St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-12-11
ARCHITECTURAL FADS
Interesting Glimpses Of Prog
resS in Suburban Home
Building.
Analytical Review Of Houses
of Romance and Struet-
ures Of Utility.
A Line Of Latter-Day Build
ings Viewed as an Amer
lean Triumph.
GoSsipy Reflections on Size,
Cosby Reflections on Size,
Shape, Color and General
Appearance.

Suburban architecture needs to be a
thing of beauty and joy forever. as
far as there can be permanency in this
mutable world of ours. In those novels
which used to regale the sentimental
periods of our mothers, books of the
Sanford and Merton" type. there was
always "a pretty white cottage standing
back from the road, its snow whiteness
| cleaning through the dark green of the
| thick shrubbery, while a rose vine
| chambers over the porch, its beautiful
| blossoms shedding their rich fragrance
upon the air."
That is verbatim reprint from a
| novel of the -phsychologica type,
and we all can remember such cottage
| in our minds eye. 1t looked very pas
| toral and fresh when the roses of June
| blended their dainty tints in its glitter
| ing whiteneSs, and the prlm green
blinds rivalled IN brilliancy of the green
foliage. 1t always had a front gate,
too. and picket fence along which
the small boy with prediction
musical tat-tat. We all have tender
sentimental recollections hanging
around that white cottage, that swing
ing front gate, and the younger genera
tons don't know what they have
missed. But the white cottage has
taken to itself more sOmber hueS in
these latter days, and the gate has
fallen from its hinges and been trodden
under foot by advancing civilization.
Requiescat i'll pace.
A New Light
has dawned on the designers of modern
architectural effects. but story told by
one of our poets in Hampshire district
tells it isn't perfection.
A large building was going up in
country town. "Who is the architect"
he asked. ooh, them isn't any settled
on as yet" was the reply. Ppm just
buildin' it, you see, and there's chap
comm from Boston next month to put
the architecture ill.,"
You can tell the date of building of a
house almost to month, and some of
the long streets leading out into the
suburbs are progressive march, an
American triumph for advancing archl-
lecture. There are a few red brick
cement lines; they always look
substantial, but the air of
public building fingers around as the
press of business pushes stores and Off
ces outward. The ntrfugal force of
down town" is a powerful factor III
spelling residence portions.
The long body, with its roof and
side l.. is the earliest product of the
designers genius, and it was usually
the owners ingenuity which planned it.
There is sure to be a porch across
the front end, door and two windows
down stairs, three windows upstairs. A
plumb line dropped from the edge OF
an upper story window casing would
strike the lower. as straight as L.
There came at one time fancy for
Gingerbread work.
Every possible and impossible design
was fretted out and stuck around below
the porch, as railing hanging from the
ceiling, or fastened up in high corner
under the caves. A long board was
scaloped out Enthusiastically and tackled
along the roof, terminating in flag
staff. The caves were, bordered with
hearts and diamonds, and aces
was tabooed number, and the
right side of the house never
knew what the left was. The fantastic
craze came in with the crazy quilt,
the houses were of such groteSqueneSS
that it wouldn't have been a sin to
worship them; they were like nothing
in the heavens above, the earth be-
meath. nor the waters under the earth.
Severe simplicity, however, is coming
in, and the gingerbread effects are
back number
From four to eight years ago a freak
took the builders to have the upper and
lower stories as different as possible, so
red brick came again inc favor. and the
second story was of siding or shingles.
Some of the effects were very pretty,
iectiYe which Josiah Aliens wife
has made current = furfrummit.
Out on the Selby avenue line
there is a quaint c0ttage..with the front of
the lower story formed of large pebbles.
The woodwork of the house is painted
brown, but it would be a perfect rural
home if the paint were only dull grey.
Blue limestone and Kasota stone have
also been used in these tWo-pieced af-
fairs and they give an air Of comfort
without making the small home too
heavy or causing it too lose its homi-
ness. The outside chimney, which
looks somewhat homogeneous on frame
dwelling, has found its perfect place
here.
The ShIngle Craze
was in full blast four years ago. A
band between the stories. inclined CAB
les and what not were made of this
same material until the price of shin
giles went up four-fold. Country houses
were made1entirelv of it, and the fear
that used to be accounted with the word
shinge has vanished.
The old suburban houses used to have
| a stoop, front and back, but it has
| gradually expanded. The long, front
| porch, or one surrounding two sides,
| are blessings, indeed. on summer days,
ana lately the Southern fashion of
! big, square-cornered porch as large as a
room, or all unro0fed yeranda. has been
| introduced. The monotony of the long
| roof line has been broken by gable
over the door, which came in six years
| ago. Speaking of gables, it is straight
| laced house, indeed, that doesn't present
from four to twelve, and Hawthorne's
| House of Seven Gables" has lost its
| distinguishing mark. 'Dormer windows
were necessity years ago and they
| have lately been re-introduced. Who
would want to lose the wide, comfOrta-
BILE window seat where one can curl up
i'm the sunshine and bask to his con-
tent? The primitive bay window has
lost so much of its prim outline
that it is scarcely recognizable.
| 1t used to extend the two
| stories or else one, with little railing
around the top, which was styled the
balcony, but where. oh. where could
the fair Juliet have found foothold
when incoming with some rustic Romeo?
The builder of 'S9 and 80 usually
slashed off corner of the house either
in the first or second story, and the big,