April, 1915 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
253 
feature in the rear part of the hall or they may be in a small offset 
or room, so that the hall is, in effect, a long and narrow room. 
This spacious type of hall, usually with the stairs visible, has 
always been in favor since the Colonial period, and is still popular. 
The hall of the second type is in reality a kind of living-room 
into which the house door 
opens directly, and is to be dealt 
with, for the most part, as a 
room. This type is especially 
suited to small and informal 
country houses or bungalows. 
A generous fireplace ought, if 
possible, to be a conspicuous 
feature. 
The hall of the third type is 
merely an abbreviated and in¬ 
significant entry, or, if it is 
longer, a narrow rat-hole-like 
passageway of thoroughly un¬ 
prepossessing character and not 
inviting as a problem to the 
professional or amateur deco¬ 
rator. 
The hall of the first type is 
usually of such sensible and 
comfortable proportions and is 
so easily furnished that we 
need scarcely consider it from 
the architectural point of view 
with the object of alteration. The same thing may be said of the 
hall of the second type, but the hall of the third type presents 
serious difficulties that only heroic treatment can overcome satis¬ 
factorily. Such halls lack light and are ill-proportioned. The 
best thing to do is to eliminate such a hall by throwing it into 
an adjoining room, leaving merely such supports as may be neces¬ 
sary to sustain the floor joists above. No serious objection can 
be made to this alteration on the score of either privacy 
or protection from 
draughts. Privacy can 
be attained by the use 
of screens or by a 
draw curtain attached 
to rings sliding along 
a pole. When not 
needed the screen can 
be removed or the 
curtain drawn back, 
and then the hall be¬ 
comes a part of the 
room. 
The stair is the 
next feature to claim 
attention. Allusion 
has been made to 
halls, in some of the 
old houses, where the 
stair is placed in an 
offset and does not 
figure in the central 
hall. Sometimes this 
offset is closed by a 
door and partition, an 
arrangement doubt¬ 
less adopted to keep 
what heat there was 
downstairs in winter 
time from ascending to the floors above. It is far more usual, 
however, to have the stairs visible and constituting a prominent 
feature in the hall. Fortunately, when the stair is awkwardly 
built, it is usually susceptible of readjustment and improvement, 
and may oftentimes be made a distinctly decorative element, espe- 
pecially when the newel posts 
and banisters are of interesting 
workmanship. 
It is always desirable to have 
a stair broken into several 
flights, and this arrangement is 
preferable because such a stair¬ 
case is more comfortable to 
ascend and descend than one of 
an unbroken flight, and, more¬ 
over, is readily amenable to 
agreeable decorative treatment. 
Whether in making altera¬ 
tions or building anew, it is 
most important that the stair¬ 
case should be of generous 
breadth and of proportions to 
accord with the dignity of the 
rest of the house. More im¬ 
portant still, from the practical 
point of view, the measurement 
of the treads and risers should 
be such that ascent is easy and 
made without conscious effort. 
Tt will be found that treads 12" broad with risers 6 %." high will 
make a delightfully comfortable stair, or the treads might be 
i 2 l / 2 " broad and the risers 6" high. Whatever measurement is 
decided upon, it is useful, as a rule of thumb, to remember that 
the dimensions of the breadth of the treads and the height of the 
risers ought to be multiples of 75. 
It is not uncommon to find in farmhouses a boxed-in or closed 
stairway that is depressing in appearance and a menace to 
safety by its steep 
pitch. To solve this 
problem knock out a 
partition at one side 
of the stairs, leaving 
posts at necessary in¬ 
tervals to support the 
joist of the floor 
above, and changing 
the pitch of the stairs 
by bringing the m 
down into the room 
with a turn, thus 
making two or three 
flights where there 
was but one before. 
At the same time the 
room will appear 
larger. When it is not 
possible to change the 
pitch of the stairs and 
incorporate them in a 
room, some improve¬ 
ment, at least, may be 
effected by knocking 
out a part of the par¬ 
tition and filling this 
space w i t h turned 
balusters or spindles. 
The paneled hall, even if commodious, needs bul little furniture. A fireplace is 
always an attractive addition. There should be plenty of light in such a hall 
Second floor halls should be large enough to contain such pieces of furniture as highboys or 
chests of drawers that can serve both decorative and useful purposes 
