Houses I Love Driving Past

A HOUSE WHERE ALL'S ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS

THIS ONE ~ IN MISSOURI
This house has obviously been standing since way before 1967
when I first moved to St. Charles. For a good ten years, we
must have driven by it countless times, yet somehow it escaped
my notice until only recently -- perhaps due to the ever-changing
paths of new service roads and reduced greenery along the highway.

"Howard lay flat on the carpet and closed his eyes to allow himself one of his secret pleasures: picturing the house as it had looked four years ago on the fall afternoon when he and Mirella first saw it, reliving his curious shock of recognition, as if he had found not the house he'd always wanted, but the house he'd always missed. . . .

"And, in its way, it was perfect. A 1754 white colonial with dark red shutters the color of hemoglobin, spare yet consequential, built by a wealthy housewright for himself, still possessing its original floorboards and a few original windowpanes. . . .

"Howard recalled that moment with absolute clarity: the three greenish panes of bull's-eye glass gleaming above the front door; the thick, elephant hide of the old painted clapboards . . . A kind of rapture had flared within him, bringing with it a profound sense of well-being that was almost like exhaustion.

". . . the house, [was] beautiful and meaningful in its age and resilience and in the purity of its simple lines. . . . for years he'd dreamed of living on the coast, in the oldest colonial house in the oldest town he could find. He loved colonial houses; he loved them because they were symmetrical and unpretentious and because they seemed designed not only to withstand the elements, but to improve with assault. They had a plain, stringent elegance that he instinctively clung to, for reasons he still did not altogether understand beyond the reflexive ones." (19 - 21)

"It was a beautiful drawing. Even Howard, preoccupied with getting the drawing straight on the overhead projector, could see how elegant and austere and perfectly proportioned this house would be. He pointed out the simple cornice and the classic architrave; he pointed out the two long sidelights beside the door, each shaped like a traditional pilaster. 'Because,' he said, embarrassed by his own enthusiasm, 'a front door should be a contemplative object, a moment of projecting outward or inward, not a means for shutting everything out.'" (249)

from A Perfect Arrangement
by Suzanne Berne
[see also Longly, Nanny, 2003, Complications]

THIS ONE ~ IN INDIANA
Many times between 1985 - 87, when riding the airport express bus from
Notre Dame to O'Hare Airport, I awaited the moment when we sped past
this admirable house, giving me a few seconds to wonder about its history.

And these two

~ ABOVE & BELOW ~

that I never fail to admire on the drive
between Lafayette and Indianapolis

P.S.
See the similarities?

**************
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