Halls and Stairways 



139 



important. It is not conductive to a cheerful temper to have a chance visitor 

 enter your hall and track clay or mud across your best rug, intermingled with a 

 rivulet deposited by a wet umbrella. If 

 the said vestibule exists, he will be freer 

 from slander ; and if a closet or recess 

 for wet clothing, etc., is provided, his 

 reception will be most cheerful. A 

 small seat added will allow one to re- 

 move rubbers and overshoes with some 

 degree of comfort, and a box under the 

 same offers storage for this very neces- 

 sary footgear when not in use. The 

 vestibule further serves to do away 

 with the cheerful matched-board 

 storm porch which many otherwise 

 sensible people allow to decorate the 

 front of their houses. As has been 

 previously stated, a glazed outside door 

 or side lights are very serviceable if 

 one cares whom he admits to his house. 

 It is just as well that you are able to 

 see without being seen. 



The hall proper, in conjunction 

 with offshooting hallways, is used as 

 a means of communication with the 

 various rooms, and as such should be 

 neither too large nor too small. The 

 hall is really the heart of the house, and 

 the hallways and stairs the arteries of the system. If the hall is to be used as a 

 reception room, the staircase should be separated from it in such a manner that a 

 person can readily traverse the rest of the system without being obliged to pass 

 through it at all. The vestibule should likewise have separate connection with 

 the kitchen, so that servants are not obliged to interrupt conversations, to their own 

 annoyance as well as that of the host and the visitor. Where the hall is used as a 

 living room (a return to first principles), it is doubly advisable that the above 

 precautions be observed. As a matter of fact, the living-room hall is only fit for 

 the free life of the shore or mountain summer home. It may be picturesque and 

 attractive, but convenient never! The servants will spread your affairs among 

 the neighbours fast enough without coming into the living room after information, 

 as becomes almost unavoidable. In a word, the publicity of the hall makes it un- 

 suitable for a living room. 



In the planning of the staircase it is best to see that it is well lighted and ven- 

 tilated; also that it is not so much crowded upon itself as to make the handling 

 of furniture next to an impossibility. With this in view, plenty of head room 

 should always be given, and the landings be generous enough to admit of the 

 turning of furniture upon it. Ample staircases even are apt to be scarred and 



Landing of Jamaica Plain stairs, showing details of post, 

 balusters and rail 



