THREE ACRES
Few people realize how much thought should be put into the remodeling of
a farmhouse, and many fail to keep the simple country atmosphere; they
endeavor to establish in suburban surroundings a home that is better
suited to city life. A house reclaimed in this way is necessarily a
misfit and must always seem inharmonious in its setting. It never
carries out the idea for which we are striving: that a house should be
typical of the life of the people who live in it. It should express
individuality, be a house to live in, to grow in, to become identified
with your life; this is a most important fact that cannot be too
carefully observed, and it becomes all the more essential if the home is
to be an all-the-year-round one and not merely a summer residence where
but a few months are passed.
To-day it is a far more difficult matter to select an old farmhouse of
sufficient distinction to remodel than it was even ten years ago. The
most desirable ones have already been bought, since the pleasures of
living in the country have been realized by so many former dwellers in
the city. There are many personal matters to be thought of in the
selection of a house for remodeling; one must consider his individual
needs in its relation to his daily pursuits. The business man must
select a house near enough to the city to allow traveling back and forth
every day; but the man whose occupation does not require city life
during the time he wishes to be in the country can establish himself
wherever he chooses. There is no doubt that the latter is able to find a
far better farmhouse, for he can go farther away, where the best types
have not been reclaimed, owing to their distances from the large cities.
It is to be taken for granted that a person has a definite purpose when
he leaves the city for a country existence, and it is necessary that he
educate himself to the point where he makes his ideas practical. This
cannot be done without study beforehand. In making a house suit
individual requirements, one must follow along its own lines. Do not
attempt to transplant into it features from some other house you admire.
An Elizabethan gable or a craftsman living-room may have been very
interesting in the friends' houses in which you saw them, but they would
be quite out of place thrust into a Colonial farmhouse. If you have a
real need for the features that you find in some other house, you should
adapt them to the spirit of the building you are remodeling.
If it cannot be made to harmonize with the other motives, it is possible
that you are attempting to make a home out of a building that is not
suited to your style of life. But it is because these Colonial
farmhouses meet the requirements of the average American families so
adequately that they are so interesting to remodel. Each house owner
must decide for himself what is the main element in his existence and
reclaim the house accordingly. In one family, the interests will be
entirely domestic; another household will live in the open, occupied
with sports; another devotes much time to music; and there are still
others who are absorbed in some special craft or work that will require
definite accommodations. In many cases the house can readily be adapted
to these particular requirements without any essential change in its
atmosphere. The success that is achieved by working with these old-time
elements is due to their sincerity and honesty in solving the problems
of their own day and age; they are the results of actual and real
experience, and we know no better ways to meet the same conditions. So
that when we have the same problems confronting us, we cannot do better
than accept the successful results of others' experiments.
This does not mean a slavish copying of the old in restoration; to
simply imitate old elements would be neither interesting nor
commendable, except for the purposes of a museum. Each style is based
upon some fundamental principle, and it should be our aim to work with
the underlying idea of creating that which will best meet our special
needs, not merely to reproduce the old in imitation of itself.
Nature lends itself to the remodeling and suggests many ideas that help
to identify the house with the personality of its owner. Everything
attempted in the way of improvements can be broad and expansive and not
congested, as would be necessary in the city. You should in every
particular make the house grow to fit the surroundings and do it in such
a way that it will seem to have been so always. Often the house has to
be moved on its foundations to meet this need, but that is not a
difficult matter to accomplish, if the timbers are stanch and the
underpinning steady.
If the owner's ideas are carried out, the house in its finished
condition will be but an expression of his taste and understanding. In
it we will be able to read his likes and dislikes. Unity should be the
keynote of it all and should permeate not only the house itself in all
its details, but its gardens, lawns, stables, and every aspect of the
estate.
[Illustration: THREE ACRES, FROM THE MAIN ROAD]
There is a house that has been given rare individuality in this way at
Duxbury, Massachusetts. As one drives along the picturesque country
road, he comes to a winding lane that leads by graceful turns to a
little brown farmhouse situated on the crest of a hill about three
hundred yards from the main road. If the farmhouse alone is attractive,
how much more so is it made by the entrance, for on either side are
graceful elms that form an archway, disclosing the house beyond like a
picture set in a rustic frame. On either side of the roadway one finds
meadow lands and flower and vegetable gardens, everywhere dotted with
graceful trees and the picturesque sumach. Vines clamber over the stone
walls, partly hiding their roughness and giving their homelike
atmosphere to the grounds. There are just three acres in this little
property, bounded on two sides by delightful woodlands and on the others
by rolling farmland and pastures; but there is room in even these small
confines for a garden to supply the table all the year round and a bit
of orchard where the gnarled old apple-trees are still fruitful.
Originally the old farmhouse was in a most unprepossessing condition. It
had been inhabited for many years by farmer folk who took little pains
with its appearance either without or within. When Mrs. Josephine
Hartwell Shaw, of Boston, was searching for a country seat where she
could pursue her occupation away from the bustle of city life and
unmolested by chance guests, she was attracted first of all to the quiet
little town by the name of Duxbury. As she looked about for a suitable
house, she was charmed with the location of this weather-beaten old
building, and closer examination proved it well worth reclaiming, both
from an artist's point of view and from that of her own individual
requirements.
[Illustration: THREE ACRES--FRONT VIEW]
Like many of the farmhouses in eastern Massachusetts, it had that
peculiar beauty which consisted largely in its simple and
straightforward solution of the problems at hand. It was not the
creation of a master architect but of ordinary builders and craftsmen
following the traditions of their fathers, varied by the restrictions of
local material and newer requirements. It is this rugged and sturdy
simplicity that gives to it an enduring charm; it was the very lack of a
set style that gave to the remodeling of it an unfailing zest, increased
by the very difficulty of the experiment that might result in a woeful
failure or a great success. In dealing with houses such as this, it is
impossible for the architect to rely on any formula or book of rules to
direct him in a correct restoration. It requires a much deeper study and
an understanding of the problems that confronted the builder in erecting
the structure and the conditions under which he worked. It is then that
the spirit of the old house will be manifest, and its adaptation to
modern requirements will be but the thought of former years revised to
meet present needs.
[Illustration: THREE ACRES--SIDE VIEW]
There are few buildings that can claim a more sympathetic handling in
their restoration than this early, pre-Georgian farmhouse, which is
called Three Acres. The excellent line of the wide, gabled roof,
broken by a succession of outbuildings, forms an unusually attractive
picture, with the weather-stained shingles softened against a background
of oak and pine trees. The house now faces away from the main road and
fronts upon a wooded slope that falls sharply down to the shores of a
picturesque little pond. This is partly hidden by dense woods that form
a background and a windbreak for the house. Formerly the public road
went along here within a few yards of the front of the house, but it has
been abandoned for the broader highway in the rear, and only the vaguest
traces of it remain to-day.
The building was a two-story, shingled structure with an uncompromising
squareness about it. The wide, gable roof sloped down to the stud of the
first floor, giving but little room in the chambers above. It was of the
central chimney type. In the rear, a small, gable-roofed ell had been
added, and later still a flat-roofed shed at right angles to the ell, or
parallel to the main house, was built. In still a third addition, a well
was incorporated in the rear, under a continuation of the roof of the
shed, and another small outhouse in an extension to the side. This
seeming conglomeration of roofs in reality made a rather interesting
and graceful play of line that lifted the little house from
commonplaceness.
It was found to be in such good condition on the exterior that little
repairing was needed, but several alterations were made, adding both to
the character of the building and the comfort of the occupants. The
original front door opened very abruptly upon the stairs, leaving only
enough hall space to open the door. This was remedied by the addition of
a small, flat-roofed bay at the front, increasing the space in the hall
by just that much. The old door with its bull's-eyes was used in the new
position. The step before it was protected under the same roof,
supported on two, small, square posts and a trellis at the sides, giving
somewhat the effect of an old-time Colonial porch and serving not only
the material purpose of adding room to the interior but of relieving the
abrupt and uninteresting severity of the front lines. In the second
story, unusually successful dormers were cut in both the back and front
pitch of the roof. The plan of these dormers deserves especial study, as
each group is in reality composed of three separate dormers, enlarging
three rooms in the interior, but confined under the one flat roof. Note,
too, how each end of the dormer extends beyond the middle portion, and
how the shape of the windows accents the design.
A new entrance was cut at the side toward the lane, and a screened
veranda added, with a flat roof corresponding to that at the front.
Several new windows were made necessary by the rearrangements in the
interior, but they were placed with careful regard to the exterior
proportion and balance. The glass used in the old windows when the house
was bought was all the full size of the sashes, doubtless having been
put there by some recent owner and seeming quite out of harmony with the
details of the house; consequently they were replaced with small panes,
twenty-four to a window, and the new windows were all of the casement
type.
The interior of the house with its ugly paint and paper, presented a
rather hopeless appearance, that only a vivid imagination and an
unwavering enthusiasm could have transformed into the attractive home
that it is to-day. Beginning at the front, the cramped little hall was
enlarged as has already been explained. This made a trifle more stair
room, and the first seven steps reaching to the little landing were
rebuilt with lower risers and broader treads that made ascent to the
second floor a less arduous matter.
On the left of the hall was the living-room, on the right a bedroom, and
in the rear of the house the room originally designed for the kitchen;
in each of these was a fireplace opening out of the one central chimney.
The first step in the restoration consisted of tearing off the many
layers of hideous wall-paper, removing the plaster where it was
crumbling, and scraping the woodwork free from its dingy paint. In these
operations a number of unexpected discoveries were made concerning the
fine old paneling and great, hand-hewn beams that had been entirely
covered up.
[Illustration: A Corner of the Living Room]
The only change made in the plan of this floor was in the corner beyond
the living-room and at the end of the kitchen. This was originally
divided into a tiny chamber opening from the living-room, and a pantry
off the kitchen. These were thrown into one, and the openings to
living-room and kitchen enlarged. The former bedroom window was changed
to a door leading on to the screened veranda, and an attractive group of
three casement windows replaced the one in the rear wall, overlooking
the charming vista of winding lane and old apple-trees and meadows
beyond. This little apartment has been treated as a sort of anteroom
or really a wing of the living-room, and wall finish, paint, and
furnishings all harmonize.
[Illustration: The Living Room]
In the living-room the fireplace holds the center of attention. It is
faced with queer old Spanish tiles inserted at intervals in plain
cement, the rich colorings of which give a quaintly exotic air to the
fine white woodwork. The moldings about the frame and over the mantel
are unusually fine for this type of house; the support of the heavy
mantel shelf and the carved dentils in the ceiling cornice are
especially interesting. At the right of the fireplace is a cupboard with
an upper and lower door, in the old-time fashion; the upper one has
small, square, mullioned panes of glass which disclose some attractive
pieces of old china and silver.
[Illustration: The Dining Room]
In the kitchen, which was turned into the dining-room, the old fireplace
had been bricked up to receive a stovepipe, and the woodwork had been
plastered over and papered. The fireplace was opened up to its original
size, large enough to accommodate a six-foot log, and in refacing it,
the old, blackened, fire-burned bricks were used with delightful effect.
The paneling about it is very simple, but the proportions are
interesting, and the quaint, double-panel cupboards on each side lend
the whole an insistent charm. The two, great, hand-hewn beams in the
ceiling have been left exposed, and the fact that they have settled a
little on their supports, sagging toward one end, only adds to the
effect, just as the unevenness of a hand-drawn line is more beautiful
than the accuracy of one ruled.
These three rooms opening so closely into each other have been treated
so that there is a harmonious and striking vista from every point. The
walls are covered with a soft, creamy gray, and the hangings of Russian
crash are of the same tone. The color is supplied in fireplaces, rugs,
books, pictures, and such ornaments. In the dining-room, there has been
a slight accent of blue and rose in rug and table runner and
candle-shades. In the living-room the deep green of the upholstery
carries the strongest note. The characteristically old-time furniture,
with a pleasant mingling of Dutch and English and American motifs of the
eighteenth century, has been arranged with studied care to preserve the
possibilities of the open vistas from room to room.
The entrance hall completes a delightful picture from the living-room;
the soft gray colors of a lovely Japanese paper blend strikingly with
tiny curtains of a wonderfully fresh old blue at the casement windows.
The rag carpet carries this same blue up the white stairs to the second
floor.
The rooms on the right of the lower hallway have been kept nearly in
their original state with the addition of fresh paint and attractive
papers. They form a small suite of a study and bedroom, seeming quite
apart from the rest of the house.
On the second floor, a refreshing simplicity has been observed in the
bedrooms. The dormers that have been cut in the roof add not only to
their comfort but provide charming little bays and alcoves, giving
unexpected opportunities for interesting furnishings. Quaint, old-time
papers and hangings and coverlets on the four-poster beds, matched in
rugs and cushions and candle-shades, contrast gaily with the spotless
white paint. Considerable ingenuity has been necessary in planning this
floor, as the original rooms were so tiny and space so very limited
under the long slopes of the roof. The dormers gave the much needed
increase in the size of the chambers, and part of the rear one was
converted into the bathroom.
In the ell and shed at the rear of the house, perhaps the most
interesting feature of all is situated. A step lower than the
dining-room and reached through swinging French doors of glass, is the
little kitchen which has been fitted up in a most compact way. An
additional window has been cut at the side to provide both light and
air, and an outside door gives access to the small court on the far side
of the house between the main building and the rear shed. This has been
turned into a miniature old-fashioned garden, where it is pleasant to
sit among the flowers.
Back of the kitchen is the laundry and an old well, which has been
drained and is now used as a cooling cellar, and the wire basket
containing meats and milk and butter is drawn up and down on the old
crank. Beyond this, the old wood and coal shed has been transformed into
the studio. Here Mrs. Shaw designs all her beautiful jewelry work at the
long work-table across the rear under the four long windows. Opening
from it is a tiny little apartment used as an office, and here at a
quaint desk, the designs for the metal work are sketched out, and the
correspondence connected with the business end transacted.
In the adaptation of the outbuildings to the special and unusual
requirements of the owner, an excellent example is given to others who
have individual hobbies such as this to accommodate. But throughout the
building the needs and the personality of the owner have been as
carefully if not as ostensibly expressed. There has been no thought of
comfort or of service sacrificed in the effort to revive the
atmosphere of the past, but rather has that very simplicity and
straight-forwardness been utilized to banish all that might complicate
entire convenience. The personality of the owner has been interwoven
into every detail, and shows nowhere more strongly than in the
preservation of all the delightful vagaries and unevenness of hand work
played upon and mellowed by time.