COLONIAL HOUSES NEAR PHILADELPHIA 
Designed by DUHRING, OKIE & ZIEGLER 
S O long as man has built himself a house 
tradition has guided the hands which 
have laid stone upon stone. No one has 
built entirely free from the habits of his 
ancestors or his neighbors. In the case of 
masters of estates who, defying local cus¬ 
tom, have erected “ castles ” which have 
been named that owner’s particular kind of 
“ Folly,” traditions have been followed, but 
they are the traditions of distant rather than 
of near neighbors. Those who believe that 
all house building should follow closely the 
traditions ot its soil cannot but be interested 
in any attempt to use the materials at hand, 
such as are found in this country in the 
structures of the Colonial period. In the 
New England States these have been fully 
exploited for the modern dwelling, but far¬ 
ther southward difficulties have arisen in 
working with the Colonial type of dwelling 
characteristic of the Middle States. Old city 
houses have supplied the motifs for houses to 
be built in the country , tor the simple reason 
that the ancient houses were on far too great 
a scale tor those who wish to build upon 
Colonial lines today. 
Philadelphia is justly regarded as the 
center of this traditional designing and 
building. In the houses illustrated here 
one can see a commendable and fairly suc¬ 
cessful attempt to follow not only the de¬ 
tails but the form of houses ot the Colonial 
period in their own locality. Here is no 
vain effort to reproduce an early mansion 
by a house of moderate size, but to create 
today the good proportions, the homelike 
and enduring appearance ot the minor rural 
houses of a hundred years ago, such as 
delight the heart of the good Philadelphian 
who explores the old highways ot his neigh¬ 
boring counties. 
Mr. Percy Wilson’s house at Devon is, 
it is true, a generous extension of the old 
farmhouse idea; but in its plan can be seen 
HOUSE OF PERCY WILSON, ESQ., AT DEVON, PA. 
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