54 
House & Garden 
REAL HALF TIMBER WORK 
The Principles on JVhich Is Built Sincere Architectural Construction 
HOBART B. UPJOHN 
N ine houses out of 
ten, regardless of 
style, are framed struc¬ 
tures to which is ap¬ 
plied the style they are 
intended to represent. 
A “showy” box in other 
words, to which are 
nailed moldings and 
wood columns and pi¬ 
lasters fashioned to the 
correct outlines and 
form. The result may 
be a home in many 
cases pleasing and com¬ 
fortable, but it is really 
not much more than a 
prettily painted and 
finished exterior, an ap¬ 
plication of rouge, 
paint and powder. 
We may admire these 
buildings much as we 
do the buildings built 
at the various exposi¬ 
tions for design and 
style. But when we 
learn they were only 
skeleton framework and 
staff or stucco we turn 
away with a distinct 
sense of disappoint¬ 
ment, not in the lack of 
design or beauty, but 
because the beauty was 
only skin deep. 
Now, when through¬ 
out history a new style 
was evolved it almost 
invariably arose from a 
definite method of 
Sincere workmanship is 
shown in the sketch of this 
house at Rye, New York, 
recently finished by the 
author 
building construction 
around which and de¬ 
veloping with it grew 
what we call “style”. 
The post and lintel 
were the base of the 
Greek, the round arch 
the cause of the Roman, 
the pointed arch the 
Gothic, and the tim¬ 
bered wall combined 
with the Gothic detail 
out of which it grew the 
Elizabethan. 
Therefore to realize • 
fully the sense of build¬ 
ing in our design we 
must have back of our 
construction the honest 
method which caused 
the inception of the 
style. This sense of 
honest construction is 
particularly important 
to the proper carrying 
out of the timbered 
house. 
In many cases we see 
houses pf which the al¬ 
leged timbering is only 
boarding nailed to a 
frame core, with corners 
built up so that their 
edges show, and often 
a board curled or 
warped out of shape. 
We may be further 
shocked when we see 
the boards fully smoth¬ 
ered and painted a 
{Continued on page 78) 
In the photograph below 
the vertical timbers are b^- 
ing halved jor the recep¬ 
tion of the horizontal 
stringer 
In this stage the first floor timbers are in 
place and the carpenter is cutting a groove 
into which to set the window frame 
The small photograph above the center 
shows the joint completed with sheathing 
and building paper on back of the timber 
Here the workmen are set¬ 
ting up the diagonal braces 
of the corner timbers 
