HOUSE AND GARDEN 
January, 
1914 
English work, as we have it 
in half timber, in cement, and 
for more important work in 
the Tudor style—the English 
Georgian is so closely allied 
to our Colonial, of which it 
was the parent, that the dis¬ 
tinction is largely technical 
and one unnecessary for us 
to make here- — the Spanish 
Mission, and the more ex¬ 
otic Italian type. 
We might add to these the 
nondescript house in brick or 
stone found mostly in the 
Middle West and which re¬ 
fuses to be catalogued, and 
that other free lance 
—the shingled all over 
country house. We 
have other styles rep¬ 
resented, of course — 
all that were ever ex¬ 
ecuted on the surface 
of the patient earth 
—but they are sports 
and must be content 
to wait for the 
Architectural Dic¬ 
tionary for their 
write up. 
To get down to 
cases, let us con¬ 
sider under what 
circumstances each 
style may be fittingly 
used. The Colonial 
work either in wood 
or brick is seldom 
out of place in the 
suburbs of our cities 
or the country dis¬ 
tricts immediately 
surrounding them. 
The Tudor style in brick is fitted only for the more pretentious place and required 
large lands after the fashion of the English estates, each a park in itself 
;■> 
This is particularly 
true of New England 
and along the At¬ 
lantic seaboard, whether we 
follow the especial modifica¬ 
tion indigenous to a given dis¬ 
trict or are more free and less 
archaeological in our work. 
This is, if we wish to breed 
true to type we will in the 
South introduce the typical 
features of that work, with its 
slender round or “square 
two-storied columns with 
second floor balconies as we 
see them in the Carolinas, or 
without the balconies as at 
Mt. Vernon. In Pennsyl¬ 
vania to merge ourselves in 
our surroundings we should 
follow the lead of the old 
Dutch work with its use of 
The Anglo-Saxons have created a house breathing homelikeness. The plaster form of the English cot¬ 
tage is very suitable for many situations in America. Here is a good example of a house properly fitted 
to its environment and worked out to express the proper feeling. Algernon Bell, architect. 
The Italian style needs a careful and thorough knowledge of its requirements, and 
it should not be used unless thoroughly consistent inside and out. Louis Boynton, 
architect 
stone for walls, and squat 
gambrel roofs with flaring 
skirts at the eaves; or we may 
follow the more Georgian 
character of the more stately 
work in masonry. Coming 
North to the vicinity of New 
York City, we shall find that 
phase chiefly seen nowadays 
on Long Island with its wide 
shingles and simple finish. 
In New England the class of 
work changes again, the dif¬ 
ference in feeling can be 
traced largely to the greater 
use of wood in construction, 
the result being those famous 
houses now best seen 
in such cities as 
Salem, Portsmouth 
and the environs of 
Boston, although ex¬ 
amples are to be 
found everywhere 
throughout this group 
of States. 
We see, then, that 
there are several sub¬ 
divisions of this style, 
and while a purist 
might insist on a new 
house being built in 
exact accordance 
with the work 
of the district, 
there will be in the 
minds of most people 
no sense of shock if 
work having the 
characteristics of 
another section be 
employed. Neither 
will there be any 
danger in a certain 
freedom of motives 
and treatment of de¬ 
tail for which there 
existing precedent at 
all. There is, however, noth¬ 
ing in architecture design 
that requires more knowl¬ 
edge and architectural acumen 
than to produce a work 
which is palpably in a given 
style, redolent of it, and yet 
when examined piecemeal, 
which is found to have none 
of the standardized, hack¬ 
neyed motives about it. This 
is the highest form of archi¬ 
tectural skill and displays 
a profound sense of the es¬ 
sence and spirit of the style, 
of what is fundamental. A 
knowledge of architectural 
archaeology is useless here; 
is no 
