Volume xx December, 1911 
Number 6 
The Northern Tradition 
by Alfred Morton Git hens 
Photographs by the author, H. H. S., and others 
[The problem of choosing an architectural style for the American country or suburban home is one of the most puzzling that confront the 
home-builder. In order to bring about a better understanding of the more common types and with the idea of clarifying, as far as possible, this whole 
matter, we have asked a number of prominent architects to present each the case for one particular style. In previous issues the characteristic fea¬ 
tures of the Colonial, Dutch Colonial, Half-timber, English Plaster, Chicago School of Architecture and Swiss Chalet type were developed and illustrated 
at length by prominent architects interested in each of these types. There remain two or three of the more common styles which will be taken up in 
future issues .— Editor.] 
W HEN the editors of 
House and Garden ask 
the most fitting style for an 
American country house—by 
which presumably they mean 
the style proper to the major 
part of the United States, not 
South America or Southern 
California, with their different 
materials and traditions — the 
self-evident answer seems to 
be, “That style which is the 
natural expression of our build¬ 
ing materials and constructive 
problems.” 
A house, after all, is an en¬ 
closure of walls with a roof 
over it. Now, no matter what 
the material, walls are vertical 
always and windows and doors 
are merely holes in them. But 
the roofs vary in character with 
the material used, and seem to 
At Bronxville, New York, by Wm. A. Bates, architect; showing the 
type-resemblance to the old New York barn above, though it sug¬ 
gests a different wing composition suited to a different setting. 
give the first broad impres¬ 
sion. An Eastern house, and 
one pictures high parapet 
walls and hidden behind them 
a fiat, clay roof where the 
master walks in the cool of 
the day; a house of the ro¬ 
mance countries, Italy, Spain 
or Southern France, and one 
sees gently sloping tile roofs 
and broad eaves; Northern 
France suggests the exces¬ 
sively steep slate of Normandy 
farms or the chateaux of the 
Loire; Germany and Britain, 
and whatever the so-called 
“style,” the roof-slope is 
neither steep like the Norman 
or flat like the Southern, but 
a half-way pitch, generally 
ending in gabled walls. A 
child draws a house on his 
slate and though one cannot 
( 361 ) 
