380 
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E a ‘er, 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
October, 1911 
Garden side of the house of Mr. J. E. Thomas, at Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. The well-trimmed surroundings shared in the improvements 
Making an Old House New 
By George F. Merritt 
T does not always happen that the architect 
has a foundation to work upon of much 
interest other than that to be found in 
the working out through taste and in- 
genuity of such a problem as that of 
making a charming modern house out 
of the remains of an ugly old one. Just 
this seems to have been accom- 
plished in the old farmhouse at 
Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, 
which came into the possession of 
Mr. J. E. Thomas and was re- 
modeled after the plans of Mr. 
OmiGette: 
The oldest portion of this 
building was the low. wing, 
which tradition assigns to a date 
of a century or more ago, while 
the main, “upright” portion of 
the old house was put up by 
some builder of fifty years or 
so back. Mr. Thomas saw _ pos- 
sibilities in the old structure, 
however, and succeeded in con- 
firming his optimism in the new 
house that was evolved from the 
old. There were those who shook 
their heads and ventured to say 
that nothing could be made of the 
old place. Of course, the wiseacres 
conceded that an attractive old 
Porch to the main entrance to the Thomas house 
house could be made into an attractive new one, but they 
had not come to have so much faith, in the Hasbrouck 
neighborhood, in the Alladin-like accomplishments of the 
modern architect as they now have, with the Thomas house 
in view, a veritable monument to the ingenuity of the archi- 
tectural profession. One need only turn to the old struc- 
ture to see how forlorn and unhomelike it was—at least, so 
far as its exterior was concerned. 
Fven in the days when the blinds in 
the front part of the house were 
not kept sealed like a tomb, the old 
farmhouse could not just be called 
cheerful; and yet its location was 
delightful, its neighborhood desir- 
able; all that was needed was an 
owner of taste to transform it into 
a charming house that would be- 
come a delightful home. Of course 
the old farm and its buildings had 
been woefully neglected before 
coming into Mr. Thomas’s posses- 
sion, and except for the old wing, 
which dated back to the Dutch 
period in New Jersey’s history, 
they had no interest whatsoever to 
the casual observer. 
The remodeling has resulted in 
a delightful rambling type of house, 
as one may see from the floor 
plans, though the porch, terraces, 
and piazza give it a sense of more 
