October, 1906 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



217 



Notable 



American 



Homes 



Barr Ferree 



Tie 



Seaside Home 



of 



Mr. T. Jefferson Coolidge, Jr. 



Coolidge Point 

 Manchester, Massachusetts 



T A STONE'S throw from the terrace of Mr. 

 Coolidge's house are the waters that wash 

 the north shore of Massachusetts. A more 

 agreeable outlook it is difficult to imagine 

 and certainly would be hard to find. One 

 instinctively looks straight across the water, 

 where Marblehead sits serene on the distant coast, but so far 

 away as to be but a mere site on the distant horizon. There 

 are nearer points of interest: islands in the glistening water, 

 and, on either side, the tree-fringed mainland behind which 

 one catches many a glimpse of handsome houses. 



The land-surroundings of the Coolidge house are quite as 

 charming as the lovely water-view. The road that leads to 

 it passes through a pleasant suburban region, very delight- 

 fully wooded. The trees, in fact, are so abundant, that one 

 comes upon the house rather suddenly, standing in a cleared 

 space, and presenting a capacious and majestic front. 



It is a house designed in the Georgian style, to which its 

 architects, Messrs. McKim, Mead & White, of New York, 

 have given their best thought and study. It is peculiarly 

 fitted to the New England coast, since many fine examples 

 of it still remain in Salem and Portsmouth, while others, per- 



haps even better known, are found as far south as Virginia. 



It was designed under the immediate personal super- 

 vision of Mr. Charles F. McKim, who has made full use of 

 all available material, and has designed a house at once 

 modern in its application to contemporary life, and yet a 

 thoroughly consistent example of the architectural period 

 it reproduces. The architect designing in a historical style 

 is confronted by the necessity of reproducing his models with 

 pedantic accuracy, or so transforming them that they become 

 an original and modern translation. Mr. Coolidge's house 

 represents a phase of workmanship which involves the in- 

 telligent adaptation of older forms to modern uses. It is a 

 house so superbly studied that the very bricks and stones 

 breathe a spirit of the old time; a design beautifully har- 

 monized and proportioned with a loving care that gives it 

 a character of distinction that is as rare as it is delightful. 



It is a large house designed in a large way, directly ex- 

 pressed in the quiet dignity of the fronts, in the broad, plain 

 wall-spaces, in the stately colonnade which forms the fea- 

 ture of the entrance-portal, in the great, rounded center of 

 the water-front, in the exquisite portico which is the dis- 

 tinguishing part of the latter side of the house. The archi- 



,«i!is 



The Stately Water-front Shows the Three Great Divisions of the House, with the Portico to the Left 



