The great oak tree determined the physical form of the house and became a factor in shaping its plan. In summer it shades the entire side of the house and the brick- 
paved terrace. In winter, when the leaves have fallen, the tree keeps off no desirable sunlight 
Homes that Architects Have Built for Themselves 
THE CAMBRIDGE RESIDENCE OF ALLEN W. JACKSON—A HOUSE THAT TURNS ITS BACK TO THE 
ROAD AND ADOPTS THE ENGLISH IDEA OF PRIVACY FOR THE GARDEN AND THE MAIN ROOMS 
by Allen W. Jackson 
T HE architect who builds his own house sometimes has an 
uneasy feeling that, like the lawyer who handles his own 
case, he has a fool for his client. The perfect freedom which he 
has always looked forward to as such an ideal condition for suc¬ 
cess, he is surprised to find quickly becomes positively irritating. 
Like a child in a garden who rushes from flower to flower and 
cannot decide which to pick, he, too, finds so much to attract him 
in all the styles, with their heterogeneous appeal, that he is soon in 
a fever of excitement and turns over his books in a flutter of 
enthusiasm. Lie realizes that there is not one thing that he 
has always wanted to do, but fifty. He has visions of a Tudor- 
Colonial-Dutch manor house, with Italian arcades and steep 
French roofs. If it were possible to construct a half-timber, brick, 
plaster, stone, shingle wall, one would really fear for the conse¬ 
quences. 
His mind races, like an engine with no load. He begins to wish 
vaguely for instructions, for limitations imposed from without; 
something fixed and definite and circumbscribed, to make a prob¬ 
lem to be solved. For, as the glory of an artist is to work within 
the limitations of his medium, so it is of the architect to wring 
success from the imposed conditions as he finds them. With no 
crochety owner, who must have all rooms on the second floor; 
or his wife, whose motto is to look after the closets and the rooms 
will look after themselves; or the daughter, who demands that 
her chamber must have light on four sides — without these aids to 
design, what shall he do? Luckily, however, he too has restric¬ 
tions. His pocketbook will supply one of the most immutable, 
his location another—and, happy thought, his wife the rest! 
I do not know whether, as a general rule, the houses that archi¬ 
tects build for themselves are better or worse than the general 
run of their work. Looking over those one calls to mind, they 
seem on the whole to be worse. I am not quite sure why they 
should be less thoroughly- and carefully done, although I have 
an idea that there may be something of the feeling of desire of 
getting away from the shop. He is rather tired of “architecture,” 
and is quite content to get away from it and surround himself, 
not with moldings and cornices and the rest of the mise en scene 
of his trade, but rather to refresh himself with the less familiar 
arts of other men; pictures, furniture and objets d'art with the 
architecture, just enough for a background to tie the thing to¬ 
gether. It may be also that if he happens to be in a stale and 
jaded state when the great time arrives, or extra busy with im- 
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