How lovely would it be to live in such a stately home and be able to enjoy paddling on the river too? This river house is just one of the many homes that I found in the December 1887 Scientific American Architects and Builders Edition. How lucky are we that the magazine has these amazing black and white home drawings and that someone was generous enough to scan the entire magazine and share them with everyone?
What seems absolutely amazing is that this big, beautiful river house could have been built back in 1887 for only $5,000. And consider too, that was back before electric saws, big box hardware stores and nail guns. Look at all of those windows, porches and railings too! There’s even big, beautiful windows in the cellar.
I love how most of the home illustrations from this magazine placed the home in a neighborhood, surrounded by woods or as in this case, along the river. They’ve even added a stone wall at the water’s edge, people and a rowboat. Even more exciting is that the scans are large enough to print and color in.
The river house comes with the drawing of the residence and the layouts for each of the floors. Each of the three illustrations are shown here in a smaller size. Just click on the illustration to see the full-sized version.
This image is copyright free and in the public domain anywhere that extends copyrights 70 years after death or at least 120 years after publication when the original illustrator is unknown.
