472 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



December, 1907 



. _ if - - ^ Ti _ 



Home Delicacies for the Sick 



A Unique Enterprise 



By Mabel Tuke Piicftman 



IGHT in the heart of New York, at 39th 

 Street and Fifth Avenue, an old-fashioned 

 four-story brownstone house has been 

 transformed by a new front of quaint Co- 

 lonial design consisting of tiers of lattice 

 windows reaching to the second story. The 

 picturesque appearance of the house is 

 further enhanced by the charming doorway, having lattice 

 windows on the 

 sides, with a roof 

 covered with red 

 tiles, which also ex- 

 tends above the 

 lower group of 

 casement windows. 

 Geraniums or ferns 

 are kept freshly 

 growing in the at- 

 tractive little ivy- 

 covered tubs which 

 are placed around 

 the doorwjiy. 



On entering we 

 find ourselves in a 

 long, low hall fur- 

 nished with antique 

 furniture. On the 

 right the door 

 opens into an old- 

 world Colonial 

 kitchen with white- 

 washed raftered 

 ceiling, and in the 

 tiistance may be 

 seen an old hand- 

 made brick fireplace 

 with a Dutch oven, 

 reminding one of 

 an old New Eng- 

 farmhouse 

 The fire- 

 a rep ro due- 

 one in the 

 Cortlandt 



land 

 kitchen, 

 place is 

 tion of 

 old Van 

 Mansion. 



This room is used 



Outside the Home Bureau 



partly as an office for the Home Bureau, which owes its 

 existence to a woman's passing illness, a French chef, and a 

 too rich bowl of soup. At the crucial moment the daughter 

 of the house came to the rescue, and provided temptingly 

 served dainties which the doctor claimed had saved the life 

 of the patient. The idea presented itself that this was a 

 good field for a woman who needed to support herself, but 

 in the whirl of a gay social life and an approaching marriage 



the circumstance 

 was forgotten. 

 Later, without hus- 

 b a n d or fortune, 

 the sickroom Inci- 

 dent was brought to 

 mind, and Mrs. 

 Willard decided to 

 take up the only 

 thing in which she 

 was skilled, the 

 making of deli- 

 cacies for the sick. 



Concealing her 

 identity and decid- 

 ing to buiki up her 

 business on good 

 work alone rather 

 than on social 

 standing, she 

 gained her reputa- 

 tion by supplying 

 only the most care- 

 fully prepared and 

 dainty foods. When 

 the doctors proved 

 how beneficial these 

 were for their pa- 

 tients, they were 

 glad to speak of her 

 work. From her 

 diet kitchen were 

 sent out j e 1 1 I e s, 

 gruels, puddings, 

 breads, flaxseed 

 lemonades, oatmeal 

 caudle, Pasteur- 

 ized and peptonized 



