Fences, Gates and Garden Houses

A Book of Designs with Measured Drawings

Carl F. Schmidt

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9780486299204
• Topic: Architektur
• Subtopic: Historische Denkmalpflege in der Architektur

This treasure trove of measured drawings and photographs offers fascinating glimpses of New England's wooden fences, gates, and small garden houses — also known as summer houses, tea houses, and gazebos. Several of the elegantly detailed constructions were built between the Revolutionary War and 1825, an era in which master craftsmen often invested extra time to add artistic flourishes to everyday items.
Many of the antique structures depicted in these pages no longer exist. Restorationists, preservationists, and builders concerned with authentic historic styles and techniques will find this unique collection a valuable resource for discovering an important facet of America's architectural history.

FENCES, GATES and GARDEN HOUSES

Never shall I forget walking through Essex, Federal and Chestnut Streets in Salem, Massachusettes in the 1920’s, when most of the beautiful fences were still in place. In no other city were the streets lined with so many beautiful examples of wood fencing. Here privacy and a proper regard for one’s neighbors were expressed in faultless fashion. Newburyport, Portsmouth and Litchfield were not far behind; many other New England villages could boast of beautiful wooden fences.

The word “fence” is derived from the Latin “defendo,” meaning to defend. It could mean any kind of construction for the purpose of enclosing an area for defence; as a bank of earth, a wall, a ditch, a paling, railing or hedge. In America crude fences or stone walls were first used as a protection against wandering cattle and hogs. Each householder had to provide and maintain his own fences.

At first fencing probably consisted of split rails or rough boards. We are all familiar with the zigzag rail fence, sometines also called “worm fence.” Hundreds of miles of “dry-stone-wall” fences were built by expert craftsmen whose trade was the source of their name-dry-stone-wall masons.

In this book we are interested only in the beautiful wood fences, the best of which were erected in the years between the Revolutionary War and 1825, when the master craftsmen did not deem it beneath their dignity to devote sufficient time for the study of fences. They had the determination and the desire to excell, to do their best even in the smallest details. We do not have the time in our hurried life to take pains with the minor details, and that is the principal reason why so much of our modern architecture is crude and ill considered.

The fences varied from the very simple to the most elaborate designs as indicated in the photographs and measured drawings, depending on the financial ability and the individual taste of the owners and builders. However, elaborate or simple the designs and the various parts were always well proportioned and the mouldings appropriate to the material, wood. The fence was usually an integral part of the entire design, an introduction to the details and motifs to be found in the entrance and in the house itself. A fence should enhance the architecture of the house; it should express the characteristics of either lightness or strength. This our early 19th century builders ably accomplished. The delicate details of the Post-Colonial type fence are harmonious with the details of that style, whereas the Greek Revival builders achieved a strength and stability in their designs for wood fences that arouses our admiration. They developed new types of mouldings and a breadth of surface material that were consistent with the Classic spirit. During the 20th Century the fine proportions and the feeling for wood details were lost.

High solid brick walls, high fences of a combination of brick piers and wrought iron, and those made entirely of wrought iron were f...