ely before the
Georgian era, in which the second story extended beyond the first. This
overhang was generally used only on the front and back and not on all
four sides, as in the European counterparts. The girders and cross beams
were framed into the second-story posts, which frequently ended in an
ornamental knob or drop, as it was called. The gables, too, occasionally
had a slight overhang. In altering a pre-Georgian house, it is therefore
permissible to make use of this overhang feature, and it may solve some
otherwise knotty problems of required extra space.

[Illustration: Before Remodeling]

A house which shows unusually clever handling of these points is
situated in the little village of Charles River, not so many miles
outside of Boston. Within the last few years, this locality has been
opened up, and many modern homes have been built and farmhouses
remodeled. They are situated along charming woodland roads and seem to
nestle in their picturesque surroundings. This particular one stands on
the road from Boston to Dover, invitingly shaded by graceful elms that
have watched unnumbered generations pass. It suggests to passers-by a
typical, seventeenth century farmhouse, ingeniously remodeled, through
the plans of the late Philip B. Howard and F. M. Wakefield, architects
of Boston, into a twentieth-century summer home. This old farmhouse was
built in 1647 and was of the rectangular type, built about a central
chimney, with four rooms and a hall on the lower floor. When Mr.
Frederick H. Curtis selected it for his home, it had already been
materially altered from the original simple structure by various
succeeding tenants. And many of these had not added to its charms. The
exterior was most uninviting in a vicious shade of red paint with white
trim. In front was a small lattice porch entirely out of keeping with
the architecture of the house. But in spite of all these unattractive
features, there was an insistent appeal about the old place that made it
seem worth venturing to restore.

The first problem which presented itself was that of interior space. The
difficulty lay in enlarging this space in such a way as to provide the
needed room and at the same time maintain the harmony of the exterior
lines. The original four rooms had been added to from time to time by
former owners by means of the customary ells at the rear. The house was
two and a half stories high, with a straight, pitched roof starting from
the top