DESIGNING THE MAID-PROOF HOME (1922)
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. Do you know the history of YOUR house? ******************************************************************************************************************************** We all know how difficult it is to keep a good maid. They are constantly “on the make” for higher wages or, worse, threatening to leave your employ for that of another family. But Brooklyn builders in 1922 were working strenuously to help you keep your hired help. Towards this end, they seemed to have lit well upon the solution to this dilemma: “Make a home so convenient for the lady of the house that she can do much of her own work, and, more importantly, make the maid’s room so light an airy that she’ll never want to leave.” THE MAID-PROOF LAYOUT Of course, these, presumably male, architects didn’t fail to consider the arrangement of the kitchen, where women – and maids, of course – did much of the work. Make it so arranged, said these particular architects, that it is attractive, as well as convenient. The architects, in the layout of this new model house, show a “very complete service portion with laundry on the first floor, adjoining the kitchen, instead of in the basement, as is usually the case.” Additionally, the kitchen boiler, they note, “may be placed in the basement” instead of the kitchen, where, in the past, it’s made that room “uncomfortably warm in summer.” DOWNSTAIRS. […]
