354 
the design of villas and chateaux, as in certain beautiful 
white “‘cottages” at Newport and elsewhere there is convinc- 
ing evidence; but there are not so many of them perhaps who 
have yet learned to design a real home-like country house. 
There is a certain ‘‘beauty of homeliness”’ that is absolutely 
wanting in altogether too many of the houses we meet with, 
but there has been a great stride toward better things, and 
our present day architects of standing are learning to en- 
dow their houses with that comfortable sense of home feel- 
ing so dear to the heart of everyone. Although we now 
have examples of home architecture which stand in compari- 
son with the work of the colonists of New England, Penn- 
sylvania, and Virginia, there is a certain charm about the 
old-time house 
which lends to it en- 
dearing qualities. 
Indeed, the Old 
house conscientious- 
ly remodeled, one 
may safely say, has 
imtinmlely “more 
charm than its new- 
born neighbor. Nat- 
urally much of this 
is due to its land- 
scape environment, 
such as the planting 
around the house. 
However, in these 
days of landscape 
gardening even a 
new house need not 
appear barren of 
trees and shrubbery. 
It is often asked 
(and more often 
wondered) whether 
it is wiser to search 
Outed site with a 
house upon it and to 
add to or remodel 
Itoi tO start sen- 
tikely, afresh. Ihe 
answer cannot be 
given in a_ few 
words. It depends 
upon a great num- 
ber of considera- 
tions. In the first 
place, it all depends 
upon one’s architect, 
as it often happens 
Hiden anh architect 
will be successful in 
remodeling an old 
house which will re- 
tain its home feel- 
ing, and unsuccess- 
ful in planning a new house that will give to its owner a 
sense of home feeling. If one is not sure he will come to 
enjoy living in the new house as well as he does in the old, 
and‘yet feels that the old house could be made more live- 
able, to remodel the house is the problem. On the other 
hand, if one feels confident about a new house the old one 
may be torn down and its site occupied by the new one. 
Then one should save the old trees and shrubbery and the 
old flower garden if there is one. One must remember, 
however, that the landscape was a very different one when 
the old house was built from what may be to-day. Then 
the big trees in front of the house and across the road were 
only saplings; and you may have to remove farther back 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
The Col. St. John Palmer house, New Canaan, Connecticut, owned by Mr. Neilson Olcott 
October, 1911 
and up the hill if you would save the trees and still have the 
view that the old house originally had from its verandas. 
To revert to the advantages of retaining an interesting old 
house, there are certain qualities about it which will go far 
toward helping the final result. For example, in a common 
type of old house the story heights are invariably low— 
much lower than seems right on paper—without being un- 
comfortably low for habitation. Again the old detail is 
more delicate than is usual to-day, and with good examples 
of colonial door and window trim before him, your archi- 
tect, if he is at all the right sort, will not make his moldings 
as vigorous and heavy as in the French style, with which he 
may be more familiar, and he will avoid making his columns 
and railings in the 
classic proportions, 
seen sometime in 
the uninteresting 
work of the Greek 
Revival of the 
period just after 
our war of 1812, 
but inappropriate to 
domestic wood 
architecture. 
Do not expect to 
save money _ by 
starting with the old 
house. It is a curi- 
ous paradox that 
while you can some- 
- times buy an old 
house for much less 
than it cost to build 
it—-and while it 
would cost twice 
over that, today, to 
duplicate it—yet, in 
nine cases out of 
ten, you will have 
spent just about as 
much as if you had 
started anew by the 
time you have in- 
stalled electric light 
and modern plumb- 
ing, repaired | the 
floors and the plas- 
ter, repainted and 
repapered, and done 
the hundred and one 
other things that 
you will not think of 
at all while your 
work is under way, 
but which you will 
find absolutely nec- 
essary before your 
house is completed. 
Of course, this does not apply so truly if the old house is a 
fine old structure and has handsome woodwork both with- 
out and within. Such a house is of necessity historic and 
should be retained not only because it is so, but because fine 
old-fashioned woodwork can only be duplicated at excessive 
cost and even then only under the direction of the most 
skillful designer and mill man. 
My advice would be first, get the right architect and with 
him select a site. If there is a fine old house upon it, so 
much the better; if there is not, be content to be guided by 
the architect’s judgment as to whether you can well use the 
old house, such as it is (if it is at all). Further—lay as few 
definite architectural requirements upon him as you may, but 
