March, 1907 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



93 



cessful architecture. The mind must 

 have championship. The fashioning 

 of deal-wood is no companionship no 

 matter how ingenious. Why do we 

 neglect the natural grandeur of 

 America — the Yosemite Valley and 

 the Rocky Mountains for Europe, 

 every summer — that is every summer 

 we can? It is the ancient civilization, 

 the same personal element that lurks 

 in every nook and corner of "Witch 

 Wood." The very panels of the 

 great front door have their story, the 

 cross of St. Andrew was the talisman 

 used in "Scarlet Letter" days to drive 

 the witches off. The secret closet on 

 the stairway (see plan) concealed by 

 the stair paneling, if there be no real 

 ghosts in a new house, yet contains 

 an imaginary treasure box hidden by 

 a rich tory relative during the revolu- 

 tion, not to forget the relics of the 

 regicide who owed his life to the se- 

 curity of this deftly contrived retreat. 

 The secret closet is a mezzanine affair 

 fitted into the huge chimney stack. 



And then we have the ample clustered chimney itself, the 

 central mainstay of the whole fabric around which life, in the 

 times of our forefathers, revolved. The chimney at "Witch 

 Wood," as may be seen from the plan, has a passage through 



A Large Open Fireplace with Paneled Over- 

 mantel Is Placed in the Living-room 



not very clear in the interior views 

 herewith presented. 



Mrs. Cromwell looked at her 

 furniture, and remarked: "I have 

 scarcely a piece that properly belongs 

 here. We shall have to live up to 

 this house by slow degrees." But 

 better this way than to have a repre- 

 sentative collection of historical 

 furniture in a poor architectural set- 

 ting. That is an almost hopeless 

 anachronism because it is practically 

 impossible to do anything with the 

 house, especially if the furniture be 

 of the vintage of say 1875. Every 

 cultivated person, nowadays, is a 

 furniture collector who is constantly 

 weeding out and improving his stock. 



Another decided advantage the 

 architect had was permission to use 

 the small sized lights in the lower 

 as well as the upper half of the 

 windows. Not many of an archi- 

 tect's patrons will readily agree to 

 this, and he often had much con- 

 cern how to gain the atmosphere so 

 necessary to one's happiness with the big sheets of plate glass 

 clients have demanded. Indeed the sash bars do not obscure 

 the vision as is always argued, more than one's vision is 

 obscured by the projection of the nose. One may look cross- 



An Artistic Inglenook in the Dining-room Has A Stairway Within the Stately Doorway Is 



a Paneled Seat and a Colonial Mantel the Feature of the Paneled Hall 



it, and that is a development of our own day, but with sev- 

 eral advantages, the two piers being united by an arch in the 

 attic. 



We do not expect every one, however, to note all the his- 

 torical development which has been faithfully carried out in 

 this Highland Mills cottage. The orthodox details, one 

 after another, will impress themselves upon the much in- 

 terested reader, such as the overhanging upon which he will 

 one day discover the molded chamfers which, to give the 

 mill that did the work due credit, are beautifully executed, 

 likewise the molded drops, all very satisfactory. The ex- 

 periments of the interior were not less successful, but are 



A Quaint China Cabinet Is Built in the Corner 

 of the Dming-room 



eyed, and encounter the objection, but one does not care to 

 look cross-eyed habitually. It all depends upon the point of 

 focus chosen. There are always kindly disposed friends to 

 tell the owner he is making a great mistake with the small 

 lights of glass ; but it is difficult afterward to find any one who 

 will admit having thought the small panes anything other 

 than perfectly entrancing. 



This waiting to see which way the cat is going to jump in 

 a matter of art is an evidence of either prejudice or fatuity. 

 In an age of magazines and free libraries an education suffi- 

 cient to distinguish between what is true and what is false in 

 architecture is easily within the reach of everybody. 



