February, 1906 
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A Vast Forecourt, with inclosing Walls and Gateways, is built before the House 
Notable American Homes 
By Barr Ferree 
The Summer Home of Oliver Ames, Esq., Prides Crossing, Massachusetts 
O BUILD a house on a narrow stretch of 
land between the sea and a public road, a 
house large and sumptuous, and give it that 
privacy that properly belongs to houses of 
this class, is as difficult a task as could be 
assigned to the architect of the modern 
country home. Yet this very problem is exactly the problem 
that was given to Mr. Ogden Codman, the architect of Mr. 
Ames’ house at Prides’ Crossing. That the general situation 
is one of great beauty is, of course, immediately made clear by 
the mention of its locality, for the famous north shore of 
Massachusetts is one continued series of beautiful spots. 
The first problem here was unquestionably that of planning 
the grounds and arranging the buildings—that is to say, the 
house, the stable and other outbuildings—in such a way as to 
place them most advantageously, the house for its view of the 
water, and the stable for its convenience to the house. But 
the house had not only to be conveniently situated, and agree- 
ably situated as well, but it had also to be so placed that its 
privacy could not be intruded upon by the great outside world. 
The problem was one of genuine difficulty, and its solution 
has been a genuine triumph for its designer. It consisted 
in the very simple device of building a double wall. The 
whole of the exterior grounds are surrounded by a high, solid 
wall of concrete, with ornamented piers and great flat panels, 
interrupted at the necessary points by gateways supplied with 
high wrought-iron gates. The gateways, while necessary 
for the use of the house, were the very points from which 
the best views of the inner grounds could be had, and, as the 
house was so near the road, everything that transpired on its 
entrance side would, of course, be visible to those without. 
In order to prevent this annoying intrusion the architect 
planned a vast forecourt before the house, surrounded by a 
wall of its own, with separate gateways of its own, both wall 
and gates being similar in design to the outer wall. This 
arrangement gives an entrance and an approach to the house 
that is quite magnificent in its dimensions and superb in its 
effect. 
From the main doorway one views a splendid open space, 
quite palatial in its dimensions and its parts. On either side 
are the outer wings of the house, and beyond the walls and 
gates inclosing the forecourt in a symmetrical manner on 
both sides to the outer inclosure at the further end, where a 
beautifully designed archway gives a veritable note of 
triumph. Bay trees between the windows and before the 
gates and arches emphasize these special points of promi- 
nence, and the richly vined walls give additional notes of color. 
One looks beyond the gates into the outer grounds, whose 
splendid lines testify to their high cultivation and whose 
stately trees are the advance guard of the deeper woods 
beyond the outer wall, which, viewed through the gateways 
of the inner wall, now seem to close the vista at a great dis- 
tance from the house. 
Mr. Ames’ house is New England only in its situation, for 
it is a very excellent type of the French villa, designed with 
extraordinary regard for historical accuracy. It is well 
studied in all its parts and is a building that depends for its 
effect almost wholly upon its architectural lines, for its ex- 
terior exhibits no decorative features that are not purely 
structural, except the pavilion treatment of the entrance door- 
way and a similar treatment of the center of the water front. 
And this is simple enough, consisting only of two pairs of 
pilasters in two stories, supporting low pediments, semi- 
circular for the entrance front, triangular for the water front. 
The plan of the house is that of the letter H, with two 
wings on each side, those on the entrance front extending into 
the forecourt and those on the water front reaching toward 
the water. The design of each front and each part of each 
front is practically identical in every part. There is a string- 
course of quite marked intensity above the arches of the first 
story, and a narrower one immediately below the sills of 
the windows of the second story. ‘These are darker in color 
than the walls, the house being of stucco and gray throughout. 
The cornice is without any decorative features save the 
simplest of straight moldings. The sloping roof forms a 
marked feature in the design of an isolated house such as 
