June, 1908 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



219 



Notable American Homes 



By Barr Ferree 



" Casa-del-Ponte," a Summer Home at Tokeneke Park, Rowayton, Connecticut 



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FTER you have seen how it is done it seems 

 easy enough to design and build a charm- 

 ing house ; at all events one can not but 

 wish there were more houses of real and 

 penetrating charm, houses agreeable to look 

 at, houses delightfully environed, houses 

 that, by their mere exteriors, suggest and 

 proclaim their evident livability as their most positive char- 

 acteristic. There are, of course, many such houses, but few 

 enough they seem in the course of a long walk, or even in a 

 day's drive with the automobile. Very certainly there are 

 few such delightful houses as the one designed by Messrs. 

 Slee and Bryson, architects, of Brooklyn, N. Y., at Tokeneke 

 Park, Rowayton, Conn. 



One need spend no time in seeking the causes of the charm 

 of this little house. Its beauty speaks aloud on every side.: 

 in its form and silhouette, in the fine manner in which the 

 solid stucco walls hold and retain the windows; in the roof, 

 which so amply and obviously covers the building; in the 

 grace and beauty of 

 the subsidiary parts, 

 the balustrades, the 

 pergolas, the trel- 

 lised window in the 

 rear, the firm, 

 strong entrance 

 doorway, and, 

 above all, in its de- 

 lightful situation. A 

 quiet, peaceful 

 house this is, brood- 

 ing serenely above a 

 creek, with the deep 

 waters of Long Is- 

 land Sound in the 

 not far distance. 



The "Casa-del- 

 Ponte" owes its 

 name to a bridge 

 which must be 

 crossed before the 

 house is reached by 

 the road from the 

 railroad station. As 

 already stated, it is 

 a stucco house, and 

 is of a creamish- 

 white color, sur- 

 mounted with a 

 roof of red shingles. 

 Severely rectangular 

 in plan, it is with- 

 out projecting parts 

 save on the rear, 

 where an extended 

 window and a per- 

 gola, which is prac- 

 tically an integral 

 portion of the 

 house, relieve its 



somewhat rigid outlines. But because a house is square or 

 rectangular it is not necessarily formal, and certainly it need 

 not be without interest. Both these facts are amply set forth 

 in every part of this exterior. Thus, for example, the door 

 and window spacing of the entrance front is as free and as 

 irregular as you please; wherever a door was needed it was 

 placed, and when a window was required it, too, was cut 

 through the wall, and given the shape, form, size and posi- 

 tion that best met interior requirements. Translating these 

 conditions into exterior architectural form gave a peculiarly 

 harmonious result, although so far as the. entrance front is 

 concerned of regularity and symmetry there is none at all. 

 That such ideas should be looked for only shows how diffi- 

 cult it is to get away from preconceived and basic traditions. 

 There is actually no reason why a house, of any style should 

 be designed in a symmetrical manner, in which the parts of 

 one-half are accurately reproduced in the other. On the 

 contrary, there are. few things so absurd in domestic archi- 

 tecture, since no interior half of a house is ever put to the 



identical use that 

 the other half is. 

 Our architects, how- 

 ever, are not always 

 bold enough to 

 reject traditional 

 usage, and it is only 

 when this has been 

 frankly set to one 

 side, as in the 

 "Casa-del - Ponte," 

 and successfully set 

 aside, that one real- 

 izes completely how 

 unnecessary such a 

 convention is. 



It is interesting 

 to note what highly 

 effective results 

 have been obtained 

 by the use of the 

 simplest forms and 

 the emphasizing of 

 strict constructional 

 lines. The main 

 doorway is a good 

 example. It is em- 

 phasized by a slight 

 projection, scarce 

 more than a double 

 thickening of the 

 walls, but being the 

 only projecting fea- 

 ture of the whole 

 front except the two 

 balconies, it is quite 

 enough for its pur- 

 pose. The two steps 

 and their inclosing 

 piers are structur- 

 ally a part of the 



An Outlook Across the Pond and Meadow 



