Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 134, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1909 — American Country Houses. [ARTICLE]

American Country Houses.

The most Interesting contemporary American country houses are apt to be the houses which cost between $20,000 and $150,000, says the Architectural Record. When their owners spend less than $20,000, it is rare that an architect in good standing is employed, because the fees of such an architect are proportionately larger for an inexpensive than for an expensive job. Moreover, the small housebuilder has an impression, which is not altogether erroneous, that the modest house does not get its fair share of attention in the big office; and even in those- offices which do give their best services to the small client it is unusual that a really complete house and garden design can be realized for $20,000. On the other hand, as already pointed out, the owner of a country place that costs several hundred thousand dollars or more, generally wants his money to make a big show with a result, which, however admirable and interesting in certain respects, betrays its hybrid origin in its flamboyant appearance. The formula for this result is a million dollars of building enriched with historical reU.cs and tempered (by architectural academies but the house which costs between $25,000 and $150,000 has a fairer chance. When it is given to a good architect, which unfortunately is not often the case, it at once provides a decent opportunity without dispensing with the salutary necessity of economy. Such a house is more likely to be thoroughly designed than is the bigger or the smaller house —designed, that is, without reference either to Irrelevant and oppressive superfluities on the one hand or mutilating omissions on the other. The economic scale of a house of this class harmonizes with the normal life of a well-to-do American family; and it has the chance at least of reaching the final grace and propriety of the domestic building—a propriety which is constituted as much by integrity of the owner’s tastes and manners as it is by the strictly architectural skill of its designer. It shoul never be forgotten that tne making of the consummate residence depends as much upon the prevalence of right ideas and good taste among house owners as it does upon the ability of the architect to design a goodlooking and appropriate house and grounds. The future of American public and commercial architecture rests chiefly with the architects.