either side of the large old- 
fashioned fireplace open upon a_ broad 
porch, partly enclosed by lattice work and 
forming a sort of out-door living-room. 
This porch is roofed by a projection of the 
second story, which thus makes possible the 
large bed-chamber shown in the left on the 
second floor plan. Originally, the house 
had all-lighted upper chambers, but the 
addition of generous dormer windows 
has turned the remodeled upper chambers 
into bright and habitable bedrooms, as will 
be seen in the accompanying illustration, 
and it will also be seen, by studying the re- 
production of the rear of the house, that the rear slope 
roof to the right of the kitchen wing has been raised and 
the wall run up by a frame addition. 
all the first story walls might have been of stone, neverthe- 
less the frame wing appears in harmonious contrast when 
Of course, one wishes 
or 
One of the bedrooms 
