Volume XVIII 
Number i 
July, 1910 
By the edge of the Mianus River. The approach is at the extreme left where the highroad crosses the water 
The Farmhouse Reclaimed 
SOME OF THE PROBLEMS MET IN REMODELING THE OLD LANDMARKS 
THAT ARE TO BE FOUND NEAR MOST OF THE LARGER EASTERN CITIES 
by Alfred Morton Githens 
Photographs by the author and H. H. S. 
[This is the second of two articles by Mr. Githens. The first revealed the wonderful material for country or summer homes lying ready 
to our hands in the well built farmhouses of a century ago .— Editor.] 
T HERE is a fascination about an old house, but in just what 
consists the charm it is hard to tell. Not in the architec¬ 
ture only; houses in the same style and just as well designed are 
built every day. Is it in the setting, the choice of location, the 
suggestion of former gardens, an occasional box-tree or a white 
lilac of monstrous size? Perhaps in part; or is it rather in a 
sentimental appreciation of the old for the sake of its age — almost 
a reverence which leads us to see all that is good and gloss over 
the bad? Do we unconsciously feel that new work in an old 
style is an anachronism, an affectation, and therefore prefer the 
old itself, lest such a criticism be raised in our subconscious minds? 
A restoration cleverly done we welcome as a proper revitaliz¬ 
ing of what should be perpetuated. Back of the golf club in 
Greenwich is one of the larger farmhouses (see frontispiece), 
restored so that ad the old one can detect is the kitchen wing. 
Most subtile and difficult is the restoration or adding to an old 
house, but so alluring that one welcomes an opportunity, even if 
it is only in acceding to an editor’s request and experimenting 
with a photograph. This square house, for instance, in a later 
style, built in the age of beaver hats and nankeen trousers ; unin¬ 
teresting in outline and nothing but a box, it needs something to 
change the rigid silhouette and lengthen it; wings, perhaps, with 
bedrooms on the second floor and each a single room below; 
north, a library toward the orchard, and south, a dining-room 
(H) 
