The homestead of the Mead family near Greenwich, Connecticut, built in 1796. It is rare indeed in America to find a house of this age still 
occupied by the family of its original builders, and still rarer to find its rooms furnished as consistently as the following pictures indicate 
A Home of the Eighteenth Century, Today 
by Alfred Morton Githens 
Photographs by Chester M. Whitney and the author 
I F one has an old house or a house built in the “Colonial” or 
“farmhouse” style, he is naturally interested in the contem¬ 
porary way of furnishing. He eagerly visits a place whose fittings 
ihave retained their old 
character, for from them 
may come a criticism or 
suggestion he might ap¬ 
ply to some room of his 
■o w n, and by studying 
many examples he gradu¬ 
ally builds up a sense of 
congruity between the 
style and its proper fur¬ 
nishings. Therefore, 
knowing a house a hun¬ 
dred-odd years old, built 
by former members of the 
family that now occupies 
it, we felt that its interest 
should be shared by those 
who care for such things. 
It is a dignified house 
of the Georgian period 
with little or no ornamen- 
station but with stately 
character in the orderly arrangement of doors and windows, porch 
and roof-lines. It stands much as it did when first constructed, 
though the spruce trees planted to break the northwest wind are 
grown, and the great box- 
bushes crowd the Greek 
columns of the porch; a 
house that suggests 
Christmas or Thanksgiv¬ 
ing day reunions; the “old 
homestead” of the im¬ 
agination. 
Much of the furniture 
is associated with former 
family life. In the 
early days, they say, the 
Franklin stove in the din¬ 
ing-room was considered 
such a scientific heating 
apparatus that, neglecting 
the other fireplaces, the 
household drew its Wind¬ 
sor chairs to face the hot¬ 
ter blaze; then, turning, 
let the heat play between 
the slender spindles, on 
“The spruce trees planted to break the northwest wind are grown, and the 
great box-bushes crowd the Greek columns of the porch” 
(355) 
