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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



December, 1908 



burned to the ground. Another house was then built and de- 

 serted after a time for a new dwelling near the spot on which 

 a fine old elm tree stands. The other house was used as a 

 barn; but when Mr. Benjamin Poore returned from England 

 in 1832 he determined to restore the old barn and use it for 

 his home. He added a wing (the present study), which he 

 connected with the main house by a one-story room with a 

 glass front, which was used as a greenhouse for flowers. In 

 1852 this room was changed by Major Benjamin Perley 

 Poore into its present form. 



The other wing was begun by Mr. Benjamin Poore in 

 1848, and also completed by his son Benjamin Perley Poore 

 in 1850 or 185 1. The "Colonial" wing of the house was 



delicious with fragrance and always satisfying. Passing 

 through the stone gateway, the carriage soon drives into 

 a graveled courtyard framed in on three sides by the barn, 

 stables, clock-tower and house, with its wings, the lines of 

 which are broken by jutting out windows, low spreading 

 roofs and vine-wreathed porches. 



Entering through a bower of roses and honeysuckle, the 

 guest finds himself in a square hall surrounded by a gallery 

 hung with family portraits and containing specimens of oak 

 and mahogany furniture. Here also is a fine old japanned 

 clock, while a suit of armor and many relics and curios at- 

 tract the eye. 



At the end of the hall is the family dining-room, with low 



The parlors are furnished with rosewood and mahogany 



built by Mr. Benjamin Perley Poore from parts of old and 

 famous houses, which he had been collecting for a long time. 

 On a visit made by him and his father to Sir Walter Scott 

 at Abbotsford, the former was fired with the idea of making 

 a home for himself on the same plan, and gathering a col- 

 lection of native relics. 



The picturesque mansion stands, as we have said, on the 

 crest of the hill, an irregular conglomeration of roofs, wings, 

 porches, bay windows with quaint diamond-shaped panes, 

 chimneys adorned with English chimney-pots, towers, gables, 

 doors — all wreathed and framed and almost smothered with 

 honeysuckle, ivy, roses, clematis, and all the beautiful flower- 

 ing creepers known to the latitude, adorning a beautiful home 

 with graceful festoons of blossoms bright with color and 



ceiling and a bay-window with little diamond-shaped panes of 

 glass imported from England many years ago. A sideboard, 

 chairs of a Chippendale model and a very chaste mirror are 

 notable among the furnishings of this room. 



Across the hall are four square parlors which are furnished 

 with rosewood and mahogany of a past age. Every piece of 

 furniture and china in these home-like and delightful rooms 

 has its history : four of the chairs, for example, were owned 

 by Washington at Mount Vernon. 



Among the valuable specimens of china is a set that was 

 given by the Society of the Cincinnati to Martha Washing- 

 ton, and a series of White House dinner plates representing 

 a plate from the dinner service of every President from 

 Washington to Hayes, including, of course, a specimen of 



