HOUSE AND GARDEN 
ii 
25 
almost invariable one as far as we are con¬ 
cerned in America, is to build the lower 
walls of brick, stone or concrete and begin 
the timber work at the second door, very 
often making it project somewhat in an 
overhang. Owing to essential principles 
of construction, certain arrangements of 
lines and habits of development were not 
only possible but almost inevitable, and de¬ 
vices that were first adopted from motives 
of expediency were retained because of 
their artistic worth as well as their prac¬ 
tical value. This is notably true in the 
case of the overhang, which is a character¬ 
istic feature of half-timbered structures. 
Originating in all probability from a de¬ 
sire to gain additional space in the upper 
doors, it also afforded protection to the 
foundations and lower walls and at the 
same time served the purpose of a porch 
over the doors and a shade over the win¬ 
dows below. Successive overhangs sup¬ 
ported on corbels and brackets swelled out 
story above story, so that some of the old 
four- or five-story town houses had a re¬ 
markably full-blown, ample appearance. 
In our modern half-timbered country 
houses, though not running above three 
floors, and generally not more than two, we can use this device 
of overhangs to good effect. This scheme is constructionally 
honest and, indeed, cannot be used with other materials. The 
flexibility and softening of outline thus attained are important 
considerations. 
Before going on to speak of the external appearance of half- 
timbered wall surfaces, it is well to say that unless the wall be 
structurally genuine throughout, its falsity must sooner or later 
become apparent on the outside. “The big . . . beams, the 
brackets and the external and visible arrangement of the frame¬ 
work are at the same time a decoration, not accidental, but inten¬ 
tional, not haphazard but desired and aimed at.” In other words, 
the half-timbered house, while constructionally honest is also dec¬ 
orative. Unless, however, stout timbers, fitly joined, perform the 
function they are ostensibly supposed to perform, they lose their 
significance and become merely grotesque. 
Various methods of dividing up the wall surface by diverse 
arrangements of timbers may be adopted. The simplest and most 
Brick was frequently used for filling in between the timbers, as here 
in the herring-bone pattern. When poor brick and other mis¬ 
cellaneous filling was used, it was plastered over 
A modern country home near Philadelphia, Oswald C. Hering, architect, where the timbers 
are really structural, not mere strips nailed on afterwards 
primitive uses vertical timbers resting on a sill. They may be placed 
close together, as in the house at Chiddington in Kent, so that 
there is but little space of plaster left between the uprights, or they 
may be placed farther apart as in the parts of the wall at the ex¬ 
treme right and left of the house at Essex Fells. The prevailing 
motive is perpendicularity, broken only by the sill beam carried 
across the face of the wall under the windows and by another 
horizontal beam in the front of the gables. This method of treat¬ 
ment, known as post and panel work, is substantial, and by the per¬ 
pendicularity, which gives the effect of height, it is especially ap¬ 
plicable on a very wide surface to reduce the width. The severity 
of this style may be relieved by crossing the timbers. When the 
beams are properly halved into each other and held at the ends by 
mortise and tenon, this treatment strengthens and stiffens the 
whole structu r e . 
The effect of too 
great height may 
thus be readily ob¬ 
viated. Horizontal 
crossbeams have 
been successfully 
used in the Port 
Sun light houses. 
On the side a diag¬ 
onal beam crossing 
the vertical posts 
has a relieving ef¬ 
fect. In the house 
at Cedarhurst also, 
the use of horizon¬ 
tal beams is almost 
wholly responsible 
for the pleasant 
decorative appear¬ 
ance which, with 
only vertical posts 
and panels, would 
(Continued on 
page 51) 
St. Werburgh’s Street, Chester, showing 
the typical overhang and the use of carv¬ 
ing on the main horizontal timbers 
