HOUSE AND GARDEN 
UNE, 1912 
was of that period when the decadent wooden “Gothic” ran riot 
and the jig-saw was a thing to be played with rather th.an used. 
Then, too, the windows on the front and ends had been narrowed 
for window weights and also cut down to the floor, with the ob¬ 
vious purpose of affording easy access to the piazza, which feat 
was easy, if one cared to crawl. 
As a matter of fact, the first prob¬ 
lem was the rebuilding of the old 
chimney, which was torn down to the 
level of the first floor. In the living- 
room or old kitchen, the fireplace was 
reduced from five feet to four feet in 
width because the original was much 
too close to the woodwork to suit our 
fancy. All masonry was kept two 
inches from the woodwork and air 
chambers were built in the flanking 
jambs as an extra precaution. In the 
parlor we had a three-foot opening 
and in the room marked “B” we got 
a two and one-half foot opening. A 
light segmental arch was turned back 
of the brick facing above the caps to 
relieve them of what little weight 
might occur above. The old caps were 
redressed and reset, but cut out slight¬ 
ly at the back to accommodate the 
Murdock throat and damper. For the 
hearth concrete was used, but while it 
answered very well for the smaller 
openings, the larger one, owing to some 
imperfection or perhaps from the ex¬ 
cessive heat, crumbled slightly in front 
of the fire and so we were obliged to 
introduce a raised hearth of fire-brick, a possibility we had fore¬ 
seen and withheld. This raised hearth has at least one practical 
advantage outside of its natural properties: it forms a definite 
line of demarcation between the fireplace and the room, and hence 
there is a limit set to the loose ashes. It is hardly necessary to state 
that we used tile flue linings; 
their advantage is evident. 
It was first intended by the 
owner simply to rebuild the 
chimney and let the rest hang 
over for a while, but a careful 
inspection discovered so much 
to be done to get the house 
into passable shape that it was 
decided not to waste time and 
money on temporary repairs. 
Therefore after patching the 
roof for the winter we got at 
the problem of the new layout 
that it might be ready in the 
spring, and as fast as any¬ 
thing definite could be decided 
upon for the carpenter, we let 
him have it to help the thing 
along. 
As to the plan here shown, 
it is necessary to understand 
that modern requirements dif¬ 
fer from those of old times and in introducing the piazza, for 
instance, we have made the house of a later date than it really is. 
As a visible feature and in order to avoid conflict, we have intro¬ 
duced a column which follows a certain sectional craftsman’s 
crudeness, thus going back to early types and methods. 
The reception room mantel, showing the well-bal¬ 
anced panels with the added ornaments 
The house as it was found and in the first stages of alteration of the 
chimney and the dining-room 
It was decided at the start that the “telescope” and fancy 
piazza had better go. This left the original block of the house 
and a far simpler problem to contend with. As to utilizing the 
old plan, it seemed best that the old kitchen should serve as a 
living-room—one of its original uses. This was away from the 
street, but the outlook up and down 
the river demanded it. JIhen, too, the 
house was near the street and herein 
was another reason. The fairly sun¬ 
ny parlor was to be used as a sleeping 
room for the older generation and the 
old bedroom as a reception room. The 
old pantry plus the old hack stairs 
were to afford space for the new main 
staircase, the old-time front stairs re¬ 
maining as they were. While the old 
kitchen was ample as to size and rela¬ 
tive placing to serve well the purpose 
of a living-room, yet its window area 
was inadequate. We therefore intro¬ 
duced the square bay in as simple a 
form as possible so as not to disturb 
the general simplicity of the exterior. 
As the bay was not a feature of this 
particular type we avoided crowding 
the windows and left a rather heavy 
mullion between them. The built-in 
seat suggested itself naturally and by 
making a raised cover we gained 
stowaway room for papers, maga¬ 
zines and the like. There was one 
overhead cubby in the parlor; we re¬ 
placed this and added another in the 
reception room. 
Perhaps the first impression one gets in comparing the orig¬ 
inal house and the addition is that of the tail that wags the dog, 
but this problem is one of many similar, in which the house be¬ 
longed in the family and still was not sufficient in size to meet 
the new requirements which were placed upon it. 
It will be noticed that the 
rear wall of the new ell does 
not correspond with the sim¬ 
ilar wall of the old house, and 
on this account the eaves on 
this side are naturally'lower in 
order to keep the roofing planes 
together. This was made nec¬ 
essary on account of the old 
windows in the reception room 
and guest chamber, which pre¬ 
vented our bringing the addi¬ 
tion nearer the street. The 
position of these windows was 
very good and hardly worth 
while to disturb. We fancy 
that the better sort of old 
craftsman would have done 
much the same with this prob¬ 
lem. 
The open air room, which 
replaces the removed kitchen 
addition, has sheathed walls 
and ceiling, but the floor is the same as in the rest of the house. 
The wooden walls give it a little more freedom, more the porch 
character, and as a matter of fact it is really, as its name sug¬ 
gests, as much of an open as a closed-in feature. The construc¬ 
tion of the room is rather unusual: the sill being dropped below 
