Country Houses of Character

Seven Homes Selected by Their Architects as Containing 
The Essential Characteristics of the Good Country House 

Illustrations in Color by John Vincent

 WHAT constitutes the ideal country home? Is it primarily beauty? Is it convenience? Or is it rather the home spirit that it radiates? Possibly it is the combination of the three. Country living to-day plays a large part in the life of the nation, and country estates of all sorts and sizes are scattered throughout the width and breadth of the land. Some of these homes seem slightly better architecturally than others. Some have qualities that others lack. Few, if any, are perfect.

What constitutes the perfect country house? Country Life asked this question of several of the leading architects in New York, and asked them to indicate some country houses which they had designed and which, in their opinion, made them distinctive from other houses. It was to make no difference whether the house were a marble palace at some fashionable watering place or a tiny bungalow in the foothills of the mountains. So long as the architect considered it a good example of a country house and, in his opinion it had character, that was all that we asked.

 It is interesting to note the range of character in the seven country homes chosen by the architects and reproduced in color herewith.

 Messrs. Delano & Aldrich selected their most recent achievement— Mr. Bertram G. Work's residence at Oyster Bay, Long Island—as an essentially good country home, while Messrs. McKim, Mead & White considered Mr. E. D. Morgan's house at Newport, R. I., erected by them more than twenty-five years ago, to represent still the best qualities of the country home.

 In "Bonnycrest," the home of Mr. Stuart Duncan at Newport, R. I., Mr. John Russell Pope has successfully achieved his object in designing a house which contains the charm of cottage, and yet has sufficient spaciousness to fit in with the neighboring estates.

 The contribution of one architect, Mr. Aymar Embury, II., to say the least was original. He sent as his selection a "dream" house, a house which has not yet been built, though it exists in his own imagination as the most perfect type of country home possible.

 Some of the features of these houses could be easily combined with the features of others. One house may have something that another lacks. But from the entire number, we can form a fairly accurate composite picture of what our country house should be like when we determine to build it.

Click HERE to view all seven.

Country House of Character - "Coeur De Reve"

 What constitutes the perfect country house? Country Life asked this question of several of the leading architects in New York, and asked them to indicate some country houses which they had designed and which, in their opinion, made them distinctive from other houses. It was to make no difference whether the house were a marble palace at some fashionable watering place or a tiny bungalow in the foothills of the mountains. So long as the architect considered it a good example of a country house and, in his opinion it had character, that was all that we asked. ***1919***

                                                   ***Below is the selection chosen by Architect Aymar Embury II***

 COUNTRY LIFE has asked me for the drawings of the best house I ever built.   Alas!   I have never built my "best," house, because always limiting conditions of cost, of site of accommodation, and again of cost, have made the house less attractive than I wanted it to be.

 Last winter, after the Armistice, I found myself practically without any occupation except to stand reveille and retreat and make an occasional inspection of quarters, with nothing to read and without leave, and it seemed to me that this was the time for which I had always been hoping, when I should have sufficient leisure to design a house just to please myself. "Coeur de Reve' is that house.

 I assumed it was to be built for just two people and their guest; that one would enter from the street side on the north and that the south side would be reserved for a garden and space to play in. This is the way I think the ideal house should be. Being in France  I  naturally turned to French cottage architecture for precedent, for there is nothing in the world so lovely as the old country architecture of France except that of England; they are very alike.

PLAN OF GROUND FLOOR

 The most important thing in any house is the living room. I have always wanted a living room that should be long and narrow with a fireplace at one end without any openings each side of it, so that as one faces the fire there is no light in your eyes except the firelight and no openings toward you. The room would be very high; the windows on the street side would he high above the floor, but on the garden side there would be many low windows, some in an alcove near the fireplace and some beside the door to the garden. Across the end of the room opposite the fireplace would be a low balcony and below the balcony bookcases built into the wall. Into the living room would open the bed room so that when one might be too sleepy to sit up any longer one could tumble into bed without troubling to climb stairs, and this bed room is so arranged that in summer time the bed could be put at the breezy end of the room between the windows, and in the winter time out of draughts in the recess at the other end. Beside the bed room would be a good big dressing room with a fireplace and a door to the hall, so the maid could build a fire in the morning before you got up. The closets and bath room would open from this dressing room. Across the front of the house would run a long narrow corridor, shielding the living side from the street and at the end of the corridor opposite the living room would be the dining room, narrow and long with an alcove for the sideboard, and a refectory table and big mullioned windows opening to the garden. The house ought to have a good sized pantry, a kitchen, a maid's dining room, and a large closet with an outside window.

PLAN OF FIRST FLOOR

 Upstairs would be two guest rooms and baths, each facing out toward the garden and each with a separate stair from the landing leading to it. The maid quarters would have two rooms, bath, and closets.

 The outside I would build of terra cotta blocks and very rough stucco with occasional stones strengthening the corners and openings in the wall. The roof would be of heavy graduated slate and the wood work would be sandblasted hand-hewn oak, light gray brown in color. I would not spend much money on ornament because the perfect house is not too much ornamented, but I would spare no pains to get the color and texture of the walls and woodwork as perfect as could be imagined.

"COEUR DE REVE" Mr. Aymar Embury , II's, dream house

"Coeur de Reve" = "Heart of a Dream".

Country House of Character - The Former Residence of Mr. James Byrne

What constitutes the perfect country house? Country Life asked this question of several of the leading architects in New York, and asked them to indicate some country houses which they had designed and which, in their opinion, made them distinctive from other houses. It was to make no difference whether the house were a marble palace at some fashionable watering place or a tiny bungalow in the foothills of the mountains. So long as the architect considered it a good example of a country house and, in his opinion it had character, that was all that we asked. ***1919***

***Below is the selection chosen by Architect Grosvenor Atterbury***

IN PLANNING this house photographs were taken of every part of the site beforehand, in order that the house might blend with the landscape as far as possible, a result which was successfully achieved.

The exterior of the house is of brick, which was selected as the most appropriate material. The surface is divided into panels with rough adzed half-timber in the style of the English farm house which, in all its lines, the house strongly suggests. Particular attention was paid to the economical administration of service in designing the servant quarters. The service wing has an outside stairway which, with the groupings of the roof, is very picturesque. The roof is shingled and the house is purposely built low to suit the contour of the country.

In the treatment of the main rooms on the first floor, the woodwork is in chestnut with adzed surface, and the living room has a beamed ceiling with a large fireplace of rough brick with wide joints. 

By the living room a secluded alcove has been arranged so that, if desired, this can be used as a private chapel. A novel and charming idea not generally found in country houses.

The former summer residence of Mr. James Byrne, on Long Island    -     Painted by John Vincent

"Atterbury exhibited some excellent photographs and drawings of an unusually successful house in half timber and brick construction at Locust Valley. L. I."   The  Architectural League Exhibition by Henry H. Saylor - 1908


The house was built in 1906. James Byrne was an attorney. The house was purchased by William R. Coe c. 1913 and burned to the ground in 1918 -  replaced by "Coe Hall".

Click HERE for more on this estate. 

Country House of Character - The Estate of Mr. C. M. Carr

The Estate of Mr. C. M. Carr at Lake Forest, Illinois 

What constitutes the perfect country house? Country Life asked this question of several of the leading architects in New York, and asked them to indicate some country houses which they had designed and which, in their opinion, made them distinctive from other houses. It was to make no difference whether the house were a marble palace at some fashionable watering place or a tiny bungalow in the foothills of the mountains. So long as the architect considered it a good example of a country house and, in his opinion it had character, that was all that we asked. ***1919***

***Below is the selection chosen by Architect Harry T. Lindeberg***

Mr. C. M. Carr's house at Lake Forest, Ill. ***Lake Michigan  at the top***

Mr. C. M. Carr's house at Lake Forest, Ill.

Mr. C. M. Carr's house at Lake Forest, Ill.

Mr. C. M. Carr's house at Lake Forest, Ill.

Mr. C. M. Carr's house at Lake Forest, Ill.

   Mr. C. M. Carr's house at Lake Forest, Ill.         Painted by John Vincent

 Click HERE to see "Wyldwood" at wikimapia.

Country House of Character - "Huntland"

"Huntland" Mr. Joseph P. Thomas's Home at Middleburg,Va.
by Peabody, Wilson & Brown, Architects.  

What constitutes the perfect country house? Country Life asked this question of several of the leading architects in New York, and asked them to indicate some country houses which they had designed and which, in their opinion, made them distinctive from other houses. It was to make no difference whether the house were a marble palace at some fashionable watering place or a tiny bungalow in the foothills of the mountains. So long as the architect considered it a good example of a country house and, in his opinion it had character, that was all that we asked.

***Below is the selection chosen by Architects Peabody, Wilson & Brown*** 

"Huntland" Mr. Joseph P. Thomas's Home at Middleburg,Va. by Peabody, Wilson & Brown, Architects.         Painted by John Vincent

THE interest that attaches to this house for Joseph B. Thomas, at Middleburg, Va., arises from the fact that, unlike so much of our modern architecture in America, it derives its precedent from the early architectural traditions of our own country. It is not an indiscriminate transplanting of foreign details and associations, but it takes its fundamental qualities from the early and native traditions of the early days of prerevolutionary Virginia. It is an attempt to carry on from early precedent, but modified to modern conditions of life, as much as possible of the only style of architecture which can be truly said to be indigenous to the soil and climate of our country.

***Front View - "Huntland" Mr. Joseph P. Thomas's Home at Middleburg,Va. by Peabody, Wilson & Brown, Architects. ***

***Black lacquer furniture, walls covered in a gay Chinese design of birds and flowers and curtains, some pale yellow edged with green and some orange and green, make an interseting bedroom in the residence of Mr. Joseph Thomas at Middleburg, Va. The bed is an old four-poster with an unusual top draping.  Behind it is an alcove, down each side of which are book shelves. The ceiling in this alcove is made up of small mirrors in panels. Caption from  House & Garden Second Book of Interiors 1920***

This is the modern outgrowth of such a house as would have been built a hundred years ago by any wealthy Virginia planter with an interest in his home surroundings and possessing the native taste which was unfortunately, more common in those days than in the present.

 First Floor Plan. 
***"Huntland" Mr. Joseph P. Thomas's Home at Middleburg, Va. by Peabody, Wilson & Brown, Architects.***

It is not, however, modern civilization retreating to the shelter of old customs and conditions of living, not, in other words, a step backward; but rather a carrying forward of old traditions, and a modernization of them, to bring them abreast of the modern standards of life and culture.

Click HERE to see at wikimapia.

Country House of Character - Mr. E. D. Morgan's summer home at Newport, R. I.

What constitutes the perfect country house? Country Life asked this question of several of the leading architects in New York, and asked them to indicate some country houses which they had designed and which, in their opinion, made them distinctive from other houses.

***Below is the work Architects Mckim, Mead & White chose  when asked by Country Life. This article was posted earlier with additional photos***

PLAN OF FIRST FLOOR

ALTHOUGH it was built more than a quarter of a century ago Mr. E. D. Morgan's residence at Newport, R. I.  today, as it always has, amongst the finest country homes in America, both for architectural beauty and for comfort. Time indeed seems to have softened its lines and mellowed its tones so that the house blends easily with the background of sea and sky, something which alas, cannot be said of some of the more modern country houses that arise every now and then.

In the construction of Mr. Morgan's house, the architects—Messrs. McKim, Mead & White, of New York—sought to make use of the natural advantages to the fullest extent possible. Situated on a rocky promontory, they selected gray stone to blend with the rock, so that the house seems a part of the rocks themselves instead of being merely perched on a cliff. The ivy covers both the rocks and the stone work to such an extent that it is almost impossible to distinguish where one ends and the other begins. To relieve the monotony of the gray stone, white pillars surround the wide porches and the pediments and gables are all painted white.

In the arrangement of the rooms, the living and masters' rooms occupy one wing of the house, while the other wing contains the servant quarters. One enters a spacious hall, out of which opens the living room with windows from which one obtains a splendid view of the waters of the Atlantic. The dining room, which has a similar view, adjoins the living room and can be entered either from the hall or living room. There are three large master's rooms on the first floor and two baths. In the opposite wing there are six servants' bedrooms with a bath room. The house is built around a court and a wide terrace in the rear overlooks the rocks and the bay, and near by is the famous bathing place, Bailey's Beach, probably the most famous beach in the world—where the members of Newport's summer colony take a morning plunge almost daily.In addition to its convenient planning and its architectural beauty, the Morgan house is essentially homelike. Every room seems to possess this quality and not even the hallway appears cold and cheerless. Possibly the passing years have added some of the softness and mellowness to obtain this desirable effect.

Mr. E. D. Morgan's summer home at Newport, R. I. - Painted by John Vincent

Click HERE to see "Beacon Rock" at wikimapia.org.

Country House of Character - "Bonnycrest," the Residence of Mr. Stuart Duncan Esq. at Newport, R. I., by John Russell Pope, Architect

What constitutes the perfect country house? Country Life asked this question of several of the leading architects in New York, and asked them to indicate some country houses which they had designed and which, in their opinion, made them distinctive from other houses.

"Bonnycrest," the Residence of Mr. Stuart Duncan Esq. at Newport, R. I., by John Russell Pope, Architect

In "Bonnycrest," the home of Mr. Stuart Duncan at Newport, R. I., Mr. John Russell Pope has successfully achieved his object in designing a house which contains the charm of cottage, and yet has sufficient spaciousness to fit in with the neighboring estates.

 ***Below is the response from Architect John Russell Pope - 1919***

"Bonnycrest," the Residence of Mr. Stuart Duncan Esq. at Newport, R. I., by John Russell Pope, Architect

THIS place was not planned as an archeological effort to transplant a baronial castle to the shores trod by our Pilgrim Fathers. The only effort in connection with its inception was the prerequisite that it must be, or at least have the charm of a cottage and still be of sufficient spaciousness and accommodation to take its place among the other great places of Newport.

"Bonnycrest," the Residence of Mr. Stuart Duncan Esq. at Newport, R. I., by John Russell Pope, Architect

The lack of enormous rooms, galleries, and impressive staircases has completely accomplished a result which makes "Bonnycrest" essentially a home. How well this problem has been solved can best be appreciated while wandering among its charming rooms filled with its quaint treasures of walnut and oak and rare embroideries. The estate itself with its restful lawns and terraces presents a curious and refreshing combination. On the entrance side it might well be situated in the midst of a vast estate of field and forest. Infinite care has already reared a lawn that shows fair comparison to the wonderful carpets surrounding the old houses in England.

"Bonnycrest," the Residence of Mr. Stuart Duncan Esq. at Newport, R. I., by John Russell Pope, Architect

The side facing the water is just as appropriate to its location, for here can be seen how the materials used in the building have harmonized with the colors and texture of the rocky shore merging the house with the boulders and not merely perching it on top of the ground. The materials have been assembled and used with such judgment as to produce a feeling that here is a home old enough to have been venerated by at least three or four generations.

Click HERE to see at wikimapia.

"Bonnycrest," the Residence of Mr. Stuart Duncan Esq. at Newport, R. I., by John Russell Pope, Architect - Robert Yarnall Richie aerial photo ca. 1932-1934

Country House of Character - The COUNTRY HOUSE of MR . BERTRAM G. WORK at Oyster Bay, L. I. By DELANO and ALDRICH Architects

What constitutes the perfect country house? Country Life asked this question of several of the leading architects in New York, and asked them to indicate some country houses which they had designed and which, in their opinion, made them distinctive from other houses. ***Below is the response from Architects Delano & Aldrich - 1919***

The COUNTRY HOUSE of MR . BERTRAM G. WORK at Oyster Bay, L. I. By DELANO and ALDRICH Architects

 IT FREQUENTLY happens that the natural difficulties encountered in perfecting the plans for a country place add largely to the architectural interests of the finished product. Certainly this is true of the house and grounds which we recently finished for Bertram G. Work, Esq., at Oyster Bay. 

The COUNTRY HOUSE of MR . BERTRAM G. WORK at Oyster Bay, L. I. By DELANO and ALDRICH Architects

 The physical difficulties to be overcome, together with the sympathy and imagination of our clients, enabled us to produce something out of the ordinary. When the plans were being studied, the property consisted of approximately thirteen and one-half acres, in which we had to wind a road rising about fifty feet. The only possible site for the house was a ridge which sloped off sharply in three directions so that literally there was not one square foot of level ground. As assets there were a very beautiful view over Oyster Bay and the Sound and a remarkable oak tree - one of the finest on Long Island. If one cares to take the trouble to study the plan and the photographs together, it will become evident how much charm has been added to the place by the difficulties of the original contours.

The COUNTRY HOUSE of MR . BERTRAM G. WORK at Oyster Bay, L. I. By DELANO and ALDRICH Architects

 The house itself is built of masonry - stucco trimmed with limestone - very simple in all its details. A feature was made of the wrought iron work, which was admirably executed by Mr. Yellin of Philadelphia. The house is as nearly fireproof as possible. Inside, the rooms are few but of ample proportions; and we had the satisfaction, which every competent architect should have, of designing the interiors, even to such small details as electric light fixtures and hardware.

The COUNTRY HOUSE of MR . BERTRAM G. WORK at Oyster Bay, L. I. By DELANO and ALDRICH Architects

 The grounds are not fully finished but already the house and surroundings have assumed an air of age, which promises well for the future of the whole.

The COUNTRY HOUSE of MR . BERTRAM G. WORK at Oyster Bay, L. I. By DELANO and ALDRICH Architects

Click HERE to see at wikimapia with all the appropriate links. Color illustration by John Vincent. 

Mr. E. D. Morgan's Residence at Newport, R.I.

***Below article appeared in Country Life in America 1919, interlaced with additional photos from the Smithsonian***

ALTHOUGH it was built more than a quarter of a century ago Mr. E. D. Morgan's residence at Newport, R. I. ranks today, as it always has, amongst the finest country homes in America, both for architectural beauty and for comfort. Time indeed seems to have softened its lines and mellowed its tones so that the house blends easily with the background of sea and sky, something which alas, cannot be said of some of the more modern country houses that arise every now and then.

Mr. E. D. Morgan's summer home at Newport, R.I.                                       Painted by John Vincent

In the construction of Mr. Morgan's house, the architects—Messrs. McKim, Mead & White, of New York—sought to make use of the natural advantages to the fullest extent possible. 

***"Beacon Rock" Home of E. D. Morgan***

Situated on a rocky promontory, they selected gray stone to blend with the rock, so that the house seems a part of the rocks themselves instead of being merely perched on a cliff. The ivy covers both the rocks and the stone work to such an extent that it is almost impossible to distinguish where one ends and the other begins. To relieve the monotony of the gray stone, white pillars surround the wide porches and the pediments and gables are all painted white.

First Floor Plan

In the arrangement of the rooms, the living and masters' rooms occupy one wing of the house, while the other wing contains the servant quarters. One enters a spacious hall, out of which opens the living room with windows from which one obtains a splendid view of the waters of the Atlantic. The dining room, which has a similar view, adjoins the living room and can be entered either from the hall or living room. There are three large master's rooms on the first floor and two baths. In the opposite wing there are six servants' bedrooms with a bath room.

***"Beacon Rock" Home of E. D. Morgan - Newport Bay Saturday 25, 1903***

***"Beacon Rock" Home of E. D. Morgan***

The house is built around a court and a wide terrace in the rear overlooks the rocks and the bay, and near by is the famous bathing place, Bailey's Beach, probably the most famous beach in the world—where the members of Newport's summer colony take a morning plunge almost daily.


In addition to its convenient planning and its architectural beauty, the Morgan house is essentially homelike. Every room seems to possess this quality and not even the hallway appears cold and cheerless. Possibly the passing years have added some of the softness and mellowness to obtain this desirable effect.


Click HERE to see "Beacon Rock" at wikimapia.org.