October, 1912 
stood so well and_ with 
which they wrought so lov- 
ingly. 
Brick is particularly inter- 
esting as a building material 
because it possesses a certain 
“human” element. It seems 
to respond to almost any 
architectural humor, grave 
or gay, and is quite as 
pleasing and beautiful of 
plain dark red modestly 
trimmed with white stone at 
Independence Hall, as when 
of pale buff with diaper pat- 
tern subtly suggested by 
darker headers at Madison 
Square Garden. This “re- 
sponsive” quality renders its 
application to domestic build- 
ing particularly successful 
for brick, seems to sustain the note in which the home is 
set, whether it be the dignified beauty and reticence of 
English Tudor or Jacobean, or the more intimate cottage 
styles of Germany or France. It is particularly adapted 
for building homes in what we call the ‘‘Colonial’’ styles, 
for brick was used in all the American colonies where such 
expense could be met and excellent examples of such build- 
ings are readily recalled, from the Hancock house in Bos- 
ton, to the Dutch architecture of New York with its houses 
of brick “brought from Holland,” then through Maryland 
and Virginia with their stately brick manor houses to the 
French and Spanish buildings of Louisiana. 
The texture of the brick made to-day is of great variety, 
and even a greater variety of coloring is obtainable, rang- 
ing from the palest gray or buff through all the long range 
of colors into the deeper browns and greens which shade 
imperceptibly into black. Between these extremes there 
are the most beautiful shades of grays, tans and blues, and 
every color imaginable, and the variety in size and shape 
is very nearly as great as the variety in coloring and texture. 
Besides all this there are many different methods of using 
brick—an endless number of “bonds” adapted or borrowed 
from antiquity which produce effects of light and shade by 
projecting or recessing certain courses or even certain units 
BLieee (Sree 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
An excellent type of the house of brick and stucco combined 
343 
of decoration to produce 
variety of effect. More beau- 
tiful than all these, however, 
are the wonderful results ob- 
tained by combining brick 
with mosaic, tiles, terra 
cotta, majolica or the other 
materials in which bas re- 
lief or modeled ornament is 
produced. The building of 
plaques or panels of ivory- 
tinted plaster or colored ma- 
jolica into walls of rough- 
surfaced brick of a different 
color produces effects al- 
most unbelievable. 
But the advantages of 
brick as a material of which 
to construct the house, are 
not confined to its use in ex- 
ternal work, for some of the 
most interesting and distinctive uses for brick are for in- 
teriors. Some particularly beautiful vestibules are being 
paved, lined and ceiled or vaulted with vari-colored brick, 
and an especially interesting example is found in New York, 
where the beauty of a wonderful facade of brick in mediaeval 
color effect is repeated and emphasized in the treatment of a 
large and deep vestibule or hall where the idea of inex- 
pensive richness worked out in brick is developed in a most 
wonderful way. Brick in many forms is used for flooring 
terraces, verandas and pergolas, and it is often used for 
halls, libraries or dining-room, or in other rooms where a 
solid and dignified effect is desirable, but even more suc- 
cessful is its use for the facing and lining of fireplaces and 
even for building mantels. There are perhaps no more 
successful mantels being made than those which are con- 
structed wholly of brick, especially made in suitable design, 
size and shape, and merely set in place by the workman. 
The corbels or brackets which support the shelf are of 
brick, and the shelf is frequently one very large thin brick. 
One might suppose that this would produce a very rough, 
crude effect much more suitable for a mountain camp or 
a bungalow in the woods, than for a suburban or country 
home, but just the opposite effect has been secured in sey- 
(Continued on page 3%2) 
No material offers a better contrast to vines and flowering plants than that of good brickwork, forming, as it does, just the proper background 
SS NE EE EC LT. £ 
for the green of growing things 
