File:Olmstead House By Gervase Wheeler, 1851.jpg
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74 RURAL HOMES. shingled. The heads of the doors and windows are protected from the weather by moulded labels, upon which the battens rest, and though the detail about the building is very effective, no ornamental work is any where introduced which does not serve some constructive purpose of design. leads into the entrance hall, No. 2, in which is the principal staircase of the house.
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DESCRIPTION OF A COTTAGE HOME. 75 On the right is a sitting room, No; 1, which is fifteen feet by seventeen feet six inches. From the hall is a parlor, No. 3, sixteen by nineteen, in which is a large bay-window, and of which the French windows open upon the verandas on either side. Behind this, communicating with the sitting-room, is a diningroom, No. 4, which is also sixteen by nineteen, and opening fiom which is a large store-room, No. 7, fitted with shelves, and store, and china, and glass-closets, etc. No. 5 is a large kitchen, twenty-one by nineteen, and No. 6 is the scullery and sink-room. A back staircase leads up to the floor above, as shown on the plan, and on each side of it are large closets, one into the parlor, and the other into the dining-room. The kitchen has a doorwindow on its western side, so that entrance may be had without going through the house, and a similar' door, protected by a porch on the northern end of the scullery, which leads towards the farm-yard. The rooms on this floor are all spacious, their arrangement has been found extremely convenient by the occupants, and the plan will readily make it intelligible. The chamber floor is similar in its distribution to the floor below. No. 1 is over the sitting-room. No. 2, over the parlor. No. 3, over the dining-room. No. 4, a large chamber over the kitchen. No. 5, a long room over the scullery, etc., lighted on the east by a dormer-window on the roof. There are large closets in Nos. 2, 3, and 4, and a large additional one might be made from No. 1, over the entrance hall, unless, like Mr. Olmsted, the builder preferred the open, unobstructed, and cheerful light, obtained by leaving the end unoccupied. In a portion of No. 5, a bath-room might very easily be partitioned off, as the space is ample to allow it, and the nearness to the
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e6 RURAL HOMES. kitchen below would permit the bathing apparatus to be supplied with water at a trifling expense. PLAN 4. The cost of this house may be stated at from twenty-five hundred to three thousand dollars, the margin being left for the amount of labor expended on the outside and inside finishings. As erected in Connecticut, its cost was nearly three thousand dollars, but the workmanship and materials throughout, were all of the highest quality, and the extensive cellaring before alluded to, might not by other builders be deemed necessary, and would, of course, if curtailed, reduce the expense. Its picturesque appearance attracts great attention, and as
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DESCRIPTION OF A COTTAGE HOME. 77 creepers become trained upon the open tracery and posts of the frame in front, the cheerful aspect of its southern end will be greatly improved. Its style is Gothic-so far at least as the high roofs, the pointed arches of the tracery in front, and the character of the labels over the windows-determine any distinctive style. The whole is painted a deep cream color, the bold projections of the roofs, posts, and tracery, casting interlacing lines of shadow that vary the tint most beautifully, and for which reason a light tone of coloring has been chosen. These effects of light and shade would be lost if a darker background had been given as the color of the house.
Pages: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moa/act7703.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext;q1=Architecture
Full text:
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moa/act7703.0001.001/78?rgn=full+text;view=image;q1=ArchitectureRural homes: or, Sketches of houses suited to American country life, with original plans, designs, &c., by Gervase Wheeler, 1851.
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moa/act7703.0001.001/65?rgn=full+text;view=image;q1=Architecture