While generally I blog about grand old houses and palaces, it may come as a surprise to you that I actually favor the small houses from the early 20th century. Once copiously built and now widely abhored, these cottages and bungalows are under constant threat; knocked down or mutilated beyond recognition in quest of glorious 'space', generally at the cost of quality.
Lately I was going through a book in my library released by the Morgan Woodwork company in 1921 called "
Building with Assurance" which was a thinly veiled catalog of their offerings under the guise of a magazine. Exhibited were a number of beautifully illustrated house plans and elevations which just happened to use their wares. Over the next few days I'll bring you some of my favorites but it is beyond me why someone would need more than these 1500-2500 sf houses unless they had 10 kids. Most of our grandparents and parents were raised in houses of equal size and smaller (some of the houses built after WWII were barely 1000 sf remember).
Of course, I wouldn't be living in this house as it was built had I come across it in its original form. This is afterall the 21st century and modifications would have to be made. Of the 1,675SF house, I would probably create a larger eat in kitchen from the small porch, pantry and original kitchen. Additionally, I would open up the stair into the entry hall and possibly the kitchen. The maid's room (who has a live in maid in this day and age in such a small house?) would make an excellent study or den with bookcases replacing the small closets. The full bath makes a generous powder room and coat closet facing the hall.
On the second floor, I would use bedroom #2 as the master bedroom. Bedroom #1 would become an attached bath (through the original closet door) while the sleeping porch would be glassed in and become a join dressing / sitting room with closets on the north wall closing off access to bedroom #3. Bedroom #3 would then become a nice guest room with access to the hall bath. Honestly, do I need more?
While generally I blog about grand old houses and palaces, it may come as a surprise to you that I actually favor the small houses from the early 20th century. Once copiously built and now widely abhored, these cottages and bungalows are under constant threat; knocked down or mutilated beyond recognition in quest of glorious 'space', generally at the cost of quality.
I've spent hours doing this in my head with the old Sears & Roebuck house plans , its exactly the sort of thing I wish happened more often. By taking these great old plans and tweaking them (your ideas are spot on) they'd make perfect homes for the way we live now. Ok, with the addition of a garage.
ReplyDeleteWe lived perfectly well in 1450 square feet when we were in the condo.
I LOVE my small house. It' a 1900's built farm house, with about 1200 sf. It's 15 feet wide and 50 feet long.
ReplyDeleteDavid, yes -I too love those old sears & roebuck plancatalogs. I spent much of my childhood doodling from them. I think people have to think of these small houses as individual apartments with gardens. You'd be shocked to know how small my apartment is and I'm happy as a clam. location location location.
ReplyDeletePigtown, and you even have rambunctious big Conner!
ReplyDeleteI love the pattern books from the 1920's of small houses. We use them in our office all the time for inspiration. I just love the way the plans were drawn. They were a work of art in themselves. It's hard to make computer drawings look like like art.
ReplyDeleteSo true, so true!! Stefan next time you come to my house (hope to throw a party in the Fall, if not before) you'll see the GHASTLY thing next to us that someone built in the space where a large 4 bedroom rambler sat. Country Club Hills in Arlington is slowly being ruined, and losing all charm and cache, with every tear down and replacement confused Craftsman-Colonial on steroids. When you see beautiful good sized 1930's stone Cape's w/gorgeous detailing being torn down it's depressing! Your post hit a nerve.
ReplyDeleteDesigner - yes, cad drawings can't compare to the old hand drawn ones. So easy though!
ReplyDeleteMichelle - that does make me so sad everytime I see that! I don't understand why people can't appreciate what WE see in these older houses? Please tell me vinyl siding and plastic windows aren't involved -LOL.
My next home will be one room fits all.
ReplyDeleteI'd love a one room cabin!
pve
Patricia -I live in a studio now and love the ease of it.
ReplyDeleteDover books are so great for these plans. We too have them in our office for inspiration. And someday I aspire to live in one of these cute little cottages and rescue it!
ReplyDeleteThis is a post after my own heart! I have a stack of reprinted "magazines" like the ones you mention, several books on the Sears catalog houses, and a few on the country houses of the same period...and how I wish we had more people building like that again. (Even more so, I wish my better half would consent to trade our 4000 square feet of characterless builder box in for 1500 square feet of charming and thoughtfully used space.)
ReplyDeleteThe family who used to own our house raised 8 children in it, and it's only about 1500 sq. ft. Personally, I'd like to get rid of a lot of excess stuff and open up the floor plan, but I wouldn't consider anything bigger.
ReplyDeleteMeadow Lake - I have a number of those books at home too. God bless Dover!
ReplyDeleteBrandon - sometimes I think those 1500 SF houses are more efficient and easier to live in than the 4000 SF variety!
Mel - you often hear stories like that! I'm sure the parents would have appreciated more space at the time, but once the kids are out of the house it's lots of room. The kids grew up with it so to them it was perfectly normal and they're probably all very close to one another today as a result.
I would use the space from Bedroom 3 to be reconfigured as a bath and dressing room and keep the Sleeping Porch, a feature I would really appreciate in the South. I would use Bedroom 1 as a cozy guest room and reorganize the adjacent bath to give access without going out into the hall. The illustration is particularly charming and I look forward to more in this series.
ReplyDeleteClassicist - great suggestions. I was trying to keep costs to a minimum and thats one more bathroom to gut! Plus you'd be loosing wall space in an already tiny room for a new door to the bath -but agreed an en-suite bath is preferable. Since it's all theoretical anyway ..........why not!
ReplyDeleteSo tired of seeing all of the MC Mansions especially out in all of the Kansas City burbs. Granted I am in Leawood, however my condominium is less than 1300 sq ft, perfect for me!
ReplyDeletexoxo
Karena
Art by Karena
David, I love those!!
ReplyDeleteStefan, you are my brother from another mother, I swear... After the bigger is better mcmansion craze, how could one not delight in a well appointed, reasonable house? I have known a number of people who choose to live modestly, in favor or old versus huge and new, for all of the advantages of pragmatism. Or in a ckty setting where you have no choice! Ha! And some people I have known live in the houses their ancestors built, which while at the time terribly grand, by today's suburban standards are very, very small. My thought is that it is less in the footprint but more in the ceiling height, personally. And even if you had ten children, how fun would a room of five bunks be?! Summer camp forever!
wonderful comments and post- not to overstate it-but times have changed and not always for the better. the house I live in now is a 1930s mock, very mock Tudor about 1800 square feet. and at one time house a family-a lodger and a live in maid-that poor maid, a small hardly a room-and a deep deep 2 step down into a "pit of a space with a high window. But the house has a charm I could never have found otherwise. I'm appalled at the space we think we need today. pgt
ReplyDeleteOooh! KEEP the walk-in pantry. It's a great luxury now that everyone is getting rid of their upper kitchen cabinets and complaining they have no storage in their huge kitchens.
ReplyDeleteI was born in the wrong generation myself! I love these older floor plans, they make much more sense and have better use of space. But I have a hard time finding them. You type in 1920s or 1870s era house plans and u get a modern house plan numbered 1920 etc. where do u go besides Sears homes? Where do you find the cottage and Sears reproduction books?
ReplyDelete