September, 1908 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



34i 



quite some time, but this entrance is itself a keynote to the 

 originality of the whole design. It is neither on a front nor 

 in a center; it leads to no monumental room or stately apart- 

 ment; it is a mere opening in the house wall, large, it is true, 

 but a mere cutting, and marked and emphasized without by 

 a curved hood supported on two massive beams. An iron gate 

 has been placed within the arch since the photograph which 

 accompanies this article was taken, a gate decorated with 

 mimic deer, roses and other quaint devices. Call it German 

 if you must, it is more important that it adds a real note of 

 interest to this most interesting of entrances. 



From the archway one may enter the house by a door on 

 the left; but the visitor intent on sight seeing will more natur- 

 ally pass beneath the inner arch, and thus on into the great 

 inner court, the very heart and soul of the house. It is a 

 spacious and splendid place, completely surrounded on the 



formal garden of the usual type. The paths are bricked, 

 and the borders everywhere set around with plants in pots 

 and grotesque little beasts and images that seem very much 

 at home in these delightful surroundings. 



At the end opposite the house is the studio. The ground 

 is higher here, and is retained within a plain wall, forming 

 a terrace by two flights of steps, one on either side of a cen- 

 tral mass of foliage and flowers. Straight up rises the studio 

 wall, partly screening the skylight behind it. Three large 

 round arches are cut in its main face, of which the mid-most is 

 alone a window, while the end ones are deep niches, each 

 with a pyramidal baytree within it. The wings are recessed 

 at each side, with an overhanging pergola. Such are the 

 essential parts of this art temple, which broods serenely 

 above its floral base, with thick growing woods enshrining it 

 on the three inner sides. 



The Studio Is Built Above a Terrace, Banked with Plants and Shadowed by Forest Trees 



three sides by the walls of the main building. These are 

 themselves so ample as to form a very complete inclosure at 

 the south end. The house ended, the court inclosure is con- 

 tinued with a wall on one side surmounted with a trellis and 

 the other with an open trellis between massive square piers. 

 The north end is inclosed with the studio, which completely 

 fills it from side to side, and which is designed in a somewhat 

 more formal and symmetrical manner than the other buildings 

 of the group. 



There is so much of interest here that one's attention is 

 not readily held by any one part. The prevailing impres- 

 sion, however, is that of a flower garden, for such it truly is, 

 with a central pool incurved at one end for the better placing 

 of a rounded well-curb. In the four corners are flower beds, 

 quite large enough to afford an ample beauty of bloom ; in- 

 deed so spacious are the various parts that, were it not for the 

 inclosing structures, the court would be ample enough for a 



Not all of this will be apparent in a first glance, nor in 

 many a succeeding one. There is much to see in this court, 

 for every aspect has its own point of interest. Immediately 

 before you, as you come into it, is the painted fountain on the 

 opposite wall. It is done in color and gesso by Mr. Frederic 

 Bartlett, and represents an Italian garden scene of, perhaps, 

 the fifteenth century. It is sheltered beneath a copper roof, 

 and below it is a stone bench with a potted bay tree on either 

 side. What has such a painting to do with an American 

 house of the twentieth century? Nothing at all; but it gives 

 interest to this bit of wall, it is interesting in itself, agreeable 

 in design and color, and immensely distinctive and interesting. 



The painted fountain is the one really distinctive note of 

 color in the court, yet there is much abundant color, much 

 architectural color here. That the stucco of the house is grav 

 has already been stated; and it should be added that the win- 

 dow frames are white, and the shutters blue-green. And 



