222 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



October, 1906 



Mr. Coolidge's Den is a Pleasant Little Room Whose Striped Walls are Almost 

 Covered with Framed Etchings 



The whole of this side of the house is supported on ter- 

 races. The first of these is of brick and immediately sur- 

 mounts the basement beneath the house. It is enclosed 

 within a handsome old wrought-iron railing and is pro- 

 vided with stone steps which descend to the lower terrace. 

 This is a spacious and delightful space, supported, on all 

 sides, by a wall of rough stones, carrying a dressed-stone 

 coping and forming at once a retaining-wall and closed 

 barrier to the lower grounds without. The latter are 

 reached by stone steps of ample size. The sea, the beauti- 

 ful quiet sea that one meets with everywhere on this lovely 

 coast, is just beyond, scarcely further than the base of the 

 lower terrace-wall. At the top of the steps that lead down 

 to it arc two great Italian 

 amphora, standing like 

 solemn sentinels at the furth- 

 est point of the house struc- 

 tures, silently marking at 

 once the beginning and the 

 ending of the home grounds. 

 But on the sea side only; for 

 below the terrace on the 

 right, as one looks toward 

 the sea, is a gracious flower- 

 garden, simply laid out in a 

 formal style, with great rec- 

 tangular beds of brilliant 

 flowers, and with loftier 

 bushes and denser foliage 

 below the terrace-wall. Still 

 further on is the service-en- 

 trance, and beyond that 

 again a second flower- 

 garden, close to the con- 

 servatories and stables that 

 complete the structures of 

 this beautiful sea-estate. 



The entrance-hall is en- 

 tered from the main door- 

 way without an intervening 

 vestibule. It is a rectangu- 



lar room with cut-off corners on the op- 

 posite side. The walls are white; the ma- 

 hogany doors are provided with heavily 

 molded frames, and above each of them 

 is a panel in relief. On each side of the 

 central door is a round arched niche. The 

 ceiling is supported by a triglyphed frieze. 

 To the right is the staircase-hall. It has 

 a wainscot of whitewood, paneled, and 

 green walls. The stairs have a railing 

 with delicately twisted banisters. On the 

 walls are old English paintings, part of 

 Mr. Coolidge's fine collection which is 

 distributed throughout the house. The 

 rugs on the hardwood floor and stairs are 

 Oriental. 



The main living-hall is entered from 

 the central doorway of the entrance-hall. 

 It occupies the exact center of the house, 

 and is a beautiful oval room, the far end, 

 which is lighted by three windows, occupy- 

 ing the rounded extension which is the con- 

 spicuous feature of the water-front, while 

 the entrance-hall is given a corresponding 

 shape. It is forty-two feet long and twenty- 

 five feet wide, and is treated in the old Eng- 

 lish style. It is paneled throughout in 

 selected English oak, the richly detailed 

 cornice being carried on channeled pilasters, 

 and the intervening spaces being filled with small rec- 

 tangular panels of the Jacobean type. The fireplace of 

 Yorkshire stone has no mantel-shelf. The floor is of im- 

 ported Yorkshire stone, partly covered with handsome 

 Oriental rugs. The ceiling is of plain white plaster. Red 

 velvet curtains hang at the windows, and the furniture is 

 covered with red damask. On the walls are many fine old 

 English portraits. 



The dining-room has all the qualities of a white room. 

 The wainscot is of wood painted white. The walls are 

 paneled in French gray, with moldings of white. The 

 cornice is decorated with delicate reliefs and the ceiling is 

 plain and white. The mantel is an old English one of white 



The Entrance-hall is White, with Mahogany Doors Within Heavily Molded Frames 



