File:American homes and gardens (1905) (18124877916).jpg

Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesgar11905newy (find matches)
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic; Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Munn and Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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226 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS October, 1905 which to-day is quite as much a " show place " of Princeton as when it was built, between 1701 and 1709. On the right of the hall are two rooms, one front and one back, which, retain their original dimensions. The front room is a morning-room or reception-room. It is a yellow room, with yellow walls and white wood trim, and yellow furniture with mahogany frames. All of the woodwork and permanent fixtures are original except the mantel, which, for the reason already stated, is new. But behind it, in the chimney breast, are the little side cupboards built by the original builder. The doorways are small and, like the window frames, are surmounted with low, flat pediments. The adjoining room to the rear is the billiard-room. The walls are a delicate blue; the curtains a light blue velvet; carpet of the same hue surrounds the billiard table, which, Beyond the drawing-room is the library. To its cultured owner this is easily the most important room in the house by reason of its fine literary contents, and it is fully that by rea- son of its great structural beauty. It is designed in the Tudor style, the walls lined throughout with books, save where discontinued for the handsome fireplace and chimney of Caen stone, the ceiling beamed with white panels. The curtains are of green and yellow, the rug green. The book- cases are a part of the permanent fixtures of the room, but it would scarcely be correct to speak of them as built in, for the window frames are built out to their outer edge. The bookcases do not, therefore, extend into the room, but the entire apartment is surrounded with an inner frame of wood, under a part of which are the shelves for the books and under the other part the windows. It is a spacious room, the
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" Drumthwacket "—The Drawing-Room owing to the somewhat restricted dimensions of the room, completely fills the center. A door on the side at the further end opens onto an open terrace floored with brick, and of which the furniture—table and benches—are marble. A triple doorway, one end of which opens from the morn- ing-room, the other two ends from the billiard-room, abutting against the dividing wall, leads to the drawing-room. This is in the new part of the house and is several steps lower than the older part. It is, therefore, a distinctly modern room, very beautifully detailed; the walls are paneled, the door- ways are arched, and between the further pair of arches is an elaborately carved Italian marble mantelpiece. The walls are hung with damask of a rich maroon hue, and the curtains and furniture are of the same color. The wall panels, wainscot and other woodwork are painted white. inner dimensions from frame to frame being about 33 x 21 feet. It is a room that glows with light, so broad and ample are the windows; and it is also permeated with a dis- tinct architectural charm, so agreeable is its form, so well studied its detail, so delightful the effect of the whole. It is a library to live in and to work in, and every part of it speaks aloud the profound interest and affection of its owner, not alone for the room, but for the carefully chosen collection of books which are at once its finest adornment and chiefest treasure. Yet there are other treasures in the room than the books. Most of the furniture is made from ancient oak obtained from an old English school. Just before the fire- place—it can be discerned in the photograph—is a little wooden stand made by James Madison. In one of the book- cases is a tea set that belonged to Dolly Madison, and there

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