McIntire Book 4Doorways and Porcles
usual volutes, impart a distinctly Roman aspect to
the whole, Iet the heavy, cubical Tuscan plinths
were retained, and a strange, though none the less
pleasing, note has been sounded by the gutta of the
Doric order both on the architrave and the mutules
under the corona of the cornice. A ball molding,
a veritable triumph of hand carving, replaces the cus-
tomary dentil course, yet gives the same effect of
scale. Thus did Mclntire accomplish precedented
things in unprecedented ways. The entire cornice
has been repeated on a larger scale under the eaves
of the house. Except for rosettes directly over the
columns, the frieze is plain. The wooden door with
its delicately molded panels and tiny corner orna_
ments; the artistic leaded fanlight and side lights,
and the iron fence, stair rail, and balustrade over
the porch, are all distinctive in the extreme and not
surpassed by any similar work in Saiem. As a whole,
the effect seems actually to visuali ze the popular
mental picture of a typicai Colonial doorway.
A word may well be said in passing in regard to
the stable in the rear, which, while rightly unas-
suming, lives in complete accord with the house, as
every outbuilding should.
Roman Doric feeling pervades the porch of the
Stearns house, Ir[umber 384 Essex Street, despite
I s' ]