116 
1 
House & G a r d e iT" 
“Mine Is a Very Friendly 
Little Home,” She Wrote 
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W E do not know her—never saw her—this young woman 
in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts; but her letter, full 
of pride in, and love for, her Rite-Grade, all-shingle home, is 
typical of hundreds of letters from all parts of the United 
States,,written to us by owners of all-shingle homes. 
Some of the writers are masters, or mistresses, of mansions; 
some live in humble abodes. Yet the story is ever the same— 
each owns the “dearest”, the “most distinctive”, the “loveliest” 
home! (Seldom is it “house”; oftenest “home”.) There is 
something so natural, so appropriate, so endearing about all¬ 
shingle construction that it makes friends with the landscape 
and fulfills, better than any other construction can do, the 
ideal each of us pictures when he thinks of “home”. 
“A shingle house,” writes the 
Wellesley young woman, “is warm 
or cool, as you need it. The lap¬ 
ping of shingles makes three layers 
of wood, which are better than one 
thick layer. They are like fur, 
or loosely-woven cloth, in some 
respects. A shingle house is less 
expensive, both in material and 
labor, than one of brick, stone, 
cement or clapboard. 
“Aside from all practical consid¬ 
erations, a shingle house is more 
artistic. Its surface blends better 
with natural objects. In harmony 
with rocks and trees, it composes 
a pleasing picture. Being, thus, at 
peace with its setting, it seems 
always to be a real home, warm, 
cozy and inviting. Mine is a very 
friendly little home and it has 
many admirers.” 
Rite-Grade Inspected shingles 
bring to the home-builder, at a 
cost below that required for other 
kinds of suitable material, a cov¬ 
ering for both roof and side-walls 
that literally has no equal. It is 
nature’s own covering; it is gen¬ 
uine, imitating nothing, substitute 
for nothing. It is typically Amer¬ 
ican. 
Before you decide upon any type 
of construction for your new home 
—large or small—protect your best 
interests by getting the facts about 
Rite-Grade Inspected Red Cedar 
Shingles, The Rite-Grade mark 
guarantees you, under bond, the 
highest quality of the grade you 
buy. It stands for the highest 
standards of Red Cedar Shingle 
manufacturers, maintained by rigid 
inspection and backed by the in¬ 
tegrity of the foremost manufac¬ 
turers. Ask your dealer for Rite- 
Grade Inspected Shingles. 
Send now, today, for a copy of 
“The Rite-Grade Booklet of All- 
Shingle Homes”. Shows the six¬ 
teen prize-winning homes of Amer¬ 
ica, with floor plans of each. 
RITE-GRADE SHINGLE ASSOCIATION 
470 Henry Building Seattle, U. S. A. 
RED CEDAR SHINGLES 
"THLROW OVAGES- 
TYIE STOEWAVL OV 
tradF 
MARK 
to achieve the house which is their 
ideal. The truth of the matter, how¬ 
ever, lies in a direction exactly opposite 
to the usual person’s misgivings about 
a progressively built house. They are 
sure only of what they see, and fail to 
visualize the future aspects of the ul¬ 
timate house. 
Reason, both architectural and hu¬ 
man, in favor of progressive building, 
are so strong that it seems doubly 
curious that the practice is not more 
general. To the imaginative mind 
progressive building seems such a fas¬ 
cinating pursuit as to be preferable to 
complete building in one operation, 
even if the necessary building funds 
were at hand. 
The fundamental architectural rea¬ 
son why progressive building is desir¬ 
able lies in the fact that it is the logi¬ 
cal way to build a house, and because 
it is logical it results in a house which 
is expressive. Progressive building, how¬ 
ever, cannot be done by a formula: it 
must follow the gradually expanding 
needs of the family; it expresses increase 
in the family fortunes: in the family it¬ 
self. It grows with the family, and 
thereby is truly a home, and not a 
stereotyped affair built with more than 
half an eye and half a thought to its 
selling value. We build too little for 
posterity, and a surprisingly large num¬ 
ber of people build not even with the 
expectation of passing their own span of 
life under the rooftree they have reared. 
All this has made against the human 
equation in architecture, and has pre¬ 
vented us from building many houses 
of the fine age-mellowed kind that we 
admire and become sentimental over 
as travelers in Europe, and especially 
in England. 
No doubt it is too much to expect, 
considering our aforementioned impa¬ 
tience, that we will reach the point 
of planning progressive building to be 
carried on by successive generations. 
If we ever do reach that point, we 
will begin to develop some real coun¬ 
try houses, and there is every reason 
in the world, from expediency, senti¬ 
ment and “pride of house” why pro¬ 
gressive building should be carried on 
through several generations, and the 
terrace and pool, or the library wing 
planned by the grandfather be at last 
built by the grandson. That grand¬ 
son could well grow up with the idea 
that his part in the house was await¬ 
ing him. 
Completeness, for its own sake is not 
only a fetish, but a barren one. When 
your place is entirely done, when the 
last bit of the garden has been built, 
and the last wing built on the house— 
what more is there of constructive in¬ 
terest ? 
In progressive building enough of 
the old remains always to constitute 
the nucleus of home and of all the 
sentiment that should attach to home, 
and the changes tend only to expand 
this, to add the interest of new vistas 
to old rooms and the sense of dreams 
come true to the whole house and 
garden. 
Two examples of progressive build¬ 
ing illustrate this article. The first is 
a small music studio, of which the 
major portion was built at once, and 
planned in such a way as to allow 
for the future extension, which is shown 
in the pen drawing and in the floor 
plans. 
In the second instance, three stages 
of a progressive building project are 
shown, illustrating the scope and fer¬ 
tility of architectural vision as applied 
to this kind of work. It might seem 
at a first glance, as though the or¬ 
iginal house could be dismissed from 
consideration as a factor in either 
the present or the future stages of the 
house. Superficially considered, this 
might be so, but under present build- 
{Continued on page 126) 
