January, 1906 
AMERECAN HOMES 
AND GARDENS | “ 
Notable American Homes 
By Barr Ferree 
Photographs by Alman and Company 
** Armsea, ” 
N ESTATE of seventeen and a half acres at 
Newport is something out of the ordinary, 
and it is eminently appropriate that in a 
domain of this size so notable a house as 
‘““ Armsea,’’ the ocean home of Mr. Hoff- 
man, should have been erected. As mere 
land the tract is superb, and situated at the end of Ocean 
Drive it has the unusual advantage of being in and of New- 
port, and having at the same time an area and a retirement 
that is very rare 
among the sumptu- 
ous places of fash- 
ion’s summer cap- 
ital. 
It is at the psy- 
chological spot, the 
fairest place of this 
fair estate, that the 
house has been built. 
Itis directly opposite 
Jamestown and the 
Dumplings, with an 
outlook far across 
the sea, with Narra- 
gansett Pier in the 
distance. The ap- 
proach from Ocean 
Driveway is highly 
significant of the fine 
house, the ample 
space, the high de- 
gree of cultivation 
and the complete 
equipment that the 
visitor immediately 
discovers to distin- 
guish “Armsea.” At 
the gates, which are 
swung in a wall ten 
feet high, built to 
inclose the estate 
from the road, is a 
lodge. A fine drive- 
way of about two 
hundred yards in 
length leads to the 
porte-cochére, which 
occupies the center 
of theentrance front. 
Like all great 
houses of this type, 
“‘Armsea”’ has two main fronts; the entrance front, at which 
visitors alight and from which they take their departure, and 
the water front, which in this case takes the place of the more 
usual garden front and which directly overlooks the sea. That 
the water front is the more important of the two is, of course, 
very obvious. It is the more important because it faces the 
important direction ; it is also the more important because 
it has been given the more elaborate architectural treat- 
ment, a treatment that is distinguished by a fine stately 
““Armsea"’—The Stately Central Portico is Supported by Four Corinthian 
Columns Two Stories in Height 
the House of C. F. Hoffman, Esq., Newport, Rhode Island 
dignity, of quiet yet penetrating beauty. It is, in short, a 
lordly mansion, symmetrical in its design and in the dis- 
position of its parts, a fine type of the great Georgian 
house, admirably studied and carefully detailed. It con- 
sists of a center, three stories in height, to which are 
applied wings, one on either side. The wing which con- 
tains the service departments is somewhat elongated on the 
entrance front, but on the water front both wings are 
identical, projecting sufficiently to give character to the center 
as well as to em- 
phasize its import- 
ance. 
The water front 
is, then, a well stud- 
ied composition. In 
the center is a por- 
tico, with four state- 
ly Corinthian  col- 
umns rising to the 
full height of the 
second story, and 
supporting a_pedi- 
ment whose tympa- 
num is. decorated 
withcarvinginrelief. 
This, in its turn, is 
applied to the third 
story, which is treat- 
ed as an attic. It is 
at once the chief fea- 
ture of the exterior 
and the central ele- 
ment of the whole 
design. Its articula- 
tion with the main 
wall is effected by 
pilasters. In the 
middle is the door- 
way, flat-topped be- 
neath a broken ped- 
iment; on each side 
is a round-arched 
niche with a carved 
panel over it, and 
above are three 
windows, each with 
a separate balcony 
supported on iron 
brackets and _in- 
closed within 
wrought-iron rail- 
ings. The importance of these windows as the central ones 
of the front is indicated by their molded frames and their 
keystones—the only ones in the front. 
That the portico occupies the center of the front has 
already been indicated; but it should be added that it fills 
only a portion of the central wall; there is a broad space on 
either side, with a triple window under a simple arch below 
and a flat-topped window under a carved panel above. In 
a somewhat strict sense these features complete the archi- 
