trance porch, if there is one; even if
it be no more than a flat semblance of a pilaster about the frame of the
door, it will supply the correct motive. Lacking this, there will
undoubtedly be some detail in the interior which can be magnified to the
right proportion for the exterior,--the upright of a mantel or the frame
of a door. For a house which can boast no such source of suggestion, a
straight, square post with a simple molding would be the solution. The
cornice should follow the detail of the entrance door or the house
cornice; and it is effective and increases the apparent unity to repeat
the decoration of the one on the other.
The rails and balusters of old houses were extremely simple and should
be kept so in the remodeling. In the very early examples, the balusters
were square and spaced far apart; later both square and turned balusters
were used, and they were spaced twice their width. The design for these
can often be taken from the stairs in the interior of the house. It is
the modern tendency to use no railing about verandas, particularly when
they are low or when they are screened in. Some of the flat-roofed type
had a railing around the roof, and an open-air porch was thus made for
the second story.
Sometimes this porch can be utilized as a sleeping-porch on the second
floor. This feature, while of course entirely foreign to the farmhouse,
has become as much a necessity in many families as the open-air
living-room, and it is therefore logical to introduce it where possible
to do so without destroying the lines of the building. It is better,
however, to do without it than to add it in such a way that it will seem
an afterthought and not really incorporated in the structure. Often it
can be placed in a wide dormer cut in the slope of the roof; sometimes
the roof line can be extended over the roof of the sleeping-porch, or
again it may be merely a room with the walls largely cut away. Each
remodeler will have his own problem in connection with this, and by
ingenuity and careful study must work it out to his own satisfaction.
Remember always that the integral simplicity of the building must not be
disturbed, and that whether it be sleeping-porch, veranda, or entrance
portico, it must seem always a part of the original building, as if it
were the conception of the master craftsman who erected the first
timbers.
[Illustration: THE DAVENPORT BROWN HOUSE]
Most gratifying results along this line are sho
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