“LA ROCHELLE” 
A SUMMER HOME AT BAR HARBOR, MAINE 
By I. Howland Jones 
Andrews, Jaques & Rantoul, Architects 
Photographs by E. E. Soderholtz 
A N architect is influenced in his first con- 
^ ception of a summer home by several 
considerations, perhaps one of the principal 
ones being suggested by the character of the 
life of the town in which the house is to be 
built. If it is to be in a fine, old-fashioned, 
country town, where his clients are to live a 
simple country life, his ideas from the start 
are necessarily bound by certain lines and 
the characteristics to be accentuated ought 
to be of the informal, hospitable sort with 
the treatment suggest¬ 
ive of mainly hori¬ 
zontal lines. If it is to 
be built in a location 
where the formal life 
of cities is to be trans¬ 
planted to the country 
for a few months, a 
natural impulse is 
perhaps for stateliness 
and elegant formality. 
Apart from these con¬ 
siderations the next 
step is decided in his 
mind by the topogra¬ 
phy of the surround¬ 
ing country. This 
impression he gets in 
going to the lot on 
which the new house is 
to be built, and finally 
from the actual for¬ 
mation of the special 
piece of land on which 
he is to build. On 
looking over the 
ground for the first 
time, and in noting the 
actual conformation 
of its environments, he 
receives the final clue 
for his conception. 
In the present instance the piece of land to 
be considered was a level one with its length 
extending along the road and the eastern side 
running along the shore. The lot was narrow 
from the street to the shore and the view and 
shade were on the water side. 
The house shown here is “La Rochelle” 
built for George S. Bowdoin, Esq., for his 
summer home at Bar Harbor. As one sees, 
by the plan, the house was placed about 
midway between the roadway and the water 
and kept as near the 
street as was consistent 
with achieving a wide 
impressive entrance 
drive; a wrought iron 
fence and high gates 
shut off the street. A 
certain formal stateli¬ 
ness marks this side 
of the house. 
I he materials used 
in the building are a 
native water struck 
brick of a beautiful 
texture and great va¬ 
riety of color, enliven¬ 
ed by warm buff lime¬ 
stone trimmings. I he 
windows with their 
shallow reveals, are 
framed by wide wood¬ 
en architraves and 
these with the sashes 
are painted of a lighter 
shade than the stone. 
The roof is of a soft 
greenish grey slate 
and the blinds are a 
darker tone of green. 
The facade on the 
street has a narrow 7 
brick-paved terrace 
ENTRANCE PORCH 
247 
