THE CURTIS HOUSE
The great charm of Colonial farmhouses lies in the simplicity of their
appearance. Many dilapidated, weather-beaten old buildings, long
neglected by an indifferent community, are really little masterpieces of
harmonious line and good proportion.
The style of the roof tells much about the age of the building to the
initiated, and its line is easily the most important factor in the
appearance of the house. The pitched roof is one of the oldest types and
was used long before our country was discovered. This roof slopes away
from the ridge-pole on both sides, thus forming a triangular area, the
angle at each end of which is called a gable. In the early days, the
pitch was built very steep to accommodate the thatching with which the
roof was covered. As shingles came into use, the slope gradually
flattened, and the age can be roughly judged by its angle.
The gambrel roof appeared before the eighteenth century and was
commonly used in New England farmhouses. Each side of this is made up of
two distinct pitches, which have no rule to govern their relationship. A
somewhat later development was the hipped roof, in which the gabled ends
were flattened, making four flat sides sloping from the ridge-pole. This
was used when no attic chamber was needed. In the more pretentious
Georgian houses, the top was flattened, and a wooden balustrade put
around it. These roofs are generally shingled and practically never
painted; the soft gray color they attain in weathering is sometimes
imitated in stain on new shingles.
The addition of a wing or ell brought up a new problem in roofing, and
it is this point that demands most serious attention from the remodeler.
The old builders have not always been successful in preserving the unity
of the roof line that is so essential to pleasing design. Whenever it is
possible, the new roof should be made a part of the old, and the lines
of one should run into those of the other. The pitch of the two should
be practically the same. The same type of roof must be used over all
parts of the building, although it is occasionally permissible to have a
pitched roof on an ell when the main roof is a gambrel.
Where a veranda is added, its roof line must be carefully studied and
made to seem an original part of the building, not something stuck on as
an afterthought. This problem of keeping the lines of the different
roofs in harmony is a vital one, and nowhere is there greater demand for
ingenuity and thoughtful treatment.
The question of dormers is also important. When it is desired to have a
second-story porch or sleeping-room, the dormer often supplies the
solution of this difficult problem. The earliest ones were merely a
flattening of the pitch of the roof, and this is the type that should be
used when it is necessary to add a dormer to the older farmhouses. As
the Georgian details were developed, the gable-roofed dormer was used
with the cornice moldings of porches and door frames. These dormers were
high, with a single window often having a semicircular head. They were
usually combined in groups of three and connected with each other by a
balustrade.
The exterior walls of the first houses were made of heavy boards laid
vertically on the framework, without studding. Before long, the wood was
laid horizontally, each board overlapping the one below it. This
clapboarding and siding was used without interruption through all the
various changes in other details. Much later, the shingle was adopted
for the sides of the house as well as for the roof. A larger shingle,
however, was used on the walls, with a wide exposure of surface. These
were made of pine or cypress.
Although the walls of most old houses follow a straight line from one
story to the next, there was a type, copied by the colonists from the
buildings of the mother country and used somewhat freely before the
Georgian era, in which the second story extended beyond the first. This
overhang was generally used only on the front and back and not on all
four sides, as in the European counterparts. The girders and cross beams
were framed into the second-story posts, which frequently ended in an
ornamental knob or drop, as it was called. The gables, too, occasionally
had a slight overhang. In altering a pre-Georgian house, it is therefore
permissible to make use of this overhang feature, and it may solve some
otherwise knotty problems of required extra space.
[Illustration: Before Remodeling]
A house which shows unusually clever handling of these points is
situated in the little village of Charles River, not so many miles
outside of Boston. Within the last few years, this locality has been
opened up, and many modern homes have been built and farmhouses
remodeled. They are situated along charming woodland roads and seem to
nestle in their picturesque surroundings. This particular one stands on
the road from Boston to Dover, invitingly shaded by graceful elms that
have watched unnumbered generations pass. It suggests to passers-by a
typical, seventeenth century farmhouse, ingeniously remodeled, through
the plans of the late Philip B. Howard and F. M. Wakefield, architects
of Boston, into a twentieth-century summer home. This old farmhouse was
built in 1647 and was of the rectangular type, built about a central
chimney, with four rooms and a hall on the lower floor. When Mr.
Frederick H. Curtis selected it for his home, it had already been
materially altered from the original simple structure by various
succeeding tenants. And many of these had not added to its charms. The
exterior was most uninviting in a vicious shade of red paint with white
trim. In front was a small lattice porch entirely out of keeping with
the architecture of the house. But in spite of all these unattractive
features, there was an insistent appeal about the old place that made it
seem worth venturing to restore.
The first problem which presented itself was that of interior space. The
difficulty lay in enlarging this space in such a way as to provide the
needed room and at the same time maintain the harmony of the exterior
lines. The original four rooms had been added to from time to time by
former owners by means of the customary ells at the rear. The house was
two and a half stories high, with a straight, pitched roof starting from
the top of the second story. In the rear there was a two-story ell and a
one-story addition behind that, with an outside chimney. Each of these
was increased by one room, so that space for a laundry was added in the
lower floor and for servants' quarters in the second. The chimney was
kept on the outside above the laundry roof and built up to the required
height. This second-story extension overhangs the old kitchen wall by
about eighteen inches on one side and on the other runs into an entirely
new wing, whose roof line joins without a break to that of the old ell.
The roof of the main building has been extended in the rear, following
its straight line to the top of the first story, as was frequently done
in old houses. This brought the lines of the main building and the rear
ells into greater harmony and provided space for an outdoor living-room
on the first floor. A flat-roofed dormer was thrown out above this on
the second floor and turned into a sleeping-porch. The lines of the
several roofs have thus been kept remarkably simple, considering the
great amount of space which has been added.
[Illustration: Remodeled]
[Illustration: Side View]
On the opposite side of the house a new wing has been added to the
second floor, parallel to the main building and at right angles to the
ells in the rear. The front part of it has a pitched roof following the
angle of that on the main building, and the rear has a flat roof on a
very low stud. This provides three additional rooms on the second floor.
It has been built over an outdoor breakfast or morning-room on the first
floor, and the kitchen has been widened under it.
[Illustration: The Entrance Porch]
At the front of the house, the flat-roofed entrance porch was removed,
and one more in keeping with the Colonial period built in its place.
This has a gabled roof, supported in front on two simple columns. The
back part of it is closed and forms a small vestibule, with old-time
oval windows extending on each side beyond the gabled roof-line. There
are two benches in front, also beyond this line and protected by
vine-grown lattices and small, extending eaves. The floor is paved with
brick.
These comprise the major changes to the exterior; but new shingles were
put on the old roof; the dilapidated slat-shutters were replaced by
blinds of solid wood, with a diamond cut in the upper panel after the
old-time fashion; and the ugly red paint was changed to a soft Colonial
buff.
[Illustration: The Hall and Unique Stairway]
The narrow entrance hall, opening directly on the stairs, has not been
altered. In the stairs, however, an exceedingly interesting treatment
has been introduced, made necessary by the plan of the rooms above. On
the first landing a doorway was cut in the chimney wall, and stairs
built up the center of the chimney between the two flues. These give
access to a small hall in the rear, connecting the several bedrooms. The
door that leads to these stairs, at the foot, is a "secret" one; that
is, it is covered with the wall-paper which surrounds it and fits
tightly into the wall without framing woodwork.
[Illustration: The Dining Room]
At the right of the hallway the parlor and dining-room were thrown into
one long living-room, and a pleasant triple window was cut in the rear
wall looking out upon the veranda. The fine old woodwork about the
fireplace was restored to its original beauty with many coats of white
paint. The hand-hewn beams in the ceiling were uncovered from the
casing which had hidden them, and the wood rubbed and oiled. The floor
was found to be in good condition and, after the placing of additional
boards where the partition was removed, was merely scraped, filled,
stained, and polished. A semicircular corner cupboard in a reproduction
of an old style, its shelves filled with interesting specimens of
seventeenth-century pewter, gives character to the room. The walls were
finished in a soft shade of burlap, and the old mahogany furniture,
chintz covers, rag rugs, and simple scrim curtains preserve the
delightful atmosphere.
On the opposite side of the hall is the library or den. This is
unchanged, except for the white paint and the quaint Colonial
wall-paper. Willow furniture is used.
Back of this, and extending across to the living-room, is the
dining-room. The beams show the position of the original walls and
indicate the way in which the room was enlarged. This leaves the
fireplace at the side of a sort of alcove and so, to balance it and give
importance to that end of the room, a china closet was built across the
corner. An unpaneled wainscot, with simple baseboard and molding at the
top, runs around the room, the new part matching the old. The woodwork
is all white, including the encased beams, which here were not in a
condition to be exposed. The upper walls are covered with a blue and
silver grass-cloth that strikes an effective color note behind the
mahogany furniture. In this room is a good example of the use of modern
reproductions of Sheraton chairs with a genuine old sideboard.
Glass doors lead from either end of the dining-room on to the two
verandas. Both of these verandas are really rooms without walls, as they
have been incorporated so completely within the lines and framework of
the house. The one on the side of the house in front of the kitchen is
used as a breakfast-room, and many of the other meals are served out
here in the open air. That in the rear of the living-room is a
delightful spot on summer afternoons and evenings. Both of these porches
are thoroughly screened and fitted with framework in which glass sashes
are placed during the winter.
On the second floor there are four bedrooms and a bath in the main part
of the building, with a sleeping balcony leading from one of them. This
is protected with screens and awnings and furnished with hammocks and
reclining chairs. In the wings there are three servants' rooms and a
bath. All of the rooms have been fitted up in a quaintly simple style
that is thoroughly in keeping with the period of the house, the low
ceilings, and fine woodwork. In some of the rooms there are valuable old
pieces of furniture, a four-poster of the Sheraton type, and a highboy
with details of the Queen Anne period. In another room modern white
enamel furniture has been used, but it is so simple and straightforward
in design that it harmonizes entirely with the atmosphere of the room
engendered by the old fireplace and chimney cupboard, the thumb latches
on the doors, rag rugs, and an old-time wall-paper figured with stripes
of morning-glories and daintily poised humming-birds. In this second
floor, the old iron hardware has been largely used in strap and H and L
hinges, latches, knobs, and shutter fastenings.
Throughout the lower story, modern brass knobs and key plates
reproducing an old Colonial pattern have been used, securing greater
convenience and safety.
Hot-air heating has been installed and electric lighting. The outlets,
however, are all in the walls or baseboard sockets, so that there is no
conspicuous inconsistency in the atmosphere, and lamps and candles are
also used throughout the house.