Customer Reviews

Stone Houses: Traditional Homes of Pennsylvania's Bucks County and Brandywine Valley

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book contains a wonderful pictorial view of stone houses, better than I've ever seen. It includes all forms of construction and gives very informative descriptions of each style. The history related here is invaluable to the reader, as it takes you back in time. The pictures are full color and very articulately done. I found the colors presented in the homes helpful to me in restoring our stone house, built in the 1830's. This book is more than a "coffee table" book, it's a history lesson.

I have always thought the stone used on houses in the Philadelphia area was beautiful; it's warm and elegant. This book has crisp images and well researched, interesting text on these wonderful homes. If you have any interest in this subject then I highly recommend this book, you won't be disappointed.

Stone Houses: Traditional Homes of Pennsylvania's Bucks County and Brandywine Valley. Authors: Margaret Bye Richie, Geoffrey Gross, Gregory Huber. 208 pages. 2005.

I picked up this book from the library. At the library I thumbed through the book and was very impressed with the photography. I knew from previous readings that stone house construction was more common in the Keystone State than any other of the original colonies. Stone construction was used in the construction of Georgian designs which in other colonies were constructed of wood or brick. This extensive use of stone makes Pennsylvania somewhat unique.

This book did little expand my knowledge on the how or the why of stone construction. Surprisingly only about 70 of the houses in this book are actually constructed of stone, others are built of brick. Not every building in this book is a house and several of these buildings were constructed in the 20th Century. Not exactly what I was looking for when I checked the book out of the library.

While the book was not exactly what I hoped it would be I will say that the photographs are beautiful, especially the interiors. The accompanying text tends to focus on provenance and therefore who and when. The text provides little as to the why or the distinctive features. A good book as a pretty coffee table book.

This is a very pretty book and very well photographed. The choice of houses, however, left something to be desired and the writeups on the houses themselves were thin and more akin to a puffy decorator magazine than any kind of detailed study. The book also had utterly no floorplan sketches for any of the homes, which is really almost mandatory for an architecture book. Some of the houses selected were not of any particular merit nor were they even old. Most of the write-ups on the various houses had almost nothing to say about the architectural detail and history nor any kind of regional or sub-regional analysis. Some photos were selected obviously because they were "pretty" but had utterly nothing to do with Pennsylvania -- the New England chest on the back cover is a good example. It's a nice book to flip through but don't expect great depth.

Wonderful photos and very interesting and informative text.
Exceptional detail photos of insides of dwellings. Nice to see my family homes done so well, ie The Pusey house and Primative Hall.

Great for enjoying stone houses ! Lots of great pictures of exteriors and interiors .

A wonderful addition to the Eleanor Raymond book on PA- the houses sing out in all new color images. Many of the houses have been restored and this is fully captured- especially strong on interiors with the eye of a historian. Highly recommemded to anyone with an interest in the region's material culture!

While beautifully photographed it excludes many fine Bucks County homes and is rife with errors in the description of some of the areas in the Thompson - Neely House as well as misidentified antiques in other houses. As a historic guide at the Thompson-Neely House for 25 years as well as having lived there at various times, I know that the first addition consisted of two rooms on each floor not one as stated and in one photo a beautiful fireplace has been relocated to the second floor from the first.

This is a fine decorative coffee table book but should never be used for any type of reference.

I am probably a little biased, because I bought this book because my inlaws house is featured in it. However, it's a lovely addition to a collection for someone interested in historic (and scenic) older houses in this area.

I found it nice but inadequate, since actually useful information was small part of the lot, from an architectural point of view.