THE BROCHURE SERIES

OF ARCHITECTURAL ILLUSTRATION.

VOL. 1, No. 10

OCTOBER, 1895.

FRENCH FARMHOUSES.

As it is the purpose of THE BROCHURE SERIES to cover as wide a field as possible
in choice of subject matter for its illustrations, and at the same time hold rigidly
to the idea of furnishing only what will be useful to its subscribers, it has seemed
desirable to present something a little nearer our everyday life than the Italian
work which has thus far formed the greater part of the plate matter.

The domestic architecture of France and England has naturally served as a model
for a great deal of our American work, and especially is this noticeable during the
present generation in the close relation between the French châteaux and the
more pretentious American residences, as witness the recent productions of the late
Mr. Hunt, which have just been published since his death. We are, to be sure, looking
in all directions for suggestions, and it cannot help appearing wonderful to a
thoughtful observer how many and varied these suggestions are.

Our wealthy citizens are building châteaux in the style of Francis I or of
somebody else, Venetian or Florentine palaces, Roman villas, Flemish guild-halls,
Elizabethan half-timber houses. All, if tastefully and skilfully designed and placed,
have their special points of beauty and excellence, and all may in the hands of an
architect of ability be made to harmonize with our modern ways of living and the
surroundings in which they must take a part.

None of these models, however, are more adaptable to our ways than the country
houses of France. This, of course, should not be understood as meaning that any of
these buildings can be transplanted bodily to American soil and still be
satisfactory. Architectural borrowing of this class is never satisfactory; but no
architecture of which we have any knowledge is independent of precedent, and it only
behooves us to adopt from the experience of others those features or ideas which are
most suited to our needs. The plans and the original uses of the rooms of these
French manoirs may not prove directly adaptable to our ways of living, but the
general massing of the design and the rambling arrangement of plan, as well as the
picturesqueness of it all, are characteristics which can well be embodied in our
country houses. In their way, no better models can be found than the two
manoirs from Normandy which we illustrate in this number. They have both
suffered from the ravages of time and hard usage, and both are at present, and for a
long time have been, used as farmhouses. The Manoir d’Ango is the finer and more
important of the two, and is better preserved in some of its more interesting
features.

It is one of the main beauties of the charming village of Varengeville-sur-Mer, on
the north coast of Normandy. It is now converted into a farmhouse, but in it once a
celebrated privateersman of Dieppe received the ambassadors of the King of Portugual.
There are still many evidences of the former dignity and grandeur in its present
degradation.

Ango was strictly a manoir in the French sense, that is, a residence of the
second class—not a château, such as Chambord or Blois.

The principal part of the building consists of but one story with an open gallery
beneath, supported by an arcade with columns bearing finely carved caps ornamented
with female heads, angels, etc.

In the interior as well as on the exterior may be seen fragments of sculpture
which show much refinement. In one of the rooms of the tower a monumental mantel
carved in stone bears in its centre the bust of an old man having in his hand a globe
surmounted by a cross, the imperial emblem. This may be the portrait of one of the
founders of the Ango family.

LXXIII to LXXVI.

FERME DE TURPE, NORMANDY.

The Ferme de Turpe is situated near the town of Neuchatel-en-Bray, famous for its
cheese. It has fewer interesting details than the Manoir d’Ango and is in even poorer
repair, but in massing and general picturesque effect it offers many suggestions
which can be utilized to advantage in our country houses.

Of these four views very little need be said. The charming picturesqueness of the
two general views is sufficient excuse for presenting them, but they contain much
more to the student of architecture who cares to look for it. The two detailed views
give an excellent idea of the simple, straightforward methods of the builders.

LXXVII to LXXX.

MANOIR D’ANGO. NORMANDY.

This building was erected between the years 1530 and 1542. Its general design and
especially its detail are of the François I type, and very beautifully
executed, as will be seen from the larger scale details. The materials as indicated
are stone and brick.

In Benoist’s La Normandie Illustrie a remarkably interesting circular brick
dove-cote is shown in the courtyard of this manoir, but it does not appear in
any of our views, and may have been demolished since M. Benoist’s sketches were made
in 1852. Its walls were decorated with colored brick, laid in bands and diaper
patterns.

Club Notes.

The Baltimore Architectural Club commenced its active work for the season on the
first of October. It has its rooms in the Wilson Building, Saratoga and Charles
Streets, which are always open for the use of its members, and there will be regular
meetings every Thursday evening during the winter and spring. At these meetings
various subjects of interest will occupy the attention of the members, both of a
practical and æsthetic character.

At one meeting of each month there will be an informal talk or lecture on some of
the mechanical, constructive or sanitary questions connected with architecture.

On one evening there will be sketching from the cast, and on another an impromptu
sketch projet, to be completed in an hour. In addition to these there will be
competed for three of the larger and more important regular projets, such as were
made last season by the Club, and for which two prizes are offered to those obtaining
the first and second place in point of general merit.

The present officers and Board of Control of the Baltimore Architectural Club are
J.B. Noel Wyatt, W. Emmart, Wm.G. Nölting, Geo. Worthington, W.M. Ellicott, W.G.
Keimig, and Charles Anderson.

The last meeting of the T Square Club of Philadelphia, was one of unusual
activity. The annual election of officers and the competition of summer sketches as
called for by the Club syllabus was found to be too much for one evening, and
consequently the judging of the sketches was postponed a week.

The following officers were elected: President, Albert Kelsey; Vice-President,
Edgar V. Seeler; Secretary, A.B. Lacey; Treasurer, David K. Boyd; Executive
Committee, Walter Cope, Louis C. Hickman, William L. Price.

The summer sketches, which were judged at one of the Club’s Bohemian Nights, were
of unusual quality and quantity. Walter Cope, who won first mention, had a large
collection of pencil drawings representing the fruits of his labor in Spain.

Walter Price (who won third place) and John Bissegger had one end of the room
covered with sketches in color and line made during a recent trip through
England,

and Wilson Eyre, Jr., the winner of the second mention, had a variety of subjects
beautifully rendered on quaint paper, and in his well-known and ever novel way.

Music and beer were plentiful, and had a cheering effect upon Titus, Dull, Kelsey,
and Klauder, whose summer work failed to score a mention.

The syllabus of the Club’s work for the coming year has just been issued and
contains some features of special interest. The problems in design are chosen with
much care and the programmes are more explicit than is usual, and will doubtless
contribute to the usefulness of the work to be done.

The T Square Club appears to be more fortunate than some of the other
architectural clubs in having interested and succeeded in holding the interest of a
number of the stronger of the older men among the local architects. It now numbers
about one hundred and twenty members, and its work is necessarily having considerable
influence in outside circles.

Its example is a good one to hold up before other and less influential clubs.

Among the architectural clubs thus far noticed in this column no account has been
taken of the clubs connected with the architectural schools. Of these there are at
present several which are doing good and effective work, but the only one of which we
have data for a description is that connected with Lehigh University. The school of
architecture, as it is called, is not a school of architecture at all, but of
engineering (which is a very different thing), but its work is none the less
dignified or important on this account, and the opportunity open to the students’
club is in consequence a wider and more serious one than usual if they choose to
concern themselves with artistic considerations.

Two years ago the first class in architecture graduated from the Lehigh
University, and since that time the classes have continually increased, until now the
course is a distinct one in the curriculum of studies of the University. The objects
of the department are to provide a thorough training in architectural engineering,
with such additional studies in history, design, and drawing as must necessarily
accompany all architectural problems.

The first year is of a preparatory nature in which no distinctively architectural
subject is taken up, and in the second year the subjects are those closely related to
civil engineering, including a very complete course in higher mathematics. It is in
the third year that architectural subjects are brought in, and with studies and
lectures on the architectural styles, smaller problems in design, sanitary
engineering, and theory of roofs and bridges, the full course is opened for the
fourth year, of steel construction in office buildings (design and computations),
specifications by lectures, thorough study of ventilation, designs for roof trusses
and girders, and hydraulics, finally ending with a thesis design. To supplement this
prescribed work the students have organized the Architectural Club of the University.
The objects of this society are to distribute blue prints to members from a growing
collection of negatives owned by the Club; to collect specimens and models of
building material; to aid in securing a students’ library, and to hold monthly
competitions in pen-and-ink rendering, besides managing any of the affairs of the
architectural course in which the students as a body desire to act. It is an
organization for mutual benefits and already has made itself felt, although only two
years old.

After a summer of more or less inactivity, during which, in June, its quarters
were moved to 77 City Hall, where it is much more conveniently located, the Cleveland
Architectural Club has taken up its work with characteristic enthusiasm, and already
a vigorous winter’s work has been planned, beginning on November 14, with the annual
banquet at the Hollenden Hotel, followed by the yearly meeting for the reports of
officers and the election of new officers.

On the evening of January 9, 1896, the first annual exhibition of the Club will be
inaugurated, to continue during the balance of the week. This will be the first
distinctively architectural exhibition ever held in Cleveland.

In the last competition, “An Entrance to Lake View Cemetery,” the mentions were as
follows: W.D. Benes, first; Chas. S. Schneider, second; Wilbur M. Hall, third; Geo.W.
Andrews, fourth; L.R. Rice, fifth.

The membership of the Club is rapidly increasing, a majority of the members of the
local chapter of the A.I.A. having already become associate members.

The Brochure Series

of Architectural Illustration.

PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY

BATES & GUILD,

6 BEACON STREET, BOSTON, MASS.

Subscription Rates per year … 50 cents, in advance Special Club Rates for five
subscriptions … $2.00

Entered at the Boston Post Office as Second-class Matter.

SPECIAL NOTICE.

Back numbers of THE BROCHURE SERIES are not kept in stock. All
subscriptions will be dated from the time received and subscribers who wish for the
current numbers must place their subscriptions at once.

If not a subscriber, you are respectfully asked to carefully examine this number
of THE BROCHURE SERIES, and consider whether it is not worth fifty cents a year to
you. A subscription blank is enclosed.

It has been suggested by a correspondent prominently connected with one of the
principal architectural clubs of the country that a very desirable and instructive
exhibition could be made up of the year’s work of the various clubs. If collected by
some concerted plan, to include the premiated or mentioned designs in the club
competitions, and all sent to some one city or club, they could be exhibited and then
passed on to the next club in the circuit.

Exchange of ideas and comparison of methods among the architectural clubs is much
to be desired and could not help resulting in benefit. No more direct or easier way
of opening relations of mutual helpfulness could be found than this, and we trust
that some one will take it upon himself to take the initiative. Our correspondent
intimates that this might be the first step towards a national federation of
architectural clubs. It is rather unsafe to speculate upon what might take place in
such an event.

Reviews.

Suggestions in Brickwork with illustrations from the Architecture of
Italy, together with a Catalogue of Bricks, made by the Hydraulic-Press Brick
Companies, Eastern Hydraulic-Press Brick Co., Philadelphia, 1895. $3.00.

To the architect who desires to use iron or steel in construction and to figure
out his own drawings for the purpose, nothing can take the place of the handbooks
furnished by the great iron and steel companies to aid in this work; and the
convenience of having all tables, formulas, etc., together with a reliable catalogue
of commercial and practical possibilities, all in one little handbook is not to be
over-estimated.

What has in the past been done for the users of constructional iron and steel work
has now been attempted in a very different field for architects who may wish to
design in brick, both plain, moulded and ornamental. That this attempt is well
considered and most thoroughly carried out would be perfectly certain if for no other
reason than for the name of the compiler, Mr. Frank Miles Day, of Philadelphia. There
have been similar attempts made in the past, but they are crude in comparison with
the handsome volume now before us. It does not matter that this beautifully printed
and illustrated book is a perfectly frank advertisement, put forward for purely
business reasons. It has a most important bearing upon the progress and development
of the best American architecture.

The suggestions in designs are very largely taken from the buildings in the north
of Italy, adapted, of course, to the requirements of modern bricks. They show at all
times a most discriminating and delicate taste and familiarity with the best
architecture.

The ostensible purpose of the book is to remedy the difficulty which all who have
attempted to use bricks in designing have experienced to a greater or less extent, of
finding forms suitable for a given space.

The book is divided into two distinct parts, the first made up of twenty-eight
plates of designs with accompanying descriptive matter, for arcades, loggias,
doorways, windows, moulded bands, cornices, brick mosaics, fireplaces, balconies,

The choice of the patterns themselves deserves the highest commendation.

The forthcoming number of The Architectural Review (Vol. IV, No. 1) will
include several noteworthy features. The plates are of the same class of subjects
which has given the paper its present high standing. The four gelatine plates are
devoted to illustrating Messrs. Cram, Wentworth & Goodhue’s design for the Public
Library to be erected in Fall River, Mass. The two remaining line plates are devoted
to the Bowery Bank building in New York by Messrs. McKim, Mead & White. The
principal article in the text portion of the number is a sketch of a trip across
England from Liverpool to London by Wilson Eyre, Jr. The delicate and, in the main,
truthful reproductions of Mr. Eyre’s incomparable sketches give the article a more
than common interest. Of all American architects who have been attracted by the
picturesque features of English and French domestic work, no one has shown a closer
sympathy or been able in his sketches to render more of its charm than Mr. Eyre.

The “P.D’s.”

(Continued from page 123.) [Transcriber’s Note: issue 8]

And speaking of costumes reminds me of some very successful ones, and particularly
that of a Highlander, the whole of which was made on the spot from the club’s “props”
and was complete even to a practical bagpipe, which was composed of three tin horns,
a penny whistle, a piece of burlap, and a rubber tobacco pouch. Both in tone and
looks it was an exceedingly good imitation of the genuine article.

One of the things that has afforded the P.D.’s a great deal of amusement is a
supposititious newspaper, wherein the members are interviewed on any and all
occasions and many interesting things brought to light. In one of them, for instance,
Ictinus confides to the reporter that he was born in the shadow of the Parthenon.
This mixing up of one’s peculiarities, habits, and nationality with those of the
illustrious individual whose name he bears, is capable of being given many laughable
twists and has been taken advantage of in many amusing skits.

Besides the interviews there are fashion notes, society and sporting notes,
architectural news, and receipts. Among the latter is a receipt for making Welsh
rare-bits that should be in the possession of every one addicted to them.

The club has been regaled at various times with comic opera (with scenery painted
for the occasion), readings and recitations; and at one of the annual dinners an
illustrated history of the club and its members was given on an ingeniously contrived
miniature stage.

Every dinner, every voyage of discovery, every reception, and in short anything
happening that would be of interest to the absent members, is written up by some one
for their edification. The P.D.’s out-Wegg Mr. Wegg in the matter of dropping into
poetry, and although its quality cannot be presumed to approach that selected by that
famous individual for the delectation of Mr. Boffin, it being, not to mention the
matter of theme, very often afflicted with a deplorable weakness or strength in its
feet, yet it can be said of it, as in the case of Mercutio’s wound, that it
serves.

Most of these literary efforts eventually find a place in the scrapbook, and their
perusal reminds us of many a joyous evening.

This, then, is a slight account of the P.D.’s, and if their doings be branded as
folly, it is to them at least a very innocent and delicious sort of folly, and just
the thing to free them from the perplexing problems of the day and fit them to
grapple with a freshened and renewed energy those of the morrow.

Notes.

The new office building of the Chicago Varnish Company, now in the course of
erection at the corner of Dearborn Avenue and Kinzie Street, Chicago, from the
designs of Mr. Henry Ives Cobb, covers a plat of ground 45 x 90 feet. It is in the
style of the brick architecture of Holland, which has been recently adopted in
several instances in New York and Philadelphia, notably by Mr. Frank Miles Day and
Mr. R.W. Gibson. It is to be built of St. Louis red pressed brick

Many a new building that is approaching is first winter will be found lacking if
its architect forgot the specification of the Folsom Snow Guard. A great many
buildings do not need this device, but where one does, it needs it badly. It is so
cheap, so simple and so perfectly effective that it should be used where there is the
least chance of danger or inconvenience from snow sliding off the roof.

The development of the kitchen range has been along certain well defined lines,
the ornament changed, new parts nickeled, dimensions varied, etc., but it has
remained the same old stove. The Walker & Pratt Mfg. Co., of Boston, have made a
move towards an entirely different style, in their “Culinet,” which is illustrated on
this page. It presents many good points. The cooking surface is at the same height as
an ordinary table. The oven is about the height of the elbow, making it convenient of
access, and greatly lessening the danger of burning the arms in using it. The fire,
broiler door, clinker door, and ash-pan door are all in front. All holes are hot, and
the oven is heated on six sides, making it not only an even baker, but a sure baker
on the bottom. One damper does the whole regulating business. A guard rail to keep
the clothes from contact with the heated surface and convenient towel driers are also
provided. There is no nickel finish, but solid bronze instead. These are features
which should recommend it to architects; besides which it is compact, and occupies
little floor space, durable, and made with the same care in every detail that has
characterized the Walker & Pratt goods for forty years. It is a kitchen ornament,
as well as a kitchen help.

“The Making of a Range” is a cleverly prepared little pamphlet, fully illustrated,
that was issued primarily for distribution from the Mechanics’ Fair (Boston) exhibit
of the Walker & Pratt Mfg. Co. It is well worth sending for, if one is interested
in details of manufacture. The “Culinet” was the only stove which was awarded a Gold
Medal at the Mechanics’ Fair.