October, IgII 
AER uGAIN aE tl OUMES 
AND GARDENS 
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An Old Farmhouse [hat Became New 
By Warren H. Miller 
AGN ERSTE old farmhouse lay in a hollow of the 
2) rocks overlooking a little valley in the 
All heart of an ultra-fashionable, exclusive, 
country-residential section. Nobody want- 
edit. It had neither furnace, nor gas, nor 
city water, nor electric lights. To get into 
one whole section of the house you had to 
go through a bathroom, cobbled up by some misguided de- 
signer out of the most important corner of the big upstairs 
chamber—theoneat 
the headofthestairs. 
To arrive in_ the 
kitchen you made a 
detour out of the 
front door intosome 
occasionally very wet 
ground and around 
the corner to the 
kitchen door. This 
had to be done 
about three times a 
day, because there 
was nowhere else 
but the living-room 
in which to spread 
the paraphernalia 
which generally ac- 
companies one’s ef- 
EOtreS t.0-2p ft e- 
pare nourishment. 
In fact, you never 
appreciated how 
vital a matter the lowly kitchen can be until you found it 
sequestered in an almost inaccessible wing and had to visit it 
scores of times a day. 
As an architectural entity,—the Verplank farmhouse just 
grew. The original Verplank evidently built and lived in 
i] I} 
iat 
KITCHEN — 
120*22°9 
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Sub 
Livina Room 
15°0" «Z0'6" 
TT ’ aie ais | Reon 
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pa = Jor. 
Porcu aes 
Ground floor plan of the old farmhouse 
the kitchen, as it had stone walls two feet thick, where he 
could exchange compliments by means of a blunderbuss 
with hostile Mohawks and Iroquois. Then some descend- 
ant built the middle section somewhere in the ’20’s, when 
the coolness and protection of a porch could be enjoyed; 
The old farmhouse before alterations seems unlikely to carry possibilities realized 
but he preferred to have his kitchen separate, being doubt- 
less deterred by the thickness of the wall from _in- 
serting a door. 
Finally in the ’70’s the crowning glory of the house 
was added, a tower, that looked like a Pilgrim’s hat. After 
that the Verplanks rested from their labors. 
People from the twenty-thousand-dollar Elizabethan, 
Mexican and Georgian ‘villas’ scattered promiscuously 
about, wondered when the unsightly shack that occupied the 
finest site of all 
would tumble into 
the maw of some 
house - wrecking 
company. Pros- 
pective renters and 
buyers came to in- 
vestigate. They ad- 
mired the noble 
oaks, the view, and 
the= nieve byor- 
ing mansions; but 
were easily routed 
on viewing either 
the kitchen or the 
bathroom. 
And soy it Ke- 
mained untenanted 
until, one after- 
noon, with the val- 
ley bathed in peace 
and shade, a man 
chanced “to come 
upon it. He was gifted with an intimate acquaintance with 
many impracticabilities, but happened, at the same time, to 
be in full possession of five thousand dollars. He had no 
other ideas about a house except that it must be on the side 
of a lot, and, he argued: ‘‘What is the use of owning five 
Ol 
Batn Room 
Bep Room 
12)6% 15-0" 
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[Se 
Bedroom floor plan of the old farmhouse 
thousand dollars’ worth of land and putting most of it 
behind the house where you cannot see it ?”’ 
He examined the grounds, the view, and the surround- 
ing mansions, and at once was delighted with the tall oaks 
and tulip trees on the place, as well as with the very small 
