82 
House & Garden 
BATH 
T O own abathtub which 
is always clean and in¬ 
viting is the instinctive 
desire of everyone. Fulfil¬ 
ment of that desire needs 
only the knowledge of the 
superiority of “Tepeco” 
Porcelain Baths—an under¬ 
standing of why a better 
plumbing fixture can be made 
of clay than of other basic 
materials. 
Those who have struggled to re¬ 
move the very visible soil at the 
water line—those who have been 
compelled to employ cutting 
soaps and similar means to make 
the inside of their bathtubs ap¬ 
pear temporarily white—would 
appreciate “Tepeco” Baths. 
For “Tepeco” Bathtubs are Solid 
Porcelain. No other material will 
stand the intense fire which gives 
its highly glazed, glistening white, 
beautiful surface. Because of that 
heat, glaze and clay body are 
literally fused into one homo¬ 
geneous mass, inseparable and 
impervious to foreign substance. 
A damp clothalonecleansTepeco 
Porcelain. A permanent and ulti¬ 
mately economical investment. 
If you intend to build or renovate your 
bathroom be sure to write for our instruc¬ 
tive book “Bathrooms of Character.** 
The 
TRENTON POTTERIES 
Trenton, New Jerseij 
Shall We Keep to the Colonial? 
(Continued from page 80) 
entourage. It is essentially a courtly 
and formal style and presupposes a 
manner of life to correspond with its 
aspect, an aspect affecting not only ex¬ 
terior conditions but also interior plan 
and all the domestic arrangements con¬ 
sequent thereupon. The Georgian style 
forced upon a very small, and what 
ought to be a very simple, house, is 
just as incongruous as it would be to 
array a little lad of five in a top hat 
and morning coat. That is to say, the 
Georgian style as it has too often been 
interpreted, or rather misinterpreted, 
within the past fifteen or twenty years. 
Unquestionably there were plenty of 
small and simple 18th Century houses 
of the Georgian species. They were 
good. And they are still to be found 
in both city and country. But the 20th 
Century Georgianists — shall we not 
rather say “near-Georgianists”?—have 
paid little heed to the characteristics 
that gave those small dwellings their 
dignity and charm. 
True Colonial Models 
Simplicity and good architecture simul¬ 
taneously are perfectly compatible in 
respect of both plan and design, and 
our truly Colonial models amply bear 
out this statement, whether it be the 
early New England types, the Dutch 
types of New York, New Jersey and 
Long Island, or the several types re¬ 
spectively characteristic of Pennsyl¬ 
vania, South Jersey and Delaware, on 
the one hand, or of Maryland and Vir¬ 
ginia on the other. So great was the 
vitality of all these types that, with 
certain minor developments and 
changes, prompted by current require¬ 
ment, they continued uninterruptedly 
to be employed all during the period 
of Georgian ascendency by those who 
recognized the Georgian mode as too 
exacting in formality for their con¬ 
venience or means. They were, so to 
speak, the substantial joints and chops 
of our architectural fare, without which 
all else would have lacked solid founda¬ 
tion and background. They were ulti¬ 
mately cast aside only in the uninspired 
mid-19lh Century. 
The plan of these early types meets 
all demands for a simplified manner of 
living. The arrangement is straightfor¬ 
wardly convenient and economic of 
labor in upkeep. Generally speaking, 
the rooms are few but large and con¬ 
ducive to a fuller and more constant 
use than we have been wont to accord 
them in some of our recent and more 
artificial schemes. An exception is in 
the case of mountain or seashore bun¬ 
galows or cottages. They savored not 
at all of cramping conventions or re¬ 
strictive specializing—such specializing, 
for instance, as separating the place to 
eat from the general living room. The 
original conception of such rooms was 
not far removed in either time or the 
minds of the designers from the notion 
of the old English “hall” where, save 
for the performance of strictly kitchen 
activities in a place set apart therefor, 
the family almost altogether “lived and 
moved and had its being.” Indeed, in 
the early New England houses, this 
common room was generally designated 
as the “hall,” in distinction from the 
corresponding “parlor,” which occupied 
the other half of the ground floor in 
the main portion of the house. Where 
the rooms were thus few and large they 
possessed a most complete and elastic 
utility. 
Style and Utility 
Nor did these simple and early types 
lack style in either plan or design. 
Rather were they, for the most part, 
complete and satisfying embodiments 
of style because of two distinguishing 
qualities — direction of attainment of 
the end proposed, and restraint in the 
manner of attainment. The reason why 
they so surely achieved style, was, that 
they straightforwardly set to work, in 
the light of their inherited traditions 
and in the simplest manner that shrewd 
common-sense prompted, to meet the 
direct, fundamental needs of the occa¬ 
sion. 
The Early Plans 
The accompanying house diagrams 
of the typical Colonial modes show the 
simplicity and compact convenience of 
their arrangement. The illustrations 
show the several modes of exterior 
style, the disposition of mass, the 
methods of using material, and the 
amenities of detail. It will be seen that 
climatic conditions to some extent af¬ 
fected the plan as, for example, in the 
New England central chimney type, the 
provision of an entry to protect the 
rooms when the house door was opened 
in cold or stormy weather, or, in the 
Middle Colonies and Southern types, 
the direct entrance into the “hall” or 
living room, permissible in a milder 
climate. Every one of these types is 
susceptible of modern application with¬ 
out destroying either the pristine sim¬ 
plicity of arrangement or the charm of 
architectural treatment. There is al¬ 
most invariably abundant opportunity 
to include bathrooms and similar fea¬ 
tures of modern demand without at all 
disturbing the general scheme. The 
occupants of old houses will generally 
testify to their adaptability in this re¬ 
spect. 
It is not in the least the intention 
here to urge or to advise that any of 
the early Colonial types be copied in 
a spirit of literal exactness. It is the 
intent to urge that they afford sound 
points of departure whereon to base 
either such additions or adaptations as 
conduce to satisfy, in a dignified and 
efficient manner, the current demands 
for simplified household arrangements. 
Their low ceilings reduce height and 
save steps; hence are no small item of 
labor. Their large rooms convey an 
agreeable atmosphere of amplitude. 
Their perspicuous plan tends to com¬ 
pactness and the minimizing of house¬ 
hold work. Their exteriors are replete 
with quiet dignity and charm. 
Rebuilding Old Houses 
While alluding to the subject of ad¬ 
ditions to old houses, it is pertinent to 
point out that not a few apparently 
hopeless structures of the mid-19th Cen¬ 
tury supply a good base for sufficient 
additions at a cost smaller than for the 
erection of a new house. In such a case, 
the prime essential to a satisfactory re¬ 
sult is that client and architect tackle 
the problem with the blessed grace of 
imagination. In the instance illustrated, 
the rear—if one chooses to maintain the 
outworn fiction of “fronts” and “rears” 
—is put squarely on the street, the 
kitchen is put in the parlor, and a re¬ 
frigerator is built in the front door. 
The living rooms open on the side 
where is the most agreeable outlook of 
gardens or landscape. 
In conclusion, let us realize in our 
quest for architectural simplicity that 
tortured Georgian pocket editions, 
loaded with meaningless and inappro¬ 
priate adornments, are offensive traves¬ 
ties of a noble style; that refinement 
and elegance are not matters of size 
and that they can exist in very small 
as well as in very large houses. In a 
small house the scale of details should 
be kept down and the projections low 
in order to create a sense of space 
despite actual dimensions. There are 
many more solutions for the present 
problem than by having recourse to 
that hackneyed bungalow type that 
smells of mission furniture, burlap and 
gobbiness. 
