February, 1909 
lew OSE 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 45 
The house as approached, with main entrance and inclosed yard 
Notable American Homes 
By Barr Ferree 
The House of C. P. Searle, Esq., at Ipswich, Massachusetts 
O)HERE is a penetrating charm in the over- 
4 looks of the Ipswich River that amply 
compensates for any exertion entailed in 
reaching the heights that afford a view 
over the surrounding country. There are, 
of course, no difficulties in getting to Mr. 
Searle’s fine house, for you naturally ap- 
proach it by carriage and road. But its elevation of about 
one hundred feet is quite sufficient to make it a landmark in 
the vicinity, and to give its owner a variety of charming views 
which nowhere can be so well seen as from its porches and 
terraces. Below, in the somewhat immediate foreground, 
is a very extensive expanse of salt marsh, divided by winding 
creeks and extending from the base of the hill for about two 
miles to the white sand dunes which form the shore of 
Ipswich Bay. Beyond these another stretch of the Atlantic 
Ocean is visible, extending from Annisquam on the north 
side of Cape Ann nearly to the south of the Merrimac, and 
including the Isles of Shoals, the dunes of Plum Island and 
two or three great drumlins which rise from the marshes. 
‘To the north there is a similar view, which extends as far as 
the city of Newburyport and the hills in the southern part 
of Maine. Limitless outlooks, very obviously, and wonder- 
fully varied and interesting in every aspect. The house is 
not built on the summit of the hill on which it stands, but has 
been erected a little below the top, so that, seen from the 
river, it is provided with a background of splendid green 
trees. It very completely avoids the barren and windy ap- 
pearance of a house placed upon a hilltop, a clever recogni- 
tion of site values not always to be found in houses loftily 
situated. 
It is not until the house has been reached, and its position 
and points of view carefully studied, that one realizes that 
the choicest of all locations in the great two hundred acres 
estate, of which it is the chief building, has been selected as 
the spot for the dwelling. The determination of the site 
was the first great step in the work of building that was to be 
done here, and both architects and owner are to be con- 
gratulated on the admirable way in which this first and most 
essential preliminary was so successfully realized. 
And the site, very clearly, was an inspiration to successful 
designing, as the architects, Messrs. Kilham & Hopkins, of 
Boston, have demonstrated in this stately dwelling. It is 
a long rectangular house, quite formal in its general outline, 
since it contains no parts, except the balconies of the second 
story, that project beyond the limits of its four walls. As 
a matter of fact, however, it consists of two portions, the 
main part, which constitutes the great southern half of the 
whole, and an extensive service wing which forms the north- 
ern part. The latter forms a continuous part of the wall of 
the entrance front, and its roof is continuous with the main 
roof; but on the terrace front, which will presently be dis- 
closed as the chief and ornamental front of the house, it is 
retreated, showing its individual character, and leaving the 
main building free and independently symmetrical. 
The silhouette, the general outline and form of the house 
is strongly marked. In almost every aspect it presents the 
appearance of a rectangular building, an aspect which even 
the retreat of the service wing on the terrace front scarcely 
lessens on that side. This continuity of parts is both 
heightened and emphasized by the roof, which covers the 
whole building without break of any kind, and which rises in 
