IT is hard for those who do not know the Great Lakes to conceive of the unfailing interest of the constant procession of steamers, barges, schooners, and small pleasure craft on their way to or from a busy port like Chicago. To those familiar with these scenes, it is no wonder that the view of Lake Michigan, as in so many instances of country houses north of Chicago, was the controlling factor in the planning of this house. The shore at this point runs nearly from the southeast to the northwest. A road running due east and west bounds the property on the south and terminates at the lake bluff. Some few hundred feet back from the lake runs Sheridan Road, paralleling the shore. The property is triangular in shape, its longest side being upon the road at the south, its shortest upon the lake, while the third side is the lot line running perpendicularly to Sheridan Road and the lake. In the point of the triangle, at the corner of Sheridan Road and the cross road, is the lodge and stable, the drive sweeping up to the house in a large curve The west was naturally the entrance side of the house. As the main lines of the house lie north and south, to secure a view from the dining-room along the north shore, the kitchen wing was turned to the northwest.
While the house has the ordinary brick basement, the exterior woodwork was carried down over the wall to the grade line for the purpose of securing a broader effect. The walls are covered with clear cypress flooring, three inches wide, which was resawed to obtain a rough texture; hut in resawing, a narrow, smooth fillet on the lower edge of each board was left, and the slight shadow cast by this, together with the difference in texture, accents the horizontal lines of the boarding. The walls were stained an olive brown and the roof a russet orange. The details of the interior finish are
extremely simple, and throughout the first story are the same, a general uniformity of treatment being desired. In the living-room only is there any special decoration, and here it is confined to a stencilled frieze and leaded glass panels in the south
wall over the book cases and door to the screened porch. The fireplaces are all of pressed brick. Another view of the large fireplace in the living-room will be found among the collection of fireplace views near the end of this issue.
