But each of the great cities had a style of dwelling-house peculiar to itself. Boston had its convex or swell fronts, repeated one after another along the length of a street; Philadelphia had its white marble sills and steps contrasting in color with plain red-brick façades; while New York affected the more pretentious " brownstone" with half-basement, high "stoop," and pilasters or columns flanking the entrance. From the middle of the fifth decade of this century New York dwellings became more ambitious, if not always architecturally better. Some of the best are the work of Frederick Diaper, and may be found in University Place and other localities now in the interior of the city.
About the same epoch Philadelphia began to use brownstone and white marble in the more expensive class of dwellings; the marble palace is still in the minds of many the ideal of the beautiful, though perhaps no material lends itself less readily to the effects obtainable in an ordinary dwelling-house. But tastes have changed, and we are in the midst of a new movement. The great departure has been the employment of a variety of materials rather than of any special series of ornaments, and many architects who use this variety wander far from eighteenth-century ornamentation, and even from any of the styles of the past. Houses with a ground-floor of stone, a second floor of brick, and a third covered with tiles or shingles; houses with fronts covered with shingles almost to the ground; houses covered above with half-timbered work, while below they are of stone or brick,—are to be seen on all sides, and such struc tures, with broken outlines and varied materials, are popularly styled " Queen Anne." Amid such a variety there must be some beauty. The talented designer, no longer trammelled by uncongenial rules, produces the most picturesque effects, but the general public is not appreciative of the picturesque sufficiently to distinguish it from the grotesque, which is also extensively produced.
Old Colonial.—The difference between the true Queen Anne or early eighteenth-century style of England and that practised in this country during the colonial period is not a great one; nevertheless, the Centennial Exposition induced Americans to study the antiquities of their own country. The gambrel or curb-roof and shingles as an exterior wall covering came again into favor, and piazzas were contracted into porticoes supported by thin Doric posts spaced widely apart. As with other man ners, so with " old colonial," the effect depends rather upon the artist than upon the style. The residence of Mr. Coleman at Newport, Rhode Island (,61. 6S, fig. 1), may be called old colonial, though it is unlike and
incomparably superior to anything erected in the colonial period. The effect of the two superimposed loggias with their two columns each, and of the portico to the right of them, is most picturesque and striking. But, while a so-called "old-colonial " dwelling may as a whole be far better than anything erected in colonial days, it may also be far worse and more pretentious, and examples of this are not rare.
The shingle as a substitute for the unvarying clapboard is decidedly an improvement; but when it takes the place of stone it is an anachronism. Moreover, though applicable enough to small cottages, it is, from its sug gestion of diminutiveness, totally out of place in a large building. Indeed, structures iu which the shingle and the clapboard are prominent cannot be considered architectural except in a sense which will include every wooden structure.
The convenience of the gambrel-roof cannot be denied, and its effect in front is not inferior to that of the mansard or French roof; but its ter minal lines are decidedly inartistic. It may be excused occasionally as a convenience or a quaintness, but must be used in moderation; and when a house consists entirely of one long straight shingled roof of this kind sur mounting a low wall pierced by small windows of a width exceeding their height, the ensemble is not architectural. But such incongruities may be expcted as a reaction against the red-brick and clapboard dulness of past decades.
Houseldeunning.—Far more study is now given to the details of both the plan and the elevation than was the case a few years ago. Instead of the set pattern of former times, the position of every door and every win dow is studied with an eye either to interior comfort and convenience, to the aspect, or to the view obtainable, and thus the exterior is made to ex press these internal needs.
Regularity of has been said that the history of house-plan ning is the history of civilization. In nothing is the simplicity or luxu riousness of the age more evident than in the arrangement of private dwellings, and nowhere else does the influence of a passing fashion imprint itself more fully. Not more than a generation ago a plain square house with oblong rooms whose height bore some geometrical proportion to their width, and whose fireplaces and windows were arranged with due regard to symmetry, was esteemed the height of comfort and good taste. The entrance was in the exact centre; the parlor was the counterpart of the library; the flanks of the structure corresponded.