238 
AMERICAN HOMES 
AND GARDENS 
June, 1909 
Bedroom with original four-poster 
period of years. Unfortunately, many modern dwellings, 
were they to exist for hundreds of years, would never acquire 
this precious quality, but of that we are not now concerned 
with. 
The fine simplicity of many old Colonial designs is beauti- 
fully illustrated in the exterior of the Warner House. Its 
simplicity, indeed, verges upon the forbidding, since there 
is naught here but walls of brick, windows of the most severe 
design, a bare string course, a simple cornice. But there is 
a fine old doorway, carefully enriched with delicate mold- 
ings; and there is an effective gambrel roof, which, with its 
dormer windows, its crowning balustrade and cupola, give 
character and finish to all that has been built below. 
One may be sure the designer of this house knew his busi- 
ness, and set about it directly. He had no need to search 
through books, look up “periods,” and debate with his client 
as to styles, forms, modes, and ideas. He knew what to do 
and did it, did it directly and simply, did it strongly and 
well, did it delightfully, moreover, and created a house that, 
after a lapse of nearly two hundred years, is still a model of 
its kind, and the delight of all who see it. This was doing 
something in very truth, and was a feat that not a few 
modern architects, enriched with an extensive paraphernalia 
of professional training have yet to accomplish. 
And if this be true of the exterior of the house, it is equally 
so of the interior. It is true it is not now all as it has always 
been; but much of the original form remains, and much of 
the original contents. And the house, although still used 
and occupied to-day, is, of its kind, a veritable museum of 
the early domestic life of New England, filled with many 
interesting treasures and dowered with a rich and interesting 
history. 
