January, 1913 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
13 
The right-hand house is a meaningless hodge-podge of bays, casements 
and dormers; the other has its windows carefully spaced and 
proportioned 
A modern Colonial house, very pleasing in detail and with good gable- 
topped dormers on the main roof, but spoiled by the unsymmetrical 
setting of the bay 
And there is a wonderful variety of 
dormers, too — enough for every possible 
sort of house. Dainty gable-topped Colo¬ 
nial dormers, with their round-headed or 
square-headed sash and small-paned win¬ 
dows ; or Dutch-Colonial dormers, with 
long, slanting roofs. Again, we have the 
low, broad dormer of the attractive house 
at the top of this page. Be sure that the 
dormer you want will harmonize with the 
house you want. The Dutch-Colonial 
dormer, for example, needs a large, high- 
pitched roof; for if the slant be too flat, 
this sort of dormer looks horribly awk¬ 
ward. As a general rule, one must use 
some other dormer, if the main roof angle 
be less than forty-five degrees. 
Sometimes one wants a window that 
one can use as a doorway, leading to a 
porch, a balcony or a terrace. The “French 
window” is the most usual sort—a pair of 
long casements, opening like double doors. 
If these casements have the shelter of a 
porch roof they may open in; otherwise 
they should open out, for 
it is almost impossible to 
make an in-opening case¬ 
ment tight against a di¬ 
rect driving rainstorm. 
And if one wants draped 
curtains, the in-opening 
sash are most awkward 
things, always getting 
hopelessly tangled up 
with the draperies. Out- 
opening sash are better, 
but one can't have shut¬ 
ters with them. So, if 
you want shutters and 
draperies on your terrace 
windows, you must use 
the scheme shown in the 
center of page 12 — triple- 
hung windows, we call 
these; the three sash slide 
up into an overhead pock¬ 
et, leaving ample height 
beneath for one to walk 
out. These triple-hung windows are not 
any new thing, either; we find them in 
century-old houses quite often. Occa¬ 
sionally the lowest sash is omitted and re¬ 
placed with two little doors—“jib doors,” 
carpenters call them—about two feet high. 
These jib doors do away with the risk of 
kicked-out panes, and have some other 
slight advantages, too. 
In old-time houses one often finds 
quaint quadrant casements in the gable, 
on either side of the chimney. Besides 
being most attractive, these fit into the 
triangular gable space remarkably well. 
Occasionally where there is no central 
chimney the gable window is a half circle 
—“D-windows,” in carpenters' language. 
Stairway windows are often most diffi¬ 
cult things to decide on. Usually, how¬ 
ever, the Colonial builders would put a 
Palladian window here; it not only gave 
character to the exterior of the house, but 
made a most delightful effect as one looked 
up the stairway. The photograph at the 
beginning of this article 
shows another stair win¬ 
dow scheme. 
Shuttered windows are 
largely confined to Colo¬ 
nial work; for, of course, 
one cannot well have shut¬ 
ters on group windows or 
casements. Interior blinds 
have almost totally disap¬ 
peared ; the more conve¬ 
nient and less costly shade 
roller has taken their 
place. But outside shut¬ 
ters still stay, not only be¬ 
cause they are convenient 
but because they are often 
very necessary to the de¬ 
sign. Take the lowest 
picture at the right side of 
page 13: the shutters give 
a most needful note of 
color to the otherwise 
(Continued on page 65) 
Frenck windows opening in, prevent injury 
from suddenly arising storms; they are also 
protected from moisture changes 
An early Eighteenth Century house. 
The dormers are well in scale 
Quadrant-shaped windows fit in the 
gable remarkably well 
