Dream Houses

A person's home is his self-image, his autobiography as ghost-written by the architect. Mark Twain's house suited him so well that he became convinced he himself had designed it. A more imposing self-portrait is Fenway Court in Boston, which ignores the city's Colonial past and industrial present to re-create a Venetian palazzo. The American industrialist as Renaissance Italian prince is seen in Vizcaya, built in a drained mangrove swamp. Other houses visited in this program are Wrights Hollyhock House for Aline Barnsdall, Saarinen's Cranbrook House for George G. Booth, and Henry Davis Sleeper's Beauport.