Most of the farmers who now occupy the country west of the Alleghanies came from the east and brought with them a varied assortment of styles of architecture inherited from the many European countries from which they or their ancestors came. These people, though of limited means, had pride and tenacity of purpose, and they could not easily change to the plain and appropriate exterior treatment of the farm house. This inheritance and persistence, as shown in the farm houses of the middle states, is fitly illustrated by the expensive and heavy return cornice, the massive columns, and the complicated and ornate entablatures which are supposed to adorn an otherwise plain house.
Fig. 36. The expensive box cornice.
Fig. 37. A plain and durable cornice.
I have said that there is no place for the story-and-a-half house. Here is shown ([Fig. 35]) the results of two serious mistakes; viz., an effort to build a cheap frame of such a form that it is almost impossible to tie the building together, with the result that the roof is in danger of collapsing; and the attempt to beautify this cheap structure by over-heavy, complicated cornices. An enlarged detailed drawing of a typical return cornice is shown in [Fig. 36]. On the right is shown a cross-section outline of the members of the cornice. There are ten of them. The mouldings are now “stuck” by machinery, but these were made by hand, and 10 and 8 were formed of two pieces each, making twelve members in all. The infinite pains and labor in preparing the material and placing it cannot be realized except by a carpenter who has spent weeks and months in sawing out, in planing and “sticking,” and mitering such an elaborate system of useless ornamentation. Compare this with the cornice, or rather projection, of a house ([Fig. 19]) which cost $6,000. [Fig. 36] shows a projecting eave of scarcely one foot. The next illustration ([Fig. 37]) shows one of nearly two feet. The latter is far superior to the former in that it is quite as beautiful, is inexpensive, and protects the external paint and woodwork far more than does the former. The piece at the top of the rafter serves to cover the projecting cornice, and as a roof-board as well, and gives opportunity to place the eave trough well outside, which prevents damage to the house should it ever leak. The frieze board is simple and serves its purpose well. It has taken a long time to learn that a wooden roof which is at least one-third pitch is far more durable than the flat roof shown in [Fig. 38]. Here the return cornice is carried across the entire end of the house, and the gable is ceiled with plain matched boards, both likely to leak and to rapidly become paintless.
Many veranda and porch floors and outside doors have no roof over them, or other protection. This is poor economy. It would be better to reduce the cornice to the fewest possible members, if it were necessary to do so, in order to secure means to roof the veranda, which, unprotected, decays rapidly. Or the money expended on the cornice, which results in neither use nor beauty, might well suffice for the building of an additional room, or to provide many conveniences, such as hot and cold water, storm sash, and window screens.
Fig. 38. The old-time gable end cornice.
