50 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
February, 1911 
The Fascination of an 
English Cottage 
By Joy Wheeler Dow 
es is 
LJ \ 
f HERE is an immutable art principle in 
i domestic architecture which few people, 
even cultivated people appreciate, and the 
U public at large, not at all. 
anal Now, whoever designs a cottage that 
Cus expresses generations of family devotion 
and sacrifice, creates successful domestic 
architecture; while he who follows fashion or tries to 
invent something, simply strays farther and farther from 
his aim. 
If there is something in the little English cottage pro- 
position herein set forth that appeals to the reader, it is 
not my cleverness of invention, believe me. It is simply 
that I have expressed a certain amount of family tradi- 
tion by the aid of building blocks. | 
mean the traditions of devoted 
mothers watching like lynxes over 
their offspring, or if they have seen 
i 
itself, and you would say “‘No.” But just go inside the 
doorway of this Cotswold cottage, and see what happens! 
The lay-out is perfect, the mechanism is perfect, the 
economy of space is perfect. It may be built of wood, with 
stucco outside floated upon mason’s laths, or it may be 
built in a semi-fireproof manner with hollow-tile and a 
slate roof. 
than where shingles are used, but do not believe that, 
because if you want the right sort of a slate roof with text- 
ure and atmosphere, the slates have to be one quarter of 
an inch thick. Then you will need, imported from England, 
special ring handles of metal for the doors. None of our 
hardware factories makes them for economical cottages. 
Why, they simply have not arrived there yet. And it goes 
without the saying that you can- 
not get the right sort of atmos- 
phere without the English steel 
casements. I am told that I am 
it when they were children (some 
girls have not) the traditions of 
devoted wives looking after the com- 
fort of their liege-lords and bread- 
winners as though they were race 
horses. Or I mean the traditions of 
devoted fathers going through fire 
and water daily that the inmates of 
the cottage may remain 
safe and snug at home. 
Or again, it is the story 
of some little prodigal 
kneeling upon the door- 
step of the English cot- 
tage for forgiveness 
and affection, or that 
of a good little son or 
the only American architect 
using them at the present time 
for economical cottages, but 
there will be others after a 
while, no doubt. Of course, you 
will need suitable furniture. The 
kind of which you have glimpses 
as you whirl past apartments 
along the line of the elevated 
roads, will not do. Jacobean 
highboys, Elizabethan 
chairs and gate-legged 
tables are not to be pur- 
chased at the bargain 
counters... Even | ofc 
unregenerate know the 
value of these pieces of 
daughter gi yime wp ie an 
everything pleasant to 
mind the baby of a 
Saturday afternoon. It 
is scenes of this character that animate every nook and 
cranny of the quaint Cotswold cottage I have re-created for 
American Homes and Gardens, and strange to say—espe- 
cially strange to people who believe only in the apotheosis 
of selfishness—give to it its commercial value and availa- 
bility in the real estate market. We need, we crave this 
personal companionship in our home architecture, without 
suspecting it, perhaps, without being able to say just why 
we prefer one architect’s work to another’s. 
I can sell these cottages at a profit as fast as I can build 
them. People will pay for atmosphere where they will 
object to the cost of materials whereby the atmosphere is 
produced. If I said “your cottage should have this and this 
material which will increase its cost five hundred, perhaps 
one thousand dollars,’ the commercial spirit would assert 
Rear elevation it. 
cabinet work, and there 
is no bargaining about 
But do not let this 
side of the question ob- 
scure the main thing. Acquire your Cotswold cottage, 
first, even if you have no furniture to put in it. It will be 
half furnished by the very details the architect insists upon 
—the leaded metal casements, the heavy ceiling timbers, 
the Elizabethan chimney pieces, the built-in features and the 
admirable proportions generally. 
furniture at a time, but let it be a good piece. 
The porch should be paved with red quarries, that is, 
red paving tiles. Yes, they are more expensive than a 
wooden floor. There is no use in my deceiving you. But 
get the red quarries! Wear your old clothes, if necessary, 
the quarries are for life. Omit the tiled bathroom—a tiled 
bathroom is not historic, and not necessary. ‘There are 
composition floors and linings for the bathroom walls that 
will answer all purposes. You may also omit nearly all the 
Slate roofs, they will tell you, cost no more: 
Acquire one piece of / 
