30 
HOUSE & GARDEN 
Compare this view of the home 
as found with that below of the 
house restored. Note its lines 
and its openness to the road 
Then mark the changes in roof 
line, the addition of the service 
quarters and the entrance im¬ 
provements that gave the house 
a sense of privacy 
*/EC0ND FLOOR. PLAN 
In the old house the wing was 
nothing more than a small re¬ 
production of the main structure 
As it was to be a summer home, 
the encircling porches and ter¬ 
races were designed to afford 
opportunity for otitdoor living 
As changed, the wing becomes a 
distinctive unit tied to the house 
proper by the roofed dining porch 
THE SECOND OPERATION ON GLENHARDIE FARM 
The Summer Home of J. R. K. Scott, Esq., Near Valley forge, Pa. 
HARRY GORDON McMURTRlE, Architect 
S PEAKING of operations, this was the 
second. The first occurred some years 
ago when the old Valley Forge farmhouse, 
after a century of stress, strain and gen¬ 
eral wear, went under the knife and was 
“modernized” — with questionable success. 
The second brought it up to date—cut off 
some alleged improvements and grafted on 
live additions. Fortunately, the body of 
the house was sufficiently sturdy to with¬ 
stand these restorative processes; behind 
the smooth plaster finish were massive 
stone walls; chimneys were big enough to 
house an army of flues; the inner frame¬ 
work of walls and floors was solid oak. 
The first operation robbed the house of its 
Colonial lines, the second restored them. 
There was the broad porch extending 
across the front of the house, cutting off 
from the main rooms much essential light 
and air. As the house was to be used pri¬ 
marily for a summer home, this was dis¬ 
pensed with, or rather cut down to a Ger¬ 
mantown hood broken by a graceful pedi¬ 
ment over the main entrance. The porch 
on the ell was extended, a wall run up one 
side, and the front latticed in, creating a 
dining porch. Another porch, noted on 
the plans as the “north porch,” was con¬ 
verted into sleeping quarters on the second 
story. Then the three porches—front, east 
and north—were tied together by a bricked 
terrace that almost encircles the house. 
To meet the added requirements of serv¬ 
ice, the architect extended a wing to the 
rear and laid out a walled-in laundry yard. 
The approach to the house is as attrac¬ 
tive as it is unusual. The drive leads to 
the large forecourt, bounded by a white¬ 
washed stucco wall topped by a red brick 
coping. From the forecourt several steps 
lead down to the terrace, brick-paved and 
hedge-bordered, which extends around the 
three sides of the house. 
The exterior walls are coated with white 
cement stucco; the roof sheathed with 
weathered shingles and the general wood 
trim painted ivory white, with a strong note 
of contrast added by blinds of bottle green. 
At first glance some folks might ask, 
“Why operate?” But a closer study of the 
plans and photographs will show the rea¬ 
son. The present success of the house is 
due to nothing more than a series of minor 
changes. There was that row of small win¬ 
dows with green blinds up on the top story. 
The front line of the roof above them was 
broken by a cornice. To correct this the 
cornice was removed and made into a frieze 
put under the line of the roof, and the shut¬ 
ters were removed from the windows. Only 
a little change—but all the difference in the 
world: that’s the reason for operations. 
