A House Built from a Stable 
been no real reason why the builder should have made use of the 
existing structure. It will usually be found upon pointed inquiry 
that the old building, or what was left of it, supplied no materials 
for the new home that could not have been bought cheaper in the 
open market and in such condition as to have bestowed upon 
the new home a greater measure of self-respect. Such pleasure 
and reward as the prestidigitator reaps from his skill is apparently 
the thing that is sought for by the stunt-producing home-builder. 
The fact that the resulting house lacks a bathroom and that the 
main stairway leads unabashed into the only guest-chamber, 
worries its owner not at all. That the house has been painfully 
evolved from two piano-boxes with the aid of an oyster-knife is 
the essential fact in the mind of the proud amateur architect. 
In consideration of these things, therefore, let me explain 
without more ado that the country home herewith illustrated is not 
of this type at all. There were two excellent reasons why the old 
stable should have been used as the basis of the charming stone 
house that has been built, and either of these reasons alone would 
have been entirely sufficient in itself. The first reason was that 
the owner of the stable — and of the main house on the property— 
wanted to provide a nearby home for one of his married children. 
The plot of ground occupied by the old stable seemed the most 
desirable spot on the comparatively restricted Germantown estate 
and, moreover, the stable, as such, had outlived its usefulness—a 
glance at the illustration will serve to show that it never was 
distinguished for its architectural beauty. 
And the second reason for accepting it as a working basis for 
the new home was that the thick stone walls could be used almost 
intact for the main portion of the new structure. The sturdy 
joists that had been set close enough together to support the 
The square front portion of the house is the remodeled stable; the service wing at the rear is new, built of long, flat 
Germantown stone. Messrs. Mellor & Meigs were the architects 
O NE hears of all sorts of astonishing building transformations 
these days, remodeling old barns into modern country 
homes among them, and one remarkable New Jersey achieve¬ 
ment records even the rehabilitation of an abandoned poultry 
house into a home for an adventurous couple. The striking fact 
that immediately presents itself to the cold-blooded practical 
man is that in nearly all of these home-building efforts there has 
The original stable was not an architectural gem. Notice how the two 
front openings have been retained in the house as altered 
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