The Small House Which is Good 
I. A HOUSE ON A SIXTY FOOT LOT 
W. P. R. PEMBER, Architect 
I N very many of our American cities the beauty 
of the residential sections is marred by the 
huddling together of the houses on narrow lots, 
30 feet, 35 feet, 40 feet wide. While this condition 
is undesirable, in many cases it seems unavoidable 
owing to inflation of land values and so must be 
accepted as a condition of city building. 
In a dwelling of this class the difficulties of the 
problem are doubled by the fact that light can be 
relied on only from the front and rear, as rooms 
lighted from the sides with neighbors but a few feet 
away are at best in a sort of semi-darkness and cer¬ 
tainly lack every element of privacy. It is the object 
of this article to show that a house can be built 
economically on a lot 60 feet wide and 150 feet deep, 
taking the maximum advantage of both front and 
rear light and securing airiness, convenience and 
privacy to the occupant. In brief, to accomplish 
this end a house has been designed that gives to all 
the living-rooms of the house either a back or a front 
exposure and does not allow the kitchen, pantry and 
sheds to monopolize all the rear light, often the best 
attainable in the house. There are no important 
windows in either side in any of the larger rooms. 
The house is located well back from the street and 
about centrally between the side lines of the lot. A 
straight path leads from the sidewalk to the entrance 
porch in the corner between the main house and the 
kitchen wing and from it one steps into a commodi¬ 
ous vestibule. On the left is a passage leading to the 
kitchen, also to a toilet and to the cellar stairs. This 
passage allows the maid to answer the door directly 
without passing through any other room. 
From the vestibule also opens the hall. To the 
left is the staircase, to the right the living-room and 
ahead is a glimpse across the veranda and right down 
the garden. 
1 he living-room is large and comfortable, with 
windows on the sides affording cross ventilation and 
coolness in summer. A generous fireplace is opposite 
the entrance, flanked on either side by built-in book¬ 
cases. Towards the street is a convenient window 
seat, while on the garden side a French window opens 
from the room out to the veranda. 
Across from the living-room is the dining-room, 
also large and airy, with bay windows for flowers at 
one end and a French window opening onto the 
veranda. On one side of the fireplace is a built-in 
china closet, on the other a door leads through the 
pantry to the kitchen. The range, sink and table 
are all compactly arranged; while a nook of the 
kitchen with a casement window opening towards 
the street affords cross ventilation and a pleasant 
sitting place for the maid—a place seldom found in 
houses where there is no servants’ room down-stairs. 
Connected with the kitchen is a rear hall containing 
space lor a refrigerator and leading to a lattice en¬ 
closed rear porch. On the opposite side access is 
also gained to the stairs, thus avoiding the expense of 
second stair. 
Up-stairs are four bedrooms, bath and dressing- 
room, all with ample closets and two of the rooms 
with fireplaces, On the third floor are two servants’ 
rooms and ample storage. 
The veranda is an intimate part of the house, con¬ 
necting for summer use dining-room, hall, and living- 
room and forming an outdoor sitting and dining¬ 
room for summer; the table may he set here and 
meals served through the dining-room. 
From the veranda stretches the garden joined to 
the house by a low terrace. This garden is designed 
to make the rear portion of the lot appear at its very 
largest. The central feature is a long simple panel of 
turf centering on the veranda and entirely surrounded 
by a panel walk. To right and left of the panel are 
generous flower borders for annuals and perennials, 
while at the end is a simple pergola with plastered 
posts and hewn beams supporting a trellis for grapes, 
clematis, wistaria, etc. This pergola is semicircular 
in plan and surrounds a simple little pool for aquatica. 
Backing up the flower borders and the pergola is a 
border of hardy shrubs, massed to give pleasing 
effects in bloom and foliage and interspersed with a 
row of Bolleana poplars or Norway maples, which 
form a background to the garden and cut off the 
unpleasant features of neighboring backyards with¬ 
out giving undue shade. Space is arranged at the 
side for a bed for cut flowers and a laundry yard, and 
at the extreme rear for vegetables and cold frames. 
The house is designed to be executed in a warm 
gray plaster with all trim painted white, the roof of 
shingles stained a dark moss green, all chimneys 
plastered on the brick, blinds painted a dark olive 
green. 
In the interior all finish is very simple: of white 
wood painted, the floors of No. 1 maple, stairs of 
oak with cherry rail, simple brick and tile fireplaces 
and hearths. 
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