40 
House & Garden 
A COLONIAL HOUSE ^SUCCESSFULLY RESTORED 
Both Fabric and Feeling Have Been Preserved in this Connecticut 
Home of a New York Architect 
LEMUEL FOWLER 
Architecture’s Dramatic Note 
Luckily, in one way, there are lots of people 
who, far from discerning the dramatic note 
which I claim to be the secret of good archi¬ 
tecture, cannot even distinguish between good 
and bad lines, proportions and the dynamics 
of color. They are the people for whom are 
written such helpful books 
as “How to Appreciate 
Pictures,” “How to Listen 
to Music,” and — yes, 
Ovid’s “Art of Love.” 
Not hopeless, but lacking 
in the necessary technical 
groundings of their chosen 
avocations, groundings 
that are usually intuitive, 
and need no special train¬ 
ing. Devoid of all graci¬ 
ousness, as it is, the 
George IV furniture yet 
deserves an asylum, if it 
be genuine and respect¬ 
able, and finds it here. 
Luckier, however, are 
the circumstances in the 
case of an architect. Mr. 
Baer discriminated in se¬ 
lecting a truly beautiful 
old-timer upon which to 
operate for his profes¬ 
sional recreation—beauti- 
Save for the added 
left wing, the house 
stands as it was 
built in 1760 
I T is not surprising that 
an ever increasing list 
is available of Colonial 
houses that architects have 
restored for their own use. 
The latest name on the list 
is that of Herbert M. 
Baer, an architect of New 
York City, who has re¬ 
cently completed the res¬ 
toration of a house dating 
from 1750 or thereabouts, 
located in Westport, Con¬ 
necticut. 
Consistent restoration is 
difficult at all times and 
it must be said that Mr. 
Baer has succeeded in the 
task better than many of 
his contemporaries have, 
somewhat because his find 
was a good one at the 
start. 
A Colonial house may 
be genuine and eminently 
respectable, but it may 
never have been beautiful, 
like a George IV side¬ 
board which is clumsy and 
ugly enough to throw one 
into a fit of hypochondria. 
There is more genuine, 
antique furniture of this 
ill-advised period knock¬ 
ing about than there is any 
demand for, and it can be picked up at regu¬ 
lar bargain prices. It never was beautiful, 
and is still less so now. 
Good and Bad Restoration 
Many designers have discovered, to their 
confusion, that the knowledge of what makes 
the restoration of a Colonial house or the repro¬ 
duction of one good or bad, is not a matter of 
luck, any more than it is a detail of architec¬ 
tural knowledge to be casually picked up when 
needed. The original Colonial architect knew 
well how to get his dignified effects with no 
loss of homelikeness and with no extravagance 
of material. To the Colonial practitioner 
architecture did not mean the use of a number 
of well-known hackneyed 
details to be used time and 
time again in the most 
dog-eared fashion, but it 
meant a certain stem sim¬ 
plicity and dignified leis¬ 
ureliness, a careful eye for 
sensible design and well- 
considered form and con¬ 
scientious construction 
that is not always under¬ 
stood, it is sad to say, by 
the designers of the pres¬ 
ent time. 
Certainly you have no¬ 
ticed in visiting such 
monuments of Colonial 
architecture as Mt. Ver¬ 
non, the Longfellow house 
or the splendid old houses 
in Salem, or Portsmouth, 
that the successful Co¬ 
lonial house is not in any 
The roof swings low in the rear, covering a broad porch. A long dormer wise elaborate but rather 
adequately lights the upstairs chambers Sternly simple. The SUC- 
ful always it must have 
been even during its most 
lamentable vicissitudes, 
and under the worst as¬ 
pects it ever wore. 
Like a valuable piece of 
furniture of the Chippen¬ 
dale period, which has 
been neglected and is sad¬ 
ly out of repair, the res¬ 
toration of an old house 
requires judgment. Mr. 
Baer was content to re¬ 
store, and stop. This re¬ 
quires self-control. He 
added the extension to the 
left, which might just as 
well have been added 
toward the close of the 
18th Century had the re¬ 
quirements of the first 
owners demanded more 
room —- more “ease, ele¬ 
gance and hospitality” in 
the words of Eliza South- 
gate in her delightful 
“Letters.” But if Mr. 
Baer has amplified, it has 
been so cunningly done, 
that it is difficult to spy 
where. It is all in the 
vernacular of genuine 
18th Century work. 
Although new, this 
entrance carries a 
convincing Colonial 
atmosphere 
