HOUSE AND GARDEN 
192 
D 
ECEMBER, 1909 
A modern house along Colonial lines with walls of hand-riven shingles painted white. Few 
things contribute so much to the old-time atmosphere as weil-grown box 
ties. The two predominant factors were the Puritan or round- 
head (a synonym for hard-head) and the Cavalier or gentry of 
England. The influence of the Dutch is slight and the type of 
William Penn differed little from his neighbor of New England. 
In the extreme north and south were the Latins, who had little 
influence. While the Latins were brilliant, they did not have the 
staying qualities of the Anglo-Saxon. 
We have therefore the two types, with the local variations and 
traditions of caste and religion as influences. Remember also 
that the element of trade, which settled the coast and the rivers, 
helped to combine the ship carver or joiner with the landsman, 
and that prosperity, which always comes because of trade, allowed 
this type to develop faster toward a more finished product. They 
were travelers also, and, of course, took advantage of their oppor¬ 
tunities. 
New England is, or was, primarily Massachusetts and the 
smaller states along the Sound. The best examples of our style 
in the north are within a radius of one hundred miles of the city 
of Boston, though I have found most beautiful examples of Chris¬ 
topher Wren churches and of squire’s houses, with delightful de¬ 
tail, in the remote towns of northern New England. And, of 
course, when we examine the Berkshires, we find evidence of 
wealth and culture also. Long Island got some of this New Eng¬ 
land influence, though we will discover a subtle change taking 
place in New York State—an influence which is traceable to the 
remnants of the Dutch temperament. This extends throughout 
Jersey, and loses itself in another shade in Pennsylvania. The 
Philadelphians had the same separate and distinct color that we 
have found among the Boston people. The Swedes, Quakers and 
Shakers, and what-nots of that sort, have left local colorings 
throughout Delaware, West Pennsylvania and South Jersey. 
Then we begin to slip softly into another distinct area before 
we reach the Virginian or the Cavalier gentleman. Balti¬ 
more and its environs is something of the South, a little bit of 
New England, Jacobite and round-head. And then the delight¬ 
ful atmosphere of the middle South, the tobacco-producing 
and slave-using country, with its feudal lords and great 
plantations. 
1 he people are mostly of the same breed as the northerners, 
but with gentler blood, and a more continued and intimate 
association with the progress going on in the mother country; 
people educated more in the fancies of life possibly than in the 
facts as were the more austere type of the north, 
but still English and loyal to the Crown. 
The Colonial gentlemen used brick for the 
walls, with the Flemish bond, a “header” and 
“stretcher,” a method of bonding intended for 
a two-brick-thick wall, as the header properly 
ties and appears on both faces. These headers 
frequently being used as arch brick coming 
near the fire, were darker and were laid with 
wide joints, which was not an affectation, shell 
lime not finely ground calling for a coarse mix¬ 
ture in the mortar. At the levels where floor 
beams are supported by the wall, you will notice 
a projection or band, and in the gables, a 
twisted strap of iron, which ties through the 
brickwork into the framing and prevents 
spreading. 
While brick walls were the most substantial, 
of course, of the many materials used, local 
conditions governed the selection to a great 
extent. Oftentimes these brick came over as 
ballast. In districts where stone was plentiful, 
quarries were opened up, the stones laid with 
the same wide joints, and, in some cases, plas¬ 
tered over the entire surface. I n lumber districts, 
of course, you naturally find the use of wood in the form of 
clapboards or shingles. 
The gambrel-roof type is early, and slowly disappeared in the 
more distinguished forms of hip and gable roof, though this form 
of roof allows more space and head room in the attic for the storage 
of hat boxes, wedding gowns, beds and what-not. And, by the 
way, the combination of a rainy day, a Colonial attic, and the 
neighbor’s children, will create a memory that time can never 
efface. The Secret Drawer in Graham’s “Golden Age” has the 
spirit. Read it. 
These old people believed in the use of plain wall surfaces for 
the exterior, with the embellishments provided at the proper 
supporting points. First came correct proportion, then the mak¬ 
ing of the entrance doorway, ornamented as a focal center. The 
cornice with the classic forms of decoration received equal atten¬ 
tion, and with a Palladian, round-arch and mullion window, 
lighting the stair landing or second story hallway, and the careful 
consideration of the dormer windows, you have the entire secret. 
{Continued on page vi.J 
A real Colonial garden in “Oak Hill,” Peabody, Mass. 
