84 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



March, 1910 



home; never even a desirable house. How could it be, 

 when one must be continually adapting oneself to rooms 

 and apartments for which there is no modern use, where 

 one cannot live naturally, and where one is perpetually 

 wondering what to do next in rooms one, naturally, would 

 never think of doing anything in but look about and won- 

 der? 



Perhaps we modern builders have deprived ourselves of 

 many agreeable opportunities and of the use of much beau- 

 tiful architectural detail by the apparent necessity of reject- 

 ing classic models and ideas in our modern homes. No 

 architectural ornament was ever so exquisite as that carxed 

 and cut by the ancient Greeks; no architectural ideas ha\'e 

 equalled theirs in purity and directness of expression; no 

 architecture is at once so elevated and so refined. Perhaps 

 we have lost something by not being able to design our 



houses with this 



splendid wealth of 

 beauty; but at least 

 we have been able 

 to keep it intact and 

 so have come to 

 look upon it as 

 something to be re- 

 vered and admired, 

 something to be 

 treated as very rare 

 and beautiful, some- 

 thing we can use 

 sparingly, perhaps, 

 but certainly only 

 with the utmost 

 care and regard. 



There are very 

 many things that 

 are extremely sim- 

 ple after once the 

 way to do them has 

 been made clear. 

 The great underly- 

 ing fact that has 

 made Mr. Stein- 

 bach's house so per- 

 fectly successful, is 

 so very simple that 

 it is a wonder it has 

 never been thought 

 of before. Perhaps 

 it has; but I am not 

 familiar with it in 

 precisely this form. 



And now for the 

 secret of this suc- 

 cess. Briefly it was 

 to design an ex- 

 terior in which 

 classic motifs would 

 be used in a way that would at once declare this house to 

 be designed in the style of classic Greece; and then to ar- 

 range the interior in a thoroughly modern style and with- 

 out any regard whatsoever to classic precedence ! That's 

 all; but it's enough. No doubt some purist will rise up in 

 imaginary agony against such a juxtaposition and combina- 

 tion of the old and the new. Let him have his say; it will 

 neither destroy the integrity of this house nor the reason- 

 ableness of this procedure. The thing has been done, over 

 and over again, in other styles. Time and time again plain, 

 simple old-fashioned houses have been built to contain 

 within their boarde'd or shingled walls rooms and apart- 

 ments of astonishing state and splendor, and no one seems 

 ever to have felt there was impropriety in the combination. 



The steps leading to the entrance of the house 



I hold no brief for either Mr. Dodge or Mr. Steinbach, but 

 they have, between them, contrived as interesting a house 

 as I have seen, contrived it in a style not new or novel, but 

 used in a new way, and have, moreover, achieved a thor- 

 oughly livable house, which, after all, is the most that can 

 be asked of any dwelling. 



Mr. Steinbach's house, designed by Mr. F. H. Dodge, 

 is a villa intended for residence throughout the year. This 

 circumstance is no longer novel in seaside homes, but 

 is worthy of mention. The house is neither large nor im- 

 posing, but it is thoroughly interesting, a quality of vastly 

 more notable import than measurement by size and cost. 

 It stands on a comparatively modest plot of ground, over- 

 looking Deal Lake, and is at the junction of two principal 

 streets. One would, therefore, hardly describe it as a sea- 

 shore house, although built in a very notable seaside resort. 



If a name be 

 needed, it is quite 

 distinctly a country 

 villa, quite well 

 adapted to village 

 environment. 



The plan is 

 somewhat derived 

 from the letter U. 

 That is to say, it 

 consists of a main 

 front portion, of 

 which the center is 

 projected forward, 

 with two wings or 

 L's at the back, 

 with a charming lit- 

 tle court between 

 them. This is now 

 open to the sky and 

 at the rear, but Mr. 

 Steinbach proposes, 

 at some time in the 

 near future, to en- 

 close it entirely 

 with glass, and thus 

 convert it into a 

 sort of winter gar- 

 den, a use to which 

 both by situation 

 and by size it is ad- 

 mirably adapted. 



The initial idea, 

 if the house being a 

 modern interior 

 with a classic ex- 

 terior, the problem 

 of clothing the out- 

 side in competent, 

 correct and digni- 

 fied architectural 

 form remained the chief task of the designer. In no sense 

 is this ever easy, and in fact the success of the whole struc- 

 ture might readily have been fatally injured by an over use 

 of detail, of which the originals exist in such tempting quan- 

 tity and variety. Whatever temptations of this kind niay 

 have beset Mr. Dodge, he quickly put them to one side. A 

 rather square, rigid form, seemed best adapted for the main 

 exterior lines. This doubtless agrees with the general form 

 of the Greek house, although as no such structures have 

 survived to our time we cannot tell precisely what they 

 were like. They were perhaps much more formless than 

 the design evolved by Mr. Dodge, but as he had no prece- 

 dents to be literally followed, he was justified in developing 

 the ornamental exterior chosen for this house. 



