November, 1918 
41 
A detail of the living room shows the paneling and fireplace. The 
frame around the opening, with no mantel shelf, is typical of pre- 
Revolutionary work 
The other view of the living room shows the simplicity in furnishing 
that characterizes the entire treatment of the house. Most of the 
furniture is antique 
cessful Colonial house, the one you remember 
longest, is not one that stands at the roadside 
and blatantly proclaims its qualities of having 
Colonial details upon every available square 
foot of the structure, but it is the unassuming 
one that stands back among great trees and is 
surrounded by flowers and vines and perhaps 
contains no single detail that you ever saw or 
ever heard or imagined having been used in 
any house of the authentic Colonial period. 
As It Was Found 
At the time of its purchase, the exterior of 
Mr. Baer’s house was encumbered by many 
additions that had been put in place by gen¬ 
erations of farmer owners to whom strictly util¬ 
itarian considerations occupied a much more 
important place than any thought of archi¬ 
tectural continuity or faithfulness to any 
esthetic laws. 
In spite of this, you will agree that this 
house now carries with it as convincing an 
atmosphere of genuineness as a house may 
conveniently possess. Careful study of the 
photograph reproduced here shows us that in 
order to get this Colonial atmosphere, it was 
not necessary to go out with a pencil and rule 
and make an exact copy of an old example. 
Too often the copy lacks the convincing spirit 
of age that this house so distinctly possesses, 
for the simple reason that the copy lacks the 
sturdy truthfulness of construction and those 
qualities of virile resourcefulness that the de¬ 
signers put into the original product. 
To design a Colonial house successfully as¬ 
sumes that the designer possess some of that 
Colonial feeling. The “doing” of Colonial (in 
modern practice) too often completely ignores 
any possession, even the smallest, of those 
qualities. But Mr. Baer’s house shows the 
superintendent of its restoration to be the for¬ 
tunate possessor of those desirable qualities. 
Restoring or designing in Colonial is a little 
understood art. A well-known Colonialist 
once explained that he had no use for the many 
excellent text books that have been published 
on this style, because he had Pepys Diary 
always on hand and numerous volumes of 18th 
Century letters and memoirs, all of which he 
considered were the best guides for the acquisi¬ 
tion of the feeling and spirit of the age in 
which Colonial work was produced. 
This certain feeling which makes you sense 
that here is something unusual in the way of 
fine old houses, is all secured by refraining 
from copying and reproducing time and again 
the forms and details that the Colonial builder 
and designer produced. It is obtained through 
the more difficult task of copying the Colonial 
point of view and designing in the light of 
the knowledge gained thereby. 
Mr. Baer seems to have understood all this 
and then, too, in addition to all that, it is also 
true that he seems to have been especially for¬ 
tunate in the important matter of entourage, the 
lay of the ground, and the disposition of some 
venerable trees. 
You cannot simulate the irresistible tran¬ 
quillity and twilight of great age with saplings, 
a few two-year-old shrubs, a lawn mower and 
some crushed blue stone for the walks. 
You cannot induce a comfortable breakfast 
feeling with the typical setting of a commuter’s 
home and the knowledge that everything de¬ 
pends upon one making a certain train. 
The Illusion of Ease 
The existence that is suggested by most sub¬ 
urban homes to-day, is one of hurried nervous¬ 
ness and restlessness while the Colonial house 
suggests an opposite condition of things. 
And if there is one desideratum, which I 
may say is the sine qua non in every restoration 
of the Colonial house, it is the atmospheric 
illusion which pervades the whole picture, that 
one’s time is still a little one’s own to be con¬ 
secrated to a little homely charity. 
Mr. Baer, if I am not mistaken, does not 
rush for a train that “gets him in” at 8:58. 
Unless all the indications of his house are 
false, he takes a later train and comes in to 
town in a very leisurely manner on one that 
arrives nearer 9:25. 
Hidden under many coats of paper, plaster and galvanized iron the 
architect found an old kitchen fireplace, which he incorporated into 
the dining room 
In one corner of the dining room has been built a Colonial china 
closet, which is characteristic of the period and harmonizes with the 
furnishings 
! 
