Read an Excerpt

Radford's House Designs of the Twenties

Dover Publications, Inc.

The Goventry

AN INDIVIDUAL DUTCH COLONIAL

THIS house is of excellent design, and it has individuality in the treatment of the dormers. Inside, the plan is entirely up to the promise of the exterior, particularly in the service portion, where you will find a back stairway, a downstairs toilet, and a large kitchen pantry. Other features are the den and the three fireplaces. With the porch toward the street this house can go on a 40-foot lot and it will look well from any angle.

The Waldo

FOR EITHER A WIDE OR A NARROW LOT

NO matter what kind of a site you have for your house, this little bungalow is pretty apt to fit it. If the lot is as narrow as 30 feet, put the dining room-porch end toward the street; if you have a wide but shallow lot, put the broadside toward the street. And you can face this house in any direction.

The Shawnee

DO YOU BELIEVE THE DINING ROOM IMPORTANT?

THE one in this house is unusually situated, of large size and of convenient proportions. It is distinct from the living room and, because a pantry and hall intervenes between them, from the kitchen. It has its own outlet to the front hall and a broad triple window that makes it bright and easily ventilated at all times. Of course there are other important points about this plan, too, but the dining room is worth special attention.

The Morley

ONLY SKILLFUL PLANNING COULD PRODUCE SUCH A SECOND FLOOR LAYOUT

AS you can see from the plan, the main body of this house is only 28 by 27 feet on the ground. The second floor ceiling line is really less, because this is a story- and-a-half house. Yet, you have here three bedrooms, the two smaller having considerably over one hundred square feet each of floor space. In addition, you have five closets extraordinarily large, even with cut ceilings. After all, it's the number and size of the bedrooms that is the index to the size of a house, and here is one that scores high. The Morley will fit a 35 or 40-foot lot.

The Farwell

HOSPITABLE COLONIAL BUNGALOW

DON'T you think there is something especially inviting about this handsome home? It is hard to analyze it, but considering that this is merely a simple design, with no extraordinary amount of frills and frolls, we must conclude that we like this because it is just what it pretends to be—a fair-sized, hospitable-looking house, built for comfort-loving folks. There is ample closet space everywhere, and the kitchen is so well shelved as to eliminate the need for a pantry. Wide Colonial siding, painted white, is proper for this exterior, and the trellises for vines set off the terraced French doors nicely.

The Bagley

TWO "MASTER" BEDROOMS ARE OFFERED YOU IN THIS PLAN

ONE of them has a dressing room in connection, a supplementary room which the housewife will appreciate, for it will help to keep the bedroom tidy and free from the signs of living, and by providing a place for certain pieces of furniture will enable you to make something of an upstairs living room of the front chamber. Notice that all the bedrooms have cross-corner light and ventilation and each is close to the bathroom and the stairway. An attic stair reached through the closet of the front bedroom makes the third floor available for storage purposes. The first floor of The Bagley has its conveniences, too. The reception hall makes the front door directly accessible from the kitchen and provides easy communication with the stairway. The kitchen is well thought out, with its daylight pantry and vestibule.

The Sumner

EIGHT ROOMS PLUS A SUN PARLOR AND SLEEPING PORCH

AND they are good big porches, too, the sleeping porch being large enough for two beds, and it is directly connected with two bedrooms. Something unusual for a sleeping porch is the closet. Another unusual feature of this house is the fact that the bedrooms are all of the same size; no one has sacrificed space for the sake of any other; all are livable, of good proportions, and lighted and ventilated from windows on two sides. Study the downstairs, too. There's a toilet at the end of the hall. The maid can reach the front door or the stairway from the kitchen without going through the dining room. A vestibule provides protection from the weather to you or your guests before being admitted. The living room and library are both directly connected with the sun parlor and are separated by a wide opening that makes one room in effect of the two. In addition to these conveniences, there's a storage attic reached by a full-sized stairway.

The Stilwell

UNIQUE TREATMENT OF THE FRONT ENTRANCE AND STAIR

YOU don't come directly into the living room from the big front porch of this house, nor is there a hall. There is a sort of inside-outside vestibule that protects both the privacy and comfort of the living room. The closed stairway is secluded and in turn gives privacy to the downstairs bedroom. The wide cased opening between the dining room and living room makes practically one big room out of them.

The Lambert

COTTAGE COMFORT AND BEAUTY

COTTAGE comfort and beauty are shown in this plan and design, attractive through the wide sweep of the roof and the covered entry. And this is a plan which might have the first floor finished as the initial building operation with the bedrooms on the second floor left unfinished until more room was needed, since the first floor alone will serve the needs of the family. The sun porch adds much to the size of the living room with its pleasant fireplace, the dining room is of an adequate size, and the bedrooms well grouped with the bath. The two bedrooms on the second floor are well proportioned and adequately provided with closet space.

The Hensley

PRIVACY FOR BOTH SLEEPING AND LIVING QUARTERS IN THIS BUNGALOW

YOU have seen some bungalows in which bedrooms opened directly onto the living room, or the bathroom was plainly in evidence, or the front door spoiled a good portion of the living room. These defects are not to be found in The Hensley. A vestibule provides protection for the living room, keeping cold blasts of air from hitting the room directly. It has a closet for coats—an essential to the one-floor plan. Placing the basement stairway where it is here is the secret of the success of this plan. It divides the house in two and separates the parts by two walls and some three or four feet of space. This division carried on through to the kitchen produces a large closet for the back bedroom and a ventilated pantry for the kitchen. This kitchen, you will notice, has a window in each of two adjoining walls. Now look at the porch. The entrance to it and the house are at one and the same end. That leaves most of the porch space available as an outdoor living room for warm weather.

The Elmore

HOUSEKEEPING IS EASIER WITH SUCH A KITCHEN

THE room is of the right size and shape for efficient work. It is bright and easily ventilated because of the two windows over the sink. The built-in cupboard at the end of the sink can contain utensils, dishes and supplies constantly used. Other things can be put in the big pantry, with its generous cupboard and table space. The pantry has its own window and the icebox is placed for icing from the outside. The vestibule can be shut off from the kitchen but the outside door can be left open for the ice man and for the grocer boy, who can put his packages on a table beneath the vestibule window. Brooms, sweepers and cleaners can go in the open closet at the head of the basement steps.

The Atwood

PROFESSIONAL MEN! HERE'S A SUGGESTION

NOTE the "den" shown on the plan. If you need an office in your home, it should make a good one. Cut a door through the reception hall and your patients or clients wouldn't have to enter your home at all. The large reception hall has a closet for coats and a chair or two might even be placed in it for the comfort of your callers. Atwood has a good layout in other respects, too, but the plan does not show this office possibility.

The Dundee

AN EFFICIENT SIX ROOM HOUSE

THE thrifty Dutch colonists early developed in America a type of home which allows for the utilization of all of the floor space in a manner that later builders have found hard to equal or excel in other types of architecture. The gambrel roof allows the full use of the floor space of the second story without awkward ceiling slopes and angles. The Dutch Colonial illustrated here is made especially attractive by the careful placing of the windows and the arched roof of the entryway, which gives a pleasing contrast to the predominating straight lines of the house. The interior arrangement is typical of the Colonial home, with an attractive living room and sun parlor on one side of the reception hall and the dining room and kitchen on the other. There are three large bedrooms on the second floor.

The Gilboa

A SPANISH MISSION DESIGN FOR A THIRTY-FOOT LOT

T HERE is no pretense about this type of house. It is simplicity itself. Just four walls and a roof and an invisible flat roof at that, but one covering the absolute maximum of floor space with the minimum of roof area. The arches over the openings to the porch, the strip of roof tile over the front casements, and the downspouts are the only details of this building which might be considered ornamental. It depends solely on its good proportions and these details for its attractiveness. Don't you think the result successful? Inside, there is individuality, too. Both dining room and living room are connected with the porch but are not themselves thrown together. The breakfast nook is especially private and the kitchen odors and noises are not apt to penetrate to the dining and living rooms. With all these conveniences, The Gilboa can be built in most communities on a lot as narrow as thirty feet.

The Natchez

EVERY ROOM HAS WINDOWS ON TWO SIDES, EVEN THE KITCHEN

THE dining room has a small opening on a third side even. Such provision for light and air make this house adaptable to any latitude. The rooms will be bright in winter and cool in summer. The Natchez is a house that can face the north if need be, for there is no porch to shut off light from the living room. The arrangement of the bedrooms and bath is most convenient and gives them complete separation from the rest of the house. There is a closet for the vestibule and another for linen. The pergola can be omitted if the lot requires it.

The Galena

TWO BIG BEDROOMS UPSTAIRS FOR EMERGENCY USE

THE first floor of The Galena is a splendid plan in itself but it is supplemented so generously by the upper part of this story-and-a-half house that the facilities of the latter must not be overlooked. One of the second floor bedrooms has two closets on one side and a dressing alcove on the other, making it in these respects the most desirable chamber in the house. There is a toilet upstairs in addition to the full bath room downstairs. The location of the stairways and having them run parallel with the front rather than the side of the house makes a handy arrangement possible for the downstairs bedrooms and bath. These rooms have privacy from the living quarters, and yet are easily reached from the rest of the house. Possibly the most important point about this plan, however, is the fact that it will go on a lot even narrower than 35 feet.

The Ingalls

MAKING THE MOST OF THE STORY-AND-A-HALF HOUSE

IF the floor plans of The Ingalls were not shown you here, you would probably turn-the page and look no further into this house, assuming it is too small to suit your requirements. It would be a mistake to pass it up, however, if you are looking for an inexpensive house with three or four bedrooms. Yes, The Ingalls has three or four bedrooms—four, if you wish to use the spare room downstairs as such—in spite of the fact that it covers a ground area of less than nine hundred square feet! If need be, you could put the end of the house to the street, entering the porch from the end rather than the side, and build The Ingalls on a 40-foot lot. In spite of its numerous rooms, every part of this house is skillfully arranged. The living room is large, with a fireplace at one end, and one of the spare room closets can be used for coats; a wide cased opening between the dining room and living room makes both seem larger; and there is a big pantry for a good-sized kitchen.

The Jackson

A SATISFYING DESIGN IN BRICK

EVEN such a slight detail as the stucco and timbered construction of the gable ends of this substantial dwelling helps to set off the brick walls and add to the attractiveness of the whole. It is a type of home which naturally appeals to the substantial type of home-owner everywhere. Placing the entrance at the side gives full breadth of room to the handsome sun parlor—a 10-foot by 24-foot room extending across the front of the house. A French door opening helps to make it seemingly one with the living room, if such is desired. The whole floor plan in other respects is admirable; the spacious dining room; the breakfast room; the kitchen, with its own rear vestibule; the two amply dimensioned bedrooms which adjoin the bathroom across the small central hall.

The Oneida

A VERY ATTRACTIVE SMALL HOUSE

A HOUSE of the sort that will appeal to folks wishing the maximum of housing effectiveness without the outlay of any excess expenditure for "frills." The roomy porch, recessed under the small extension gable, is roomy and inviting. It gives access direct into the living room, fitted with a fireplace and a window seat that has many decorative possibilities. A colonnade or French door arrangement separates from the dining room—well—lighted, with windows on two sides. The kitchen has the working parts, such as the sink, cabinet, etc., placed where they will get the full benefit of light from the two windows, and the refrigerator is so placed as to have its ice placed in through the icing door from the porch outside.

The Kelton

DAYLIGHTED CLOSETS FOR BOTH OF THESE BEDROOMS

SUNLIGHT and air are good for clothes as well as bodies. Garments kept in closets with outside windows which are frequently opened are always fresh and sweet for use. Besides, the windows in these closets help to ventilate the rooms. Because of the location of the two stairways in The Kelton, the sleeping quarters have unusual privacy. Only one door separates them from the rest of the house. This door can be locked at night and the bedrooms shut off with comparative security. Another conspicuous feature of this plan is the unusually large pantry. Would you prefer to make the outside end of it into a dining nook, leaving a pass-pantry between the nook and kitchen? The space is large enough and it can be easily done. With the cases at the ends of the sink the kitchen itself has storage space for dishes and kitchen supplies. A big back porch is a part of this plan which will always be appreciated.

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