12 
House & Garden 
to place it beside the most 
generally familiar criterion 
—in this case the modern 
English cottage of the type 
developed by Voysey and 
Lutyens and a score of other 
able and imaginative En¬ 
glish architects. 
Spontaneous admiration 
and acceptance of the En¬ 
glish cottage, however, like 
spontaneous admiration and 
acceptance of anything, is 
very unsafe. We are likely 
to be so charmed by the 
picturesque exterior of the 
English cottage that we for¬ 
get to consider the interior. 
Externally, without ques¬ 
tion, the English architect 
has made the most of his 
problem, freely using un¬ 
usual materials, often local, 
in an admirably colloquial 
manner, with expressive 
craftsmanship. The sum 
total is a small dwelling of 
engagingly picturesque 
mass and detail, with quaint 
windows and chimneys, per¬ 
vasive charm which, seen 
from the road, reflects griev¬ 
ously upon the artistry of 
our own architects. 
We feel a little better 
about it when we learn that 
most of the plans of these 
engaging little houses are 
very impractical, being cut 
up into too many small 
rooms and “passages,” the 
rooms often inadequately 
lighted; the whole interior 
in fact sacrificed for the 
exterior. 
The Ideal Combination 
Obviously, then, the ideal 
small house will be found 
to combine a picturesque 
and architecturally expres¬ 
sive exterior with a practi¬ 
cal and architecturally sane 
interior—a combination far 
easier to state as an hypo¬ 
thesis than to execute in 
three dimensions. 
Considering first the ex¬ 
terior, it may certainly be 
said that the country-house 
architects of America have 
recently paid more attention 
to the possibilities of mate¬ 
rials. Color and texture 
have come to be appreci¬ 
ated as essentials of design. 
Nor are materials handled 
with the lack of imagina¬ 
tion which so long dif¬ 
ferentiated American from 
English domestic architec¬ 
ture. In the cottage illus¬ 
trated, for example, the 
stucco has been tinted cream 
color with a slight accent 
toward pink, while its tex¬ 
ture has been made as rough 
and as expressive of trowel¬ 
ling as possible. Most not¬ 
able of all, the exposed tim¬ 
ber-work has been carried 
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out in the good old hand- 
wrought manner, with 
wooden dowel-pins instead 
of nails. The arched gate¬ 
way to the left of the garage 
is a detail worthy of appre¬ 
ciative study and emulation 
as illustrative of the inter¬ 
esting possibilities of rug¬ 
ged woodwork. 
The use of steel casement 
windows throughout, with 
leaded glass, is another de¬ 
tail strongly contributory to 
the picturesque total. With 
vines and planting grown 
about this unusual cottage, 
and with the mantle of age 
laid over its rooftree by 
passing years, here will be 
an abode of perennial 
charm and fitness. 
The Plan 
The plan is as unusual as 
the exterior, and follows the 
good English idea of revers¬ 
ing the usual American dis¬ 
position of service quarters 
and living quarters. By 
placing the kitchen and 
service entrance nearest the 
road, the rear of the house 
is left free for access to the 
garden. Bedrooms have 
been compactly contrived in 
remarkably small compass, 
and the principal space has 
been given to the big living- 
room, with its open timber 
trusses and, most interesting 
of all, its dining alcove. 
Here is a declaration of 
emancipation from an old 
habit, a tangible expression 
of a belief that a dining¬ 
room is not necessary in a 
cottage plan. Since it is a 
room used only at meal¬ 
times, the space which it 
occupies may better be 
thrown into a large and gen¬ 
erous living-room. 
Further incentive may be 
given to the “dining al¬ 
cove” idea in small plans 
by the numerous choices in 
modern furniture outside 
the confines of distinctly 
“dining - room” furniture. 
There are gate-leg tables; 
straightforward Windsor or 
cottage chairs; the silver 
may repose in a lowboy, and 
the linen in a dignified 
J acobean wall - table or 
“hutch.” 
This living-room holds 
much to admire in its 
straightforward simplicity, 
and in its frank utilization 
of all available space in the 
wing it occupies. The 
house being called “The 
Hearth,” a generous exam¬ 
ple of this domestic altar is 
centered at one end, while 
the other end is diversified 
by a quaint stair and gal¬ 
lery leading to a bedroom 
over the porch. 
