The Value and Use of Simple Materials in House Building 
servitude. We are building marble Italian 
gardens which stand for the exclusions of 
the palace. And later on we will build 
American gardens which will stand for 
democracy and homeliness. We already 
show signs of reaching forward to the 
sweet simplicity of our grandmothers’ 
flower gardens that we thought we had left 
behind us when we side-stepped culture and 
the joy of living, in our eager search for the 
means for life, which we mistook for the 
proper end of life. But already some of us 
think that we know that a whitewashed 
picket fence is a better garden ornament 
than a marble wall, and a pebbled pool than 
sculptured basin; that Nature nestles up to 
rough-hewn post or wall or well-curb more 
lovingly than to any clean-cut marble per¬ 
gola; that sculptured faun or satyr has no 
place in a cottage garden, unless indeed it be 
one of those rare expressions of a master 
soul that could make even a desert its fitting 
niche. Real sculpture is no more an intru¬ 
sion in garden or house, than man’s true 
music is an interruption of Nature’s melodies. 
It is the fulfillment, the crowning touch of 
CHESTNUT POSTS GUILTLESS OF OIL OR VARNISH 
THE FIREPLACE IN MR. PRICE S OFFICE 
Nature’s plan; but to be so, it must be the 
joyous expression of a senti¬ 
ment not mere sound or form. 
So, when you go a-gardening, do 
not plan for the unknown singer 
or sculptor. If he comes, the 
niche will be there, never fear. 
Build your house and your 
garden (for your house is not a 
home without a garden, or your 
garden a garden without a 
house), to fit the needs of your¬ 
self and your friends—to express 
their life, to shelter their inti¬ 
macies, and to proclaim their 
joyousness. Build it simply, for 
we are at heart a simple people, 
joying in the doing rather than 
in the having of things. Build 
it of the materials next at hand, 
and you will wake up some day 
to find that we have an Ameri¬ 
can architecture, as typical and 
expressive as the world has 
known. 
When the artist goes out to 
sketch, it is worth while for the 
home builder to follow. He 
