o seem hardly credible, but they demonstrate what could be
accomplished within fifty miles of New York during the summer of 1935.
The contributing causes for this happy result were that these people
knew what they wanted, hunted in a section that had not been too
thoroughly combed by others like themselves and, lastly, happened to
be ready to buy at just the right moment when the man who owned the
property was anxious to sell.

But old country residences, including structures built as taverns,
private schools and the like, are not the only type of buildings that
may be remodeled into acceptable homes. We have seen old barns or
stables, disused sawmills, general stores, old stone buildings that
once housed small industrial enterprises, and even a church of the
Neo-Classic period remodeled with distinct success.

Again, in Massachusetts there is a former textile hamlet. The mill
itself is now a community club and the workmen's cottages, built about
1815-20, are homes for a dozen or more families where, daily, the head
of the house motors to his office in an industrial city about a
half-hour away. These story-and-a-half cottages, executed along simple
Federal lines, are owned by the families who occupy them. They look
out on a street lined with fine old elms and at the end is the stone
mill with its belfry where still hangs the bell that once ruled the
lives of spinners and weavers with its clanking iron tongue, morning,
noon and night.

For picturesqueness, if the unconventional has a greater appeal than
the more standardized type of home, remodeling an old barn into a
country home has its advantages. This is particularly so if one can
find either a capacious one of roughly laid ledge stone, once popular
in parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and more rarely built in other
sections, or a large hay barn with hand-hewn framework and side walls
of weathered boarding. It takes only a little imagination to visualize
such a building remodeled into a country home with a generous stone
chimney and fireplace occupying one of the end walls of a former
haymow. Invariably such remodeling includes construction of one or
more wings to house dining room, kitchen, and servants' quarters as
well as additional bedrooms and baths. The actual barn structure
seldom lends itself to more than a living room and possibly two
bedrooms.

In summer this type of country home has much to offer. It is light,
airy, and spacious; but when fall begi