So it was with a troubled heart that he applied himself to more rigorous
professional endeavor. Like most architects he had pursued certain lines
of work because orders had come to him, and the chances of employment
had ordained that his services should be sought for small churches,
school-houses and kindred buildings in the surrounding country rather
than for more elaborate and costly structures. On these undertakings it
was his habit to expend abundant thought and devotion. The class of work
was to his taste, for, though the funds at his disposal were not always
so large as he desired for artistic effects, yet he enjoyed the
opportunity of showing that simplicity need not be homely and
disenchanting, but could wear the aspect of grace and poetry. Latterly
he had been requested to furnish designs for some blocks of houses in
the outlying wards of the city, where the owners sought to provide
attractive, modern flats for people with moderate means. Various
commissions had come to him, also, to design decorative work, which
interested him and gave scope to his refined and aspiring imagination,
and he was enthusiastically absorbed in preparing his competitive plans
for the building of Wetmore College. His time was already well occupied
by the matters which he had in hand.
Pages:
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271