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House 
& Garden 
THE COTTAGES OF CALIFORNIA 
The Small, Distinctive Houses Have Architectural Merit and Prove l ery 
Livable in this Servantless Era 
LUCY RODGERS 
W ERE you in Cali¬ 
fornia last winter? 
If not you are among the 
very few who weren’t. 
If you were, I wonder 
what is the most definite 
memory you carried 
away with you. Was it 
the ruined and vine- 
clad missions, the rib¬ 
bon-like roads, thread¬ 
ing primeval wilderness, 
rose garden, and orange 
grove, the fields of pop¬ 
pies, the bustling cities, 
the fairy seacoast, the 
wonderful Spanish pal¬ 
aces ? Or w a s it the 
little houses? 
Miniature Houses 
I can hear the voice of 
Lady Tourist Number 
One to Lady Tourist 
Number Two: 
“Oh, Jane, look at 
that darling little house 
covered with roses! That 
is just the sized house we 
ought to have.” 
Lady Tourist Number 
Two sighs and thinks of 
the eternal servant prob¬ 
lem, housecleaning, the 
expense of keeping up 
the big old house (it 
probably has a Mansard 
roof, high ceilings, two 
parlors, and a huge, in¬ 
convenient kitchen), and 
murmurs, “Wouldn’t it 
be heaven”? 
Probably Lady Tour¬ 
ists Numbers One and 
Two are thinking of go¬ 
ing into an apartment or 
hotel at some early date, 
and will end by giving 
up the old house and 
having no home at all. But wouldn't 
they really be more sensible if they 
followed the California custom, 
and built a little house? 
Yes. But—there are so many 
difficulties. To begin with there 
is the old house. I once knew a 
maiden lady, a creature of heroic 
mould, as you will acknowledge 
when you hear what she did. She 
and a bachelor brother were left 
with a huge stone octagon house on 
their hands. It was the kind of 
house that servants flee from. My 
friend tore down the old stone 
house. The stone was used to 
build an ideal little modern house 
on one side of the lot, leaving the 
other half to be sold for a good 
round sum. 
Of course not all people are 
heroines. They will complain and 
The living 
Hollywood, 
room in one of the cottages owned by Mrs. Muckmore, the decorator, 
combines comfort and simplicity with a completeness not always found 
small houses 
Mauret 
at 
in 
sigh, and wish secretly 
that the old nightmare 
would burn down, but 
they end by renting the 
Mansard atrocity as a 
boarding house, and go 
to live a restless life in 
an apartment for which 
their furniture is all too 
large. 
Don’t talk of senti¬ 
ment. When the old days 
are gone they are gone, 
taking their comfortable 
staff of servants with 
them. We are living to¬ 
day, and all the mem¬ 
ories and associations 
will live in our hearts 
just as well without the 
ravaged old ghost. 
If you are living in a 
house that is twice or 
three times or ten times 
too big for you, move out 
of it, tear it down, or at 
least let someone have it 
who needs all that space, 
and build yourself a little 
cottage such as. you have 
been dreaming about. 
Another difficulty, just 
at present, is the cost of 
building. If you are in 
need of a home my ad¬ 
vice would be to go 
ahead and build, and 
build just as small as 
you can, as long as you 
have one large room. At 
any rate, have all your 
plans made, so that the 
moment you can bring 
yourself to build you can 
go ahead. 
ong roof lines lift the cottage out of the bungalow-appearing 
c ass without sacrificing any of the conveniences of the lower 
roofed houses. Variegations in color add interest 
The Scrap-Book 
The first step toward 
building should always 
be a scrap-book. Cut out every¬ 
thing you see that interests you. 
Take snap-shots, make plans, then 
go to an architect, and when he 
sees your pictures and you can say, 
“This is what I like”, he will be 
able to concoct something that is 
not only a practical house, but 
something that means you. 
And now for a warning. Don’t, 
don’t, don’t, build a bungalow! I 
mean one of those flat-roofed 
atrocities that belong to no school 
of architecture, that derived their 
inspiration from the Pullman car, 
and which not even the sunshine 
and smothering vines and roses of 
California can make tolerable. No, 
when I spoke of the small houses 
of California I did not mean them, 
though the State is full of them. I 
mean the lovely small houses that 
