The 20’s & the 50’s
I’ve always found it interesting how in Palladian (or simply symmetrical) structures the scale can be utterly deceptive in photographs- unless there’s a human being in the picture to serve as a size reference. So here’s the house in the 20’s and then in the 50’s (notice the adult man upstairs in the window in the first photo!)
My Mazamet 
Croquet and lawn tennis, anyone?
It’s a gorgeous house, Pink.
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Hopefully!
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What JZ said
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Once again, I have learnt something from your blog – I had no idea Palladian architecture was symetrical. As I love symmetry, it’s amazing I have been so ignorant but although I’ve obviously heard the term before, I’d never had the sense to question what Palladian meant. It is a beautiful house, my only reservation would be if spiders lived in those pretty creeping shrubs, & if so, would they enter the house.
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Your comment reminds me of a time when I had to pick up an additional course at university and my choices were very limited by schedule so I ended up selecting ‘Canadian Architecture’ (and I presumed this was an oxymoron. My ignorance was as large as Canada.). What a stroke of luck.
This course has turned out to be one of the most enriching ones I have ever taken and look at my human world in a completely different way now. I see history where I once saw buildings and landscape; I see connected design ideas influencing functional development that very much helps to explain visually and with a glance why some things are the way they are, the creeping change that has occurred almost invisibly over time and by what influences. Most importantly to me, I now realize that my houses I’ve owned never were mine but borrowed for a time from a stream of future occupants and so I treat them very differently now as entities in my care to be left in better condition true to their form than when I arrived.
I still am not fluent in the vocabulary of architecture and it reminds me of nautical vocabulary where everything on water seems to have a different name than it does on land. So it’s actually a little relieving to be reminded that an exploring spider anywhere still remains just a spider. Thanks for that.
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I normally love wild and woolly things, as well as asymmetrical things, but I would love that house …minus the wisteria. In those photos it makes the house look like a man with a very patchy beard that hasn’t been maintained at all. And then there are the spiders…. -shudder-
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HA! That was the 50’s! They’ve cut down the flowers to just the edges/corners… My life’s work will be to bring it back!!!!! 😛
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lmao – noooooooo 😀
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Bring back the wisteria? You have any idea how destructive that plant can be? I still found bits of it sticking out from under the eaves when I go up to clear the gutters. Sigh … on second thoughts, I am sure you do know how bad this plant can get.
Best of luck, then.
I agree with John, I think the house is truly beautiful.
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That’s why I grow them in arbors where they create the most beautiful garden tunnels… a place with nooks and crannies and benches (not of the zebra kind) just to sit and breathe literally surrounded by flowers and Nature’s busy pollinators.
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Oops, I lied. Our arbors were of Golden Chain.
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What Ark said. My personal construction advisor says there is a reason they cut back the plant/trees. It will eat into the stonework, necessitate repairs and could seriously damage the stucture of the house.
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I really appreciate the 20’s picture that prepares the guest with such landscaping symmetry neatness. True to form and creates such a calming effect that tells us this house belongs in this landscape.
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The gardens were formal until the 50’s when the house was passed on to another generation (the last members of the family to own the house before we bought it.)
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