CHITECTVRA, RECORD January i 9 1 5 ~ Published by The Architectural Record C? New York. Buildinr Made from Long, Tough Root Fiber The inevitable time fully planned and manufac- has arrived when an improve- tured. ment in wall boards is ex- Chemically deprived The demand is for a pected. of its wood properties, FI- board whose of useful- range BERLIC is difficult to ignite, ness and inherent qualities is a better insulator against all others. surpass heat, cold, sound and vibration, This demand has been and absolutely excludes mould met. growth and insect life which FIRERLIC BUILD- flourish in ordinary wood com- ING BOARD owes of many position. its advantages over ordinary FIBERLIC is made ground wood or paper pulp in and half- boards to the unique and ex- eighth, quarter inch an controlled material thickness, advantage clusively when which is its base. immediately apparent unusual requirements exclude From a long, tough the consideration of fib^red root imported from light board. Turkish Arabia, there is weight formed under pressure, a The complete story of strong, homogeneous, natural- FIBERLIC is interesting from ly reinforced mass of closely purely an educational stand- interlaced fibers, which gives point, aside from establishing FIBERLIC, a uniform, rigid a newer a'nd better method of and tenacious texture, impos- constructing walls and ceil- sible in any board less care- ings. We shall be pleased to answer fully and technically any questions. Send for sample The Fiberlic Company Camel en New Jersey VOL. XXXVII. No. I JANUARY, 1915 SERIAL NO. 196 ARCH1TECTVRAL RECORD COVER South Entrance of Independence Hall, Philadelphia. Page Drawing by Jack Manley Rose THE ARCHITECTURAL RECLAMATION OF SMALL AREAS IN CITIES 1 By Harold D. Eberlein THE VILLA MADAMA. Part II 26 Text and Measured Drawings by Howard W. Germann AN ARCHITECT'S COUNTRY HOUSE: Residence of Electus Litchfield, Esq., New Canaan, Conn. - - - 48 By Harriet T. Bottomley WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, St. Louis, Mo. Cope & Stewardson, Architects * 64 By Guy Study A MODERN VERSION OF THE EARLY PENNSYLVANIA COUNTRY HOUSE : Residence of William T. Harris, Esq., Villa Nova, Pa. Duhring, - Okie & Ziegler, Architects - 76 By C. Matlack Price PORTFOLIO OF CURRENT ARCHITECTURE 82 THE ARCHITECT'S LIBRARY: Books by Practical Theorist Gram and Blashfield 93 By Richard Franz Bach NOTES AND COMMENTS 96 : D. Editor: MICHAEL A. MIKKELSEN. Contributing Editor HERBERT CROLY Advertising Manager: AUSTIN L. BLACK 1914 The Architectural Yearly Subscription United States $3.00 Entered May 22. 1902. as Second Copyright by Record All Reserved Foreign $4.00 Single Copies 35 cents Class Matter, at New York. N. Y. Company Righto PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD COMPANY 115-119 WEST FORTIETH STREET. NEW YORK F. W. DODGE, President F. T. MILLER, Secretary and Treasurer LIVING-ROOMOWN HOUSE IN LIME STREET, BOSTON. RICHARD ARNOLD FISHER, ARCHITECT. THE . ARCHITECTVRAL RECORD JANVARY, 1915 VOLVME XXXVII NVMBER I S2? ARCH1TECTVRAL RECLAMATION OF SMALL AREAS IN CITIES By Harold D. Eberlem the most of all available residential districts alike. In the busi- MAKINGspace in our cities is a matter ness world, motives of convenience and of serious import. Indeed, in the stress of competition dictate a com- many cases, it is more than a matter paratively restricted area of activity as of serious import; it is a matter, rather, the eligible location for those whose of imperative necessity. The necessity commercial or professional success de- is occasioned and emphasized by the pends largely upon ease and dispatch growing congestion -of population, a of communication and personal contact population that is increasing by leaps with their customers, clients or asso- and bounds, and by the consequent ciates. Modern transit facilities have sharp advance in 'real estate values. Itr made it possible to realize this tendency not a few instances the problem of mak- to rush to one focal point and, as a neces- ing each square foot of space render sary result, the skyscraper has been its utmost service and bring in the evolved to relieve the situation in some largest possible financial return has be- degree. come intensely acute. The architectural On the other hand and here lies our reclamation of neighborhoods or parts present concern in urban residential of neighborhoods whose possibilities districts the pressure has been present have hitherto been ignored, offers one for some time past, is steadily becoming valuable means of relieving the strain. more and more insistent and refuses to The pressure is felt in business and be satisfied with the apartment house or 4-o THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. flat as the only practicable solution of they live during the greater part of the the difficulty. While highly organized year and do most of their entertaining methods of transportation have greatly but choose to live in the city during the fostered city growth and assured ease winter and early spring and do not care of communication between the various to keep up large and expensive houses sections, the fact remains that certain which it suits them to occupy during centrally located neighborhoods are only a limited period. When they are deemed particularly desirable for pur- in the city they wish to be in the midst poses of residence, whether from consid- of it where the social life centres. All erations of convenience, of personal classes are thoroughly representative of preference or, perhaps, from sentimen- the "back to the city" movement. tal attachment. Concurrently with the Opportunities for the felicitous archi- well recognized "back to the country" tectural reclamation of modest neighbor- movement, there is also a movement in hoods and streets are plentiful in the the opposite direction that sometimes es- older and larger cities of our Eastern capes notice, a "back to the centre of and Middle states. Boston, New York, the city" movement that leads people to Philadelphia and Baltimore are full of seek dwelling places now where a few "backwaters" from the constant stream years ago they would not have thought of traffic that surges through the main for a moment of looking. Apartments thoroughfares. Thousands of people and flats are not to their taste and yet, pass within a stone's throw of them oftentimes, their means are not sufficient every day without being aware of their to warrant the purchase or upkeep of a existence merely because they happen large house on one of the fashionable to be a few paces out of the beaten track. residential streets. Consequently they Those who are wise enough to search must needs turn their attention to the in- them out and make their homes there tensive use of space and look to the archi- enjoy a rare measure of privacy and tectural reclamation of the unimproved yet, at the same time, are in the very areas in small back streets for the one heart of all urban activity. In their feasible and satisfactorv solution of the unimproved state these places, it is true, problem that confronts them. Thus, by are often far from prepossessing. The turning to good account the areal by- sites of potential development may be product of an older and more prodigal occupied by stables, blacksmith shops method of city building when, as yet, or tiny dilapidated houses of the most there was no perplexing congestion ana flimsy and tumbledown character or there hence no particular need to economize may be small dwellings, old but struc- ground room, they both enhance the de- turally sound, that need only judicious sirability and value of property and ac- remodelling, and sometimes but little of of complish their wishes in the matter it, to render them thoroughly habitable, location. comfortable and highly attractive. In Others who are thoroughly interested either case, whether architectural recla- in this process of architectural reclama- mation involves building anew or only tion are those in easy but not affluent a degree of alteration and re-adjust- circumstances who orefer to live in a ment, it requires but the power to visual- comfortable but modest way in the heart ize, coupled with ordinary sound real es- of the city, where all things in which tate judgment, to be able to appreciate they are interested, whether pertaining the waiting opportunities. While many to business or pleasure, are readily ac- possibilities in this direction have been cessible by a few minutes' walk, rather eagerly seized upon and made the most than have a more extensive establish- of in the cities mentioned, it is safe to ment in the suburbs or country where say that the field open for this sort of residence, however agreeable, entails improvement has been scarcely more spending daily a considerable time in go- than entered upon. ing back and forth. Yet others, of ample In support of this statement may be means, maintain country places where cited the facts as they appear, both in THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. LIVING ROOM AND GALLERY OWN HOUSE, LIME STREET, BOSTON. Richard Arnold Fisher, Architect. ithe shape of actual achievements in than in ampler surroundings in a local- architectural reclamation and in the ity which the casual observer, unaware [physical possibility that invites improve- of Beacon Hill's pervasive charm, might ment. In every American city whose deem physically more attractive. Quite ;age has passed the century mark there apart, however, from this indefinable but may be discovered attaching to certain potent allurement, Beacon Hill has very favored localities a distinctive atmos- material advantages to offer in its quiet phere, subtle to be sure, and well-nigh and privacy in the heart of the city, along ibaffling of analysis, but strongly individ- with ready accessibility to all business and ual, nevertheless, and not to be ignored social activities and in its proximity to the as a negligible influence.