August, 1908 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



301 



The Library Is Finished in French Walnut, Beautifully Carved and Paneled 



availed of in a very handsome manner. The result is so fine 

 that it must be a source of constant satisfaction to the owner 

 and the designer. 



Stately and ornate are qualities not always the comple- 

 ment of the other. This is particularly true of the orna- 

 mental qualities of a design, which may be ornate in the most 

 elaborate sense of the word, while the result may be any- 

 thing but stately. The Georgian, fortunately, is a style that 

 permits few liberties, and it is difficult, unless refinement of 

 detail is neglected, to go astray in it. On the contrary, its 

 own inherent qualities are so fine and good that stateliness 

 may almost be considered as inseparable from it. In any 

 event it affords fine opportunities for the designer who looks 

 to the creation of ornateness and stateliness. And both these 

 qualities are finely and very amply illustrated in Mr. Bru- 

 guiere's house. 



Long, strong, firm lines dominate the structure. It is 

 almost a perfect rectangle, a slight extension of the service 

 wing being quite subordinate to the main lines of the house. 

 The bringing forward of the center of the entrance front is 

 a thoroughly legitimate architectural device for breaking up 

 the long lines of a facade, and the addition to the bulk of the 

 house thus made is slight enough and is actually compensated 

 for by the recessing of the center of the water front, where 

 the opening thus created is filled with a stately colonnade. 



Symmetry and sobriety thus characterize this design as 

 fundamentals; it is true one end has a covered porch, the 

 other a one-story addition to the service rooms, as well as 



an enclosed service yard. These features, however, are sub- 

 ordinate to the real structure of the house itself, and in no 

 way detract from the general symmetry of the design. 



The house is built of red brick, with details and trim- 

 mings in glazed terra cotta, so nearly white as to practically 

 approximate that color. These materials imposed no diffi- 

 culty in their use, for they fit quite naturally into the chosen 

 style. Great square pilasters, deeply channeled, and with rich 

 Corinthian capitals, stand at each angle; on the corners of 

 the house, at the angles of the central projection, at the open- 

 ing of the recess on the water front — pilasters of generous 

 size, quite ample to perform their apparent task of buttress- 

 ing the walls between them. They support the cornice, 

 which is carried uninterruptedly around the building on them, 

 and which is also of terra cotta, save the space technicallv 

 known as the frieze, in which the red brick of the lower wall 

 reappears. The whole is crowned by a fine balustrade, very 

 beautifully proportioned to the structure it surmounts, in 

 which brick piers, with terra cotta bases and cornices, alter- 

 nate with terra cotta balusters. 



These features form the framework of the design, within 

 which are disposed the walls and window openings. The 

 windows in the first floor throughout the house are round 

 arched, spacious windows, admitting ample light within, and 

 strong, well marked features without. They are without 

 side frames, but their sills rest on slightly recessed pieces of 

 walls, built of plain brick; a string course, which is con- 

 tinued across the intervening space, serves as the base for the 



