• » % r • *> * t * n t office 
VolumeXXIII June, 1913 Numbers 
A cottage that provides porch shade without an excessive roof overhang. James W. O’Connor, architect 
Desirable Considerations for the Summer Home 
WHAT FEATURES YOU SHOULD PLAN TO HAVE-CERTAIN PECULIARITIES OF STRUCTURE AND PLAN¬ 
NING THAT GO FOR COOLNESS AND PROVIDE SUMMER COMFORT—THE LOCATION OF THE SITE 
by A. Raymond Ellis 
Illustrations by the Author 
I N recent years many 
changes in our needs and 
tastes have affected the sum¬ 
mer home so far as domestic 
qualities and routine are con¬ 
cerned. We are following 
more closely some of the 
English customs and styles, 
by introducing or taking up 
the week-end vacation and its 
consequent guests, with the 
accompanying outdoor life. 
This increasing tendency and 
the motor guests who drop 
in, in a way complicate the 
domestic service and create 
an informal household rou¬ 
tine that flavors of a more 
aristocratic time when the 
land owners opened their 
country houses at the end of 
the season in London. 
The porch is the center of country home life and serves the purpose often 
of dining-room as well as outdoor living-room 
The site and location of the 
summer or country house is 
most important for the com¬ 
fort of its inmates. I should 
look for a site with trees; 
one big spreading tree with 
its cooling shade partially 
protects the roof and walls of 
your house from the burning 
sun and cools the ground 
about the house. It even 
lowers the temperature of a 
hot breeze. Two large trees, 
one on the east and one on 
the west, will afford ample 
shade if the house is placed 
between them to take advan¬ 
tage of the shadows they cast 
on'the "site. At the shore you 
will fiVJ scattered clumps of 
trees, "‘but "there it is cooler 
except when a hot land breeze 
(455) 
