150 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



May, 1913 



View of a group of houses at El Mora, New Jersey. These houses were constructed according to the same floor plans 



spects one from another, these houses followed one plan 

 throughout in their building. The study of the application 

 of a single set of plans to a number of small houses quite 

 different in exterior aspect and often in the finished effect 

 of the interiors is one of unusual interest. 



The kitchen, though small, is excellent in plan, the light 

 coming from the left when one stands before the sink. 



A turning stairway leads from the main hall in each of 

 these houses to the small hallway of the second story. 

 The bathroom is of generous proportions and is placed 



Few small houses have been designed on so perfect a between the two large bedrooms in the front. Each room 



plan. There is ample porch room for outdoor enjoyment 

 in season. The entrance is protected by a small vestibule, an 

 arrangement especially desirable in stormy weather, and 

 the servant who attends the door does not have to pass 

 through the living-room to reach the house entrance. The 

 hall is thrown into the great living-room to extend it and 

 yet retains characteristics of its own. Perhaps no feature 

 more commends itself to comfort than the placing of a 

 fireplace at the extreme end of the living-room rather than 

 in the center of its side-wall. This latter arrangement re- 

 flects cheeriness when looked upon from a dining-room 

 across the hall, but that scarcely compensates for the seclu- 

 sion offered by a 

 fireplace nook at 

 the end of a room. 

 The dining-rooms 

 of the El Mora 

 houses are admir- 

 ably arranged, as 

 one will see from a 

 study of the plan 

 on page 150. The 

 recessed windowson 

 the long wall of the 

 room insure a flood 

 of sunlight. The en- 

 trance to the kitch- 

 en is inconspicuous- 

 ly but conveniently 

 placed and can be 

 hidden by a screen 

 First floor plan if the owner desires. 



is provided with a closet, and the fenestration provides for 

 plenty of sunlight. 



It often happens that the homemaker who intends to build 

 a small house comes across a pleasing set of plans of a dwell- 

 ing whose exterior, on the other hand, is found not to be 

 in accord with his individual taste. 



These El Mora houses will illustrate that one 

 need not turn from the consideration of an accept- 

 able floor plan by reason of the fact of the exterior 

 design not meeting one's requirements. Instead, an endless 

 number of exteriors can be evolved to fit a single set of 

 plans, and with this fact firmly impressed upon the home- 

 builder he may take 

 up his problems with 

 renewed interest and 

 enthusiasm. Else- 

 where in this num- 

 ber of American 

 Homes and Gar- 

 dens appears an 

 article on the subject 

 of the site for the 

 small bouse. The 

 very fact that the 

 small house usually 

 has but a limited 

 area for its location 

 makes it necessary 

 for the home-builder 

 to give careful 

 thought to the mat- 

 ter of the fitness of Second floor plan 



