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HOUSES FOR TOWN
OR COUNTRY
A NEW-OLD DOORWAY
HOUSES
for |H|
TOWN or COUNTRY
BY
William Herbert
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK
Duffield & Company
1907
COPYRIGHT 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1907,
BY THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD Co.
COPYRIGHT 1907, BY
DUFFIELD & COMPANY
Published August, 1907
CONTENTS
PAGE
I. AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE OF TO-DAY . 3
II. THE TYPICAL TOWN HOUSE .... 39
III. THE AMERICAN COUNTRY ESTATE . . 63
IV. THE TYPICAL COUNTRY HOUSE ... 89
V. THE HOUSE FOR ALL THE YEAR . . . 105
VI. THE HALL AND THE STAIRS . . . . 126
VII. THE LIVING-ROOM 145
VIII. THE DINING-ROOM . . . . . .158
IX. THE BEDROOM 177
X. THE KITCHEN 192
XI. THE HOUSE IN RELATION TO OUT-OF-
DOORS 203
XII. NEW USES OF OLD FORMS 222
HOUSES FOR TOWN
OR COUNTRY
CHAPTER I
AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE OF TO-DAY
THE United States has of late years passed through
a period of significant activity in house-building.
Beginning with 1899, Americans began to realise
that their stock of buildings of all kinds was inade-
quate or superannuated. Increased volume of busi-
ness, improved standards of living, higher aesthetic
ideals all demanded more buildings, in some cases
larger buildings, and buildings of a different type.
Railroads found their stations cramped and ill-
planned, their bridges too light to carry the heavier
rolling stock they were using. Inn-keepers discovered
that their patrons wanted larger and more sump-
tous hotels, and at the same time they wished to take
advantage themselves of recent improvements in the
mechanics of hotel arrangement and outfit. The
growth of cities and the increase in the wealth of
their capitalists and banks encouraged as never before
in so short a period the erection of huge office build-
ings; factories and warehouses of greater dimensions
and superior equipment were demanded in even
larger numbers; western and southern cities as well
as New York found apartment houses paying specu-
lative enterprises; and finally, all over the country
rich and moderately well-to-do people were stimu-
lated either to build new and larger dwellings, or to
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HOUSES FOR TOWN OR COUNTRY
remodel and redecorate, with the guidance of the
best contemporary standards of design and embel-
lishment, the dwellings which they already had. A
complete set of new architectural mechanism and
scenery was required; and it is not too much to say
that in constructing it the American people accom-
plished in a few years an amount of building quite
unprecedented in the history of the world.
What dominant tendencies are traceable in
this miscellaneous mass of new construction? Which
of these tendencies are new? Which significant?
Which wholesome? What vitality have these
wholesome tendencies?
The tendency best worth remarking is the increas-
ing influence of a few general types of design.
American architecture is still heterogeneous and in-
discriminate enough; but not nearly so much so as
it used to be. Certain solutions of special problems
have been worked out, and largely adopted ; and it is
even more encouraging to note that these special
ways of treatment and types of design, while open to
many serious objections, have all some measure of
propriety. Architecture in America, in other words,
is becoming nationalised in very much the same
way, if not to very much the same extent, as in mod-
ern England or France.
The more complete nationalising of American
architecture in this limited sense may not seem to be
a very important or desirable achievement; but from
the point of view of the history of American archi-
tecture, it is both. There can be no doubt that the
process in question is one of improvement, and
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HOUSES FOR TOWN OR COUNTRY
promises, by giving some coherence and definiteness
to a collection of designs formerly much more in-
coherent and dubious, to make the long and devious
path of American architectural experimentation end
in some genuine local architectural types.
It is a singular fact that American architectural
practice was most uniform at the time when Ameri-
can social life was most completely divided by
local and provincial traditions and customs. Not-
withstanding differences arising from the contrast
between the manner of life of a New England mer-
chant and a Virginian planter, the larger Colonial
building was surprisingly the same in all parts of
the country, just as it was also surprisingly similar to
its prototype in Georgian England. In the same
way the architectural pseudo-classicism of the early
days of the Republic, as soon as it was sufficiently
introduced and properly familiarised, was used al-
most universally in buildings intended to possess any
considerable architectural quality. In both these
cases Americans were content to imitate a habit of
design which originated abroad and was authorised
by the respectable critical opinion of the day. They
were frankly Colonial in their practice, untroubled
by any aspirations after originality, diversity or pic-
turesqueness.
As American life became more thoroughly nation-
alised, American architecture lost its early innocence
of imitation, and consequently its early uniform-
ity. It abandoned all touch with the respectable
critical opinion of other countries; and it was
quite without any definite critical opinions, respect-
6
HOUSES FOR TOWN OR COUNTRY
able or otherwise, of its own. In fact it had no
leading strings, except certain blind but significant
NEW YORK HOUSE FRONTS
instincts. The practice of imitation was deep-
rooted; but it was the practice of imitating foreign
models exclusively. There was never any thought
8
AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE OF TO-DAY
of working over, or of really appropriating the
forms already nationalised in this country. The
period of American architecture meant merely the
RENAISSANCE FACADES
substitution of indiscriminate habits of imitation, for
the selective imitation which had up to that time
prevailed. The idea apparently was that the United
States had inherited, architecturally, all the styles of
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HOUSES FOR TOWN OR COUNTRY
the present and of the past, of the East and the
West; and that the best way to use this heritage was
to transplant to American soil as many samples as
possible of these various types of building So, dur-
ing the twenty years preceding the war, American
architecture showed how disinterested and impar-
tial it was by becoming responsible for a surprising
collection of Greek and Egyptian temple-residences,
Italian villas, French chateaux, Oriental padogas
and Gothic cottages. If there was any style of
building which the American architect of that
period missed, its omission was assuredly due to
ignorance rather than to intention. Of course, this
ignorant and riotous copying was to be found chiefly
in the design of private dwellings. The official
architecture of the whole of this period tended to
be very conservative; and while New York did not
avoid the anomaly of an " Egyptian" prison, Wash-
ington was spared the misfortune of any precisely
analogous absurdity.
Without going into the details of our architectural
history, it is sufficient for present purposes to say
that design in this country has retained ever since to
a greater or less extent this habit of indiscriminate
imitation. Its occasional attempts at originality
have been limited either to mere exaggerated dis-
tortions of conventional types, or to the incongruous
mixture of several different types in one building.
There has, however, been a constant improvement
in the quality of the imitation, owing to the im-
provement in the training and equipment of the
American architect and a number of special archi-
10
AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE OF TO-DAY
tectural movements have at different times had a great
deal of influence. During the seventies, for instance,
the attempted reform of the methods of interior deco-
ration, which originated with Charles Eastlake, had
considerable popularity. Next the powerful per-
sonality of Richardson printed the Romanesque Re-
vival upon many of the most important buildings
erected during the eighties. Since then the cur-
rent has been running toward several different dilu-
tions of the Italian or the French Renaissance styles.
All of these architectural tendencies are embodied in
a greater or smaller number of buildings; but the
point is that the particular tendencies now prevailing
are embodied in a greater number of buildings than
ever before. The Eastlakian reform and the Roman-
esque revival affected different parts of the country
very unevenly. The tendencies now at work are
more evenly and generally effective ; and if the
larger of the new buildings could all be grouped
together they would show both fewer architectural
types and a wider geographical distribution of
them.
Take, for instance, the designing of tall office-
buildings. When steel construction began to have
its effect upon the height and the looks of office-
buildings, two tendencies were traceable in their
design. In New York there was no attempt, as there
should be in any kind of building, to make their
appearance express their structure. A convention of
treating them as columns with a decorated capital,
a long plain central shaft, and a heavier base, was
early adopted ; and within the limits of this general
ii
HOUSES FOR TOWN OR COUNTRY
A PHILADELPHIA HOUSE FRONT
idea, the regular architectural, structural and deco-
rative forms were used regardless of their ordinary
structural functions and associations. In Chicago,
12
AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE OF TO-DAY
on the other hand, while many buildings were de-
signed along the same lines as New York, there was
a tendency towards a franker expression in the
design of these buildings of the plain facts of their
steel structure. Such is no longer the case. The
new sky-scrapers, which have been, and are being,
erected in large numbers in Chicago and Pittsburgh,
as well as New York, almost all conform to the con-
ventional treatment, long since adopted in the me-
tropolis and this in spite of comparatively good-
looking attempts to solve the problem within the
limitations imposed by the structure. Whether or
not the American architect has, in this instance,
chosen the wrong alternative, he has at any rate, for
the time being, adopted a comparatively uniform
type for the design of the " sky-scrapers."
Very much the same inference can be drawn from
the manner in which the later hotels have been de-
signed. Until recently the larger hotels of the
United States did not in their appearance embody
the remotest approach to a convention. Except in
one or two instances they were ugly and incongruous
hodge-podges of worthless architectural motives.
Apparently nobody cared very much how a hotel
looked or what atmosphere it exhaled. The early
big American inns, such as the Astor and Palmer
houses, were morose and heavy but grandiose build-
ings, embodying, one might infer, the idea that
hotels were a kind of public penal institution, from
which guests must be denied escape. Even the
Auditorium in Chicago belongs in this respect to
the earlier type of American hotels. Although
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HOUSES FOR TOWN OR COUNTRY
architecturally of the highest interest, its fagade pos-
sesses none the less a grim and forbidding aspect,
which is out of keeping with the uses to which the
building is put. It was the Waldorf-Astoria which
changed all this and started hotel fagades off on new
lines. By reason of its magnitude, its conspicuous-
ness, its success, and even, with all its faults, of a
certain propriety in the design, its architect has
really established a fashion in hotel fronts. Since
its erection both architects and proprietors of these
buildings have come to realise that one means of
attracting the custom of rich and " smart" people is
to put up a "smart" appearance on the outside as
well as on the inside of their hotels; and ever since
some such attempt has been made. The big new
hotels, both in New York and the other leading
cities, are revised versions of the Waldorf-Astoria or
the Manhattan or both. Specifically French char-
acteristics have in most cases been intensified; but
the parentage is unmistakable, and is traceable in
the Hotel St. Regis, the Hotel Astor, the Knicker-
bocker, in the larger apartment hotels of New York,
in the New Stratford in Philadelphia, the New
Willard in Washington, the Belvidere in Baltimore,
and even the Lafayette in Buffalo. While one may
or may not like this sort of thing, one must admit
that it has an appropriately festive appearance, and
that it affords an excellent illustration of the
increased prevalence of certain specific types in
American architecture.
The two foregoing instances suggest that perhaps
the secret of this increased prevalence of specific
14
HOUSES FOR TOWN OR COUNTRY
types is the growing assumption by New York of an
actual metropolitan function in the social economy
of the country. From this / point of view American
architecture would be obtaining certain definite
general characteristics, because the smaller cities
were looking to New York for leadership in matters
of taste. There is undoubtedly some truth in this
interpretation of the facts. New York is more the
leader in matters of taste than it ever has been before.
It does a great deal, and is constantly doing more to
fix the standards, such as they are, of the rest of the
country. But the extent to which other cities look
to New York for their architectural conventions
has some obvious and significant limitations. New
York in its relation to the rest of the country has two
distinguishing characteristics: It is the city, on
the one hand, of the rich man, the national corpo-
rations, and the big buildings. On the other hand i-t
is the port of entry of the latest foreign artistic in-
jection. It so happens at the present time that these
two different characteristics of New York have a
very unequal effect upon the rest of the country. In
all showy and costly structures, such as office build-
ings, hotels, and " palatial residences," the general
standards and conventions are for the most part de-
rived from New York; and this current of imitation
of some part of the latest foreign architectural in-
jection, gives an impetus to a kind of Beaux-Arts
movement over the South and the West. For the
most part, however, the Beaux-Arts influence is con-
fined to New York. It has had practically no effect
upon any but the biggest residences and apartment
16
HOUSES FOR TOWN OR COUNTRY
A TYPE OF INEXPENSIVE DWELLING
houses. The smaller dwellings in the other cities
owe little to New York, while in the western cities
an interesting and in some respects excellent local
type of apartment house is being developed.
The comparative lack of influence of New York
over the design of middle-class residences and
apartment houses is partly due to the peculiarly
local conditions which determine such designs in
the metropolis. New York is cramped for space and
will remain so until subways, bridges and tunnels
abolish the impediments to free communication re-
sulting from its insular situation. Western cities, on
18
AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE OF TO-DAY
the other hand, can expand in almost any direction
with the utmost freedom, and a comparatively poor
resident of one of them can afford to buy as much
land in an eligible location as a very rich man may
in New York. In consequence the detached resi-
dence still prevails in the West and even in certain
parts of the East, whereas the block residence,
whether private or multiple, prevails and will con-
tinue to prevail in New York. New York has, of
course, its suburbs; but its suburban residences, ex-
cept in a few choice locations, belong to an inferior
type. Its typical dwelling is that erected on a lot
measuring from twenty-five to fifty by one hundred,
and covering as large a portion of that lot as the law
allows; and the successful solution of the architec-
tural problem offered by such a fagade contains little
that is useful to the designer of the detached resi-
dence of the West.
The influence of New York consequently on resi-
dential design does not cover either a very consider-
able area or very many instances. Some large seven
and eight-story apartment houses have recently been
erected in Washington; and these buildings, deplor-
ably out of keeping with the general atmosphere and
appearance of the city, might very well have been
situated in those parts of the West Side of New
York most dominated by the speculative builder of
flats. Outside of Washington, however, apartment
houses of this type are a rare and insignificant ex-
crescence. In the same way the millionaires' resi-
dences of the West are frequently nothing more than
vulgarised imitations of some of the "stunning"
19
HOUSES FOR TOWN OR COUNTRY
dwellings designed by New York architects for rich
New York clients, which instead of being " stun-
ning " are more often stupefying. The resemblance,
such as it is, is much more a matter of the interior
than of the exterior. Their detachment so com-
pletely alters the conditions under which they are
designed that there is a corresponding alteration in
their appearance.
The suburban apartment house of the West is a
type of residence almost unknown either in New
York or its vicinity. The New York apartment
house has none of the characteristics of good do-
mestic architecture. At its best it tends to become a
copy of the corresponding French type, and obtains
some of the same effect of festive publicity; but the
speculative builder very seldom allows it to appear
at its best. It is a kind of residence which no man
of taste would choose unless he were obliged to do
so. The better suburban apartment house of the
West, on the contrary, is obliged to make itself at-
tractive. People of moderately respectable means
are not forced to live in a flat. If they choose to do
so, it is not because they could not afford a house;
it is merely because they find a flat for some reason
more suitable to their particular needs. Flats and
dwellings, that is, are more nearly on the same eco-
nomic level, and compete freely with each other;
and as an incident to this competition, the builders
of low-priced flats try harder to retain some of the
advantages of private residences without surrender-
ing the advantages of all multiple residences. Con-
sequently the suburban apartment house of the
20
AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE OF TO-DAY
West is frequently built free from neighbouring
buildings, is surrounded by open spaces made at-
tractive with shrubbery and flowers; is generally
designed in a distantly Georgian and Jacobean man-
ner, and so presents the appearance of a domestic
building; and each apartment is often supplied with
a pleasant roomy piazza for the exclusive use of its
occupants. It is also easier under such conditions to
plan the flats so that the rooms are larger, better
lighted, and more effectively distributed. It is evi-
dent that residential buildings of this type will be-
come still more important in the future, and are
destined to be more numerous than they now are
in the New York suburbs.
In the design of private dwellings, New York has
no more general influence upon the South and West
than it does in the design of apartment houses. In
this respect the West is adopting a tradition which
has been better preserved in Boston and Philadel-
phia than in New York, the tradition of the good
brick styles. The advantage which it derives from
possessing an abundance of comparatively cheap and
Accessible land cannot be overestimated. The pri-
ate dwelling which forms a part of the block and
tends to become taller and deeper constitutes a muti-
lated and discouraging architectural problem; and
it is particularly discouraging in cities, such as those
of England and the United States, wherein archi-
tectural ignorance and caprice have not been regu-
lated by convention or law. We believe that the
better contemporary New York dwelling is a great
improvement upon the corresponding grade of
23
mam
m
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HOUSES FOR TOWN OR COUNTRY
London dwellings, as well as upon the better New
York dwelling of ten years or more ago; but it has
little interest from the present point of view, because
it has not as yet succeeded in reaching the respect-
able routine that would be its best merit, which is
the line of development we are now seeking to trace
in American design.
Th West, however, is emancipated from these
disadvantageous conditions. Its new urban dwell-
ings, costing from $40,000 to $200,000, are designed
under very favorable circumstances. The avenues
and boulevards upon which its handsome houses are
situated are broad and well-shaded and admirably
adapted to the use of automobiles a conveyance
which will be extremely effective in confirming the
use of this type of dwelling. Each house is a unit,
and is generally surrounded by sufficient land to
enable the architect to enhance his design by appro-
priate landscape arrangements. It is possible under
such conditions to give a personal and domestic at-
mosphere to the individual house; which is just
what is happening in the West particularly in the
large Middle Western cities.
The design of these buildings is beginning to show
certain definite characteristics. The use of brick is
very general except in a few of the most expensive
houses, and in many cases even these expensive
houses are no exception to this rule. Wherever
brick is used, it is generally well used. The historic
domestic styles appropriate to brick construction
are, of course, the Georgian and Jacobean, so that
when it is asserted that the great majority of these
26
AMERICAN COUNTRY HOUSES
AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE OF TO-DAY
RESIDENCE ON FERRY STREET, BUFFALO
houses are modifications either of the Georgian or
Jacobean types of dwelling, they have been placed
in an excellent stylistic tradition. Of the two the
Georgian predominates, both because of its Ameri-
can associations, and because it is better adapted to
the comparatively modest dimensions of the great
majority of these houses. The Georgian is also
treated with better effect because its forms are less
difficult to handle than those of a transitional style
like the Jacobean. The only other historical domes-
tic form found in a sufficient number of examples to
demand notice, is the Elizabethan timbered gabled
29
HOUSES FOR TOWN OR COUNTRY
dwelling. This type is very popular, perhaps more
popular than the Jacobean, because it also is adapted
to houses of comparatively small cost; and the archi-
tects who use it show much more skill than formerly
in avoiding the mere looseness of design for which
these irregular styles offer opportunity.
The examples given above sufficiently illustrate
the truth of my preliminary statement that American
architects are adopting more than ever certain
stereotyped kinds of design. I have traced the pres-
ence of these types in office buildings, in the larger
hotels, in apartment houses and private dwellings.
Examples might include the best kind of factory
buildings and warehouses, and a large number of
one-story bank buildings. It is unnecessary, how-
ever, to describe in any further detail the existence
of this tendency towards increased definition, and it
only remains to pass a proper judgment upon its sig-
nificance and value.
There can be no doubt that the increasing au-
thority of certain special types of design constitutes
the line of progress for American architecture. The
architect more than any other artist is dependent
upon precedent. The material of his work is not
derived from nature or life, but from the work of
his predecessors. His individual genius counts for
less than in the other arts; the general social and the
particular technical standards count for more. This
was particularly true in the great periods of Greek
and Gothic architecture, whose noblest monuments
were almost literally the work of communities and
certain particular, although flexible, forms were
30
AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE OF TO-DAY
absolutely imposed upon the architects. With the
Renaissance began a period of more conscious
imitation of forms that had already been devel-
oped to the highest degree of perfection. It gave
the individual architect a greater freedom of choice