| January, 1914 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
23 
•each floor, as near 
overhead as pos¬ 
sible. 
Endeavor to 
.avoid breaks or 
offsets in wall 
and ceiling sur¬ 
faces, crannies, 
niches and nooks; 
either deliberately 
convert them in- 
to closets or 
promptly re¬ 
construct your 
plan study. 
Make a serious 
effort to keep to 
main or so-called 
“bearing” parti¬ 
tions for the 
various floors 
over each other, 
even to and 
through the top 
floor or loft, to act as roof supports and stabilize the house. 
When the body of a house is being planned for a specific ex¬ 
terior outline, it is good practice to extend a wing to accommodate 
the first floor service requirements, such as pantry, kitchen, 
laundry and rear stairs and perhaps servants’ quarters in the 
second floor, but isolated from the main portion of the house by 
means of a passage door from rear hall. It is important to give 
consideration in the plan to type of water supply — whether an 
attic or a basement tank is to be provided for. 
Now comes a need to think out the location of the house 
heater, whether hot air, steam, vacuum or hot water. The coal 
bins, a jelly closet, provision room, wood storage, location for 
(1) Shows side porch with fireplace, rear laundry, backstairs joining main stairs, one 
bathroom accessible to two bedrooms 
(2) Vestibuled main entrance, oblong living-room, den, dining porch and isolated 
backstairs 
(3) Den off living-room, one staircase and one bathroom second floor 
(4) Parlor and library adjoining, isolated backstairs, a second-story dressing-room 
vacuum cleaning 
apparatus, an in¬ 
dividual lighting 
plant of acety¬ 
lene, gas or elec¬ 
tricity, must be 
considered. Keep 
in mind the need 
and location for 
outbuildings, the 
garden, gateways, 
walks, drives, 
terraces and 
hedges or fences 
with relation to 
existing streets 
and adjoining 
properties. 
Give close and 
serious applica¬ 
tion along these 
suggested lines 
and you will be 
enabled to scheme 
out a plan which should show no effort to make itself interest¬ 
ing when developed by the architect. But always keep in mind 
your family needs and peculiar requirements; for instance, what 
you intend to do in the way of entertaining, your chief desiderata 
in the way of closet space, built-in conveniences, etc. 
The difference between the attractive house and the house that 
is displeasing comes in the variation of its shape, form, or out¬ 
line, all dependent on its plan arrangement; many of the annoy¬ 
ances that attend house planning and building would be avoided 
if the knowledge acquired during the process had been possessed 
in the beginning. The plan is nothing if not compact; its ef¬ 
fectiveness is dependent largely upon its consistency with require- 
(5) Porch, living-room and open fireplace attached to one chimney, vestibuled 
entrance, rear porch, small laundry, backstairs and servants’ quarters 
(6) Two porches, maids’ room on first floor, rear stairs join landing of main stairs 
(7) Returned front porch, rear entry, fireplace and range flue in one chimney 
(8) Side porch, backstairs, one public and one private bath adjoining, rear sleeping 
porch or solarium 
A center hall treatment with center staircase turning each side at main landing. Under stairs is located a rear hall 
with small toilet room, through this hall opens the pantry, also permitting access to front door by the maid and 
the owner to the cellar without entering the kitchen. The dining-room fireplace also provides a flue for the 
cellar heater and kitchen range. The backstairs end on the half-pace landing of the main stairs. The directness of 
the hall to all rooms is to be noted, together with ample closet space throughout, also stairs to attic, private bath and 
sewing-room. This example was selected to show an oblong house, with well-proportioned rooms, economical hall 
spaces, method of supplying ice to refrigerator, convenience of cellar-way and all appointments directly related 
PLANS OF CENTER HALL HOUSES 
