File:American homes and gardens (1910) (18158353931).jpg

Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesgar71910newy (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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Text Appearing Before Image:
404 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS October, 1910 namental touches in the way of out-door furniture have been added since the photographs were made. A long, cen- ter driveway was imperative, but this has been balanced by a formal entrance and a graceful loop at the extreme end. From the farthest point of view the eye is arrested by the contrasted colors of the roofs, side walls and trim- mings, which bear a touch of resemblance to the Old World buildings from which the exterior lines have been adopted. Some of the roofs are of red tiles, others are of colored slates, violet, blue and green, laid like shingles. The shutters, some of them made after the Ital- ian manner, the casement windows, hooded d o o r- ways and mosaics laid in the stucco, contribute to the quaint charm of the architectural lines. The American fondness for living out of doors in the warm weather, which finds expression In some kind of porch or piazza at- tachment to every subur- ban house, has not been disregarded, but, rather, made a significant part of each plan, appearing not always in the front, but sometimes at the side or back in an attractive veranda. Iron balconies on the second floor of original designs the better to meet a decorative effect, and the housewife's need for the airing of clothes and rugs, are also kept in mind. With the cellars of poured concrete, the floors of re- inforced concrete, walls and partitions of tiles and roofs of tiles or slates, the solidity of these houses—aside from their fireproof qualities—is more than assured. Floors of Welsh quarry tiles have been laid in the vesti- bules and halls as the most sanitary surface for these situa- tions, imparting also an agreeable color note that will, doubtless be repeated in the wall coverings and window curtains, and intermixed with the blues and dull reds of Oriental rugs.
Text Appearing After Image:
A comfortable kitchen The fireplace is universally conceded to be the architec- tural focus of a room, a fact that has been most artistically presented in each of the Kellogg-Green houses. The de- signs for the woodwork have been, in every instance supported by brick or tile facing, in harmonizing colors and styles. The Moravian Pottery has been drawn on for the latter details, besides plaster reproductions of classic sculpture. The hearth stones, seemingly a minor item, have also been carefully selected to conform to the fireplace scheme as a whole. In the choice of wood for the interior finish the preference has been given to chestnut for the first floor, on which gray, green or brown stain has been ap- plied. In some of the houses the finish for the floors corresponds with the trim. On the bedroom of the second story the wood finish is painted white. A marked innovation is the installing of glass- paned, hinged doors in place of the ordinary slid- ing doors between the prin- cipal rooms, to be screened with net or silk, if desired, or to be left with the glass exposed for increasing the light. Another picturesque eftect is contributed by raising one of the living-rooms of the first floor above the general level, as, for instance, where the dining-room is reached by three wide, low steps from the library. Such of the houses as have been already papered in- dicate the resourcefulness of these houses for an artistic expression that usually belongs only with dwellings of high cost. Lacking the numerous jogs and angles of a frame building, the simplicity of line exacted by the tile con- struction appears to advantage when the decoration of the wall is attempted, giving a feeling of space even in the most contracted quarters. The imported wall-papers, French, English and German, selected for the different rooms, have been considered, not alone for their individual effect, but also for the harmon-

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