Villa Home & Floor Plans

¶ Bold, beautiful, and peculiar in its manifestation of architectural style, this villa is well adapted to the highest requirements of social life; on the shore of the Northern lake, at the foot of the majestic mountain, or by the waters of the swift-flowing river, seems to be its accordant site; its tone is not in unison with the gentle slope or the level plain, - all its surroundings should be in keeping with the distinctive liveliness of its character. We call it Northern because of the aspiring tendency of its roof and towers, and the adaptation of its interior arrangements to the habits and customs of Northern living.

Northern Villa

Floor Plans

¶ The front door is in the tower; the vestibule D, picture 39, entered by it is nine feet square, and affords ingress to the drawing-room A and the front hall G. The drawing-room is 18 by 33 feet, and is further extended in the direction of its length by a very fine bay window, and is also capable of being further enlarged in the opposite direction, by opening the sliding door to the library C, a room of 18 by 11 feet. The fireplace in this room occupies one corner, and a suggestion is offered by the single line drawn in each for the manner of furnishing the others, which can be executed with excellent effect. The dining room B, 22 by 17 feet, is a fine, well lighted room, communicating with the kitchen E, by the passage H. The kitchen is 17 by 20 feet, and has an appendage F of 10 by 15 feet; this seems to us ample provision for the use of the culinary department. The private stairs, and two fine closets for the dining room and kitchen, are entered from the passage H. On the second or bedroom floor, fig 40, we. find K, L, M, fine bedrooms; N, a bathroom; P, a dressing room; and 0, a bedroom for servants. The principal stairs are intended to continue to the loft, where sufficient space will be found for at least three good bedrooms: from this floor the tower is reached through a passage made by an elevation of the roof for the purpose, and a stairway within it affords the means of reaching the upper section or observatory, a light, lantern~like structure, from which the surrounding country may be viewed in every direction.

Villa Floor Plans

Construction

¶ This design may be built of brick or stone, and stuccoed. We therefore suggest that it be built of rubble-stone, and the external surface of the outer walls coated with rough cast, the voussoirs or arch-stones of the large triple window being dressed and allowed to project, say an inch beyond the face of the rough-casting. All the hoods over the windows can be run with cement, a projection having been arranged for them in the stone work; this is done with very little trouble, as no precision is required in its execution. The roof should be of slate, laid on close sheathing; a manifest improvement would be cutting the, visible portion of the slate after the form of some of the ornamental patterns exhibited in detail in another part of this volume. The brackets under the eave cornice are merely a continuation of the rafters planed off and modified by a slight curve, as shown by picture 41, the under side of the sheathing reaching Fia. 41. over the face of the wall being also smoothed off. The barge-board is eighteen inches wide and cut from a two-inch plank in the manner represented by picture 42. The veranda will be covered with tin, the posts being about seven inches square and the inter-bracket or head, which gives the Gothic character, cut from the solid plank. The exterior coloring of this building, in view of the piquancy of its style and its prominence as a feature of the landscape, may be darker than any design we have yet offered, while at the same time we would avoid all the heaviness of effect produced by lifeless, muddy tints.

Fig 41

Fig 42

¶ With regard to the interior finish, we will only remark in this place, that all the dressings and wainscoting may be of oak and slightly stained, and afterward varnished; the staining heightens and maintains the natural color of the wood; we cannot say that we would prefer this mode of finish in the drawing-room, yet we have very good authority for applying it to any well-lighted room, always provided that the lightest cast of wood be selected and no inferior workmanship permitted to mar the acknowledged beauty of the material.

Cost

¶ Bui1t of rubble-stone and rough cast, with a slate roof the first-story windows having inside blinds, and otherwise finished as we have pointed out, the cost of this villa, in any portion of the Northern or Middle States, will not exceed $9500 (1861 price). If brick instead of stone were used, the cost would be increased to about $10,000 (1861 price).

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