u Aubrey ,” Whitemarsh , Pennsylvania 
A ubrey,” whitemarsh, 
PENNSYLVANIA. Cope and 
Stewardson , Architects. 
A house on a hilltop, with its chief rooms 
exposed to northern storms, would commonly 
be classed as an example of bad planning. 
But in the present case not to have built the 
house on the hill¬ 
top and not to 
have set it facing 
the north would 
have meant the loss 
of the greatest 
charm of its site, 
the outlook across 
the ever varying 
stretches of the 
Whitemarsh Val¬ 
ley. Placed as it 
is, i t commands 
nearby, the hillside 
churchyard of old 
St. Thomas’s, with 
the dark red tower 
of the church peep¬ 
ing through the 
trees; in the mid¬ 
dle distance broad 
meadows by the 
upper Wissahick- 
on ; and far off, rolling hills, the names of 
which recall the struggle of the Revolution. 
Not a mile away to the right is the old re¬ 
doubt called Fort Washington. 
In a neighborhood rich in memories of an 
earlier time, a style well suited for “Aubrey” 
was not far to seek. Its owner, too, had 
passed many years in an eighteenth cen¬ 
tury house with a portico of lofty columns, 
and it was but natural he should wish to give 
something of that quiet stately manner to his 
new home. Although not based on any 
specific example of old work the house pre¬ 
serves the spirit of 
the style better 
than does many a 
more conscious 
adaptation. Al¬ 
though it is not yet 
six years old, most 
men would be puz¬ 
zled to name its 
date. Its rough 
stone walls thickly 
coated with white¬ 
wash harmonize so 
well with the rude¬ 
ly fitted, irregular 
flagging of the por¬ 
tico floor, that be¬ 
tween the two they 
might even raise 
the question 
whether they had 
not been there 
when soldiers of 
the Continental Army were marching past at 
the foot of the hill. 
Standing with its back to the south, in 
which direction there is no view, the house is 
shaded by a dense grove of trees, and being 
for use in summer only, this shade is of far 
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