July, 1908 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



259 



The Pergola at the End of the Formal Garden 



Notable American Homes 



By Barr Ferree 



" Maxwell Court," the Residence of Francis T. Maxwell, Esq., at Rockville, Connecticut 



T IS a generally accepted axiom that a house 

 set on a hill can not be hid. Yet "Max- 

 well Court" may very well be cited as the 

 exception that proves the rule, since one 

 may not only approach the village of Rock- 

 ville, but pass through it without seeing 

 much more than fleeting glimpses of its 

 roof, and most certainly without being aware that there was 

 here a house at once so capacious and so finely illustrative 

 of the architect's skill. This, it may be well to set down at 

 the outset, was Mr. Charles A. Piatt, of New York, to whom 

 is due both the house and the garden attached to it. 



The entrance roadway that leads to the house leaves the 

 main highway at a point occupied by the stable and coach- 

 man's house. These buildings are located at what may 

 be termed the base of the estate, and are sufficiently removed 

 from the mansion as to leave it in undisputed isolation. A 

 couple of broad bends, and the driveway comes to an end 

 in the forecourt of the entrance front. 



The house is now completely visible, and the whole char- 

 acter of its design and its component parts may be compre- 

 hended at ease. Yet, while this is completely true, the state- 

 ment should not be taken too literally, since only the central 

 portion of the front is contained within the limits of the 

 forecourt, the house extending beyond on either side, and 

 without the boundary of the inclosing wall. 



Very interesting, indeed, is the arrangement of this en- 

 trance feature. The forecourt is a spacious enclosure, the 



larger part of whose surface is finished as a driveway. One 

 comes into it on one side, and finds oneself in an open space, 

 inclosed on three sides with a brick wall, while the fourth 

 is occupied by the house itself. The hillside rises somewhat 

 abruptly before the house, but the declivity has been scraped 

 away so that a perfectly level surface has been obtained, and 

 the wall opposite the doorway actually incloses and sup- 

 ports the hill which rises above it with a fine crown of forest 

 trees, and a growth of wood shrubbery immediately above 

 the wall. 



Like the house the enclosing wall is built of Harvard 

 brick with Indiana limestone trimmings. The design is ex- 

 ceedingly simple, but full of life and vitality; for the wall 

 is built in great panels of brick, emphasized with brick piers 

 whose capitals are surmounted with balls of stone. In the 

 center of the wall opposite the house door is a rectangular 

 recess. Three steps fill its base, and above the platform thus 

 created is a semi-circular niche or wall fountain. The hill- 

 side is reached by a flight of steps that is continued upward 

 on one side, and which is completely hidden by the main 

 inclosing wall. A wrought iron arch, of extremely decora- 

 tive design, is applied to the two outer piers, and completes 

 the ornamentation. 



Long before all these details will have been noted the 

 general character of the house will have been comprehended. 

 It has a quiet and stately front, in which the prevailing note 

 is very obviously that of dignity. And this is not the less 

 true because, while designed on very conservative lines, it 



