21 
November, 19 2 0 
turies, as when it was 
quarried in the mountainside. 
What Is Needed 
The terrace is irregularly paved and commands ex¬ 
tensive views. The white stucco of the house walls 
admirably sets off the purple Bougainvillaea and the 
Golden Bell 
throughout the length and breadth of the 
Italian peninsula are as varied as those which 
the energetic building material salesman offers 
to us in America. Sometimes the carving is 
done in marble, at other times even in Italy 
the modelling is only in stucco. The Istrian 
stone of the balustrade may be worn smooth 
where generations have rubbed against their 
now rounded moldings. In Tuscany the pietra 
serena is as clear cut today after several cen- 
It is not, then, a question 
of materials, but the way ma¬ 
terials are used. It is art, it 
is skill, it is the perfection of 
detail. That is what is 
needed here to give Latin 
charm to our Italian houses. 
The ready-made house build¬ 
er cannot do it for us; the 
man who casts his balus¬ 
trades in cement cannot do 
it for us; the builder-designed 
house in the outlying suburb 
cannot do it for us. Poplar 
trees planted to recall the 
plains of Lombardy, or bay 
trees as substitutes for the 
more freely branching 
oleander cannot give it to us, 
but when all these various 
elements are right—when 
materials, lines, planting, 
surroundings are right—then 
a house built on the sands of 
Long Island or on the slopes 
of the Western ocean ex¬ 
presses to us some of the sun¬ 
shine and some of the joyous¬ 
ness of the soul of the Latin 
race. 
.Fortunately there are many successful ex¬ 
amples of real Italian architecture in this 
country, and nowhere has this work been more 
successfully carried out than in Southern Cali¬ 
fornia. To one who has made a study of the 
smaller villas and picturesque farmhouses of 
the Italian Renaissance, there is much that is 
full of the cheerfulness and charm of the 
Italian work to be found near Los Angeles 
and Santa Barbara, and every architect might 
The steps leading down the canyon side of the house 
to the garden are of brick. The stucco balustrade 
with its plants in bright pots is strongly in the 
Italian spirit 
well wish to have a chance to design a home 
for some sunny slope beside the Pacific. The 
photographs accompanying this article show 
where in a spot favored in every way by na¬ 
ture, where the hills rise abruptly near the 
sea, where tlie live oaks give their dark green 
color to the landscape, where flowers and vines 
grow up luxuriantly almost over night, an 
opportunity was offered to express the Latin 
spirit. 
On the entrance side the house appears low, a characteristic which the view on page 19 belies. The roof is of 
hand-made variegated tile, the woodwork, trimmings and flower pots are blue, and the stucco is white 
