The Architecture of country houses : including designs for cottages, farm-houses, and villas, with remarks on interiors, furniture, and the best modes of warming ad ventilating

Front matter

I'A*'' I .iKAKY

BRluiUr.i ^ L I i NiVERSrrV PROVO, UTAH

ES;

Contents

IX stone, or stuccoed houses. — Durable oil paint. — Cement for stopping joints. — Gutters at the eaves. — Ventilating the attics of cottages. — Emerson’s Ventilator.— Economy in Practical building. — Hints for painting or coloring the exterior of Country Houses. — Vines and climbers for the decoration of cottages. 174

SECTION VIII.

HINTS FOK COTTAGE AND FARM STABLES.

Part II. Section IX

WHAT A COUNTET HOUSE OE VILLA SHOULD BE.

The definition of a villa in this country. — The happy influences that surround it.

— In what its true beauty and interest consist. — The kind of country houses suited to persons of different tastes and character. — The man of common sense. — The man of sentiment. — The man of imagination. — The antiquarian and the adopted citizen. — The villa considered with reference to our institutions, fortunes, and manners. — Associations of the hereditary home abroad. —

The true meaning of the republican home 257

SECTION X.

DESIGNS FOE VILLAS OE COUNTET HOUSES.

Points to be first considered. — Locality, site, and arrangement. — Where the kitchen should be. — Height of stories. — Drainage. — Internal finish. — Style of the exterior, etc. — Design XX. Small Bracketed Country House. — Design XXL Villa in the Norman style. — Design XXII. Villa in the Italian style.

— Design XXIII Small Classical Villa. — Design XXIV. Cottage Villa in the Rural Gothic style. — Design XXV. Plain Timber Cottage Villa. — Design XXVI. Country House in the pointed style. — Design XXVII. Small Country House for the Southern States. — Design XXVIII. Villa in the Italian style. — Design XXIX. Villa in the Rural Gothic style. — Design XXX. American Country House of the First Class. — Design XXXI. Villa in the pointed style. — Design XXXII. Picturesque Lake or River Villa. — Design XXXIII. Southern Villa in the Romanesque style. . 271

X

CONTENTS,

SECTION XI.

INTEEIOR riNISHIXG OF COUNTRY HOUSES.

PAGE

Expression of style in the interior of dwellings. — Fitness and Truthfulness more called for than elaborate decoration, in most country houses, — Manner of finishing cottage interiors. — Treatment of wainscot or wood-work. — Treatment of walls. — Whitewashing. — Papering. — Simple cornices. — Ornaments in cottages. — Carpets and floors. — Window curtains. — Roller-blinds. — Villa interiors. — Value of unity of style. — Difference between Architectural style and Fashion. — Tone. — Principles of decoration. — The Grecian style. — The Italian style, — The Gothic style. — The Romanesque or Norman style.— The Elizabethan or Renaissance style. — The Bracketed style. — Details in general.

— Proportions of rooms. — Chimney pieces. — White walls. — Paper hangings.

— Painting in distemper. — Painting in oil. — Tone of coloring best adapted to the different apartments . . 364

SECTION XII.

FURNITURE.

Expression in interiors largely depends upon furniture. — How meager mteriors may be rendered agreeable by its judicious introduction. — Definition of simply tasteful furniture ; of furniture in correct taste ; f jrnitiire in good keeping. — Bad effect resulting from the adoption of city iurniture in country houses, — Extravagance of modern fashion in interior decoration. — Vulgarity of display in private houses. — Furniture in the Grecian or modern style. — Modem French furniture in the Gothic style. — Furniture in the Elizabethan and Romanesque styles. 406

SECTION XIII.

WARHINO AND VENTILATING.

General ignorance on the subject of ventilation. — The process of respiration. —

Use of air in purifying the blood. — Composition of the atmosphere. — Bad air in ordinary rooms. — Simplest modes of ventilation. — The open chimney. — Arnott’s Chimney-Valve. — Its sanitary effects. — Provisions for the supply of fresh ah'. — Warm-air chamber. — Close stoves unwholesome. — Clarke’s Ventilating Stove. — The stove grate. — Emerson’s Ventilators. — Heating by hot-air furnaces. — Chilson’s furnace. — Heating by hot water. — The most complete mode of warming and ventilating. — Architectural effect of the Ejector. — Importance of ventilation. . , 461

PAET I.

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COUNTRY HOUSES.

SECTIOlSr I.

ON THE REAL MEANING OF ARCHITECTURE.

Certainly the national taste is not a matter of little moment. Whether another planet shall he discovered beyond Le Yerrier’s may or may not affect the happiness of a whole country ; but whether a young and progressive people shall develop ideas of beauty, harmony, and moral significance in their daily lives ; whether the arts shall be so understood and cultivated as to elevate and dignify the character ; whether the country homes of a whole people shall embody such ideas of beauty and truth as shall elevate and purify its feelings ; — these are questions of no mean or trifiing importance.

Now, the real progress which a people makes in any of the fine arts, must depend on the public sensibility and the public taste. Sensibility to beauty must exist, and there must be some means afforded of developing and cultivating the taste; for, liowever instinctive and natural a gift the former may be, a correct taste is only the result of education: the feeling must be guided by the judgment.

While a general ignorance on the subject of architecture among us, must be admitted, we must also avow that the live*

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Hest interest in it is now strongly felt on all sides. And tliis very ignorance is mainly owing to tlie dry and barren manner in wliicli architects have usually vu’itten on the real meaning or philosophy of their art. It would seem that men who work out beautiful thoughts in ponderous stone, seldom wield so slight an implement as a pen with grace and power. Why else should nine-tenths of even the educated, believe that the whole circle of architecture is comprised in the five Orders; or, at most, that a Greek temple and a Gothic cathedral are the Alpha and Omega of the art ? Why should so many of the most intelligent persons imagine, that Domestic Architecture is only perfect when it is similar to that of public edifices ; or, at least, when it borrows all its orn aments from such structures ?

It is not an easy task to lay bare the principles of an aid, compounded thus of the Dseful and the Beautiful ; to show how and why it appeals so powerfully to the whole nature of man — to his senses, his heart, and his understanding.

But it is, perhaps, this very compound nature of Architecture, this appeal which it makes to the sensation, the sentiment, and the knowledge of man, which has left it in so unsatisfactory a shape to the popular apprehension ; which has caused it to be looked upon by some as the mere province of the builder ; by others, as the object of enthusiastic admiration, and by the rest as a subject of scientific investigation ; until half the world imagines the beauty of an edifice, like genius, to be a happy accident, to be enjoyed when found, but as difficult to seize as the rainbow itself.

It would be a boon to the age, if some gifted artist would show the world the secret sources of the influence which Architecture wields in all civilized nations. This is as far beyond

THE KEAL IVIEANING OF ARCHITECTURE.

our province as oiu’ ability. Still, we must be indulged in a brief analysis of the elements of interest which Architecture possesses for the human mind, and a glance at the partially concealed sources of that power which it exerts over our hearts and understandings.

Something of this kind seems to us to be demanded by the inquiring mind and the expanding taste of our people; and Domestic Architecture itself, which, amid the louder claims of civil and ecclesiastical art, has been too much neglected, seems to demand a higher consideration in a country where the ease of obtaining a house and land, and the ability of almost every industrious citizen to build his own house, constitute a distinctive featm-e of national prosperity.

THE USEFUL IXT ARCHITECTURE.

The senses make the first demand in almost every path in human life. The necessity of shelter from the cold and heat, from sun and shower, leads man at first to l)uild a habitation.

What this habitation shall be, depends partly on the habits of the man, paiily on the climate in which he lives. If he is a shepherd and leads a wandering life, he pitches a tent. If he is a hunter, he builds a rude hut of logs or skins. If he is a tiller of the soil, he constructs a dwelling of timber or stones, or lodges in the caverns of the rocky hill-sides.

As a mere animal, man’s first necessity is to provide shelter ; and, as he is not governed by the constructive instinct of other animals, the clumsiest form which secures him against the inclemency of the seasons, often appears sufficient : there is scarcely any design apparent in its arrangement, and the

COUNTKY HOUSES.

smallest amount of convenience is found in its interior. This is the first, primitive, or savage idea of building. Let us looh a step higher in the scale of improvement.

On the eastern borders of Europe is a tribe or nation of the Sclavonic people, called the Croats, who may be said to be only upon the verge of civilization. They lead a rude, forest, and agricultural life. They know nothing of the refinements of the rest of Europe. They live in coarse, yet strong and warm houses. But their apartments are as rude as their manners, and their cattle frequently share the same rooms with themselves.

Our third example may be found in any portion of the LFnited States. It is nothing less common than a plain, rectangular house, built of timber from the forest saw-mill, with a roof to cover it, windows to light it, and doors to enter it. The heat is kept out by shutters, and the cold by fires burnt in chimneys. It is well and strongly built ; it afibrds perfect protection to the physical nature of man ; and it serves, so far as a house can serve, all the most imperative wants of the body. It is a warm, comfortable, convenient dwelling.

It is easy to see that in all these grades of man’s life, and the dwellings which typify them, only one idea has as yet manifested itself in his architecture — viz. that of utility. In the savage, the half civilized, and the civilized states, the idea of the useful and the convenient differ, but only in degree. It is still wLat will best serve the body — what will best shelter, lodge, feed, and warm us — ^which demands the whole attention of the mere builder of houses.

It would be as false to call only this. Architecture, as to caU the gamut music, or to consider rhymes poetry, and yet it is

THE REAL ME^NJSHNG OF ARCHITECTURE.

tlie framework or skeleton on which Architecture grows and wakens into life ; without which, indeed, it can no more rise to the dignity of a fine art, than perfect language can exist without sounds.

There are also certain principles which belong to huilding (as this useful part of Architecture is properly called), which are of the utmost importance, since they may not be in the slightest degree violated without proving more or less destructive to the enjoyment of the finest ’work.

Many of these are mechanical principles involved in n: asonry, in carpentry, and other kinds of artisanship, which are suf ficiently familiar in their nature to the general reader, and are subjects of technical expertness on the paii: of those employed in building.

But there are also other principles besides these, which govern the workmen in their labors, and which must always control even him who only aims at the useful in Architecture.

The first and most obvious of these rules of utility is, that the cost of the building shall not exceed the means of the owner or occupant. Out of a want of practical knowledge in the builder grow, not unfrequently, mistakes that are fatal to the use of a house, since, if too much is expended in the whole structure, the owner may be forced to sell it to another, rather than enjoy it himself: if too much is expended on a part, the economy necessary in the remainder, may render parts of the house uncomfortable from defects in their construction.

The second rule governs the quality of the materials and workmanship employed in the construction. That the materials should be of the soundest and best quality in the best edifices, and of ample strength and durability for the end in

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view, even in those of the humblest class, is a rule which may never be for a moment violated by the builder, without injury to the structm’e. JSTature here, as always, must be constantly respected, or she punishes severely all infringements of her laws. A wall that is not perpendicular, a foundation that is not firm, a roof that is not tight, a chimney that smokes, sooner or later, but inevitably, shows the builder’s want of comprehension or respect for the laws of gravitation or the atmosphere, and impairs or destroys the usefulness of all architecture.

The last and highest rule of utility is that which involves convenience. In all architecture, adaptation to the end in view is important; in domestic architecture it is a principle which, in its infiuence on our daily lives, om’ physical comfoil: and enjoyment, is paramount and imperative. Hence, however full of ornament or luxury a house may be, if its apartments do not afibrd that convenience, comfort, and adaptation to human wants, which the habits of those who are to live in it demand, it must always fail to satisfy us, or to merit the approval of the most matter-of-fact critic. Such a house may be compared to a column with well-moulded shaft and richly decorated capital, but composed of such fiimsy material that it will bear no weight; or, to a person whose education has been that of accomplishments, with a total neglect of solid acquirements.

This practical part of architecture involves, more particularly, what is called the plan of a building — providing apartments for the various wants of domestic and social life; adapting the size of such apartments to their respective uses, and all other points *which the progress of modem

THE REAL ^rEAN^sG OF AKCIIITECTUEE.

civilization has made necessary to om’ comfort and enjoyment witliin-doors.

Tlie illustration of these points will he found, to a considerable extent, in the treatment of the various designs which follow. It may be remarked, however, that no absolute rules for guidance can be laid down here. Domestic life varies not only in different countries, but even in different portions of a tenltory so broad as that of the United States. Even different families have somewhat various habits, and therefore require different accommodations. Tlie ingenuity and talents of the architect must therefore be put in full activity, even to meet the requirements of this humblest platform of his art. And we may add, that it is a proof of weakness rather than strength, to treat with the slightest neglect, this, its wholly utilitarian side. To the majority of mankind the useful is the largest satisfaction derived from architecture ; and while an able architect will always treat the materials placed in his hands for a new design, so as to give something of the expression of beauty even to the simplest forms, he must never imagine that in his art he can largely neglect the useful for the beautiful. As in the Apollo every muscle must be found which enters into the body of the hardiest daylaborer, so in all perfect architecture no principle of utility will be found sacrificed to beauty, but only elevated and ennobled by it.

COUNTRY HOUSES.

THE BEAUTIFUL IN ARCHITECTURE.

We have shown as yet, only the Useful in architectui’e. At least, we have endeavored to show how an edifice may combine fitness in all respects, how it may be strong, well built, warm, comfortable, and convenient, and no more. To attain this there is no need of its displaying any appreciable grace, harmony, or beauty ; nay, it may be even faulty in its proportions, and unpleasing in effect. Such examples are, in fact, every day before us — buildings which completely answer the useful requirements of man, and yet give not a ray of pleasure or satisfaction to his heart or understanding. And yet there are persons who, because the Useful and the Beautiful, in some arts, may be most intimately combined, imagine that they are identical. This is the grossest error, of which, if the common-place buildings we have just quoted are not a sufficient refutation, abundant others may be drawn every day from the works of nature or art.

A head of grain, one of the most useful of vegetable forms, is not so beautiful as a rose ; an ass, one of the most useful of animals, is not so beautiful as a gazelle ; a cotton-mill, one of the most useful of modern structures, is not so beautiful as the temple of Yesta; yet no one thinks of comparing them for utility.

The truth then is undeniable, that the Beautiful is, intrinsically, something quite distinct from the Useful. It appeals to a wffiolly different part of our natoe; it requires another portion of our being to receive and enjoy it.

There are many, to wdiose undeveloped natures the Useful is

THE REAL MEANING OF AROmTECTURE.

sufficient; but there are, also, not a few wffio yearn, with an instinct as strong as for life itself, for the manifestation of a higher attribute of matter — the Beautiful.

We have said that the Useful in architecture is based wholly on the physical wants of man; that it is a response to the demand of our senses.

We may also add that the Beautiful is an original instinct of the sentiment of our nature. It is a worship, by the heart, of a higher perfection manifested in material forms.

To see, or rather to feel how, in nature, matter is ennobled by being thus touched by a single thought of beauty, how it is almost deified by being made to shadow forth, even dimly. His attributes, constitutes the profound and thrilling satisfaction which we experience in contemplating the external works of God. To be keenly sensible of the power of even the imperfect reproduction of such ideas in the various fine arts — poetry, music, painting, sculpture, architecture, etc. — is to acknowledge the power of beauty over our feelings in another and a more personal form.

To desire to surround ourselves with such sources of enjoyment, rather than to be content with mere utility, is only to acknowledge the existence of a sentiment which, next to the religious one, is the purest and noblest part of our nature.

Looking at the subject before us, it must be admitted, that if it is a step forward in civilization to separate ourselves from om’ cattle, rather than share our apartments with them, like the Croats, it is a much higher step to evince, by the beauty of our architecture, that our hearts are alive to some of the highest emotions of which they are capable.

What is beauty in architecture? In order to rid ourselves

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of tlie vague and indefinite meaning which hangs about this part of our subject, like a thick mist, in the minds of most persons, let us examine it somewhat closely.

All beauty in architecture seems to us to resolve itself into two kinds — Absolute and lielatim.

Absolute beauty lies in the ex^pression, in material forms, of those ideas of perfection which are universal in their application. AYe find them in nature as well as in art. We find them in the figm*es of the heavenly bodies, in the orbits of planets, in drops of water, in animal forms, in the growth of trees, in the structures of crystals. This proves not only that they are divine in their origin, but that they pervade all time and space. These tj^^ical ideas of beauty are proportion, symiMETRY, v^vRiETY, HARMONY, and UNITY. They may be called abstract ideas of beauty of form, and apply to all the arts, as well as to every thing in nature — to a symphony of Beethoven or a statue by Bowers, as well as to the sublime curve of l^iagara or the varied outlines of the Alps.

In order that the uninitiated reader may be able to analyze and understand these universal ideas of Beauty, let us look at them, architecturally, a little in detail.

A fimdamental idea of the Beautiful in architecture is Proportion.

Proportion, in material objects, is the relation of individual parts to the whole. Mr. Buskin has cleverly defined it to be “ the sensible relation of quantities.” In all the arts, it is the realization of the most perfect idea of the height, breadth, outline, and form of the object aimed at, and therefore involves the highest single feeling of pure material beauty.

In architectiue, proportion is sho^vn fii'st in the composition

THE REAL MEANING OE AKCIIITECTUKE.

of the outline or mass of the entire building. If endowed with this quality, it will neither be too long nor too broad, too low nor too high. It will exhibit to the eye, at a glance, that nice relation of all the parts to each other and to the whole, which gives to that whole the stamp of the best, most suitable, and perfect form.

Proportion may be shown in the smallest building as well as in the largest; in a cottage of twenty feet as well as in St. Peter’s of ten acres. In the former, however, it is much more simple, as it involves only the height and breadth of a few parts : in the latter, it is evolved by the skilful grouping of many parts. Hence, in large piles of buildings, the central mass is raised up in a dome-like or pyramidal form, not only for the sake of making a whole, but also to give that proportion of the whole wPich great extent and the multiplication of parts render necessary. But proportion does not merely govern the form of the whole mass in architecture; it descends into the smallest details. It demands that the height of a room, of a window, or a door, should accord with its breadth and length The minutest object, the smallest details, are equally capable of expressing it. It applies as well to the form of a cornice, a moulding, or an ornament, as to the whole outline of the edifice itself.

Proportion, in architecture, has been aptly likened, by a German writer, to time in music — that measime which confers a completeness of form on the entire melody ; and though the parallel cannot be carried so closely as to enable us strictly to agree with Madame de Stael, who called architectm-e “frozen music,” the illustration is scarcely less forcible.

That proportion is one of those qualities of beauty most

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universallj felt, it does not require any argument of ours to prove. The immediate delight which all persons experience in a well-proportioned human figm’e, a statue, or a Grecian column, is well known. That this is quite independent of education, that it only requires sensibility to beauty, is equally true. Hence the want of proportion in a building is felt as a great and irremediable defect, at the first glance, by many who are totally ignorant of architecture as an art; and hence, if absent, it is a fundamental want, for w^hich no decoration, no style, no beauty of parts, however excellent in themselves, can ever wholly compensate.

One would suppose that some definite rules would have been deduced for the production of so fundamental a quality as this, in architectoe.'^ But no such rules exist at the present day, and its production seems to depend mainly on the genius of the artist. That education and study of the best examples will aid in the appreciation of it, is undoubtedly true; but the many blunders in proportion, which the works of modern artists exhibit, prove that it is one of the qualities of beauty less vividly felt, and less easily produced, than any other, at the present time.

Sy5*i^ietrt is that quality of beauty in material objects which may be defined, that balance of ojpjposite farts necessaiy to form an agreeable whole. Thus, in the human figure, it is the joining of the opposite sides, each with its separate limbs, which makes the whole symmetrical : if an airni is wanting, the sjnnmetry is destroyed. In trees, it is seen in the balance of the op-

* ]\Ir. Hay, of Edinburgh, in his ingenious treatise on Beauty of Form, has endeavored to prove that the Greeks, whose architecture certainly displays the most perfect proportions, were possessed of a system of rules which enabled them uniformly to produce it.

THE REAL MEAJ^ING OF ARCHITECTURE.

posite sides of their heads : if a large limb is cat away, the balance is lost. In architecture, it is the arrangement on eacli side of a centre, of two parts that balance each other, and that do not make a whole without this centre. Hence the superior effect of a building which is a plain cube with a wing on each side, over a cube without wings. The wings raise the character of the form from uniformity to symmetry.

This leads us to remark here, that regularity and uniformity, two qualities common in architecture, are often classed as distinct elements of beauty in themselves. They may be such, in an artistical point of view, as denoting the presence of art, but they are, in fact, only primary steps towards symmetry, which comprehends them both. A regular building in architecture is one in which a given form is repeated at regular distances, such as a square house in which the same windows and doors are repeated at regular intervals, or a long row of houses in a street, in which the same general forms are regularly repeated.

A uniform building is one in which the same forms are repeated on all sides ; as a cubical house with the same windows all round, or a block formed of two or more houses exactly alike, and placed side by side.

Symmetry involves something more. It asks for a central part, which shall connect the two other parts into a whole, and thereby make something involving a more complete idea than regularity and uniformity. Thus Design YI. is a symmetrical cottage, from the front of which neither the central part nor the sides can be taken away without destroying the composition as a whole. The difference between this and a regular or a uniform building of the same length, is that the latter might be divided into several parts, each of which is equally

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regular and uniform, and therefore as complete in itself as the whole building.

Symmetry is one of the greatest beauties in all architecture. The author of “ Modern Painters” conceives it to be the symbol of abstract justice; and certainly, in material forms, wdien joined to proportion, it conveys at once an idea of completeness of form, which gives universal satisfaction. The Grecian temples owe to these two elements their great and lasting power over the human mind for so many ages ; for it is a beauty which may be bestowed on a cottage, a villa, or indeed any kind of building; and as it is one which appeals intuitively to every mind, it is never neglected by artists who wish to impress the Beautiful upon their works.

Symmetry is quite distinct from proportion. It is only necessary to remember that it is a balance made between opposite parts, and that proportion is the relation between aU the parts, to comprehend it more clearly. Thus, a statue may be perfectly symmetrical on all sides, and yet too short or too high in its proportions. The central part of a symmetrical building, like that in Design YI., might be raised or lowered several feet, without injuring the symmetry of the composition, though the proportion would be at once destroyed.

It has been justly said, that though symmetry is not the highest quality of beauty, yet no object can be perfectly beautiful without it. Hence, in many beautiful objects, where, from the nature of the structure or purposes, exact or regular symmetry is impossible, a certain balance must be found, before they can give full satisfaction. There are, then, in nature and art, two kinds of symmetry ; that which is regular, and strikes us at a glance, like that of a poplar or fir tree whose limbs are equal on

THE REAL MEAl^ING OF AIICIIITECTURE.

all sides of the head ; and that which is irregular, such as we see ill a spreading oak with branches unequal, but forming altogether a head which is equally s}unmetrical with respect to the trunk.

The strict application of the principle of a regular balance of parts, as it would be deduced from oim remarks, w^ould prevent our finding any symmetry in all irregular buildings. Eut in fact this is not the case. The most irregular building, if composed by an artist of genius, will always evince symmetry; that is to say, it will form an outline, in which there will be a central portion or point, wdiich unites two sides into one symmetrical whole; two parts, w^hich, if they do not balance each other in exact forms and proportions as in regular symmetry, do balance in the general impression wEich they make on the eye, in the mass and grouping of the composition. The villas in Designs XXI., XXII., are examples of irregular symmetry, and may be compared with the symmetrical viUas, in some of the other designs. Any building so irregular as not to show some recognition of this principle of irregular symmetry, can never be called beautiful, though it may be strikingly odd or grotesque.