The Savannah morning news., 1904-09-25
By OSBORN SPENCER.

fitness in itself, but without decora-
ton. The walls and floors and ceilings
were bare; the house had yet to be
| humanized, so to speak-as a sort of
| an after thought
"Then would the owner and his fam
lily set about the decoration and the
furnishing of the house. One would
| select floor coverings, another the
| hangings for the walls; still another
would buy the pictures, and perhaps
! another the statuary, if any were in
| cluded. The result sometimes would
! not be bad, but oftener it would be
wretched deplorable.
The Old Method and the New.
One of the most startling examples
| of the misdirected expenditures of
! large sums in the building and dec
| grafton of a private residence was fur
/ nished by the house erected for the
! late A. T. Stewart on Fifth avenue, in
New York, though I am not sure that
I the method of decoration / have de-
| scribed was adopted with that house.
| When the wealthy American of to-day
! prepares to building a house he goes
| about it in another fashion. The ar
| chitect who is employed to make the
| plans is asked to design it's main dec
orations, also to allow for pictures
| here, for statuary there and for other
! decorations in other places. He
places himself in communication with
| decorative artists in various lines, and
the owner being able and willing to
| pay the price, men who have won
| substantial repute as painters and
| sculptors are engaged. 1t was so in
| the house built on Fifth avenue, in
| New York, by the late Coils P. Hunt
| ington, some of the ceilings of which
were decorated by Elihu Vedder. 1t
was so, too, in the houses built by
| John Jacob Astor for himself and his
mother, for which Karl Bitter made
some of the statuary. These are only
two, but there are many others in New
York which might be named. outside
of New York, too, there are many in
| stances of the same sort.
II do not mean to say that the
American of to-day who is building
one of the typical private palaces
which are beginning to be a feature
of our larger cities, and particularly
New York, give no personal thought
to their construction, arrangement
and decoration. The contrary is true
There are consultations unnumbered
as the work progresses and thus the
individuality of the owner as well as
the architect and the decorative ar
lists is stamped upon every one of the
magnificent structures we are discuss
ing
Taste in Decorations.
THUS the wishes and aspirations of
the owners are realized intelligently
| by the men engaged to give form to
them, as they never were in former
| times. If a fresco painting is desired
in any given room it is suited to the
light which it will receive and the
| space it is to decorate. Other paint
ings are selected with reference to
their surroundings in the completed
| house. There Is general fitness and
harmony throughout the whole, and 1t
| is an unheard of thing to-day for an
American of wealth to buy a big pic
ture to put in a place in his house
where the light would be too strong
or the shadows too deep. To cut a
| famous painting down to fit a space,
as has been done before now, would
be impossible. The American of wealth
with a desire to live in genuinely artis-
| tic surroundings does what wealthy
men of taste have always done every
! where-he gets experts to help him
create his home and is guided by
them.
THE Huntington house was one of
pioneers in its line. The Cornelius
| Vanderbilt house, built later, is an ex-
cellent example of the progress in good
taste in house designing and decora-
| ton; it is, indeed, a sort of a mile
stone alongside the road. The house
designed by Maurice Hebert, and now
| in course of construction for Charles
| M. Schwab, is a highly encouraging
manifestation of the progress of taste
| in America. 1t is symmetrical without
being monotonous; the design is har-
monious and balanced, yet Astounding
| in surprises here and there which give
| the variety needed. 1t is only fair to
| add that in this case the architect has
| had one advantage which has been
| shared by few of his brother architects
| in designing New York city residences.
| The Schwab house has plenty of space
about it, a rare thing in the metropo-
| lis.
The Difficult SIxyscraper.
I'm public buildings the American
architect is still prone to copy-to use
| the Greek, the Romanesque, the Gothic
and other styles rather than to make a
style OF his own. This, however, will
be overcome in time, as indeed, it
must be. The Greek dress was beauti-
| full; the Roman dress was fitted to
| the time in which 1t was worn, but
| anyone of us would look ridiculous if
1 he were to walk down Broadway, in
| New York, or Washington street, in
/ Boston, wrapped in the sweeping folds
/ of the Roman toga or wearing the
tunic and girdle of the ancient Greek
/ So 1t is in architecture. The lines that
were appropriate for building in old
| Athens or Rome are not appropriate
| for a public building in modern
American city. But all things come
to him who waits and works, and the
| American architect is working at the
creation of a national style of archi-
lecture with an enthusiasm that surely
| will conquer eventually.
THE most difficult problem before
the American architect is the sky
scraper 1t is a tall steel frame with
a thin shell of stone or brick forming
its walls. The steel frame supports
| the walls. whereas in the old-time
buildings the walls supported the
! whole structure. 1t was then easy
to show the construction lines I'm the
! outside design. In the Greek temple
the roof was actually supported by
| columns, but the Greek columns