December, 1918 
Blue furniture with beige 
walls in the United Ser¬ 
vice Club, Philadelphia. 
Mrs. Woods, decorator 
out to continue the march, 
were tokens by which 
every decorated hut and 
canteen knew that it was 
to “hang on the line.” 
When America went 
into the war and training 
camps were dotted over 
our land, there were added, 
in addition to the tempo¬ 
rary buildings for the di¬ 
version and refreshment 
of the men, hostess houses 
near at hand for the pur¬ 
poses of accommodating 
friends and relatives of 
the men who had occasion 
to visit them. 
Hostess Houses 
and Canteens 
In those cases, where 
the hostess houses 
(planned for meeting 
places for soldiers with 
families and friends) had 
been built previous to the 
war and for private use 
and then adapted to the 
new need, because they 
were houses and not huts, 
it is a simple thing to 
make them look like 
homes. 
This second class of re¬ 
freshment station for men 
in the war often included 
canteens and soldiers’ and 
sailors’ clubs of every de¬ 
scription as well as con¬ 
valescent houses. 
Here we enter the usual 
realm of flowering chintz, 
colored sun-proof mate¬ 
rials, simple scrim, 
painted furniture or nat¬ 
ural wood and cane, pic¬ 
tures, cheering china and 
appetizing glass. 
The decorator can real¬ 
ly do something under 
these conditions. 
It is what he has done 
at the camps, and outside 
A big fireplace is the focal point of all hostess houses. This is at the Great Lakes 
Naval Training Station, 111. 
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The living room of the Y. W. C. A. hostess house in New York was made over with 
comfortable wicker 
Wicker and chintz were 
pleasantly used in the 
mothers’ sitting room 
of this service club 
1 
them, in temporary build¬ 
ings that surprises us 
most. For example, one 
decorator, a woman, who 
did the Red Cross Con¬ 
valescent House at Camp 
Upton, L. I., furnished 
the invalids’ bedrooms and n 
two or three others for the 
visiting relatives of men 
in the hospital with white 
iron beds, white enamel 
chiffoniers, chairs and ta¬ 
bles, blue and white rugs I 
and simple scrim curtains. | 
The important point was 
to keep it hygienic and in¬ 
expensive. This was done, 
and at the same time a de¬ 
lightful result obtained. 
A RedfCross Building 
The same decorator’s 
treatment of the living 
room in this Red Cross 
building was both appro¬ 
priate and attractive. Its 
interior woodwork and the 
furniture were of silver 
gray; rugs gray with faint 
yellow pattern; curtains 
of pale green sun-proof; 
chair cushions a dark 
green denim; lamps an¬ 
tique green iron; the lamp 
shades deep rose-red, 
edged with fringe of stem 
green. The strong brilli¬ 
ant notes of color were 
contributed by war posters 
held to the walls with sil¬ 
ver gray moldings. 
This decorator was 
asked to supply china 
glass trays, kitchen uten¬ 
sils, etc., the quantity des¬ 
ignated for this conva¬ 
lescent house being enough 
to supply a dozen people. 
She also selected the oil 
stove used for cooking. 
We mention this fact since 
it is sometimes forgotten 
(Continued on page 58) 
