HOUSE AND GARDEN 
July, 1913 
The plan of the dining-room required a rather unusual and not entirely pleasing placing of 
the fireplace, yet the latter is of interesting design and construction 
there is a uniformity of wall and ceiling 
treatment throughout the first floor; second¬ 
ly, the openings between the various rooms 
are wide enough to provide attractive vis¬ 
tas ; lastly, there is a marked absence of 
meaningless ornaments and unnecessary fur¬ 
niture. The last named contributory is per¬ 
haps the most important, for, in acquiring a 
restfulness and spaciousness of effect, it is 
absolutely essential that there be uncrowded 
walls and floors, in order that the eye may 
be soothed by plain surfaces. 
The importance of creating a favorable 
first impression should not be underrated. 
A hall, therefore, being the first room which 
a visitor views, should serve as an index 
to the character of the interior as a whole. 
As one enters the hall of the Browder- 
house, an atmosphere of restfulness and dig¬ 
nity is felt at once; and this may be accepted 
as symbolic of the entire house. The chief 
architectural feature, the stairway, which 
has been treated very simply, is directly op¬ 
posite the main entrance; and the space be¬ 
neath it has been utilized as a coat closet. 
As in the adjoining rooms, the ceiling of the 
hall reveals the constructive timbers of the 
floor above, this exposed wood, fortunately 
secured when an ancient mill was razed, hav¬ 
ing that beauty of surface which only time can bestow. The 
warm, deep brown stain with which the woodwork is finished, 
offers an effective contrast to the soft, yellowish ecru of the 
“sand-float” plastered walls. The only furniture in the hall con¬ 
sists of an exquisitely carved and inlaid teakwood settle and 
high-back chair of Japanese workmanship. Undoubtedly the ex¬ 
clusion of other and conflicting types of furniture has materially 
increased the attractiveness of the room. Wide cased openings 
lead from the hall to the living-room at the left and to the dining¬ 
room at the right. At these openings are 
hung portieres of old-blue corded silk; and 
the same color, in conjunction with dull reds 
and yellows, appears in the rugs. 
Immediately behind the hall is the owner’s 
special sanctum—a den which, although 
small, is well arranged for comfort and con¬ 
venience. Here the walls are hung with a , 
self-figured ecru paper and the floor covered 
with a rug of a slightly deeper shade. The 
standing woodwork, including the built-in 
bookcases and the furniture, is of oak, 
stained a very dark brown. Practically one 
entire end of the den is occupied by a win¬ 
dow and a glazed door, the latter leading to 
the garden at the rear of the house. Indeed, 
so closely are the garden and the den linked 
by the generous fenestration that there is 
found in the little room much of that sense 
of freedom which one commonly associates 
with the world out-of-doors. 
As one may pass directly from the den to 
the living-room, good inter-communicating 
facilities have been provided for entertaining. 
In addition, the living-room dimensions, six¬ 
teen and a half by twenty-five feet, are of 
that happy medium which makes the room 
equally suited to social functions or to or¬ 
dinary home uses. Built of stone in which 
brownish tones predominate, a massive open fireplace—its chim¬ 
ney-breast nearly eight feet wide — appears to dominate the en¬ 
tire living-room. And does this type of fireplace not seem 
particularly suitable here in a house whose history carries us 
back to the days of our forefathers, when the blazing cheer of 
an open fire was the evening's recompense for a day of ardu¬ 
ous toil? A heavy oak shelf surmounts the stonework of the 
fireplace. The furniture used in the living-room is all of 
(Continued on page 46) 
The first story is at the top of the old ice house foundation, necessitating a flight of entrance 
steps. In this way the basement is almost entirely above ground 
