Editorial 
Bouse&Garden 
Vol. I. JULY, 1901. No. 2. 
EDITED BY 
Wilson Eyre, Jr., Frank Miles Day, 
and Herbert C. Wise. 
Published Monthly by 
The Architectural Publishing Company 
929 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, Penna. 
Price 
United States, Canada or Mexico, $5.00 per annum in 
advance; elsewhere in the Postal Union, $6.00. 
Single numbers, 50 cents. 
Copyrighted iqoi, by The Architectural Publishing Company. 
T O see ourselves as others see us is a 
highly edifying process, though not 
always a pleasant one. Mr. C. R. 
Ashbee, who recently visited America on be¬ 
half of the “ National Trust tor Places of 
Historic Interest and Natural Beauty,” has 
on returning to England presented his im¬ 
pressions of us to the Council ot the 1 rust. 
These impressions, distasteful as they must 
be to the average American, in many cases 
penetrate so near to the truth as to be well 
worth our consideration. 
In Chicago Mr. Ashbee found a striking 
“concentration of purpose and a lively enthu¬ 
siasm and receptivity lor new ideas.” He 
thought that in Chicago “ something absolu¬ 
tely distinctive in the aesthetic handling ol 
material had been evolved out oi the indus¬ 
trial system.” But he found that Chicago 
has as yet little regard for her civic respon¬ 
sibilities, and that she needed the application 
of the principles that make for “ the amen¬ 
ities of life more than any city in the 
United States, with the exception of Pitts¬ 
burg and perhaps New York.” The younger 
architects of Philadelphia, together with those 
of Boston and Chicago, seemed to him to 
represent the force that in England has de¬ 
veloped the Arts and Crafts movement, the 
force that “ sets its face against professional¬ 
ism in architecture, the force that sees in the 
work of the architect or the practice of his 
art a moral and ethical responsibility.” He 
found the Philadelphians, however, so re¬ 
gardless of their historic heritage that they 
had allowed the erection of an unsightly sky¬ 
scraper beside Independence Hall, with the 
result “ that all sense of scale, dignity and 
architectural proportion has been ruined.” 
New York seems to have puzzled our 
traveller, and he is fain to confess that he 
does not care to attempt an off-hand ex¬ 
pression of opinion. He notes rather slyly 
that there are many “ organizations centered 
in New York which claim a national character, 
but that elsewhere that claim is not allowed.” 
Other cities “build up their own life, create 
their own art and establish their own tradi¬ 
tions; they resent being ‘bossed’ from New 
York.” 
Pittsburg was the only city visited by Mr. 
Ashbee that seemed to him “ without any 
sort of public spirit or any sense of citizen¬ 
ship.” Richardson’s Court House he found 
in danger of “ architectural annihilation ” 
from being surrounded by high buildings, 
yet there was not “ sufficient public spirit 
among the men with whom the actual deci¬ 
sion resided to take the matter into serious 
consideration.” His estimate of the character 
of the people of Pittsburg is such delicious 
reading that we cannot refrain from quoting 
it at length. He says, “ The citizens of 
Pittsburg, more especially the wealthy ones, 
and many of those whom I had the privilege 
of meeting, were excessively wealthy, are so 
nervous of appearing ‘ unpractical ’ in one 
another’s eyes that they profess to have no 
time to consider the amenities of life in the 
city in which they dwell, nor the conditions 
of life in those from whom their wealth is 
drawn. To such an extent, indeed, is this 
disregard of time carried that they deem it 
discreditable if any of their number has time 
to spare for aught outside his own business 
affairs. Whether this over-specialization in 
the gathering of riches is producing beneficial 
results to the community or to the characters 
of the individuals the future will show. I 
am told the rate of mortality among them is 
very high.” 
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