Memoirs of a millionaire

by Lucia True Ames Mead

Although I prefer to leave the arrangement of rooms in the suites to the taste of the architect, I will inclose a plan—the simplest possible one which, so far as I know, will be thoroughly convenient. The only objection to it that I can discover is, that it is rather stiff and monotonous; but, as the same thing must be said of our houses as at present constructed, I do not think this a very formidable objection. However, I send a second plan, which will show how it is possible to introduce considerable variety in the arrangement of rooms. In this, as you see, the parlor is placed at the end of the hall, and is thirty-eight feet long, being lighted at both ends. If it should be thought best, half of the suites, i. e., the four on one side of the hall, can be built after this second plan.

The central passage-way running between the rooms in each suite will receive light through transoms and glass doors, and will be lighter than the halls in the average city house.

As the kitchen does not communicate with this central passage-way, the odors of cooking will not be so likely to permeate the house as they usually do in the average Boston house with a basement dining-room.

If I have made myself clear, I think you will see that, according to this extremely simple plan of construction, the chief advantages of the average flat and the average separate block house may be combined, and the disadvantages of each nearly eliminated.

The care of the sidewalk, stairs, central hall, and the management of the heating apparatus, will be in the charge of a janitor, as is customary in the ordinary apartment hotel, thus almost doing away with the work of one servant in each family. In addition to the great advantage of having all the rooms on one floor, these rooms will be larger and more airy than in the ordinary block house. Then, too, they will not only be more in number than those in the average flat, but they will be more than in the vertical house of the same cubical contents. For the space heretofore devoted to stairs can now be utilized for living-rooms, and by simply opening the doors and windows a draught of air can sweep straight through from front to back of the house. There will be neither dark rooms nor rooms opening into a dismal brick air-well, as in most of our modern flats, and, consequently, none of that cramped, confined feeling that one always experiences when going into their tiny rooms which seem designed for a family of three members only, and where children have no right to be.

Now I propose to offer this horizontal dwelling, with its eighty-two feet front, and its yard at the back, with all its economy of space and expense and physical exertion, for precisely the same rental that the vertical house with its twenty-three feet of front would cost.

And, as I want permanent tenants, and desire to make them practically the same offer as a sale of the property would be, you may give, to any one who desires it, a lease for fifteen or twenty years.

Doubtless before that time has expired we shall come to see that our methods of living must be modified still more, and separate kitchens and laundries will be relegated to the country, while some system of coöperation will come into vogue in our cities. If so, such a house as I propose to build can be easily modified to suit the new order of things. The kitchens above could be metamorphosed into bedrooms, and part of the space in the basement turned into a cooking centre for all the families.

If this experiment should prove a success,—and I can see no reason now why it should not,—this will be but the beginning of what I intend to do on a large scale. I think I can do no better service for the hurried, overworked wives and mothers of our great cities, than to simplify and lighten the burdens of housekeeping, by adding to their comfort without adding to their expense.