Property of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Pangborn | Glen Echo, Maryland | Architects Berla and Abel | Photos Richard Garrison

DURING the war, dreams never were rationed. They were one luxury our soldiers could indulge in, and most of them did. Now many of these G.I's are busy making these dreams come true. While in the army, Stanley Pangborn planned not only a nice little home for his wife and family, but also a small ranch for raising chinchillas. By V-J Day he knew almost to the last rafter the kind of home he would build and, too, he'd learned a great deal about the little animals, small rodents to be exact, whose gray fur is dense, soft, lustrous and highly prized by furriers. The property chosen was a beautifully wooded acreage in the fold of the Mohican Hills, at Glen Echo, Maryland. The modern house-it had to have radiant heat and plenty of air and light-was designed by the architectural firm of Berla and Abel, noted for producing contemporary miracles of design. However, the time picked for building the house was not a happy one, being the year 1946 when materials were at a premium, and at times doubts arose as to whether the job ever would be finished. Mr. Pangborn is a painting contractor, since the chinchillas do not take up all of his time and, when the going was tough, he was the one drafted to ferret out the many "couldn't be had" items.

The bedroom, living room, and a large screened porch are located away from the road on the garden side. They look to the southwest, with its view through the trees of the glen below. Leading from the living room and extending past the porch is a stone-paved terrace, raised a bit from the lawn and outlined with a free and easy curve. Windows on both sides and end of the living room are of insulated glass, making possible floor-to-ceiling sash during all seasons. On the long side of the room, the weight of the roof is carried by two thin steel columns. The roof overhangs the terrace so that the hot summer sun never enters the living room, yet the sun's low winter rays are welcome to enter at will. Just below the clerestory windows is an open wood baffle for further discouraging the hot summer sun from pene- trating the interior. A light trough, starting in this wood baffle and running the length of the room above the fireplace, provides general illumination for a well-planned interior. Indirect light is reflected from the white ceiling. In keeping with the simple directness of the house, the fireplace is of rough stone, its hearth extended to receive the stone steps from the entry. Flanking one side of the fireplace are built-in bookcases with cupboards for wood storage and a speaker for the radio. Incidentally, this radio is piped to other rooms.

There are many other built-in features throughout the house. For instance, the bedroom has a chest of drawers and cupboard space flush with the wall between a pair of closets. Ingeniously built into the kitchen is a housekeeping desk with cupboards alongside wherein lie the controls for the house's many mechanical features. The kitchen, too, has been made large enough to accommodate family dining. The front elevation, which is extremely simple in design, houses the laundry- utility room, kitchen, and entrance. Construction is of cinder block with a stucco finish, and the flat roof has a gravel surface which has been sprayed white with cement paint.

The chinchilla house, matching the owner's in design, is at the end of the entrance drive. In here the animals are kept in separate cages, a pair to cage, in an atmosphere cooled a little in summer and slightly heated during winter months. Chinchilla are clean little "crit- ters," and though they abhor water, bathe regularly in boxes of Fuller's earth. They are not mean animals to raise like mink, but are quite shy and retiring even though they don't count man as one of their best friends. However, they seem as happy in their own well-ventilated house as their owner and family are in the neighboring dwelling.