February 1905

VOL. XVII. No. 2. FEBRUARY, 1905. WHOLE No. 77. RE&ME VILLAS ALL CONCRETE ILLUSTRATED 85 CHAS. DE KAY THE PERFECT THEATRE ILLUS- TRATED ...... IOI J. E. O. PRIDMORE THE GERMAN EXHIBIT OF ARTS AND CRAFTS ILLUSTRATED . 119 IRVING K. POND WYCHWOOD." THE HOUSE OF '.MR. CHAS. L. HUTCHINSON IL- LUSTRATED ...... 127 JOHN BAPTISTE FISCHER THE ARCHITECT IN RECENT FIC- TION. ,..,.. 137 HERBERT CROLY NOTES AND QUERIES . 141 Subscription Yearly, $3.00 PUBLISHED MONTHLY iT OFFICE OF PUBLICATION: Ncs. 14 and 16 VESEY STREET, NEW YORK CITY. WESTERN OFFICE: I2O RANDOLPH ST., CHICAGO, ILL. X* >yz a * *-*'"--* fy*-;:" #.'$*'*!% ^"f''*'*! _ m^. _ EXAMPLES OF MODERN FRENCH HARDWARE. Russell & Erwin Mfg. Co., Art Department 26 West 26th St., New York City. Made by Mai-son Fontaine, Paris. Concessionaires pour Maison Fontaine. tlbe VOL XVII, FEBRUARY, 1905. NO. 2. Villas All Concrete. He that has a house to put's head in, Now true it is that untouched surf- has a good headpiece, remarks King aces of shingle on roof and walls, of a Lear. That cottage you are going to bright day, have in shadow certain build by the seashore or in the hills, that lovely tones for eyes that note such home for the summer months which things with loving care, tones of mauve, must not cost more than seven thousand of violet, of amethyst. And in direct and surely comes to thirteen, what will light, seen nearby, thev are finely sil- you have it made of wood or brick? vern. But in the long run they have the half "timber and brick or stone? or defect of in color the per- gloominess ; gen- adventure concrete and a tiled roof? eral impression is more than dull. A Whichever you choose, there will be settlement largely composed of these mistakes and regrets. Certain mourn- cottages and small villas and old houses ful will be in order con- is somewhat mournful all the recapitulations ; creepers cerning some things forgot, and other and flowers on and near them can do things duly considered but dropped but little to cheer that gentle gloom. through motives of economy. Let us Localities where they abound stand reason a bit on these alternatives as to much in need of other styles of wall and material. roof, other materials to give variety The house of wood is the popular and color to the scene. It is true that as house in a country so favored with Bacon says, houses are to live in, not to forest growth as ours. Especially the look at. But Bacon was so fortunate as simple Colonial structure of the sea- to have a wealth of charming old houses board, with its clapboard or shingle to consider and familiarity bred in him its severe line of he sides, shingled roof, contempt ; besides, adds "therefore sharply cut off at the eaves, harsh in the let use be preferred before uniformity triangle of the gable, often heavy except where both may be had." The enough in its proportions, even when fragile materials used by our village the point of the gable is hipped and forefathers, their lack of wealth and snipped, and the slope of the roof is numbers, have prevented in most parts broken a curb or of the States the formation of by gambrel ; especially United has this derivative from the less preten- old burgs and manors, which time has tious homes of the colonists been rising ripened into things of beauty. The pres- like the mushroom along the Atlantic ent generation, having won to ideas of coast. Its merits have been hitherto ob- art beyond those of former days, is ask- vious unpretentiousness, cheapness to ing for houses that shall be good to look build, cheapness to maintain. The at as well as comfortable to live in. shingles are left unpainted and unstained That people are beginning to feel the to take their natural weather tone, dulness and gloom of the unpainted which occurs in two or three seasons. shingle cottage may be seen on Long Copyright, 1905, by "The Architectural Record Company." All rights reserved. Entered May 22, 1902, as second-class matter, Post Office at Xew York, N. Y., Act of Congress of March 3d, 1879. 3 86 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. Island in such summer camps as East tinct advantage. It presents a contrast Hampton, Wainscott, Watermill and less violent than wood to the surround- South Hampton. At East and South ings. The house is less new-looking, Hills are less to with com- Hampton and on Shinnecock raw-looking, begin ; cottages and villages of larger size, em- pared with wood, it is less a box dropped bodying the plaster or stucco wall and somewhere which might be jacked up the painted-shingle, the baked-clay or and rolled elsewhither as one often sees the cast-metal .tile for the roof. Plas- the old timber houses stalking along the tered and wire-lathed, and metal-tiled as roads. It seems rooted like a true to roof, is the Italian villa on Lake growth to the earth. Owing to the old- Georgica belonging to the painter Al- world originals from which they have HOUSE OF ALBERT HBRTER. Georgica Lake, East Hampton, L. I. Grosvenor Atterbury, Architect. bert Herter. The villa on the hill to the been studied, the architect has left rea- east of East Hampton, belonging to Dr. sonable wall spaces on which the eyes Clarence C. Rice, like the former, from rest with an undefined but no less real designs by Grosvenor Atterbury, has its sense of pleasure. As the ampelopsis, fine big shingle roof painted red. The honeysuckle and climbing roses invest smaller dwellings, of Benjamin Rich- the lower parts, the house takes stronger ards in the village of East Hampton, root and seems to grow from the lawn and "Pink House," the home of Mr. or the sandv dune. Wiechmann at Wainscott, are plastered On the other hand, even when at- frame houses, which offer a happy vari- tempts are made in wooden houses to ant from the mass of unpainted or dully provide some resting places for the eyes, painted dwellings. Yet the result is ob- the material itself cannot fail to sug- tained simply enough by a cement or gest that it is a surface of parts as- stucco skin applied to plaster-board or sembled, a combination of beams and metallic lath. boards and separate shingles. Unless So far as looks are concerned, the there is some special beauty in such stucco gray or pink or pale green in combination, as in furniture made art- tone and grainy as to surface is a dis- fully of different sorts of wood, and FILLAS ALL CONCRETE. HOUSE OF DR. RICE. East Hampton, L. I. Grosvenor Atterbury, Architect. 38 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. therefore interesting, the effect is chil- cliff and rocky outcrop from the soil. ling. Stucco or concrete differs from Do they not stand closer to Mother or brick or stone in that it Earth than structures wood brings wooden ; taking unity into the wall, suggests restfulness us back unconsciously through the laby- and strength, massiveness and immov- rinth of long-vanished ancestral days, by ableness, as if the building of which it the obscure paths of instinct, perhaps, to is the support were part of the landscape the ages when the race passed untold itself. Even in their abject ruins, de- centuries as cliff-dwellers, mound-bur- prived of their coverings of marbles and rowers, inhabitants of wattled mud- mosaics, the great walls of concrete of walled cabins, whitewashed earthen farm the imperial baths at Rome have a ma- and high-walled fortalice? The flat THE HOUSE OF BENJAMIN RICHARDS. East Hampton, L. I. jesty that neither brick nor stone pos- roofs and long, unrelieved walls of sesses. But if we add to these quali- Oriental towns appeal to us through ties the colors which the paintless cot- atavism, it may be. Who knows but tages we speak of so conspicuously lack, this may explain our liking for such it is clear that such buildings are very walls as much as do the more logical valuable, if it were only to leaven the and immediate reasons of economy and in should be lump ; and, fact, encouraged practical worth? as a relief to the sombreness of the That there are reasoned grounds for townscape. this liking is apparent. Beside a certain Why do we hail with satisfaction in quality in the colors on stucco or con- Spain or Mexico, Italy or France, those crete, a quality which cannot be ob- gray or ivory white, yellowish, pink or tained by unpainted or by stained or so and beside the claim pale green walls, simple uncostly, painted wood ; special as they appear to us with their concomi- of the shadows from deep eaves when tants of vineyard and olive orchard ? Is they fall on broad, united, grainy surf- it not because of a faint suggestion of aces, there are impressions of dura- VILLAS ALL CONCRETE. 89 VILLA OF MISS ANINE ARCHBOL.D. Bar Harbor, Me. THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. VILLAS ALL CONCRETE. 9 1 m CQ THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. VILLAS ALL CONCRETE. 93 bility, of security from fire, of impene- less costly in the long run, because they trability by damp and like suggestions need no painting or repairs. They are of a practical kind which may not be formed from inexhaustible earth by kiln altogether true in the wall that has a heat or by mixture with some propor- plaster skin, but at any rate seems true. tion of cement, or steam or some chem- I venture to say that brick seems less ical change, or by simple compression, durable, less serviceable in keeping out and in any quantity.

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