I tore away the ugly
stone steps and centered the entrance door in a little stone-paved
fore-court on the level of the old area-way. The fore-court is just a
step below the street level, giving you a pleasant feeling of
invitation. Everyone hates to climb into a house, but there is a subtle
allure in a garden or a court yard or a room into which you must step
down. The fore-court is enclosed with a high iron railing banked with
formal box-trees. Above the huge green entrance door there is a graceful
iron balcony, filled with green things, that pulls the great door and
the central window of the floor above into an impressive composition.
The facade of the house, instead of being a commonplace rectangle of
stone broken by windows, has this long connected break of the door and
balcony and window. By such simple devices are happy results
accomplished!
The door itself is noteworthy, with its great bronze knob set squarely
in the center. On each side of it there are the low windows of the
entrance hall, with window-boxes of evergreens. Compare this orderly
arrangement of windows and entrance door with the badly balanced houses
of the old type, and you will realize anew the value of balance and
proportion.
From the fore-court you enter the hall. Once within the hall, the, house
widens magically.
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