Southern cultivator. (Augusta, Ga.) 1843-188?, April 01, 1867, Page 106, Image 14
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that exist within. From this veranda we enter the hall
F, 8 by 83 feet, which contains the principal staircase,
ami affords cornmnnicalion with all the best rooms on this
floor. Ais the parlor, 33 by 16 feet, entered by folding
doors, and a good example of a regular, well-proportioned
room ; when we say well-proportioned, we mean accord
ing to our ideas of interiors, rather than in conformity
with the rules based on classical authority for the regula
tion of internal proportions. Os course much depends
on the height of the story ; in this case it is twelve feet.
B, 14 by 16 feet, is a library or sitting room, or both, as
the requirements of the family may dictate. The chief
attraction of this room is the octagonal bay, a very plea
sant feature, whether contemplated from within or with
out. The dining-room Dis 16 by 18 feet, and on occa
sions of unusual festivity, can be extended by throwing
open the sliding doors into the room B. A nice closet
to the dining room is seen at I, and another for the occa
sional stowing away of various articles of use or wear,
such as will readily occur to the mind of any liver in the
country. Gis a passage from diningroom to kitchen;
nnd II a pantry, represented as shelved on both sides;
from the passage G the private stairs extend to the second
floor of the back building, which is on a level with the
half-pace of main stairs ; a passage from the landing of
the former communicates with the latter, rendering all
the chambers on the second floor easily accessible to ser
vants, without using the exhibited flight of the main stairs.
The apartment E, is designed fora kitchen, and by its di
mensions, 15 by 22 feet, it may be readily inferred that
we have a partiality for those good, old-fashioned country
kitchens that our ancestors delighted in. Beyond this is
a one-story apartment N, 12 by 15 feet, intended fora
multitude of uses, which will not fail to suggest them
selves to those acquainted with the requirements of farm
life.”
Deprived of her accustomed number of trained servants,
It has become a necessity that the mistress of the South
ern household, should herself now exercise a continual
oversight over her present demoralized “help.” This, to
gether with the fact that the said “help” may leave her
at any time, with all the work of the household on her
hands, renders it very desirable that our kitchens should
be attached to the dwelling. The disadvantages of this
arrangement are, that the smell of the food, while prepar
ing, may pervade the other apartments—the presence of
flies in the house in summer, which are attracted by the
cooking; and moreover, so far as allowed, the kitchen
will become a rendezvous for all the acquaintances of the
cook. Ihe latter nuisance should be strictly guarded
against, and no negro be permitted to enter the kitchen
except the servants engaged therein. The servant’s rooms
should be oft by themselves, screened from the house by
trees and shrubbery, but within convenient call. They
arc too dissolute in morals—too filthy in their habits and
persons—their rooms too much infested with bugs, which
will invade the other apartments ; and they are too careless
of fire, to make it all comfortable for the family to have the
servants rooms under the same roof with themselves.
Many dwellings are built with basement kitchens—the
objection to which is, that it gives the mistress too many
steps up and down stairs, and the smell of the food is more
diffused over the entire house, than if on the same floor.
A house with a basement is much more subject to be in
fested with rats, which find refuge beneath the lower
floors. If the dining room is also below, the mistress, for
the sake of being near her work, often lives, with the
younger children, a large part of the time in the base
ment, of which the rooms are not as dry, wholesome and
■well-ventilated, as the upper portion of the house. In i
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR.
towns, where houses are built on ground descending from
the street, basement rooms are, of course, not easily avoid
ed, but such locations are not desirable. The time and
strength saved to the mother of a family, by having all
her work done on the same floor, is a matter of great im
portance.
The position of the kitchen in our design, could hardly
be improved. It is removed back as far as possible from
the main rooms of the dwelling, and yet is in close prox*
unity to the dining room. For a Southern dwelling, we
should throw the closets J and K into one larger room for
a pantry, while the small pantry H*and the passage G, we
should make into a good hall leading through the wing
from verandah to verandah, which, if kept open in sum"
mer, and the kitchen door is closed, would protect the din
ing room perfectly, from all effluvia from the kitchen.
We should increase the width of the proposed pantry, K
and ,T, and the hall G. 11., by reducing the length of tliV
kitchen E, to 17 or 18 feet, throwing it further back. The
private stairs could be retained or not, as desired. Fur
ther to protect the house in summer, from the heat of the'
kitchen, we should lock up the kitchen door leading into
the back hall, as before advised, and have all food brought
from the kitchen by way of the verandah. The room
X., should be fitted up with an arch for washing and with
other conveniences for rough-work, including a good brick
oven. It should be paved with brick, or floored with ce
ment. The back part of the kitchen about the stove or
fire-place, should also be paved, as a protection against
fire.
As to the second story, the plan is modified from that
of the first, by dividing the space over the parlor into two
bed-rooms, with clothes presses between the two rooms.-
The upper hall reaches only as far front as F, the space 1
forward being divided between the front bed-rooms A arid'
B, enlarging each some 4 feet. The kitchen wing is di
vided into two bed-rooms, the back one in the original
plau being designed as a servant’s room, entered by
the stair-ease at the side of the kitchen chimney, and hav
ing no communication or door entering into the adjacent
bed-room, or connection with any other part of the house.
About all these plans with wings attached, there is this
advantage. A thrifty coupTe, with little means, might
btild the wing only at first. Let this be done, and it
would afford them considerable accommodation—a kitchen
and dining room below, with hall and pantry, and above
two small bed-rooms—scant room it is true, but better
apartments than at first are the lot of thousands, who,
through mutual affection, are happy in 4 humble dwellings,
and often reach affluence in later life. A few years after
as the family increases, and property flows in, to war
rant a more liberal scale of living, the main structure may
be erected in front, and in its elegant exterior, adapted to
the larger needs und improved circumstances of the house
hold.
Sloan’s Homestead Architecture, from which our plan is
taken, contains many other excellent designs, several
of which we are kindly permitted to copy by its publish
ers, J. B. Lippincott & Cos., Philadelphia, Pa. Bvo 350
pages. Price £4.00. '
. A exas paper, in illustrating the advantages of
advertising, states that a gentleman advertised the Toss of
a fifty dollar note and found it in his vest pocket before
he reached home.