August, 1909 
= als debapke: 
AMERICAN HOMES 
AND GARDENS 
297] 
The terrace front 
Notable American Homes 
By Barr Ferree 
‘Darlington, 
Se CATE doors of Darlington swing open to an 
GAS NS Re interior that is at once sumptuous and 
Z = grandiose. The entrance-hall is a stately 
apartment paneled in oak, with a geo- 
metrical ceiling of the same beautiful wood. 
The larger part of two sides is occupied 
with the staircase, a monumental structure 
with a carved balustrade of oak, with en- 
of rich beauty, 
riched newels and piers, some of which support statuettes. 
Two doorways nave been put in the right wall; one of these 
admits to the electric elevator by which the upper floors may 
be reached; the other opens into a coat room. To the left, 
and entered beneath the stairway, is the office. This is by 
no means a minor apartment, for its walls are encased with a 
high paneling of English oak, with a broad stretch of white 
plaster above. The beams of the ceiling are exposed and 
are supported on ornamental corbels. A superb panel of 
Japanese embroidery almost completely covers one end of 
the room. 
Directly in face, as one enters the entrance-hall, is a lofty 
arch; through it the eye is at once attracted to the great room 
beyond, and to the inglenook and fireplace with which the 
vista is closed. The arch does not, in fact, open immediately 
into the great hall, although it appears to do so, but into a 
corridor that is extended on the right and left to the farthest 
limits of the mansion. This passage is completely walled 
on the side by which it is entered, but on the inner side, 
where it adjoins the great hall, it is open. Here it has the 
” the Estate of George Crocker, Esq., Ramsey, New Jersey 
effect of a cloister walk, with open arches to the great hall, 
and a groined vaulted ceiling. Beyond the hall it has the 
true function of a corridor, but seen from the hall itself it 
is an integral part of this great apartment, whose dimensions 
are not only extended by its area, but whose beauty is greatly 
increased by this stately architectural treatment. 
The magnificent great hall is not only an exceedingly 
splendid room, but an apartment of the deepest interest. It 
seems scarcely necessary to add that it is the most important 
room in the house, for that is obvious by its size and situa- 
tion. But it is interesting not only because of its splendid 
architectural design, but for what it contains. The whole 
arrangement is exceedingly fine. There is a strong character 
connection between the entrance-hall, with its somewhat sub- 
dued treatment, and the more enriched splendors of this 
great room. It is superb in size, so large, indeed, that there 
is no dwarfing of the floor space by the large pieces of furni- 
ture with which it is supplied, as sometimes happens when 
the dimensions are less generous. Its structural features 
are likewise in thorough keeping with its monumental char- 
acter. It is two stories in height, the walls on three sides 
being lined with Caen stone, while on the fourth, or entrance 
side, is a two-story gallery in English oak, carved in the 
richest manner and a decorative feature as rare as it is 
effective. 
The lower walls to the springing of the arches in the en- 
trance arcade, both within the hall and in the outer corridor, 
are lined with oak paneling. ‘The Caen stone is exposed 
