June, 1907 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



capped with a balustrade; in the center is a lion's mouth 

 ejecting water into a white marble basin let into the floor 

 at the base. Above are more walls and steps, with a central 

 path. Then the hillside, covered with the forest trees and 

 wood undergrowth, all rising sharply upward. To the 

 right is a door in the wall that admits to the kitchen yard, 

 with the clothes yard beyond, all amply hidden from the 

 paved court within. Here are the servants' quarters ar- 

 ranged on the most ample scale. Inwardly is a pantry ad- 

 joining the dining-room; the kitchen, tile paved and with 

 an immense range; then the servants' dining-room, papered in 

 blue, and very charmingly furnished; and then, last of all, 

 the laundry. 



All around the brick court, next to the house, are pots and 

 tubs of growing plants; and in a paved passage, that passes 

 below the windows of the billiard and the living rooms, are 

 rows of boxes with huge tender trees and shrubs. One turns 

 the corner, and stands below the great two-story portico with 

 which the house is finished, and which directly overlooks the 

 formal garden below and beyond. 



Very beautiful it is here, beautiful naturally and with the 

 added charm of masterly expert gardening, designed, it 

 should be said, by Mr. D. W. Langton, landscape architect, 

 of New York. The stretch beyond is so broad and spacious 

 that one does not at first realize that this garden has been 

 made on the side of the hill. It is true that the garden 

 is long; that is to say it stretches for some distance to the 

 belvedere with which it is closed at the furthest point. But 

 the plan has been so admirably worked out, that it is the 

 beauty alone one feels, not questions as to how the garden 

 was formed. 



Immediately below the portico is an enclosed space of 

 grass, with a low hedge all around it. The formal garden 

 is beyond, enclosed within walls, with high piers at the en- 

 trance to the upper path that runs straight ahead to the 

 end. On the hillside is a hedge; on the other, which over- 



looks the garden below, is a balustrade, with standard catalpa 

 trees planted in wide pairs, with marble benches between 

 them. The hillside to the right is grassed, with masses of 

 rhododendrons and other trees and shrubs, and the forest 

 trees above. In the center of the hedge is a great burst of 

 cannas, with a semi-circular expansion of path and bounding 

 wall. Over the wall peep peony leaves, and beyond are 

 thick growths of hydrangeas, massively a-bloom, and bor- 

 dering a grass walk upward to the woods. The woodside 

 beyond is crowded with lofty shrubbery, and then, at the 

 end, is the belvedere, semi-circular in form, of stone and 

 wood, affording a beautiful outlook over the garden of Mr. 

 Charles W. McAlpin below. 



From this path the formal garden may be viewed below, 

 where its rich beauty of floral growth thrives in the warm 

 sun. Formal and rigid in its design, that is to say, arranged 

 in squares and rectangles, it is gaily planted with blooming 

 plants. In the middle space is a large rectangular basin, 

 containing joyful little cherubs and many water lilies. Bay 

 trees in earthenware pots stand around it, with other trees in 

 tubs at the path entrances. The planting throughout is de- 

 lightful, the flowers being arranged in border beds, some with 

 low box borders, some without. And here every imaginable 

 kind of herbaceous perennial is found: iris, lychnis, heli- 

 anthus, lilies, phlox, chrysanthemums. Along the retaining 

 wall, with which two sides are enclosed, are loftier plants : 

 roses and dahlias, peonies, golden glow — a veritable riot of 

 color, beautifully arranged and beautifully grown. And the 

 situation lends, as much as any site can, to the beauty of the 

 garden; for above is the thickly wooded hillside against 

 which the house and garden are built; and below is the sud- 

 den dip that isolates the garden from the world beyond, but 

 which is very lovely to look upon, very varied to see, infinitely 

 interesting to watch. And then one turns back to the flower 

 garden from which all this beauty can be seen with a rare 

 sense of appreciation of the beauty that is just here. 



The Vital Forces of Civic Betterment 



jIVIC betterment, municipal embellishment, 

 public art — call it what you will — is the 

 newest and latest form of artistic endeavor. 

 And it might truthfully be called the most 

 popular, for such it seems to be in many 

 senses. Certainly it is the form of art most 

 now talked about, and if the results 

 achieved to date have not been in direct proportion to the dis- 

 cussion it has caused, that has been more due to the brief 

 period under which it has been discussed and the many prac- 

 tical difficulties that attend realization than for any other 

 reasons. 



The agencies which are now interested in civic betterment 

 are very numerous. Many of them have no art interest 

 whatever, but are concerned with practical matters of health 

 and sanitation which are obviously of greater importance 

 than any questions of beauty or pure embellishment. Trans- 

 portation interests are also vitally interested in civic better- 

 ment, interested not only for the improvement of existing 

 facilities, but interested also in the future growth of the 

 localities they are serving, whose own future will depend so 

 largely upon them. 



The artistic aspect of civic betterment is, as a matter of 

 course, its least important side, the side least needed, which 

 ministers least to the citizens' necessities, and which, never 

 having been very prominent in contemporary life, seems the 

 one aspect that can be most easily spared. Yet this is the 

 aspect that has been most prominently brought forward and 

 has been most insisted upon. On the whole this has been 



a very fortunate circumstance. It is the artistic, the visible 

 aspect of civic betterment that has won its greater number of 

 supporters. People who could not see the value of a certain 

 kind of sewage disposal — which they would never see — could 

 immediately recognize the merits of a public work of art — 

 which they could see — stood up for the edification of all be- 

 holders. There has been no loss in the insistence of the art 

 point of view in the betterment campaigns. It has added a 

 host of interested supporters to the movement, and given it a 

 distinction it might otherwise never have had. 



Historically the artistic element stands easily first, for the 

 whole agitation began in urging the claims of a better out- 

 ward appearance and in setting forth the merits of certain 

 works of art which were desired for certain localities. It 

 was very early seen that the setting up of a single monument, 

 the purchase of a painting, the plea for more beautiful flower 

 gardens, and other like suggestions were not sufficient. 

 Public betterment, it was found, must be general betterment. 

 Those interested in public health urged the greater impor- 

 tance of their own specialty which they justly thought should 

 be developed before any funds, public or private, were ex- 

 pended on ornamental and artistic matters. 



The movement for civic betterment has, therefore, taken 

 on a very much broader view than at first seemed possible. 

 It is now concerned, practically, with every public aspect of 

 civic life. And what is very much more valuable, most of 

 the vital forces which are related to this work are now more 

 or less closely joined in it. The beginnings of a great work 

 have been well started in an effective way. 



