AMERICAN 
October, I911 
gramme, rail- 
way transportation 
has been making 
wondrous _ strides. 
Country places, 
truly rural, and 
once far beyond 
reach, have come 
within easy distance 
of the city. The re- 
sult, while perhaps 
obvious, is none the 
less radical and 
revolutionary. The 
whole scheme of 
living of the New 
Yorker is changed, 
or rapidly changing. 
The country life 
movement has _be- 
come as important 
to him as to the 
farmer of the Far West. He no longer has his home in 
town, from which wife and children flee at the beginning 
of the summer and leave him to keep lone bachelor’s hall 
in the deserted house or steal away to the more congenial 
atmosphere of the club, while they disport themselves on 
distant beach or mountain. With the coming of the first 
warm days of spring, the key is turned in the apartment 
and the whole family move to the country home, which has 
more than likely been open all winter for house parties at 
week-ends and celebrations of the holidays. His home is 
in the country, and his city residence—be it house, apart- 
ment, or hotel—now takes second place in his thoughts. 
His business, it is true, is in the city, and there, too, the 
opera, the theatre, and the more truly social functions 
have their claim on his time, but in the country the hearth 
has regained the place that was usurped by the radiator, 
HOMES AND GARDENS 
A view of the exterior of Dr. Fahnestock’s house before it came to be remodeled 
353 
and there the New 
Yorker has acquired 
something of that 
atmosphere which 
made the living- 
room of New 
England a power in 
the nation. A home 
in the country all 
the year round with 
work in the city, is 
found infinitely bet- 
ter, thanks to elec- 
tricity and the au- 
tomobile, than work 
in the city all the 
year round with a 
short holiday in the 
country. So, many 
men, and particu- 
larly young men 
with their fortunes 
to make, have discarded the city apartment and are making 
for themselves all the year round country homes. Thus 
it is, that with a large element of society the country house 
has taken on an importance that it never had before. It is 
no longer desired that it should be a shooting-box or a 
country villa, or even a seashore cottage. It must be 
primarily a home—and must look it. Design of such a 
building is one of the newer problems with the present gen- 
eration of architects. The earlier men were in the habit of 
designing country estates or seashore villas for the nabob 
whose real home remained in the city. No necessity lay 
upon these earlier architects of making watering places or 
mountain lodges appear home-like. Sometimes they were 
almost home-like, but never truly like home, and naturally 
enough, because they were not homes, but show places. The 
younger men, too, have exhibited remarkable facility in 
The remodeled house of Dr. Fahnestock, and the newly graded lawn with all the striking difference from the old form, required very slight changes 
