The importance of Peter and John Hall to the work of Charles and Henry Greene has been recognized for some time. Rightly so. In fact, "important" likely undersells the case. The talented craftsmen that the Halls brought to their partnership with the Greenes allowed for increasingly complex and sophisticated designs. Greene & Greene could create with impunity, confident that the workers in the Hall shop were up to the challenge and that the quality of implementation would be very high.

We know form available evidence that the relationship between the Greenes and Halls was interactive. Charles Greene was a frequent, perhaps constant, visitor to Peter Hall's shop and not to the front office. He would go to the benches and roll up his sleeves. Given the work he later performed at his studio in Carmel, one wonders if perhaps those visits were his golden time.

Beyond these visits, the nature of the relationship and the communication between Charles, Henry, Peter and John has been the subject of much speculation. Absent a time machine, which would be an extremely useful research tool, to speculate is about the best we can do. Documentary evidence is rather scarce. There are, however, some nebulous clues offered in the form of notations on original drawings.

Some of these notations are simple instructions. Others indicate the trust that had developed between the Greenes and the Halls. One can guess that some of the simpler instructions disappeared over time as the parties learned more about what the others expected and knew what to do without explicit commands. What follows is a list of notations found on various drawings in the Greene & Greene archives.

• All mortises to be secured with pins. (Found on door and sash drawings for multiple houses.)
• All corners struck square. To be rounded with no. 00 sandpaper as they are cleaned up. (Found on drawings for multiple houses.)
• All pannels (sic) cut from solid pieces. No pieces glued on. All muntins, rails and stiles mortised. (Found on door drawings for the Robinson house.)
• Screen doors are same detail as [doors] they come against except that they are 1 1/4" thick, and one panel of screen wire each. No muntins. (Found on door drawings for the Pitcairn house.)
• Hand smoothed and finished with #00 sandpaper. (Found on door drawings for the John B. Phillips house.)
• The work to be done shall be to furnish all labor and materials of best quality and construct and finish the building complete except painting and finish hardware. (Found on drawing for Auto-barn for the Libby house.)
• Layout shelves and submit to architects. (Found on drawing of the living-room desk for the Pratt house.)

And my favorite notation, one that will be familiar to anyone who has ever designed anything, is this:

• Sheet no. 16 is incorrect and should be destroyed. (Found on sheet no. 16A for the Earle Anthony automobile showroom.)

I dedicate this entry to my friend Gary Hall, proud grandson of Peter Hall, and a good man.