Читать книгу Convenient Houses, With Fifty Plans for the Housekeeper - Louis H. Gibson - Страница 13

This part of the house may be hall, reception-hall, or room. It is a hall or passage frequently, and not provided with a vestibule. It may be a hall from its shape; it may be a room for the same reason. It may be of no use as a room, if the stairway is improperly placed. The house arranged with a long, narrow hall, having the stairway at the side, is essentially wasteful of room. Such hall space is usually dark and gloomy as well as crowded. A hall eight feet wide and twenty feet long, contains one hundred and sixty square feet of floor-surface, though only a limited portion of it is available, on account of the shape of the space which remains after the stairway is placed. A hall twelve by thirteen feet contains one hundred and fifty-six square feet, but a great deal more available room. The space not occupied by the stairway is in better shape. A hall of this shape partakes of the nature of a room, and may be used as such. In the plan referred to a window-seat is shown. This window-seat may be used as a seat in warm weather, and, if the front is in the proper direction, as a conservatory in the winter. There are many such arrangements as this shown in the book.

The hall, in most of the plans, is a key to the whole arrangement. It has been a common, objectionable practice during the past few years to build houses of moderate cost, so that the hall is along one side with its entrance to the front, and the parlor next to it; back of the parlor is the sitting-room, and the hall opens into the dining-room; back of the dining-room is the kitchen, and so on to the extreme rear with summer-kitchen, pantry, etc. This makes a long house with only one room in front on the first floor, and one chamber and alcove facing the street on the second. Thus the hall serves only as a passage-way. The living-room has no front view. To obviate this, the halls in the plans, that are considered with most favor, are arranged to be used as rooms, and the vestibules are built so that such a thing is possible. If the hall is to be used as a vestibule, the hat-rack and other arrangements for hanging wraps, and the umbrella-stand, etc., are placed as near the front as possible. Where this is not done there must necessarily be a track from the front to the back, as a mark of travel.

The stairway may start at one side, and should lead towards the centre of the house. The nearer it can be started to the rear of the hall, the better; this gives more room in front. Sometimes the stairway is started immediately in the rear of the reception-hall, or from an alcove space at one side; these are good arrangements, depending, of course, upon other conditions. Upon one side, or in the rear, should be placed a grate. Nothing can be pleasanter when coming in from a disagreeable outside than an open-grate fire; this needs no argument. Under the stairway, or in some convenient nook, it is well to have a lavatory. The hall should be arranged as a centre from which to pass to the parlor, living-room, and dining-room. It is important to consider in this connection that the hall, and the stairway in it, should be placed so that the stair-landing above is in the centre of the house. Thus we have in the centre of the building only a small hall as a starting-point; hence less waste room. When the stairway lands near the front wall on the second floor, a passage must be provided to the rear of the house. Where the landing is in the centre, we have only to pass into rooms without extra steps through long halls. For example, see plan No. 1, page 110.

Not every one cares to use the front hall as a reception-room. There is certainly no objection to naming and using it otherwise.