Villa and Cottage Architecture: The Style-Book of the Hudson River School

Excerpt from Villas and A Series of Designs Prepared for Execution in the United StatesEvery American who is in the habit of traveling which is almost equivalent to saying every American, must have noticed the inexhaustible demand for rural residences that is perceptible in every part of these Northern States. Nothing like it has ever yet occurred in the world's history; and although hard times undoubtedly occur in America, as well as elsewhere, at occasional intervals, it would seem that the profits which one man fails to make manage, somehow, to slide into the pockets of other more successful operators; for the carpenters and masons appear to be always getting a full percentage of the floating capital, and the ball is kept merrily rolling under all changes of individual circumstances.Such being the fact, whatever may be its philosophy, it seems evident that the season must come when the importance of the whole subject of domestic architecture will be fairly and fully recognized.