388 
ford. It may be of almost any size. As may be seen from 
the pictures, some of these attractive little homes in minia- 
ture are so tiny that one could scarcely turn around, while 
others are quite magnificent, 
but if the playhouse be large 
enough to allow for romping 
and pillow-fighting, its use 
will be ever so much the 
more enjoyed, and its use- 
fulness will be prolonged 
many years after dolls have 
ceased to amuse and tea 
parties have lost their 
charm. 
If a playhouse is to be 
built, and if the size of the 
appropriation permits, by all 
means have a fireplace or at 
least some provision for 
heating during cold weather. 
This will make the house 
useful during the long Win- 
ter months, when much time must of necessity be spent in- 
doors, and when the independence of the playhouse is 
most needed to relieve the 
tedium of enforced confine- 
ment. 
The danger of fire need not 
be feared unless the children 
are very small, and no one 
has invented a surer way of 
teaching the value of respon- 
sibility than by making boys 
and girls understand just 
what responsibility means by 
actual contact. 
Running water should be 
provided by all means. 
Its cost...need be but: a 
trifle. and it makes pos- 
sible all kinds of play, for 
besides sailing navies and 
transport lines in tubs, water 
is required for the doll’s kitchen and laundry, to say noth- 
The playhouse is patterned to some extent after the residence. 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
A Winter view of the playhouse veranda 
The most dignified of playhouses 
The doll’s playhouse to the right is a copy of the house tor the children 
November, 1912 
cleansing. A playhouse for a boy might very shortly de- 
velop into a carpenter shop or a store. One such house 
at an early stage of its career became a station for the 
sending and receiving of 
messages by wireless tele- 
graphy and another was de- 
voted to photography with 
a dark room and the appar- 
atus for the finishing as well 
as the taking of pictures. Its 
use gives a boy a certain 
sense of responsibility be- 
sides making a place for his 
treasures at many stages of 
his career—the Noah’s Ark 
and tin street cars of his 
earlier days, the fishing-rods, 
balls and bats, and tennis 
racquets of succeeding days 
and the guns and fencing 
foils of another age. 
A girl’s playhouse might 
become an amateur cooking school after its original purpose 
had been served, but as photography it is quite as popular 
with girls as with boys; 
a playhouse for a girl 
might be used very largely 
for this purpose. Children 
are wonderfully inventive 
and the average boy or girl 
will not fail to find a very 
definite and specific use for a 
playhouse and to discover 
new uses for it ‘as time 
passes and pleasure in one 
pastime is lost as newer in- 
terests come to the fore. 
What becomes of play- 
houses when they have been 
outgrown by the children 
for whom they were built? 
The question is hard to an- 
swer for no two cases are 
quite alike. As has already been said some playhouses are 
ing of its use in the toilet of the doll family when their now serving for the dolls and other childhood treasures 
complexions will permit of such primitive methods of of a second generation; another playhouse, somewhat en- 
