_Windows_
[Illustration: Primitive window]
What are the elements of design in the elevations of the small house?
Surely they are not the five classical orders, as commonly used in
monumental architecture, but rather they are the doors and windows. The
successful placing and careful detailing of the doors and windows of a
small house will have more to do with the architectural attractiveness
of the structure than anything else, for, after all, the most important
part of any elevation is the treatment of the holes in it. The walls
would be plain and uninteresting but for the holes where the doors and
windows are placed. The fenestration cannot be too large or too small,
and here is the problem. We desire plenty of light and air, but we
must also recognize that windows which are too large leave little wall
space in the rooms, are cold in winter, and appear less homelike than
smaller and snugger appearing ones. Then, too, windows which are of
plain, clear glass in very large sheets make these holes appear open
and black, and this is quite contrary to our traditions of the windows
of a home, which should be safe and cosey. The omission of muntins from
the windows of small houses is a great mistake in design, even though
these small panes require a little more work to wash.
[Illustration: Lattice Window]
Our traditions of door and window construction come, as do other
structural traditions, from England. Undoubtedly the earliest
structures had no windows at all, but were lighted by the openings
through the defective construction of the walls and also through the
door. Our ancestors of those days were more interested in protecting
themselves from outside intruders than they were in fresh air and
sunshine in their rooms. When it was safe to build windows they were
only holes in the walls. Some of the old huts, built on crucks, a
construction previously described, had holes in the roofs for windows,
which served the double purpose of letting in light and letting out
the smoke of the fire. We get an inkling of what a window was from the
very derivation of the word itself, which comes from the old Norse
word “wind-auga” or wind-eye. This does not sound like a glazed sash,
nor does the other Anglo-Saxon term for window, “wind-dur,” meaning
wind-door, suggest a closed aperture. Of course these windows were
undoubtedly closed in some way or other in stormy weather or when
danger was outside. Probably a wooden board or shutter was used, which
had a small peep-hole cut in it. These were hung from the top, and when
opened were held in position with a prop on the outside.
There is no certainty of when the smaller domestic houses of England
began to use glazed windows. In 1519 William Horman wrote: “I wyll haue
a latesse before the glasse for brekynge.” This would suggest that
windows of latticework were preferred because of the cost of glass, and
this might have been filled instead with canvas, horn, or tile to let
in some light. But another writer in 1562 says: “Lattice keepeth out
the light and letteth in the winde.” When glass windows were used,
however, the small bits of glass were held in position by lead
in diamond-shaped patterns, which probably were adopted from the
form of the old lattice windows, although later it was found that
rectangular panes were cheaper. But the use of glass in small houses
is comparatively modern, for, before the reign of Henry VIII, glass
windows were rare except in churches and gentlemen’s houses.
[Illustration: An old unglazed window, the early beginnings of sash]
Traditions of stone mullioned windows were very strong, and these
brought about a system of building wooden, unglazed sash which had
mullions made of oak, set in a heavy oak frame. One of these is shown
in the drawings. The word “sash” is derived from the French “chassis,”
and its earliest spelling was “shas” or “shash.” In a book, “Mechanick
Exercises,” written by Moxon in 1700, he mentions “shas frames and shas
lights.” It was these old, unglazed wooden sash which gave birth to the
modern double-hung and casement window.
[Illustration: Crude beginning of the sliding Sash]
As first made, they opened by sliding in their frames, either
horizontally or vertically. If they were built to slide vertically they
were not counterbalanced with weights, as in our modern windows, but
were held in position with a hook which caught in notches cut in the
side of the frame. It is interesting to quote here what William Horman
wrote in 1519: “I haue many prety wyndowes shette with louys goynge up
and downe.”
It is supposed that the idea of counterbalancing these sash by means
of weights, attached by a cord running up over a pulley, came to England
from Holland. This type began to be used about the latter half of the
seventeenth century, and although the early examples were clumsy and
heavy and the groove in which the sash were made to run was worked out
in the solid, yet by the process of years of refinement the modern
double-hung window was evolved. The traditions of these sliding windows
were brought to America in Colonial days, and they proved to be the
most suitable types for our rigorous climate, whereas the windows,
which swung like doors from their sides, called casement windows, did
not prove so weather-resisting.
[Illustration: Modern Double-hung Window