The site of a dwelling should be an important study with every country
builder; for on this depends much of its utility, and in addition to
that, a large share of the enjoyment which its occupation will afford.
Custom, in many parts of the United States, in the location of the farm
buildings, gives advantages which are denied in others. In the south,
and in the slave states generally, the planter builds, regardless of
roads, on the most convenient site his plantation presents; the farmer
of German descent, in Pennsylvania and some other states, does the same:
while the Yankee, be he settled where he will, either in the east,
north, or west, inexorably huddles himself immediately upon the highway,
whether his possessions embrace both sides of it or not, disregarding
the facilities of access to his fields, the convenience of tilling his
crops, or the character of the ground which his buildings may occupy,
seeming to have no other object than proximity to the road--as if his
chief business was upon that, instead of its being simply a convenience
to his occupation. To the last, but little choice is left; and so long
as a close connection with the thoroughfare is to control, he is obliged
to conform to accident in what should be a matter of deliberate choice
and judgment. Still, there are right and wrong positions for a house,
which it is necessary to discuss, regardless of conventional rules, and
they should be considered in the light of propriety alone.
A fitness to the purposes for which the dwelling is constructed should,
unquestionably, be the governing point in determining its position. The
site should be dry, and slightly declining, if possible, on every side;
but if the surface be level, or where water occasionally flows from
contiguous grounds, or on a soil naturally damp, it should be thoroughly
drained of all superfluous moisture. That is indispensable to the
preservation of the house itself, and the health of its inmates. The
house should so stand as to present an agreeable aspect from the main
points at which it is seen, or the thoroughfares by which it is
approached. It should be so arranged as to afford protection from wind
and storm, to that part most usually occupied, as well as be easy of
access to the out-buildings appended to it. It should have an
unmistakable front, sides, and rear; and the uses to which its various
parts are applied, should distinctly appear in its outward character.
It should combine all the advantages of soil, cultivation, water, shade,
and shelter, which the most liberal gratification, consistent with the
circumstances of the owner, may demand. If a site on the estate command
a prospect of singular beauty, other things equal, the dwelling should
embrace it; if the luxury of a stream, or a sheet of water in repose,
present itself, it should, if possible, be enjoyed; if the shade and
protection of a grove be near, its benefits should be included; in fine,
any object in itself desirable, and not embarrassing to the main
purposes of the dwelling and its appendages, should be turned to the
best account, and appropriated in such manner as to combine all that is
desirable both in beauty and effect, as well as in utility, to make up a
perfect whole in the family residence.
Attached to the building site should be considered the quality of the
soil, as affording cultivation and growth to shrubbery and trees,--at
once the ornament most effective to all domestic buildings, grateful to
the eye always, as objects of admiration and beauty--delightful in the
repose they offer in hours of lassitude or weariness; and to them, that
indispensable feature in a perfect arrangement, the garden, both fruit
and vegetable, should be added. Happily for the American, our soils are
so universally adapted to the growth of vegetation in all its varieties,
that hardly a farm of considerable size can be found which does not
afford tolerable facilities for the exercise of all the taste which one
may indulge in the cultivation of the garden as well as in the planting
and growth of trees and shrubbery; and a due appropriation of these to
an agreeable residence is equal in importance to the style and
arrangement of the house itself.
The site selected for the dwelling, and the character of the scenery and
objects immediately surrounding it, should have a controlling influence
upon the style in which the house is to be constructed. A fitness and
harmony in all these is indispensable to both expression and effect. And
in their determination, a single object should not control, but the
entire picture, as completed, should be embraced in the view; and that
style of building constituting the most agreeable whole, as filling the
eye with the most grateful sensations, should be the one selected with
which to fill up and complete the design.