Woodward's Country Homes Part 6

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 71.--_First Floor._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 72.--_Second Floor._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 73.--_Third Floor._]

This house was designed princ.i.p.ally for a summer residence, being nearly fifty feet square, with wide halls and s.p.a.cious verandah, and commodious and well ventilated sleeping apartments, the plans showing the arrangement of rooms. The style of architecture selected is that generally known as the Rural Gothic, which, perhaps, is the most useful and most beautiful of any that are adapted to the requirements of our climate. The almost square form of the plan is one of the most difficult to treat successfully in this style, yet has been carried out in the most satisfactory manner. This style admits of an almost never-ending variety of form and proportion, and in effects of light and shadow at all hours of day is unequaled. Its comparative expense but little exceeds the hipped and Mansard roofs.

The building is constructed in the most thorough and workman-like manner, and is as well adapted for a winter residence as for summer. The frame is built in the balloon style, (the strongest known form of framing,) with deep studding filled in with brick, having double air chambers, is thoroughly finished throughout, is covered with a slate roof, and fulfills all the requirements of a substantial and commodious country residence.

DESIGN No. 25.

CARRIAGE HOUSE AND STABLE.

The accompanying design for a carriage house and stable affords about the same amount of accommodation as Design 22. The arrangement, however, is somewhat different, and the exterior quite unlike it. In this plan the portion appropriated to the stalls is more ample, and the means for ventilation abundant.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 74.--_Stable._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 75.--_Stable Plan._]

DESIGN No. 26.

RESIDENCE OF THOS. H. STOUT, ESQ.,

IRVINGTON, ON THE HUDSON.

Irvington is a noted locality for the higher grades of country homes, there being many fine examples of substantial, roomy, and elegantly appointed mansions. Far within the gradually extending circle which limits the daily intercourse of the business man to the city of New York, it has become, in virtue of its position, healthfulness, fine scenery, and ease of access, one of the most favored of the suburbs of this city; a city whose rapid increase of population and corresponding decreasing comforts in conveyance from one portion to another, is turning the attention of those who like ease of transit, and the quiet and health of the country, to a residence among its beautiful and attractive suburbs. What the last ten years have accomplished in introducing rapid and reliable communication, and building up and improving the country about New York, will probably be repeated several times over in the next decade. An impetus has been given to rural life, that will increase with every facility that is offered, and it will not be many years before the suburbs of New York will compare with any city in the world; and we question, even now, if elsewhere can be found a suburban locality comparable with the east bank of the Hudson, from New York to the Highlands.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 76.--_Residence of Thos. H. Stout, Esq., Irvington, on the Hudson._]

The accompanying engravings ill.u.s.trate a country house that embraces many of the best features of exterior variety, and interior compactness and convenience. The workmanship and materials throughout have been of the best description, and no pains have been spared to make it first cla.s.s in every respect.

Situated on the slope of the eastern bank of the Hudson, it overlooks the broad expanse of "Tappan Zee," and commands the views peculiar to this locality, that reach from the Highlands to the ocean.

To build well, and to do so at a low price, is always desirable; and to build artistically, imposingly, attractively, does not imply elaborate finish or profuse ornament. Sand paper and decoration will never make an ill-proportioned building attractive to an educated taste, while a rough exterior of harmonious lines and forms will pa.s.s current with those who have an eye to the artistic.

One of the most important lessons that the art student learns is that of effect; that effects can not be produced by smoothly finished surfaces or details; and that in architecture, as well as in sculpture or painting, there must be a strong bold manner of execution, when there is a desire to convey an impression of strength or power.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 77.--_Cellar._]

Where stone is conveniently obtained as a building material, its use in rural architecture deserves far more consideration than is usually bestowed on it; and in its unchiselled, quarried form it becomes desirable in an economical point of view. There is an imposing grandeur in the unhewn stone that a.s.serts its presence in both near and distant views, and, with the proper combinations of proportion, and light and shade, will ill.u.s.trate the finest architectural effects. Prevailing prejudices are too apt to consider it not only cheap, but inferior in protection and durability to finely wrought surfaces and smooth, close-fitting joints. We are too apt to estimate the value and beauty of a stone house by the amount of labor lavished on its exterior, as if the chisel possessed the power to make the joints more impenetrable, and bestowed an endurance commensurate with the story of expense that it tells. So long as we build well and honestly, with a proper regard to protection from the weather, in a substantial and workmanlike manner, good taste and sound sense will uphold the use of quarried rock, and discover a permanent strength and power in this Cyclopean masonry that elaborately finished surfaces and delicately wrought ornaments fail to express.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 78.--_First Floor._]

Dressed in squared blocks and hammered lines, stone becomes an expensive building material, and preference is then given to something else less costly; but if used in its quarried form, irregular in size and shape, it becomes, wherever conveniently obtained, among the economical materials used for building, and is unsurpa.s.sed for its impressiveness and durability. No paint is required to preserve it from the weather, and no color is so good as the color of the stone; time softens its tints, and the clambering vine that lays hold of the ma.s.sive walls is a decoration beyond the resources of architecture.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 79.--_Second Floor._]

"If a building," says Mr. Ruskin, "be under the mark of average magnitude, it is not in our power to increase its apparent size by any proportionate diminution in the scale of its masonry; but it may be often in our power to give it a certain n.o.bility by building it of ma.s.sy stones, or, at all events, introducing such into its make. Thus it is impossible that there should ever be majesty in a cottage built of brick; but there is a marked element of sublimity in the rude and irregular piling of the rocky walls of the mountain cottages of Wales, c.u.mberland, and Scotland.

"And if the n.o.bility of this confessed and natural masonry were more commonly felt, we should not lose the dignity of it by smoothing surfaces and fitting joints. The sums which we waste in chiselling and polishing stones, which would have been better left as they came from the quarry, would often raise a building a story higher.

"There is also a magnificence in the natural cleavage of the stone to which the art must indeed be great, that pretends to be equivalent; and a stern expression of brotherhood with the mountain heart from which it has been rent, ill-exchanged for a glistering obedience to the rule and measure of men. His eye must be delicate indeed who would desire to see the Pitti Palace polished."

DESIGN No. 27.

A CHAPTER ON GATES.

We present in the following designs, several ill.u.s.trations of the principle of the truss applied to wooden gates. It was described by us, several years ago in the _Country Gentleman_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 80.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 81.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 82.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 83.]

Since then, in our professional rambles, we have accidentally noticed some thirty gates erected after these designs in different sections of the country, and, for aught we know to the contrary, it is one of the most popular gates that swing. The principle of this gate is best shown in figure 80, and consists of four panels of braces crossing each other, and held firmly in position by five iron rods, which can be tightened by the screws at the bottom. The braces are not tenoned, and there are no nails about the gate. There can be no sagging under any circ.u.mstances; but should such a thing occur from unequal shrinkage, it can easily be remedied by placing a thin strip of wood or sheet lead under the foot of the braces running forward. There is economy in the construction of these gates, as they can be made with a less number of joints, and greater strength and stiffness secured with lighter materials, than in any other style of gate we know of. The principle is the one used in railroad bridges and roofs of great span, and our own experience with them, having built and tested all the gates here ill.u.s.trated, is, that they possess very decided merits. [Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 84.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 85.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 86.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 87.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 88.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 89.]

Fig. 81 is the princ.i.p.al entrance gate to one of the finest estates on the Hudson, above Tarrytown, and although similar in appearance to figure 82, has some very decided differences, the cross braces in this case reaching only to a second rail; the rods, however, pa.s.s through to the bottom; it is much more elaborate in workmanship, and the addition of a moulding on the top and bottom would increase its effect.

Fig. 84 is the entrance gate at the New Windsor, N. Y., Parsonage, and has been hanging six years without a perceptible change. The braces in this are one inch square and doubled; they are not halved, but cross each other, two one way and one the other, in the manner shown in figure 85.

There is no other mode of constructing gates in which rustic work can be made such good use of. The chief objection to all things made in the rustic manner is, that they soon fall to pieces, limbs shrink and twist, and nails do not hold; but a rustic gate held together by iron rods will remain good until the last brace has decayed.