Today and following Spring Break we focus on the American House of the 1890s. Owning a home of one's own has long been a central part of the American Dream, and in the 1890s there were some interesting changes in the technology of housing and transportation which made this dream accessible to more people than before. There were also changes in the financial structure which made their own contributions. Schlereth will shed light on these.
Mrs. van Rensselaer was in no danger of being forced into tenement living. Her essay presents living at the top. How the Other Half Lives, which I'm going to ask you to devour over Spring Break, represents the other side of the coin. The observations of Riis and van Rensselaer were widely available. Your individual characters had both dreams and realities concerning housing. Try to look at these readings from your contemporary perspective and the perspectives of your characters at the turn of the century, as well. We'll look at the middle, too, never fear.
A house is a stage upon which the dramas of families are enacted. There is, of course, some coherence between the "set" and the "play". As the American family changed around the turn of the century, so did the ordering and design of interior spaces. We'll want to take note of those changes. Be sure that you recognize that full-blown spaces can be symbolized in simple articles of furniture by persons of more modest means: For example, if one cannot have a library, perhaps one can have a book case or a shelf of books. No space for a family chapel? Well, a religious lithograph on the wall can serve as well.
Most of city building stock is residential, regardless of the size of the city. We will return to look at cities later in the semester, if all goes according to plan, but I thought it would be a good idea to get an impression of what they were like at this point.
Welcome Back.
Spring is officially here, so expect a blizzard momentarily.
Those who missed our cosy gathering on the Friday before Spring Break can catch the video we watched, The GildedAge, by checking it out of the library. You've already read the material for Tuesday, (wink) but freshen yourselves up so you can discuss it well.
For Friday, March 28 HOUSE HUNTING
Having read all about housing in the Gilded Age, it's time for you to go house hunting. I've procured a number of different files of old books of house plans, the earliest from 1850 and the latest from 1908. They're available from Blackboard. They're also available here. Use whichever site delivers them fastest.
The house I currently live in was built in 1928, so it is perfectly possible that you might live in a house built around 1850 or even earlier--as an inheritor, purchaser, or renter. You might move several times, You'll find everything from very modest cottages, like the one above, to elaborate villas, like the one below. You'll also find double houses (ups and downs, or semi-detatched) triple deckers, and row houses, as well.
What I want you to do is select a few, from different sources, and put them in your scrapbook. Be ready to discuss your "dream houses" in class on Friday.
One could live over a shop--two "houses" above this shop--We have buildings similar in plan here in Bristol.
From Atwood's Country and Suburban Houses. Note that the date of publication isn't necessarily the date the designs were created in the first place. Want to build a church? Want to build a bowling alley? Designs for both are here. Click either image.
Attached to the old homestead? Never fear! Remodeling is always an option. This design is from Bicknell's 100 Architectural Designs. As usual, clicking will get you the whole thing.
How Elegant! While the architect has rendered the illustration surrounded by trees, a close look at the plan shows there are no windows on either side. This was to be one house in a row of houses, similar to what one sees in Back Bay Boston or Society Hill Philadelphia. Except--this is a three family house--one family per floor. The architect has disguised this by providing a common entry for all. Middle class--maybe even upper middle class, working to look like they were just a little higher up the social ladder than was actually the case.
Which floor would you choose? From Two Famiy and Twin Houses (1908)
Above is an example of a double house. It looks like a side-by-side, but it's actually an above/below. Which entrance gets the bowfront window. I'm not telling. From Cottage Houses for Village and Country Homes. Everyone should look at this book, regardless of which one contains his/her dream house(s). The narratives are complete, and give one a great sense of the dreams which home building and owning genterated. The narratives also include estimates of the cost of labor, so those of the laboring classes can estimate their worth in the Gilded Age.
This is a very long web page and will load slowly. Rather than add more illustrations, here are links to the last two sources on our list. Homes for People (1855) by G. Wheeler. Woodward's Architecture and Rural Art (1868).
