Woodward's Country Homes Part 5

For such a house as this, we should choose a light fawn color--not yellow--and paint the cornice, window-frames and other projecting and ornamental parts two or three shades darker than the body of the building. This will give a depth of shadow and expression which cannot be obtained in any other way.

Large houses, with ma.s.sive features of construction, will bear to be painted with darker colors, but they should not be too sombre, so as to give a gloomy appearance to the house. The country, with its bright sunshine, its rich adornments of flowers, and its numberless forms of beauty and grace, is eminently cheerful. It often happens that the painter does all he can to mar this cheerfulness and beauty, by startling contrasts of colors, and by destroying the harmony which pervades the landscape.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 60.--_Second Floor._]

DESIGN No. 20.

A COUNTRY CHAPEL.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 61.--_Perspective._]

We present in this design a plan for a substantial and permanent chapel, having capacity for seating about four hundred. For the purpose for which it was designed, no distinct chancel was required. Such a chancel could be arranged, if desired, in a recess taken off the lecture or cla.s.s room in the rear of the chapel. It could be lighted at the roof, or on the sides.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 62.--_Ground Plan._]

This chapel, built of stone throughout, with an open timber roof and stained gla.s.s windows, would be an ornament to any country locality, and a credit to the taste and liberality of those who built it.

Every thing about such a chapel should be _real_, and no suspicion of sham or unreality should be tolerated in any part of the work. The practice of building the fronts of churches of stone, while the side and rear walls are constructed of rough brick, painted and marked off to resemble the stone, is very common, we know, both in town and country, but it is a species of deceit and false pretence which ought not to be.

If the best and costliest material cannot be used for the entire structure, let the rougher and inferior material be fairly shown, in every part. If the means and liberality of the parish cannot provide oak or walnut for the interior finish, let the wood work be plainly painted, or what is better still, simply oiled, but there should be no cunning deception of graining, to represent the costlier wood. It is not _honest_, and, we take it, a church, built for religious worship, is the last place that should betray our human meanness and want of honesty.

DESIGN No. 21.

We show in this design what can be done with a substantial old farm house; how easily and beautifully it can be changed into a suburban home of elegant exterior, and comfortable and convenient interior appointments.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 63.--_View of the House at the time of Purchase._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 64.--_The same remodeled._]

This cla.s.s of s.p.a.cious and substantial farm houses, with the gambrel, curb, or Mansard roof, as shown in Fig. 63, is very numerous about the suburbs of New York City, and more particularly in the "neighboring province of New Jersey," where one finds them nestled in the valleys or by the road side, as best fitting to the taste of our early Dutch settlers, who prized seclusion and protection above bleak exposure and far-reaching views.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 65.]

As a general thing, the better cla.s.s of New Jersey farm houses of this type were built of squared and hammered red sand-stone, laid up in regular courses, and in many instances the character of the work differed on all sides, the front being the most finely finished. And in many of the most pretentious of these houses, brick was subst.i.tuted for the front, as being less common.

There is, perhaps, nothing more difficult in an architect's experience than to make a fine thing out of a subject so dest.i.tute of beauty of form or proportion, and yet preserve the substantial walls and other belongings, that have stood for half a century, and are now stronger, and promise a durability that exceeds those of other houses built in this progressive age; and yet here is a "presto change" that will almost defy the keen eyes of the old settlers to recognize any trace of the ancient landmark that for fifty years has overlooked the beautiful valley of the Tenakill.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 66.]

There are very many of these old houses that are equally well adapted to wear a modern face, though but few purchasers can look through all such changes with the eye of a professional expert, and select that to which, at a low price, a certain beauty can be added, which, when done, shall indicate the wisdom of their choice. First impressions many times are sadly against all hopes of success.

"With weather-stains upon the wall, And stairways worn, and crazy doors, And creaking and uneven floors, And chimneys huge, and tiled and tall."

But these difficulties are the least troublesome to adjust, if the walls are good, and ceilings of a fair modern height. It may then be a better choice to adapt such a house to the present cultivated tastes and requirements, than to build anew from the foundation.

In the plans, the dotted lines show the centers of the old part.i.tions.

Six feet have been added to the length of the wing, thus improving the kitchen accommodations.

This house is situated some fifteen miles from the great commercial metropolis, on one of the new lines of Railroad, and in a locality of easy access to New York business men.

DESIGN No. 22.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 67.--_Stable._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 68.--_Plan._]

This stable may be constructed either of wood, or of stone. It contains stalls for four horses, and affords s.p.a.ce for their accommodation, together with a harness room and a tool closet. This latter is a convenience very essential to the comfort of the owner, as well as to the proper care and preservation of such implements as belong especially to the carriage house and stable.

This building should be surrounded and screened with fruit trees and shrubbery, and then, with its evident architectural effects, it will become an attractive feature in the landscape of which it becomes a part, with the other accessories of the elegant country home.

DESIGN No. 23.

FENCES.

In spite of all laws to the contrary, cattle will intrude upon one's property, and each and all must at great expense build and maintain fences for their own protection. There has not as yet been devised any practicable mode by which the enormous sums annually spent in fencing might be saved. The theory advanced, that it is cheaper for each to fence his cattle in, than to fence his neighbor's out, has not as yet been practically ill.u.s.trated, if we except a few suburban localities.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 69.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 70.]

Fig. 69 represents a substantial fence, with a paneled base, of simple construction, and yet quite effective in appearance. In Fig. 70 the work is somewhat more elaborate, while the base is of stone, or brick.

Each engraving shows two panels, with a gate in the centre.

With chestnut or cedar posts, the pickets cut from 1-1/2 inch plank, and the whole kept painted, such a fence would last many years.

DESIGN No. 24.

RESIDENCE OF CHARLES F. PARK, ESQ.

This residence of which we show only the floor plans, occupies a commanding position on the northern end of the Palisades, on the western side of the Hudson, some twenty miles above the city of New York, the river, mountain, and inland views from which are exceedingly fine, embracing the villages of Dobbs' Ferry, Irvington, Tarrytown, Sing Sing, Piermont, Nyack, and Tappan, as well as Tappan Zee and Haverstraw Bay, the distant Highlands of the Hudson, and the beautiful valleys of the Sparkill and the Hackensack, a section of country rich in historic a.s.sociations, and highly appreciated by those who seek suburban homes.