386 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
SEE ar 
toy 73 (bh a H 
° 
TL a 
November, 1912 
| 
A playhouse upon a large country estate where it agrees in style with the other buildings =*~_ 
Little Houses for Little People 
=m] OT HING is more absorbing or delightful to 
||| children, than the possession of some little 
place which they may claim as their very 
own. The home-making instinct is strong 
even in childhood, the 
tiniest little house in 
which to play, even if it be surrounded 
by a little ground where a garden 
might be made, would be to most chil- 
dren the happy realization of dreams 
come true. ‘The idea after all is but 
the nursery plan carried a step further, 
and in a perfectly logical direction, for 
if one room of the house be devoted to 
the children and their playthings and 
be considered wholly apart from the 
rest of the house and subject to a large 
measure of ex-territorial privilege, the 
granting of such independence might 
be made more complete by installing 
the children in a little playhouse which 
may be exclusively theirs. The idea 
| hone chee the sand ile 
By Robert H. Van Court 
Photographs by Jessie Tarbox Beals and others 
learned within the pa 
derstanding of childr 
was scoffed at a generation ago, but many lessons have been 
st twenty years, and much progress has 
been made in the sympathetic treatment and intelligent un- 
en. The writer knows of but two play- 
houses which entered into the experi- 
ences of his own childhood, and it is 
interesting to find that both of these 
simple little playhouses, which were 
part and parcel of the lives of two little 
girls, are now fulfilling the same func- 
tion for a younger generation. 
After all, what is more fascinating 
to the average man or woman than the 
fitting up of a home? With what pleas- 
ure and interest one plans and fur- 
nishes a house, apartment or even a 
modest little habitation made from one 
or two small rooms! How one en- 
joys searching the shops for just the 
one fabric or piece of furniture or 
china needed to complete a certain ef- 
fect, and how even the drawbacks to 
