VICTORIAN INTERIORS AND MORE

A Table of Contents

2010-01-01T14:51:00.003-05:00

DOING THE LAUNDRY

PUTTING UP THE STOVE-1871

CONTENTS OF A HOUSE IN THE 1850'S

THE VICTORIAN KITCHEN

VICTORIAN DINING Food of the middle class

THE DINING ROOM CIRCA 1880

THE FRONT HALL CIRCA 1880

VICTORIAN DECORATING 1830-50

VICTORIAN DECORATING 1850-70

VICTORIAN DECORATING 1870-1890, PART 1 AND INTRODUCTION

1870-90 PART II, COLORS, WALLPAPERS, FLOORS & WINDOWS

DECORATING IN THE 1890'S
Colors, wallpapers, flooring and window treatments.

THE BEDROOM AND BOUDOIR CIRCA 1880

THE VICTORIAN BEDROOM

THE VICTORIAN BATHROOM

GREEK REVIVAL & 19TH C. HEATING, PLUMBING, ETC.

WHAT A HOUSE SHOULD BE???
A humorous excerpt from the book, THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT AFTER JACK’S HAD PROVED A FAILURE, published in 1882

IN THE VICTORIAN DRAWING ROOM, a bit about Victorian life.

THE VICTORIAN HOME, perhaps not quite what you thought it was
A general background about life in the Victorian home.

LIFE IN A MAINE HAMLET 1894-1904

LIFE IN LONDON, 1849

A VIEW OF 19TH C. ARCHITECTURE AS SEEN FROM 1907

VICTORIAN VIEW OF THE HOUSE OF THE FUTURE

MISCELLANY

THE SERVANT'S QUARTERS

THE PARLOR AND DRAWING ROOM, CIRCA 1880

19TH C. AMERICAN TOWNHOUSES

PORTABLE WAINSCOTING 1869

A DINING ROOM CEILING DESIGN, 1869

PORTIERS,1897

INTERIOR TRIM AND WOOD FINISHES 1897

AN 1890'S MODEL KITCHEN

MAKING A BEAUTIFUL HOME 1870

A WOMAN'S IDEA OF WHAT A KITCHEN SHOULD BE, 1870

USING A NEW KIND OF TACK, 1870

THE AMERICAN WOMAN'S HOME, 1869

CONTENTS OF A HOUSE IN THE 1850'S

FROM THE BOOKSTORE
A few good books about Victorian life and decor, available from libraries and bookstores.

A COUPLE OF BOOKS

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Doing the Laundry

2010-01-01T14:40:00.002-05:00

From A Treatise on Domestic Economy, by Catherine Esther Beecher, 1845

To do laundry you needed plenty of water. If your water was hard, you'd add lye or soda to it, but not too much, or you'd injure your hands and the clothes. You'd also need an assortment of tubs, a large wooden dipper (metal ones were apt to rust), 2 or 3 pails, a wash board, a clothes line, a wash stick to move clothes around in the tub while boiling, and a wooden fork to take them out.
Soap dishes, made to hook on the tubs saved soap and time.
You'd need a clothes bag, in which you boiled clothes, an indigo bag made of double flannel, a linen starch strainer, starch (which you made yourself), clothespins (described as cleft sticks), a bottle of dissolved gum Arabic,
two clothes baskets, and a brass or copper kettle, for boiling clothes, as iron tended to rust.
Catherine Beecher suggested a laundry storage closet, six feet high, three feet deep, and four feet wide, with a lock and key, in which to keep all your paraphernalia. To quote her, If the mistress of the family requests the washerwoman to notify her, when she is through, and then ascertains if all these articles are put in their places, it (the lock and key) will prove useful.

Victorians never trusted the help, everything was kept under lock and key.

She also noted that: Tubs, pails, and all hooped wooden ware, should be kept out of the sun, and in a cool place, or they will fall to pieces.

To start:
Assort the clothes, and put them in soak, the night before. Never pour
hot water on them, as it sets the dirt. In assorting clothes, put the
flannels in one lot, the colored clothes in another, the coarse white
ones in a third, and the fine clothes in a fourth lot. Wash the fine
clothes in one tub of suds; and throw them, when wrung, into another.
Then wash them, in the second suds, turning them wrong side out. Put
them in the boiling-bag, and boil them in strong suds, for half an hour,
and not much more. Move them, while boiling, with the clothes-stick.
Take them out of the boiling-bag, and put them into a tub of water, and
rub the dirtiest places, again, if need be. Throw them into the rinsing-water, and then wring them out, and put them into the blueing-water.

Put the articles to be stiffened, into a clothes-basket, by themselves, and, just before hanging out, dip them in starch, clapping it in, so as to have them equally stiff, in all parts.
Hang white clothes in the sun, and colored ones, (wrong side out,) in the
shade. Fasten them with clothes-pins.

Then wash the coarser white articles, in the same manner. Then wash the colored clothes. These must not be soaked, nor have lye or soda put in the water, and they ought not to lie wet long before hanging out, as it injures their colors.
Beef's-gall, (*prepared from the bile from a cow's gall bladder) one spoonful to two pailfuls of suds, improves calicoes.
Lastly, wash the flannels, in suds as hot as the hand can bear. Never
rub on soap, as this shrinks them in spots. Wring them out of the first
suds, and throw them into another tub of hot suds, turning them wrong
side out. Then throw them into hot blueing-water. Do not put blueing
into suds, as it makes specks in the flannel. Never leave flannels long
in water, nor put them in cold or lukewarm water. Before hanging them
out, shake and stretch them.
Some housekeepers have a close closet, made with slats across the top. On these slats, they put their flannels, when ready to hang out, and then burn brimstone under them, for ten minutes. It is but little trouble, and keeps the flannels as white as new.
Wash the colored flannels, and hose, after the white, adding more hot water.
Some persons dry woollen hose on stocking-boards, shaped like a foot and
leg, with strings to tie them on the line. This keeps them from shrinking, and makes them look better than if ironed. It is also less work, than to iron them properly.

Bedding should be washed in long days, and in hot weather. Pound
blankets in two different tubs or barrels of hot suds, first well mixing
the soap and water. Rinse in hot suds; and, after wringing, let two
persons shake them thoroughly, and then hang them out. If not dry, at
night, fold them, and hang them out the next morning. Bedquilts should
be pounded in warm suds; and, after rinsing, be wrung as dry as
possible. Bolsters and pillows can be pounded in hot suds, without
taking out the feathers, rinsing them in fair water. It is usually best,
however, for nice feathers, to take them out, wash them, and dry them on
a garret floor. Cotton comforters should have the cases taken off and
washed. Wash bedticks, after the feathers are removed, like other
things. Empty straw beds once a year.

To Cleanse Gentlemen's Broadcloths (Suits- before there were dry cleaners in every neighborhood)

The common mode, is, to shake, and brush the articles, and rip out linings and pockets; then to wash them in strong suds, adding a teacupful of lye, using white soap for light cloth; rolling and then pressing, instead of wringing, them; when dry, sprinkling them, and letting them lie all night; and ironing on the wrong side, or with a thin dark cloth over the article, until perfectly dry.
But a far better way, which the writer has repeatedly tried, with unfailing success, is the following: Take one beef's-gall, half a pound of salæratus (bicarbonate of soda), and four gallons of warm water. Lay the article on a table, and scour it thoroughly, in every part, with a clothes-brush, dipped in this mixture. The collar of a coat, and the grease-spots, (previously marked by stitches of white thread,) must be repeatedly brushed. Then, take the article, and rinse it up and down in the mixture. Then, rinse it up and down in a tub of soft cold water.
Then, without wringing or pressing, hang it to drain and dry. Fasten a
coat up by the collar. When perfectly dry, it is sometimes the case,
with coats, that nothing more is needed. In other cases, it is necessary
to dampen the parts, which look wrinkled, with a sponge, and either pull
them smooth, with the fingers, or press them with an iron, having a
piece of bombazine, or thin woollen cloth, between the iron and the
article.

Practical Housekeeping, by Estelle Woods Wilcox, published in 1887, (40 years later) gives pretty much the same instructions on doing laundry.

If you'd like to delve further into the Victorian laundering process, read Miss Beecher's book.

Putting Up The Stove 1871

2008-07-10T19:58:00.001-05:00

It's getting to be that time of year. Chillier weather approaches, especially here in New England, and it seems the perfect time to reprint this article published in the Manufacturer and Builder, Dec. 1871 issue.

WE do not remember the exact date of the invention of stoves; but it was several years ago. Since then mankind have been tormented, once a year, by the difficulties that beset the task of putting them up, and getting the pipes "fixed." With all our Yankee ingenuity, no American has ever invented any method by which the labor of putting up a stove can be lessened. The job is now almost as severe and vexatious as humanity can possibly endure.
Men always put up their stoves on a rainy day. Why, we know not; but we never heard of an exception to the rule. The first step to be taken is to put on a very old and ragged coat, under the impression that when the operator gets his mouth full of plaster it will keep his shirt—bosom clean. Next, he gets his hand inside the place where the pipe ought to go, and blacks his fingers; then he carefully makes a black mark down one side of his nose. Having got his face properly marked, the victim—usually "paterfamilias" ——is ready to begin the ceremony. The "head of the family" grasps one side of the bottom of the stove, and his wife and his hired girl take hold of the other side. In this way the stove is started from the wood—shed toward the parlor. Going through the door, the chief operator carefully swings his side of the stove around and jams his thumb—nail against the door-post. Having got the
"family comfort" in place, the next thing is to find the legs. Two of these are left inside the stove since the spring before. The other two must be hunted after for twenty- five minutes. They are usually found under the coal. Then the "head of the family” holds up one side of the stove while his wife puts two of the legs in place, and next he holds up the other side while the other two are fixed, and, one of the first two falls out. By the time the stove is on its legs he gets reckless, and takes off his old coat, regardless of his linen.
"Paterfamilias" then goes for the pipe, and gets two cinders in his eye. It don’t make any difference how well the pipe was put up last year, it will always be found a little too short or a little too long. "The head off the family” jams his hat over his eyes, and taking a pipe under each arm goes to the tin-shop to have it fixed. When he gets back, he steps upon one of the best parlor chairs to see if the pipe fits, and his wife makes him get down for fear he will scratch the varnish off from the chair with the nails in his boot-heel. In getting down, he will surely step on the cat, and may thank his stars that it is not the baby. Then he gets an old chair and climbs up to the chimney again, to find that in cutting the pipe off the end has been left too big for the hole in the chimney. So he goes to the wood—shed and
splits one side of the end of the pipe with an old ax, and squeezes it in his hands to make it smaller. The chief operator at length gets the pipe in shape, and finds that the stove does not stand true. Then himself and his wife and the hired girl move the stove to the left, and the legs fall out again. Next it is to be moved to the right. More difficulty now with the legs. Move to the front a little. Elbow not even with the hole in the chimney, and the "head of the family” goes again to the wood-shed after some little blocks. While putting the blocks under the legs the pipe comes out of the chimney. That remedied, the elbow keeps tipping over, to the great alarm of the wife. "Paterfamilias" gets the dinner-table out, puts the old chair on it, makes his wife take hold of the chair, and balances himself on it to drive some nails into the ceiling but in doing this he drops the hammer on his wife’s head. At last he gets the nails driven, makes a wire swing to hold the pipe, hammers a little
here, pulls a little there, takes a long breath, and announces the ceremony concluded. Job never put up any stoves. It would have ruined his reputation if he had.
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Contents of a house in the 1850's

2008-06-16T08:45:00.004-05:00

Some time ago I found a site that listed personal belongings of some early 19th century Virginians as culled from wills or other legal documents.
Following are the listed contents of two wealthy men both of whom died in the 1850's.
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Personal estate of the late Samuel Alsop, 1859,Spotsylvania Co, VA

Samuel Alsop Jr was born in Spotsylvania County in March of 1776.
Alsop began to accumulate land beginning with an inheritance of acreage from his grandfather. He continued to acquire large land holdings in Spotsylvania and Caroline Counties as well as in other parts of the state.
A noted architect and builder, he oversaw the building of the Old Berea Church in Spotsylvania and is buried in the cemetary.
(original spellings are used)
Household furniture
Parlors
1 Mahogany sofa
1 Cane seat rocking chair
30 ditto chairs
1 small Mahogany table
1 Spring seat sofa
2 small sofas
2 mahogany rocking chairs
16 curtains & fixtures for 6 windows
1 carpet & rug
fender, andirons, shovel & tongs
carpet & rug
fender, andirons, &c.
mantle lamps
Hall
1 Side board
2 lounges
1 chair
carpet & matting
2 candle stands
Chamber
1 wardrobe
1 bureaw
looking Glafs
1 mantle mirror
1 lounge
bed & furniture (the bedding,sheets,etc)
6 cane seat chairs
2 rocking ditto
1 small table
wash stand &c.
3 window curtains
carpet & rug
Nursery
1 Bed & furniture
1 lounge
5 flag chairs
1 clock
1 case
1 looking glafs
1 wardrobe
1 bureaw & medicine stand
pine chest,
table & candle stand
2 pair andirons & fenders
6 sad irons
2 small pine tables
3 old chairs
matting in crofs pafsage
Upstairs
Room 1
3 bedsteads, beds & beding
1 set draws & looking glafs
1 wash stand, pitcher & Ewer
1 table & 2 slop buckets
andirons, fender, &c.
carpet
4 curtains
10 chairs
Room 2
2 bedsteads, beds & beding
9 chairs
1 wash stand, Pitcher &
1 small table, pitcher & Ewer
1 table & water bucket
andirons, fender, shovel, & tongs
mantle mirror & pitcher
drefsing table & glafs
carpet & rug
window curtains
Room 3
2 beds, beding &c. at
1 trumble bed &c.
1 bureaw & mirror
1 settee
4 chairs
andirons, fender, &c
carpet, rug &c.
wash stand, pitcher, basin
table & bucket
window curtains
Room 4
2 Beds, beadsteads, & beding
2 chairs
table & looking glafs
wash stand &c.
andirons & fender &c.
carpet
curtains
1 corner table in crofs pafsage 1
1 wardrobe
2 trunks & stand
Passage?
1 bed &c.
2 wardrobes
1 crib &c.
1 walnut chest
1 box
matting
1 arm chair & 6 common ditto
2 half round tables
Cellar
2 silver ladles
22 table spoons
12 desert ditto
3 Sugar tongs
2 butter knives & 2 pickle ditto & forks
4 salt spoons 2
12 plated forks
2 plated cake baskets
20 glafs
castors (sugar castors,mustard pots, spice dredgers, oil & vinegar bottles)
12 knives & forks (horn handles)
12 ditto & ditto (buckhorn handles)
24 ivory handle ditto
6 plane ditto
2 tea set, China & glafs
common castors
ditto cups & saucers
2 sets white China
1 set common blue ditto
goblets, wine glafses &c.
Bratania coffee & Tea pots &c.
Preserve bowl & salver
14 waiters (trays)
side board & glafs prefs
3 tin safes (probably a food keeper)
1 glafs prefs
1 walnut dinner table & half rounds
1 pine table
14 chairs & small table
1 clock
fender, andirons & shovel & tongs
carpet & mat
6 brafs candle sticks
tin safe, tables & water stand
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Below is a listing from the personal estate of Warren A. Wiglesworth, died 1853, Spotsylvania County
He too, was a wealthy man, though not as rich as S.Alsop Jr.

New Room
1 bedstead & furniture
toilet table
1 pr andirons, glass,
3 chairs,
underbed & matrass
Chamber
1 Bedstead & furniture
1 Bed, stead & furniture (his children were planning on taking both of these beds)
1 secretary & bookcase
1 easy chair
1 bedstead
candlestand
1 miror
4 chairs
1 pr andirons
shovel & tongs
Books in bookcase
Dining Room
1 sideboard
2 folding tables
clock
andirons,
3 chairs
1 shotgun
Passage
1 crib
8 chairs
1 bench
old books &c
Parlour
2 Mahogany Tables
andirons
old sofa
8 chairs
Large map of U.S.
1 bench
Table ware, Stone & Tin ware
old books &c
Room over Parlor
4 beds with bedsteads & under beds
candlestand
washstand
looking glass
carpet
andirons & Tongs
Passage
1 Chest
5 white counterpanes
4 table cloths
1 table
old trunk
2 chairs
Old Stairs
2 Beds, steads & underbeds
washstand
andirons
table
tongs & poker
Garrett
3 chests
2 fenders
old barrels
tin boiler &c
Kitchen
4 pots
4 ovens
tea kettle
Preserving stove
2 trivits
2 pails
3 trays
1 churn
pothooks
ladles
gridles
skilletts
copper kettle &c

If you'd like to read the entire listings for both of these men, or see listings from earlier in the century go HERE

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The American Woman's Home 1869

2008-06-15T15:28:00.021-05:00

This book, by Catharine E.Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe included a chapter about the ideal home, one which I've always found interesting.
I've reprinted most of this chapter below.

In the following drawings are presented modes of economizing time, labor, and expense by the close packing of conveniences. By such methods, small and economical houses can be made to secure most of the comforts and many of the refinements of large and expensive ones. The cottage at the head of this chapter is projected on a plan which can be adapted to a warm or cold climate with little change. By adding another story, it would serve a large family.
Fig. 1 shows the ground-plan of the first floor. On the inside it is forty-three feet long and twenty-five wide, excluding conservatories and front and back projections. Its inside height from floor to ceiling is ten feet. The piazzas each side of the front projection have sliding-windows to the floor, and can, by glazed sashes, be made green-houses in winter. In a warm climate, piazzas can be made at the back side also.
In the description and arrangement, the leading aim is to show how time, labor, and expense are saved, not only in the building but in furniture and its arrangement. With this aim, the ground-floor and its furniture will first be shown, then the second story and its furniture, and then the basement and its conveniences. The conservatories are appendages not necessary to housekeeping, but useful in many ways pointed out more at large in other chapters.

The entry has arched recesses behind the front doors, (Fig. 2,) furnished with hooks for over-clothes in both--a box for over-shoes in one, and a stand for umbrellas in the other. The roof of the recess is for statuettes, busts, or flowers. The stairs turn twice with broad steps, making a recess at the lower landing, where a table is set with a vase of flowers, (Fig. 3.) On one side of the recess is a closet, arched to correspond with the arch over the stairs. A bracket over the first broad stair, with flowers or statuettes, is visible from the entrance, and pictures can be hung as in the illustration.

The large room on the left can be made to serve the purpose of several rooms by means of a movable screen. By shifting this rolling screen from one part of the room to another, two apartments are always available, of any desired size within the limits of the large room. One side of the screen fronts what may be used as the parlor or sitting-room; the other side is arranged for bedroom conveniences. Of this, Fig. 4 shows the front side; covered first with strong canvas, stretched and nailed on. Over this is pasted panel-paper, and the upper part is made to resemble an ornamental cornice by fresco-paper. Pictures can be hung in the panels, or be pasted on and varnished with white varnish. To prevent the absorption of the varnish, a wash of gum isinglass (fish-glue) must be applied twice.

Fig. 5 shows the back or inside of the movable screen, toward the part of the room used as the bedroom. On one side, and at the top and bottom, it has shelves with shelf-boxes, which are cheaper and better than drawers, and much preferred by those using them. Handles are cut in the front and back side, as seen in Fig. 6. Half an inch space must be between the box and the shelf over it, and as much each side, so that it can be taken out and put in easily. The central part of the screen's interior is a wardrobe

This screen must be so high as nearly to reach the ceiling, in order to prevent it from overturning. It is to fill the width of the room, except two feet on each side. A projecting cleat or strip, reaching nearly to the top of the screen, three inches wide, is to be screwed to the front sides, on which light frame doors are to be hung, covered with canvas and panel-paper like the front of the screen. The inside of these doors is furnished with hooks for clothing, for which the projection makes room. The whole screen is to be eighteen inches deep at the top and two feet deep at the base, giving a solid foundation. It is moved on four wooden rollers, one foot long and four inches in diameter. The pivots of the rollers and the parts where there is friction must be rubbed with hard soap, and then a child can move the whole easily.
A curtain is to be hung across the whole interior of the screen by rings, on a strong wire. The curtain should be in three parts, with lead or large nails in the hems to keep it in place. The wood-work must be put together with screws, as the screen is too large to pass through a door.

At the end of the room, behind the screen, are two couches, to be run one under the other, as in Fig. 7. The upper one is made with four posts, each three feet high and three inches square, set on casters two inches high. The frame is to be fourteen inches from the floor, seven feet long, two feet four inches wide, and three inches in thickness. At the head, and at the foot, is to be screwed a notched two-inch board, three inches wide, as in Fig. 8. The mortises are to be one inch wide and deep, and one inch apart, to receive slats made of ash, oak, or spruce, one inch square, placed lengthewise of the couch. The slats being small, and so near together, and running lengthwise, make a better spring frame than wire coils. If they warp, they can be turned. They must not be fastened at the ends, except by insertion in the notches. Across the posts, and of equal height with them, are to be screwed head and foot-boards.
The under couch is like the upper, except these dimensions: posts, nine inches high, including castors; frame, six feet two inches long, two feet four inches wide. The frame should be as near the floor as possible, resting on the casters.

The most healthful and comfortable mattress is made by a case, open in the centre and fastened together with buttons, as in Fig. 9; to be filled with oat straw, which is softer than wheat or rye. This can be adjusted to the figure, and often renewed.
Fig. 10 represents the upper couch when covered, with the under couch put beneath it. The coverlid should match the curtain of the screen; and the pillows, by day, should have a case of the same.

Fig. 11 is an ottoman, made as a box, with a lid on hinges. A cushion is fastened to this lid by strings at each corner, passing through holes in the box lid and tied inside. The cushion to be cut square, with side pieces; stuffed with hair, and stitched through like a mattress. Side handles are made by cords fastened inside with knots. The box must be two inches larger at the bottom than at the top, and the lid and cushion the same size as the bottom, to give it a tasteful shape. This ottoman is set on casters, and is a great convenience for holding articles, while serving also as a seat.
The expense of the screen, where lumber averages $4 a hundred, and carpenter labor $3a day, would be about $30, and the two couches about $6. The material for covering might be cheap and yet pretty. A woman with these directions, and a son or husband who would use plane and saw, could thus secure much additional room, and also what amounts to two bureaus, two large trunks, one large wardrobe, and a wash-stand, for less than $20--the mere cost of materials. The screen and couches can be so arranged as to have one room serve first as a large and airy sleeping-room; then, in the morning, it may be used as sitting-room one side of the screen, and breakfast-room the other; and lastly, through the day it can be made a large parlor on the front side and a sewing or retiring-room the other side. The needless spaces usually devoted to kitchen, entries, halls, back-stairs, pantries, store-rooms, and closets, by this method would be used in adding to the size of the large room, so variously used by day and by night.
Fig. 12 is an enlarged plan of the kitchen and stove-room. The chimney and stove-room are contrived to ventilate the whole house, by a mode exhibited in another chapter.

Between the two rooms glazed sliding-doors, passing each other, serve to shut out heat and smells from the kitchen. The sides of the stove-room must be lined with shelves; those on the side by the cellar stairs, to be one foot wide, and eighteen inches apart; on the other side, shelves may be narrower, eight inches wide and nine inches apart. Boxes with lids, to receive stove utensils, must be placed near the stove.
On these shelves, and in the closet and boxes, can be placed every material used for cooking, all the table and cooking utensils, and all the articles used in house work, and yet much spare room will be left. The cook's galley in a steamship has every article and utensil used in cooking for two hundred persons, in a space not larger than this stove-room, and so arranged that with one or two steps the cook can reach all he uses.
In contrast to this, in most large houses, the table furniture, the cooking materials and utensils, the sink, and the eating-room, are at such distances apart, that half the time and strength is employed in walking back and forth to collect and return the articles used.

Fig. 13 is an enlarged plan of the sink and cooking-form. Two windows make a better circulation of air in warm weather, by having one open at top and the other at the bottom, while the light is better adjusted for working, in case of weak eyes.

The flour-barrel just fills the closet, which has a door for admission, and a lid to raise when used. Beside it, is the form for cooking, with a moulding-board laid on it; one side used for preparing vegetables and meat, and the other for moulding bread. The sink has two pumps, for well and for rain-water--one having a forcing power to throw water into the reservoir in the garret, which supplies the water-closet and bath-room. On the other side of the sink is the dish-drainer, with a ledge on the edge next to the sink, to hold the dishes, and grooves cut to let the water drain into the sink. It has hinges, so that it can either rest on the cook-form or be turned over and cover the sink. Under the sink are shelf-boxes placed on two shelves run into grooves, with other grooves above and below, so that one may move the shelves and increase or diminish the spaces between. The shelf-boxes can be used for scouring-materials, dish-towels, and dish-cloths; also to hold bowls for bits of butter, fats, etc. Under these two shelves is room for two pails, and a jar for soap-grease.
Under the cook-form are shelves and shelf-boxes for unbolted wheat, corn-meal, rye, etc. Beneath these, for white and brown sugar, are wooden can-pails, which are the best articles in which to keep these constant necessities. Beside them is the tin molasses-can with a tight, movable cover, and a cork in the spout. This is much better than a jug for molasses, and also for vinegar and oil, being easier to clean and to handle. Other articles and implements for cooking can be arranged on or under the shelves at the side and front. A small cooking-tray, holding pepper, salt, dredging-box, knife and spoon, should stand close at hand by the stove, (Fig. 14.)
The articles used for setting tables are to be placed on the shelves at the front and side of the sink. Two tumbler-trays, made of pasteboard, covered with varnished fancy papers and divided by wires, (as shown in Fig. 15,) save many steps in setting and clearing table.
Similar trays, (Fig. 16,) for knives and forks and spoons, serve the same purpose.

The sink should be three feet long and three inches deep, its width matching the cook-form.

===============================================
Fig. 17 is the second or attic story.

The main objection to attic rooms is their warmth in summer, owing to the heated roof. This is prevented by so enlarging the closets each side that their walls meet the ceiling under the garret floor, thus excluding all the roof. In the bed-chambers, corner dressing-tables, as Fig. 18, instead of projecting bureaus, save much space for use, and give a handsome form and finish to the room. In the bath-room must be the opening to the garret, and a step-ladder to reach it. A reservoir in the garret, supplied by a forcing-pump in the cellar or at the sink, must be well supported by timbers, and the plumbing must be well done, or much annoyance will ensue.

The large chambers are to be lighted by large windows or glazed sliding-doors, opening upon the balcony. A roof can be put over the balcony and its sides inclosed by windows, and the chamber extend into it, and be thus much enlarged.
The water-closets must have the latest improvements for safe discharge, and there will be no trouble. They cost no more than an out-door building, and save from the most disagreeable house-labor.
A great improvement, called earth-closets, will probably take the place of water-closets to some extent; though at present the water is the more convenient. A description of the earth-closet will be given in another chapter relating to tenement-houses for the poor in large cities.
The method of ventilating all the chambers, and also the cellar, will be described in another chapter.
Fig. 19 represents a shoe-bag, that can be fastened to the side of a closet or closet-door.

Fig. 20 represents a piece-bag, and is a very great labor and space-saving invention. It is made of calico, and fastened to the side of a closet or a door, to hold all the bundles that are usually stowed in trunks and drawers. India-rubber or elastic tape drawn into hems to hold the contents of the bag is better than tape-strings. Each bag should be labeled with the name of its contents, written with indelible ink on white tape sewed on to the bag. Such systematic arrangement saves much time and annoyance. Drawers or trunks to hold these articles can not be kept so easily in good order, and moreover, occupy spaces saved by this contrivance.

Fig. 21 is the basement. It has the floor and sides plastered, and is lighted with glazed doors. A form is raised close by the cellar stairs, for baskets, pails, and tubs.

Here, also, the refrigerator can be placed, or, what is better, an ice-closet can be made, as designated in the illustration. The floor of the basement must be an inclined plane toward a drain, and be plastered with water-lime. The wash-tubs have plugs in the bottom to let off water, and cocks and pipes over them bringing cold water from the reservoir in the garret and hot water from the laundry stove. This saves much heavy labor of emptying tubs and carrying water.
The laundry closet has a stove for heating irons, and also a kettle on top for heating water. Slides or clothes-frames are made to draw out to receive wet clothes, and then run into the closet to dry. This saves health as well as time and money, and the clothes are as white as when dried outdoors.
The wood-work of the house, for doors, windows, etc., should be oiled chestnut, butternut, whitewood, and pine. This is cheaper, handsomer, and more easy to keep clean than painted wood.
In Fig. 21 are planned two conservatories, and few understand their value in the training of the young. They provide soil, in which children, through the winter months, can be starting seeds and plants for their gardens and raising valuable, tender plants. Every child should cultivate flowers and fruits to sell and to give away, and thus be taught to learn the value of money and to practice both economy and benevolence.
According to the calculation of a house-carpenter, in a place where the average price of lumber is $4 a hundred, and carpenter work $3 a day, such a house can be built for $1600. For those practicing the closest economy, two small families could occupy it, by dividing the kitchen, and yet have room enough. Or one large room and the chamber over it can be left till increase of family and means require enlargement.
A strong horse and carryall, with a cow, garden, vineyard, and orchard, on a few acres, would secure all the substantial comforts found in great establishments, without the trouble of ill-qualified servants.
And if the parents and children were united in the daily labors of the house, garden, and fruit culture, such thrift, health, and happiness would be secured as is but rarely found among the rich.
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NEXT
The kitchen stove
Another chapter dwells on the care of stoves, furnaces and chimneys. The section about the kitchen range is rather interesting.
Those who are taught to manage the stove properly keep the fire going all night, and equally well with wood or coal, thus saving the expense of kindling and the trouble of starting a new fire. When the fuel is of good quality, all that is needed in the morning is to draw the back-damper, shake the grate, and add more fuel.
Another remarkable feature of this stove is the extension-top, on which is placed a water reservoir, constantly heated by the smoke as it passes from the stove, through one or two uniting passages, to the smoke-pipe. Under this is placed a closet for warming and keeping hot the dishes, vegetables, meats, etc., while preparing for dinner. It is also very useful in drying fruit; and when large baking is required, a small appended pot for charcoal turns it into a fine large oven, that bakes as nicely as a brick oven.
Another useful appendage is a common tin oven, in which roasting can be done in front of the stove, the oven-doors being removed for the purpose. The roast will be done as perfectly as by an open fire.
This stove is furnished with pipes for heating water, like the water-back of ranges, and these can be taken or left out at pleasure. So also the top covers, the baking-stool and pot, and the summer-back, bottom, and side-casings can be used or omitted as preferred.
Fig. 37 exhibits the stove completed, with all its appendages, as they might be employed in cooking for a large number.
A large stove that includes a roaster, range, hot water reservoir, and baking compartment, among other amenities. The various features of the stove are labeled in the illustration.

Its capacity, convenience, and economy as a stove may be estimated by the following fact: With proper management of dampers, one ordinary-sized coal-hod of anthracite coal will, for twenty-four hours, keep the stove running, keep seventeen gallons of water hot at all hours, bake pies and puddings in the warm closet, heat flat-irons under the back cover, boil tea-kettle and one pot under the front cover, bake bread in the oven, and cook a turkey in the tin roaster in front. The author has numerous friends, who, after trying the best ranges, have dismissed them for this stove, and in two or three years cleared the whole expense by the saving of fuel.

from
The American Woman's Home: or, Principles of Domestic Science

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Using a new kind of tack, Jan 1870

2007-11-12T04:23:00.001-05:00

The first illustration shows how carpet or matting was put down without sewing the pieces together. Recall that in 1870 even even if carpets completely covered a floor wall to wall, they still came in separate rolls that were pieced together in the home.

The second illustration shows the edge of a carpet being secured to the floor with the new type of tacks.

The picture shows a window shade secured with the new style tacks. The tacks were also recommended as an excellent substitute for stair-rods.

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Portieres, 1897

2007-10-25T07:33:00.001-05:00

Also from How to Build Furnish and Decorate...

In portieres, change the color for each opening, even if in the same room, unless an entire color scheme is carried throughout the room in decoration and furniture. Half the artistic effect of an apartment depends upon its portieres, and so it behooves the wise woman to look well to the selection of her draperies. In buying portieres it is not so much a question of money as of good taste. Some of the inexpensive denims answer the purpose quite as well as more costly material. It can be obtained in quite a number of colors ; blue, green, etc. By using the right side for the curtain and the reverse side for a border a very pretty effect is obtained. In many of the new fabrics for portieres changeable effects are seen. A new material called satin lambell shows the two-toned effect. This fabric is much like damask, but it has a wide border and dado, with a design in detached figures in the center It may be bought in a variety of soft shades. In dull rose and reseda green it is most effective. Damask will be much used for portieres for the parlor, and also embroidered silk velours.
As for the beautiful liberty velvets they are more in fashion than ever. Dark grounds are used with large designs in lighter shades.
A material which looks much like the dress fabric called Bedford cord will be much used for inexpensive portieres. Many of the old-style shawls make very handsome hangings, their soft texture drapes well and in many cases their colors are exquisite.

Interior Trim, Wood Finishes, 1897

2007-10-25T07:13:00.000-05:00

from How to Build Furnish and Decorate, 1897
The staining of wood is oftentimes necessary when we use whitewood or pine trim to relieve the monotonous or commonplace look which so much woodwork of one color is apt to produce. For a dining-room mahogany makes a rich color. Cherry for parlor and bedrooms is appropriate and harmonizes with most any furniture. Oak stain looks well if the wood has a well marked grain; when this is not the case, or if the woodwork has been painted, we will find it necessary to call the grainer to our assistance. Cherry was a very popular color for interior finish in the line of graining some years ago, and is still imitated to quite an extent in the rural districts. A combination of cherry and oak is a very harmonious and rich finish and relieves the monotony of a continuous color. Walnut has kept pace, side by side, with cherry and oak for the past quarter of a century. The kitchens are generally done in oak or maple. The halls and front doors in walnut, the parlor in white. It is impossible for us to give any set rules in regard to colors for the painting of interior woodwork. You must use your individual judgment, and most of us possess sufficient knowledge, obtained by experience, to choose wisely with a few suggestions from the architect and painter.

An 1890's Model Kitchen

2007-10-25T06:52:00.002-05:00

Maria Parloa was a very popular cookbook author and teacher in the 19th c. The following is her description of a model kitchen.

The size of the kitchen is an important matter. Although the room should be spacious enough to contain sink, range, table, dresser and chairs, and to give ample opportunity for free movements, it should not be so large as to oblige one to make many steps to and from sink, table, range or pantry. A good size is 15x17.
The ventilation is a prominent factor of the comfort of not only those who work in the kitchen, but of the entire household. If the room lacks good ventilation, the strength of those who work in it will become exhausted sooner than it should, and they will become unnecessarily irritated. Besides, the odors of cooking, which should pass to the open air, will instead escape to all parts of the house.
Every part of the kitchen, pantry and closet, except the ceiling, should be finished in such a way that it may be washed. Nothing is better for the flooring than hard wood. If the floors are to be covered, no better material than lignum can be used. It is soft, clean and durable. Oilcloth is very cold and is the cause of a great deal of rheumatism.
It is well to have the woodwork such as to require oiling only, and the walls should be painted a rather light color. When possible, the walls about the sink, tables and range should be tiled. Tiles seem to be rather expensive at the outset, but in the long run it is true economy to use them, as they will last as long as the house. They may be easily kept bright and clean. The time will come when few people will think of finishing a kitchen without them. The English or Dutch tiles should be used, and blue and white should predominate.
Lack of table room is a drawback met with in most kitchens. There ought to be an abundance of such room, so that when a meal is being prepared or served there need be no crowding or confusion, and it may be obtained by having two or three swinging tables in the room. When they are not in use they may be dropped.
The sink should be large,there is nothing better than iron,with a sloping and grooved shelf at one end, on which to drain dishes. It should not be enclosed. Every dark, enclosed place in a kitchen is a source of temptation to the slovenly. Let the light reach every part of the room. At the right hand of the sink have a long, narrow table containing two drawers for towels. Unless the walls above, below and at the sides of the sink be tiled, they should be finished with hard wood. If tiles be used, have a broad capping of hard wood extend across the upper edge of the top row, in which to put hooks for various small utensils that are in frequent use about the sink. Under the sink have more hooks for dish-pans, dish-cloth, etc.
In the center of the kitchen have another table about 3 ½ x 4 ½ feet. This should contain a drawer for knives, forks, spoons and other utensils that are in frequent use in that part of the kitchen. Have a small table also, about the height of the range. This is for use as a resting place for utensils used when griddle-cakes, omelets, waffles, etc., are made. When not in use it may be moved aside. Between the door to the hall and that to the china-closet have a swinging table or a settee table; the latter being that kind which serves as a seat when not in use for ironing or other purposes. Above the table have two shelves for cook-books and other books, and a clock.
A portable range can be so placed that it will be possible to walk all around it. It can be run with about half the quantity of coal required for a set range. It responds quickly to the opening or shutting-off of a draught. One's feet do not become heated by standing near it. There are no dark corners. It does away with the necessity of much lifting of heavy utensils. And it can be so managed that there shall be a hot oven at any time of the day.
Convenient to the range and sink there should be a large pantryabout 12 ft. x 8 ft. The window should have a wire screen and inside blinds. A large strong table, with two drawers, should be placed before this window. Have hooks on the ends of the table on which to hang the pastry-board, the board on which cold meats are cut, and that on which bread and cake are cut. The rolling-pin, cutters, knives and various small
utensils may be kept in one drawer, and spices, flavoring extracts, baking-powders, etc., in the other.
The wall at one end of the room should be covered with hooks on which to hang saucepans and other utensils. About one foot from the floor there should be a strong, broad shelf, on which to place heavy pots and kettles. Two feet above it there should be a narrow shelf for the covers of the pots and saucepans. By this arrangement all of these utensils may be kept together and always in sight, and no time need be lost in searching for any of the articles.
A number of shelves may be placed between the window and this end of the room, on which to keep materials used very frequently, such as sugar, salt, rice, tapioca, etc.
In the frame of the window, but within easy reach, put hooks, on which to hang spoons and an egg-beater.
At the lower end of the room have wall-closets built about four feet from the floor. The shelves within them should be about twenty inches wide and the doors should be supplied with locks. Under the closets have a strong rack, four inches high, on which to keep barrels. The rack secures a free circulation of air under the barrels, thus keeping their contents sweet.
On one side, running the length of the room, have shelves, beginning a foot from the floor and running as high as the top of the wall-closets. On the lower shelves may be kept buckets and jugs, while the upper ones will accommodate mixing bowls, measuring cups, baking and mixing pans, and, indeed, all of the utensils for which space has not already been provided.
At the end of this row of shelves have a place for a towel, so as to avoid the trouble of going to the kitchen whenever the hands require wiping.
With this arrangement of the kitchen and pantry the cooking and the washing of dishes can be done in a small space, steps and time can be saved, and half of the kitchen will generally be unused and ready for the servants' table or any other purpose. The points kept in view throughout areconcentration of work, good light and ventilation, ample table room, cleanliness, and the giving of an attractive appearance.
It is understood that there is a cellar or cold room convenient to the kitchen.

from How To Plan Furnish and Decorate 1897

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Making A Beautiful Home 1870

2007-10-13T19:02:00.001-05:00

MANUFACTURER AND BUILDER showed this window display in its May, 1870 issue. the article stated that any room could be improved by cutting the window larger, to make a low sill, then fill in the window with large panes of clear glass, training flowers and vines to grow about it.

A Ward Case stands in front of the window. Today we might refer to it as a terrarium. Here's an example from the April issue.

The April issue also included the following instructions for making the rustic frames that had recently become so popular.

"All that is necessary to construct one of these, or any similar frame, is to get the foundation, a thin board, of proper size and shape, with the inner oval or rectangular form to suit the picture. The edges are ornamented by nailing on branches of hard, seasoned wood, or gluing on pine cones. The corners may receive some device, both to cover the rude joint and to enhance the general effect.
One of the frames illustrated is made of either light or dark wood, neat, thin, and not very wide, with the ends simply broken off; or cut so as to resemble a rough break. The other is white-pine, sawn into simple form, well smoothed, and traced with delicate black lines.
This should be also varnished, when it will take a rich yellow tinge, which harmonizes admirably with chromos, and lights up engravings finely."

Another home beautification project was a fern basket...

"To make this fern-basket, take a flat piece of board, sawed out to something like a shield, with a hole at the top for hanging it up. Upon the board nail a nice pocket, made of an ox-muzzle, flattened on one side, or make a sort of basket out of stiff wire. Line this with a sheet of close moss, which appears green behind the wire net-work. Then fill it with loose, spongy moss, such as is found in swamps, and plant in it plumes of fern, and various swamp-grasses. They will continue to grow there, and hang gracefully over. It is only necessary to keep the moss damp, and sprinkle the ferns occasionally with a small broom."
And finally..."a flower-stand made of roots scraped and varnished."

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A Womans Idea of what a Kitchen should be , 1870

2007-10-13T18:50:00.002-05:00

To begin with, I would have a kitchen well lighted; come, yes a great deal of the broad, expansive sunlight coming in boldly, as if it had a perfect right to be there. That would, of course, necessitate large windows. And then I would give as much attention to the ventilation of a kitchen as I would to a sleeping-room. I would have a large circular device suspended over the cooking-stove, with a hole in the centre, and a tube leading to the top of the house, to carry off the savory smells which the process of cooking generates, and prevent them from permeating the whole house.

For these smells, however savory and agreeable, are apt to take away something from the keenness of our appetite; or, at least, cause us to anticipate something better than the reality. Then I would have a large sink, with a permanent soap-stone or marble wash-bowl for washing the dishes, and another for draining. I would also have an adjustable pipe, leading from the hot water tank to either of these basins. Besides this, I would have sundry cupboards and closets arranged upon the wall, so as to be tasteful and decorative as well as convenient.

Then I would have a space devoted to tiny drawers, such as one sees in a drug store, and labeled in this manner: soda, allspice, nutmegs, cream of tartar, etc., so that at a single glance I could discover just what I wanted, without rummaging to find these things in some out-of-the-way corner, placed there by some careless, untidy Bridget. This would save one a world of care now devoted to instructing every new servant as to all the places of things. Cooking is becoming so complicated nowadays, that one needs all the arrangements, and as many utensils, as a chemical laboratory; and the good architect should give the mater familias a place for everything.

from the May 1870 issue of MANUFACTURER AND BUILDER

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Portable Wainscoting, 1869

2007-09-14T20:54:00.000-05:00

Portable Wainscoting

The image shows the product in use on the wall, stairs and floor.
A new product in 1869, strips of wood were glued to a length of flannel cloth. The wainscoting was generally 1/8 inch thick, while that used for flooring was generally 2/3 to ¾ inch thick.
It could be rolled, unrolled and kept on stock for sale like carpets. The wood strips were generally narrower than tongue and groove, and combinations of several hardwoods could be used to a pleasing effect. It was noted that it always required a baseboard.
Used as a floor covering, it could be laid in various ways.
It was described as easy to put up, “being fastened to the wall from the top with a rabbeted moulding or a fixture underneath, and firmly secured by screws or nails through the moulding or nosing to the studding. A rabbeted base secures the wainscoting at the bottom.”
It cost about half the price of tongued and grooved hardwood, and slightly more than oil-cloth, and since it was portable, it could be taken up when the owner moved. It could also be used as a countertop material.
To clean it, it was advised to use a damp cloth once or twice a week.

A Dining Room Ceiling design, 1869

2007-09-14T07:23:00.000-05:00

A decorated wooden ceiling for a dining room.

The room is 18 x 22 feet. The ribs are of clear pine, with a head chamfer covered with narrow pine ceiling, headed, tongued, and grooved. These latter are two inches wide. The four small circular centre pieces consist of carvings in wood; likewise the large centre piece in the middle. The panels are bordered and finished with leaf pattern moulding. The various strips are covered with a coating of shallac of a light color, while the ribs are stained of a darker hue. The carved moldings as well as the raised work of the centre pieces are in gilt. The moulding in the panels consists of a half-round, gilt strip. The effect produced by a combination of a little gilt with the natural colors of wood in one of the most beautiful that can be obtained. Of course, in carrying out a design for a ceiling of this description, the side walls are made to correspond.

from...MANUFACTURER AND BUILDER, May 1869

19th C. American Townhouses

2007-07-08T09:02:00.000-05:00

The following is information about townhouses in several eastern American cities. Most of it dwells on the houses of 1830, with a bit about the changes wrought in floorplans later in the century. Strictly speaking, 1830 is not Victorian, as Victoria was just a princess at the time. I've tried to stay away, for the most part, on the subject of Victorian exteriors on this site, but I found this segment of a book interesting, as I hadn't found anything like it before.

New York
Exterior of an 1830’s style house, still standing in 1890’s. on the N. side of Washington square.

The New York city houses of 1830 tended toward high stoops. To those unfamiliar with the term stoop, it’s the term for the stone steps leading from the pavement to the front door. A small landing would be found at the top. The stair of 1830 would be built with 8 to 13 risers.
The front was of plain brick, often with white marble lintels and stoops . Others were of Connecticut brown stone.
The design of exteriors and even interiors was simple. The use of extensive plaster or stucco decoration of 30 years before, applied to cornices and ceilings in the Classical style, etc., had disappeared. These elaborate decorations were replaced by one or two handsome details. In many of the houses the doors on the parlor story, and sometimes on the bedroom story, were of mahogany or rosewood veneer. The woodwork around them was of white pine, simply painted white, unornamented.

In both larger and smaller homes, the front basement room served as the dining room.
These town houses were similar to those found in London at the time with one difference. In New York, instead of entering the house on the dining room floor and then going upstairs to the drawing room, you entered on the drawing room floor and went down to the dining room.
The kitchen would be found in the back half of the basement, with closets and pantries dividing it from the dining room. Sometimes there would be a pass-through in the wall between kitchen and dining room, in other houses there would be a door.
In later years, the back yards were dug down so that they were 6 or 8 inches below the kitchen floor, but in 1830 they remained at their original level. Instead, a sunken area was dug out, with stone retaining walls to hold back the earth, and steps leading down into it so that one could enter the kitchen by a back door.

The second floor held a large front bedroom with two windows and an adjoining smaller room. The rear of the house had a similar arrangement . The space between the larger bedrooms would hold closets, called “pantries” in those days.
When city water was introduced, the small back hall-bedroom, as it was called, was often used as a bathroom. The supply of piped in water was generally limited to this bathroom and a kitchen sink.
There were, as yet, no dumb waiters in use, since dining was expected to be done in the basement level next to the kitchen.
A cellar would be found below the basement level. It was generally paved with cobblestones. It would be set up with some shelves and perhaps some “hanging shelves”, which were light wooden platforms, hung by strips of wood nailed to the beams overhead.
Things were stored in the cellars, as there were few attics. This was because there had begun a trend toward building with what were commonly known as flat roofs. They actually weren’t quite flat. they had a very slight incline to drain away rainwater and they were at the time, usually covered in metal sheathing. Access to the roof was by means of a movable ladder.

A house like this, if it had 2 stories of bedrooms above the parlors was called a “two-story house with finished attic”. The parlor story counted as one, the second bedroom story was still called an attic, even if the ceilings were nine or more feet high and there was no slope. Some houses however, did have a slop on the back side roof, making an upper floor bedroom with one 5 or 6 foot high wall on the back and a sloped ceiling.

Baltimore and Richmond

From the plan you can see that the lot was wider, since lot prices were cheaper than in New York.

The front part had one room and the staircase hall , and was usually three stories high with a ground floor 2 or 3 steps above ground level, the drawing room floor and 1 or 2 bedrooms on the 3rd. Floor.
The back section would have bedrooms on the second floor. The back stairs in the kitchen lead to these bedrooms and a sort of attic. Sometimes there were 2 stories of bedrooms above the kitchen wing.
These houses had no water except for a pump at the end of the back yard. Later, when a city water supply was available, the pump was replaced by a hydrant.

The ground floor plan of a Richmond house shows a modified, more expensive version of the above Baltimore house.

Both the Baltimore and Richmond plans show a more spacious and conveniently planned house than the New York model. New Yorkers were stuck with limited space, and therefore smaller, more expensive lots.

Boston

Here’s a plan for a typical Boston town house . Boston had a severe land shortage before they started filling in the Back Bay.

The arrangement of the entrance flight of stairs within the front wall of the house is a Boston feature. The first story was raised 5 or 6 steps above the sidewalk. The front room was almost always used as a dining room, with the back room being the kitchen.
Beneath this floor was a cellar, raised up halfway out of the ground.
The cellar story held the “archway”, which was a way into the kitchen. A delivery boy could ring the bell, and when the door was opened, go down the steep flight of stairs. He’d then go down a corridor, partitioned off of the rest of the cellar, and mount a second flight of steps into the back yard, just opposite the kitchen door.
This was Boston version of the Baltimore or Philadelphia alley. The alley was placed under the house instead of beside it. Some Boston houses kept the street level alley, but built upper stories of the house over it.

This shows the drawing room floor plan of the same house
The room back of the staircase was often arranged as a china closet, which may have meant that the Boston family often dined in the back parlor. There was no dumb waiter, but the author of the source book was inclined to think that since Boston tended to take after London ways, that a maid would probably bring the dishes up and down to and from the kitchen, as they did in London at that time. He espoused the view that “ a New York maid or man would consider quite out of the question“.
This 1830 Boston house would have had no plumbing or water supply except in the kitchen, and no furnace. When city water appeared in Boston, a bathroom would have quite possibly have been fitted into the ground floor extension or upstairs on a bedroom floor.
The cost of this sort of house was about the same as a New York house of the same size, but Boston lots were usually not as deep. Since Boston back yards were much smaller, the laundry was dried on the roof of the one story extension on specially built frames and racks.

This is a view of an old style Boston town house, much like the shown plans, only reversed. The steps leading up to the front door were often of wood because they were partially protected from the effects of the weather. In the very expensive homes, the steps would more likely be stone.

Philadelphia
In the three previous houses the dining room was generally on the floor below the drawing room, but in Philadelphia the living rooms were all placed on the same floor, and this floor was usually at or close to street level.

The Philadelphia town house had access to a back alley that ran the length of the block. Each back yard had a gate into this alleyway through which deliverymen could reach the kitchen.

The front, therefore would have only one door, with no more than 5 marble steps leading to it. The front end of the hall tended to be only as wide as necessary, allowing for a large parlor. The hallway would widen towards the back to allow for the stairs to the upper floor, making the back parlor somewhat narrower. This back parlor was often used as the dining room. Often there would be a pair of facing closets between the front and back room, forming a sort of short passage. Two sets of doors were also sometimes used.
More expensive homes had a larger back building, and the dining room would often be placed there. These larger examples could also have a service or butler’s pantry between the dining and kitchen spaces.
The back building was usually only one story high, so the staircase hall was usually well lit from the windows on the landings.
Philadelphians also had more building room than New Yorkers and Bostonians with more spacious rooms and more natural light.

Rear View of Houses at Eighth and Spruce Streets, Philadelphia.

The house on the left is the corner house on the block. The entrance has been placed on the side street shown here. The long brick wall running along the street encloses a somewhat larger than normal back yard and the back building is larger than most, apparently constructed in 3 sections.
Group of Houses at Third and Locust Streets, Philadelphia; built about 1810.
These houses are from an earlier period.

Double houses
Wealthier families in cities could afford double houses, or houses with rooms on both sides of the entrance hall. Their lots tended to run from thirty-seven to fifty feet in width.
Apparently not nearly as many examples of those were built in New York, compared to cities like Philadelphia and Baltimore. Even crowded Boston had more of them than New York.
C. Astor Bristed, author of The Upper Ten Thousand: Sketches of American Society, put his typical wealthy New Yorker into a house 3 rooms deep and 27 feet wide. He explained that the house stood on a corner lot, and so had windows in the second of the three bedrooms. The author of the source for this article notes that;"anyone who knew New York about 1845, will remember how unusual was the house with four or five windows in one story of its front. Still, such houses were known."
This example of a New York double house stood on Washington Place and in the 1890’s was no longer a private dwelling.

Here is an example of a Boston double house. The lot was about 40 feet wide. A New York double house would be similarly set up, but without the rounded bow window. The windows were described as “swell fronts” and are mainly a Boston feature, though there were a few built in New York.

You can compare the Boston and other houses to the drawing room floor of an old London house.

This shows the first floor, while the entrance to the house would be on the ground floor, together with the dining room. This particular example shows a very long extension because it was used as an art gallery. Normally the extension would only be about 15 feet long.

The Next Step
The next step in the evolution of the new York town house was basically the same plan as the first one shown at the top of this page, with the addition of a vestibule and a back room.
This room was called the "third room," the "tea-room," and often the " extension." This room originally was a one story addition, though later on it became a part of the original conception of the house.

New York, 1860, ground floor
This sketch shows the abandonment of the wall between the two parlors. In place of the wall, we see columns dividing the space. One reason for this was the fact that the central room no longer had windows, so that by removing the wall, it was now part of the windowed front room. At first there was an arch or transom in this divider, but eventually that disappeared leaving one long room, with one centered fireplace.
The back room eventually came to be used as a dining room, and cupboards and a dumb-waiter would be installed in the enclosed back end of the hall.

This photo is from a later period, but happens to illustrate the 2 parlors becoming one with the use of dividing columns. The fireplace in the inner room seems to be unused. The area has no windows. To gain more light, and give the feel of a more open space, the homeowner has installed a set of French doors on the back wall. One opens to the “back room” which has been set up for dining. It’s unclear if the stationary section is clear glass or mirrored.
In older houses, where there were 2 parlors and a back room, the house would be about 57 feet long, but once the two parlors started being replaced with one longer room in newer houses, the longer room tended to shrink to a length of 34 feet or less. The additional 15 feet or so of back room brought the total length to about 50 feet.
At the same time that these changes were being made on the first floor, the upper floors were also extended to the full length of the house, making 3 bedrooms on each floor.
The use of this floor plan predominated in New York for about 30 years
The second floor of an 1860 New York townhouse

The small center rooms were easily equipped with sinks for washing. The passageway connecting the bedrooms was lined with cupboards. The two small rooms could be used either as bedrooms, a sewing or sitting room, or, as shown here, a bathroom.

If the house was deeper, the space between the front and back bedrooms was increased. Often the bathroom would be placed in the middle of the house between the closets. In this case a light shaft was installed for light and ventilation.

Finally, a townhouse plan from 1893

From
HOMES IN CITY AND COUNTRY, Russell Sturgis
1893

VICTORIAN VIEW OF THE HOUSE OF THE FUTURE

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The house of the 20th c. as described by a visionary of the 19th

The Twentieth-Century Dwelling

The typical dwelling of the twentieth century has not been built yet, but we are near enough to it to be able to forecast, at least in a general way, what it will be like. It will be made of concrete, or some similar material that will be comparatively unaffected by the weather and that will provide thorough protection
against changes in the external temperature. On the outside the building will, of course, be tinted and decorated to suit the taste and means of the owner. Inside it wi1l be given a hard, durable, smooth finish that will not hold dust and that will be impervious to moisture. Not only walls and ceilings but floors will be finished in
this way, and at a moment's notice the furnishings can be taken out and a room or the whole house washed down with a stream from a hose and wiped dry with the utmost ease.
The lighting of the twentieth century dwelling will be by diffusion from tubes of electrified vapor that will give an even and soft illumination all over the house- an illumination that, in many respects, will be better than daylight. But it is in respect to the regulation of atmospheric conditions that the twentieth century
house will possess the most decided advantages over the houses we live in now. The heating and cooling of the air as it will be brought in through screened openings will be done automatically by electricity. There will be electric heaters in winter and refrigerating coils in summer, and the interior of the dwelling, if the occupants so desire, will be kept at an even temperature the year round. Thus it will be possible to have any climate to order- warm or cool, moist or dry - and no doubt the adjustment of these conditions to individual needs will be an important part of the therapeutics of the future. If families cannot agree upon a uniform
climate for the entire house, each member of the family can have the sort of climate he or she requires in his or her individual apartments.
The twentieth-century kitchen will delight the heart of the careful housewife. It will be as clean and perfect in all its fittings as a laboratory for the most delicate chemical processes, and, indeed, it will be a laboratory rather than a kitchen. Cooking by electricity will be an exact science. Along one side of the tiled room will be a series of asbestos-lined doors, with thermometric indicators on each door. Put in your materials properly prepared- that is where the art
will come in- set the thermostat at the given mark for simmering, stewing, boiling or baking, leave it so for a stated time, and there you are! Food cooked to perfection, and no dust, no dirt, no surplus heat, no steam, no odor. Who would not be a cook in the electric kitchen when the twentieth century house shall be built?

this was published in Harper's Weekly in 1896.

MISCELLENY

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INTERIORS

A well equipped Victorian kitchen should have a pot board or shelf between the legs of the table. Often equipment also hung on rack above. If possible, a marble topped table for rolling pastry should be included.
Kitchen dressers, or as we would call them in America today, cabinets, were usually built in to the walls of the room or fitted into an alcove. In England they were often painted chocolate brown or bottle green.

Plasterwork was expensive well into the 1700’s, but by the Victorian era it had become the cheapest most reliable finish. Wooden paneling had become a status symbol, and if one could not afford the real thing, one could simulate it with paint effects or anaglyptic paper embossed with wood-grain patterns. The full height paneling of the gothic revival
period was rare for most of the 19th c., because it made the room so dark. Towards the end of the century, with the introduction of electric light, the very wealthy could and did have oak paneling.
The Queen Anne revival introduced a new kind of paneling that was often painted off-white to complement bright chintzes and William Morris papers. They were the smallish
square panels that ran ¾ up the wall with a display rail on top. This was first done in Britain, America lagged behind in returning to painted woodwork.

The ideal for woodwork was the authoritative oak, but since it was expensive cheaper woods were often grained to look like it. Doors were often grained or stenciled to imitate marquetry. Upstairs doors would not be grained.

For door and window trims and other interior woodwork, white pine was often recommended by architects because it was the cheapest. Quoting a source from 1884: “It may be stained, if too light the transparent stains merely darken the wood and do not conceal the natural grain. Under no circumstances try to imitate oak or walnut by graining. Such shams deceive no one and are in the worst taste. If we use paint for interior work let us use it frankly, carefully selecting the color, and avoiding a shiny surface, a flatted or dull finish being preferable“.

Another source, published the same year declared; ‘The panels of doors, etc., may be tinted to give a good effect, It is fashionable just now to lay on a pale French gray to the principal parts of the woodwork, and then make the panels a shade or two darker‘.

I thought it interesting that several books noted that a bedroom should have space for a bed, so that it need not be placed in front of a window or a closet, which leaves one to believe this must have been a not unusual condition.

EXTERIORS

The final quarter of the 19th c was the era of the wide front or side porch, called in those days, a veranda, and it was regarded as a “particular American feature”

From a mid 1880’s source….
“……Naturally the more expensive houses were the first to get the benefit of the architectural inspiration drawn largely from England. But now that English gables and dormers have spread so widely, now that we realize the beauty of our own colonial architecture, and that the Queen Anne craze is subsiding, so that only its best features remain, the less ambitious dwellings must not be left to the mercy of those builders whose ideas of beauty are limited to scroll-saw brackets and French roofs. ……”

“We have discovered that considerations of cleanliness do not require us to paint our houses white, which, even with the addition of green shutters, is hardly satisfactory. “

Writers had been criticizing the monotony of white houses with green shutters, or blinds, for the past 30 years. They would continue to do so for another 30, during which time householders continued painting their houses white with green shutters.

The Gothic style was more correctly known as Pointed, and the Greek was also called Horizontal, though a source from the day pointed out that the American house was built more in the Roman style than the Greek. Moreover, the Italianate style had subcategories like Tuscan and Venetian. During this period of architectural history people were also building in the Colonial, or more properly known, Georgian, the Queen Anne and in something that was referred to in several books as the American style. Just quite what the American style was has eluded me.

In a book published in 1908, the author looked back with modern eyes at the styles of just a few years past.
“The houses of 1880-1900 had only portholes punched through the side of the house wherever there seemed to be a chance to destroy a restful space, and these holes were sometimes accentuated by making all the sash lines invisible from the outside by painting them in dark colors.”

I’ve enjoyed the writings of a noted 19th c American architect, E.C.Gardner.
From 1875

. You may have learned that life is a succession of compromises. Building in New England certainly is. No sooner do we get nicely fortified with furnaces, storm-porches, double windows, and forty tons of anthracite, than June bursts upon us with ninety degrees in the shade. Then how we despise our contrivances for keeping warm, and bless the ice-man! We wish the house was all piazza, and if it were not for burglars and mosquitoes, would abjure walls and roof and live in the open air. Just here is our dilemma. We go "from Greenland's icy mountains to India's coral strands" and back again every twelve months, whether we will or no, and are obliged to live in the same house through it all. It's really a desperate matter. I've been to the ant and the beasts and the birds. They recommend hibernating or migration, but our wings are too short for the one, our fur too thin for the other!
Seriously, you must not forget to prepare for extremes of climate. Fortunately the walls that most thoroughly resist the cold are effective against the heat. The doors and windows—the living, breathing, seeing, working part of the house—demand the twofold provision. You must have double windows in winter, to be taken off (laid away and more or less smashed up) in summer; outside blinds to ward off the summer sun, which may, in their turn, be removed when we are only too glad to welcome all the sunshine there is. The vestibules—portable storm-porches are not to be tolerated—must also be skilful doorkeepers, proof against hostile storms, but freely admitting the wandering zephyrs.

THE SERVANT'S QUARTERS

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Servant's quarters were generally overlooked in decorating and homemaking books. Ella Rodman Church was unusual in that she devoted a whole chapter to them, albeit a very short one.
The servants’ quarters would generally be found on the third, or top floor of houses. The stairs to this floor would often be covered in an old Venetian carpet runner, or even just bare, stained and varnished wood, which was “not at all necessary to be ashamed of”.
This floor could also hold other family or guest bedrooms and perhaps a storeroom.
It had been noted by some, that in many moderate houses the servant’s room had no comforts of any kind. Ella Rodman Church voiced the opinion that a person who worked hard all day should had a right to the comfort of a “clean and at least moderately soft bed,….. and if she has a pleasant, comfortably appointed room to retire to, she will be likely to take all the more pains with herself and her work.”

Pillow shams were considered to be out of place, but the bed should be furnished with clean pillow cases and sheets. The blankets could be gray, which were half the price of white ones. A warm comforter should also be provided. A bureau should be available, for the girl’s bedlinens and belongings. A tasteful red or blue calico coverlet could cover the bed. If there were two servants, she advised that it would be preferable to have two single beds rather than one large one, as long as the size of the room allowed it. Two beds would prevent discomfort and quarreling.

Pitchers and washbowls, along with the necessities for washing should be supplied so that the maids wouldn’t have to wash themselves in the kitchen. A good supply of towels should also be provided.
An inexpensive or rag carpet should be provided and curtains to match the bedspread.
Other furnishings should include a table of some kind, a low chair and one or two higher ones. If there was no closet, there should be a row of nails upon which to hang clothes.
A few pictures on the walls would be a pleasant touch and “make a servant feel that she has been considered beyond the mere necessaries of life“.
Mrs. Church also makes note that: “A serviceable pin-cushion on the bureau will till a void that is usually gaping in this class, while a receptacle for pins that would otherwise find their way to the floor might save the mistress's stores from unlawful raids“
Finally…..
“The heat that comes up from below will usually make the servants' room warm enough to prevent water from freezing in it; and this, with the comfortable kitchen for a sitting-room, will be all that is necessary“.

THE PARLOR AND DRAWING ROOM, CIRCA 1880

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"The comedy was that so many of these rooms were alike"...A.E.Richardson

Who can not recall the huge, towering bouquets of dried grasses in gaudy china vases on the mantel; the numerous family photographs on the walls, in a bleak margin of ghastly white, enlivened, perhaps, by a coarse chromo given as a premium by the vapid periodical that is piled up in back numbers on the table ; the ugly horsehair or brocatelle sofa; the tapestry carpet, combining all the colors of the rainbow ; the showy curtains of coarse lace ; the "fairy basket," filled with artificial flowers, suspended somewhere ; the hideous plaster busts of popular men ?
The entrance hall of such a house is usually furnished with oilcloth and a map of the United States; the best bedroom has a "cottage set," fearful with highly colored flowers and gilding, and the other bedrooms have whatever they can get. Crocheted mats and tidies, of all sizes, shapes, and denominations, overrun everything, like weeds ; and it is quite possible that such works of art as cone frames and wax flowers under glass are added to the other things that should not be. In all this melange there will probably not be a single growing thing, nor a bit of the woods near by, to give a touch of nature.
From, How to Furnish a Home by Ella Rodman Church, 1882

But here I must protest against fluffy wool mats scattered about the tables, antimacassars of lace, worsted, or other work hung loosely over the backs of the chairs and sofas, velvet-covered brackets, with useless fringe fixed on with brass-headed nails, on which too often are placed trumpery bits of Dresden or other china, in the shape of dogs, cats, or birds. The wool mats and velvet-covered brackets are nothing but traps for dirt and dust, while the loose antimacassars are an endless source of untidiness and annoyance.
From, Decoration & Furniture of Town Houses by Robert W. Eddis, 1880

Church and Eddis were two highly regarded decorationg authorities of their age, Mrs.Church being American, Mr. Eddis, English. Decorating advice from both countries is interchangeable. One finds the same “ do’s and don’t’s” on both sides of the Atlantic.
Most of this article is repeated from their books as they were written. Again, you’ll see that in some cases woodwork was painted in others, not.
On the question of a chair rail or dado in the drawing room, it was felt by some, generally, that the drawing room should not sport a dado. Cabinets, bookshelves and other unequally sized furnishings would look better against a wall decorated as a single unit rather than against one cut in two by the dividing dado. A frieze, however, would be good addition. Of course, the dado or no dado ruling depended in the size and proportions of the room in question.

1882 parlor mantle

One drawing-room in a large house was described this way, ….“a rich and effective treatment of the wall would be with a low panelled dado of dark black, with a delicate inlaying of ivory-toned ornament, the doors and general woodwork being painted to match, the general wall surface painted bright warm-coloured golden yellow, and powdered all over with a flower pattern or diaper of a darker tone of golden brown, the frieze being coloured in a delicate vellum or ivory tone, with arabesque or figure decoration in black, the cornice treated with delicate shades of brown and green, and the ceiling slightly tinted to match the frieze”. It should also be noted that when black was used, it was often advised that it be a matte finish, not a glossy one.

More descriptions of drawing rooms from this 1880 period follow, from Mr. Eddis’ book.

I saw lately a drawing-room of a newly built so-called Queen Anne house, in which the whole of the lower portion of the walls was covered with a good golden yellow pattern paper, the woodwork painted a vellum or cream-coloured white and varnished, and the frieze formed m decorative plaster-work in very slight relief, like Adam's work; the ceiling formed after similar designs, and all slightly tinted like Wedgwood ware. The general appearance was bright and cheerful, and the low tone of colour throughout formed an excellent contrast to the Persian rugs, marquetry furniture, blue and white china, and other decorative objects in the room.

Drawing-room, about 28 ft. by 18 ft, .and 14 ft. high.Adam's ceiling, in low relief, tinted in ' Wedgwood ' colouring ; the cornice relieved in somewhat stronger tones ; the walls hung with ' brocade' paper of pale Indian blue, divided by pilasters of'Adam's' arabesques, painted in quiet tones of brown, warm greens, and russets, with carved medallions in each. Dado and woodwork of quiet cream tint, with line ornaments in drab and gold.

Drawing-room, 30 ft. by 18 ft., and 13 ft. 6 in. high.The plain ceiling was divided into three, and ornamented with plaster enrichment in low relief, very lightly tinted, and slightly relieved by gilding, cornice picked out to harmonise with the walls. The walls hung with crimson ground ' brocade' paper, with a pattern in very dull white and gold ; the dado and woodwork black and gold, with margins of rich maroon, next the gilt mouldings of the panels.

Small drawing-room or boudoir, 12 ft. high. Flat ceiling, panelled out with a painting about 8 ft. by 4 ft. in centre, with low relief ornament outside this. The whole room panelled 9 ft high, with pale wainscot oak; the space above this hung with embossed
leather paper, with pattern in gold, and colours of a light dull green tone. Curtains, silk and wool tapestry. Floor, oak, rather darker than walls, with Oriental carpets. Furniture, dark mahogany; the coverings varied to some extent. A few water-colours hung on the oak panelling; chimney-piece carried up in light oak, with arrangement for bronzes, statuettes in side niches, and spaces for china.

Another decorative treatment of a small drawing or music-room would be by panelling the lower portion of the walls with a deal dado, delicately painted in yellowish pink or blue, and covering the general wall surface with a golden-toned paper, arranged in panels to suit the proportion of the room, with painted and stencil arabesque patterns on the dividing spaces ; the frieze treated with good figure or ornamental enrichment of canvas-plaster or papier mache' in low relief, painted white, with a groundwork of reddish gold or Bartolozzi engraving tint. The floor might have a border of light ebony and maple or boxwood parquet, with a low-toned Persian carpet in the centre, with easy lounges or divans all round the room for rest and comfort, the centre space being left clear of furniture, so as to allow of ample room for guests passing through to other rooms, or to congregate, whilst listening to song or music. Or the general tone of the wall surface may be of a bright bluish drab-coloured pattern paper, with a frieze of small yellowish diaper pattern, the woodwork throughout being painted in brighter tones of blue, with mouldings and stencil decoration on white, like Wedgwood china.

COLOR OF WALLS AND CEILINGS ETC.
In the following excerpt, the author refers to the decoration of earlier, beautifully decorated Adams period ceilings in Britain. Otherwise, the information is also applicable to the US. I’ve seen similar suggestions in American decorating books from the last quarter of the century.

“It is a somewhat difficult matter in most town houses, where the ceilings are generally plain, and bordered by cornices of inferior design, to treat them with any amount of colour. In houses of the date of Adams, the ceilings have generally some very delicate enrichments all over them, either flowing or arranged in patterns very slightly raised. Whenever these occur, it is well to treat them almost like Wedgwood ware, with, say, light tones of pink, green, grey, or buff, in very delicate tinting ; but where the ceiling is quite flat, it is desirable to tint it a light tone of grey or cream colour, to get rid of the extreme glare of pure white. Next, the cornice, a simple distemper pattern, of a darker shade of the same colour, will often be found effective and useful, or one or two simple lines with stencilled corners. The tinting of the cornices must materially depend upon their design and contour; if plain moulded cornices, they may be tinted in one or two shades, the lighter tones being always at the top or next the ceiling, and gradually darkening off to the wall decoration.”
….Eddis

The following is from Mrs. Church’s book.
White ceilings and white woodwork should only be used with a light colored wallpaper, but a slight amount of color in the whiting would give the ceiling a more agreeable tint that stark white. If the woodwork in a room is pine, and must be painted, then any nuetral light color would be agreeable and preferable to plain white. It should never be grained to imitate richer woods as the graining is never very good and it tends to peel in spots over time leaving a blotchy effect. Pine could also be shellacked and varnished, but most people preferred to have it painted.

A French pearl-gray, a warm stone-color, a pale buff, a delicate green, are all beautiful for parlor walls. The faintest suspicion of pink, like the inner lining of some lovely sea-shells, is both pretty arnd becoming, and will go well with most things in the way of furnishing. A frieze of flowers and butterflies would not be inharmonious with this tint; and a dark, almost invisible, green dado, divided, perhaps, by narrow gilt panels, would bear a lighter green in furniture covering. Pale lemon-yellow is a pleasing tint, or a fuller apricot-yellow is very effective, especially with black wood-work. In speaking of the color of a room it is not meant that the walls must be of one single tint, but reference is made to the predominating hue, which exists even when pattern and coloring are complex.

A pale, dull sea-green goes admirably with a rich crimson or Indian red ; a pale, dull red with deep green ; but they must always be of very different intensity to look well together, and are always difficult to mingle pleasantly. Turquoise ….mixes very sweetly with a pale green ; ultramarine, being a red-blue…… is horrible with green. Pure pale yellow is a very becoming color, and will harmonize with purple; with blue, the contrast is too coarse.

As lovely a drawing-room as we ever saw in point of color was carpeted with gray felt with a deep dark-blue bordering ; the lounges and chairs were covered with chintz in the most delicate shade of robin's-egg blue….and the remainder was of wicker-work and black lacquer; the heavy pieces of furniture were in black lacquer and gilt; the curtains were of snowy muslin under lambrequins of chintz ; and the rest of the room was made up of vases, tripods, cups, pictures, flowers, and sunshine, till it seemed to overflow with harmonious color…

Somewhere in the sea of reading a parlor was described that lingers in the mind a warm, glowing, cheerful room, but not in the least glaring ; and, still rarer virtue, it was not expensive. The carpet was in two or three soft shades of red in a mossy pattern ; the walls were cream color with broken red lines in the corners; the curtains were crimson of some twilled material that hung in soft folds. But the furniture, two low sofas and one or two lounging-chairs, was covered with raw silk in rich Oriental colors ; and light chairs and tables broke up all appearance of stiffness. A lovely swinging lamp, with a wine-colored globe shade, hung over the reading-table ; and it was supported by a gilt, triangle, which was also the shape of the candlesticks on the mantel. Here was crimson judiciously used, and yet in sufficient force to make a deliciously inviting apartment
….Church
The following is a description of a wallpaper, from Eddis.

The general tone is a warm creamy yellow, with wall-flower pattern diaper (or diamond) of golden brown, in harmony with the yellow ground; the whole brightened up by the powdering over of the pale pinkish-toned petals or leaves, falling, as it were, from the sprays of almond flowers in the frieze. This frieze with its delicate blue ground and well-coloured sprays, with swallows flitting in and out, forms an exceedingly good contrast with the lower paper, when divided by a simple painted deal moulding or picture rail, painted golden brown and varnished, as suggested in the illustration.

FLOORS

I've mentioned quite a bit about floor treatments and coverings in other articles, so I won't repeat it. What was written stands true in the 1880 drawing room. I did however, want to relay this short paragraph written by Mrs. Church.
"It must be admitted that many sensible people are quite opposed to uncarpeted floors, and especially to stained floors, on the score of their showing dust and every footmark, as well as the roughness and inequalities of the boards, when not made for this particular purpose."...people liked their wall to wall carpets.
A carpet and accompanying border from 1882

THE FIREPLACE

The usual mantel-piece is a shelf of white marble, …… and the sooner this cold, unsuggestive surface is decently buried out of sight the better. A plain covering of any kind that harmonizes with the other draperies is a great improvement; and this should reach the bottom of the slab beneath the shelf, and be finished with a fringe. Most elaborate mantel coverings are wrought with crewels, and silks, and applique ; but these are not always in good taste, and should be well considered, before venturing upon them, in connection with the other furnishings. The latest fashion is for wooden mantel-pieces, ….In the parlor the mantel is usually surmounted by mirrors, but shelves for holding vases and other bric-a-brac are admissible. The shelves may be covered with cloth, in colors to harmonize with the drapery of the room if preferred. In Fig. 17 we give an example of treating a mantel-piece with lambrequin and back piece supported by rings on a pole. Vases and plaques standing against the drapery have a good effect. The screen and hanging cabinet in the engraving are from objects exhibited in the rooms of the Society of Decorative Art in this city.

figure 17

FURNITURE
The following advice is from Mrs. Church
A sofa should, if possible, turn toward the fire, so that its occupant may have his face toward the cheerful glow. At the same time, a little wicker-work tableblack and gold, if you willmay hold a lamp for reading.

As to chairs, a couple of good, well-stuffed easy-chairs…….arranged so as to look toward the fire, ought to be sufficient for luxury while six or eight little ebonized and cane-bottomed gossip chairs are the simplest and prettiest "occasional" furniture one can have. The gossip chair has a curved back which exactly fits the natural curve of the body, and the seat slopes gently downward and backward so as to give the best possible support with the least angularity or awkwardness.
With these pretty little clean cane seats, a black wicker-work chair, two easy-chairs, and a sofa, you should have enough places for family and guests in a quiet household.
The ugliest piece of furniture that can be put into the parlor is a piano ; the cottage, or cabinet shape, is tolerable, because less prominent, but the dark, clumsy, obtrusive structure in general use is a perfect nuisance in a small room, and should be gotten as much out of the way as possible. An irregularly shaped room with recesses is delightful for this purpose, if any of them will accommodate it; and, if there are two rooms, let the piano by all means be placed in the farther one. A handsome cover will clothe its dreary aspect with a little beauty, and its loud sounds will be sweeter from the enchantment lent by distance. Some parlors are all piano and carpet; but such apartments can in no sense of the word be called "living-rooms."
For furniture covering,………Raw silk is an excellent material ; and there are many woolen and other stuffs. The soft, pretty cretonnes of endless tints and styles are charming for a cottage parlor, and also for a city one that may be treated as such. The curtains should be of the same material, while a carpet of plain brown felt with a bordering of green, and a mantel-cover of some brown material embroidered with roses and leaves, would make a cheerful room.
A screen also affords good opportunity for the display of home skill in embroidery.

A cabinet is usually a handsome piece of parlor furniture…..This is the proper receptacle for all sorts of dainty and fragile things : choice bits of china, carving, or engraving, the numberless little treasures that one picks up along the path of life, and that one does not like to see carelessly handled.
Many parlors as well as purses will not admit of a large piece of furniture … and the small hanging cabinets are both pretty and convenient. These may be made by an ordinary carpenter of common wood, and ebonized at a comparatively small expensethe two little doors painted, if one can paint, in birds and flowers, with a little gilding judiciously added. Where painting is not to be had, panels of Indian red oilcloth decorated in various ways or pieces of embroidery can be used instead. Small, hanging shelves without doors, and a railing across the top, will make a very good substitute.

Marble-topped tables have very justly been stigmatized as parlor tombstones; and the simplest cover is preferable to one of these cold, polished surfaces. A crimson table-cover gives a warm, bright look to a room ; and the effect is heightened by making it long enough to touch the carpet. What a rich, warmly tinted picture is made by the "Cloth of woven crimson, gold, and jet".

Parlor tables are of various shapes and sizes ; and, whatever may be said to the contrary by those who condemn center-tables, a goodly sized round table with a crimson cover on it, and on that a handsome lamp, emitting a soft, steady light, and two or three new books and magazines, looks cozy and delightful, and as though the room was really lived in and enjoyed. A small upper cover, being in fact a square formed of small squares of white linen and drawn work alternately, saves the crimson cover as well as the eyes, and can be laundried as often as necessary.
Small corner tables with fancy covers are useful for five-o'clock tea, and, where this is not indulged in, for a great many other purposes, besides being exceedingly pretty and "helping to furnish." Very cheap ones can be bought, made of walnut or of ebonized wood, and apparently well made; these, with the tops covered and fringed, are quite unexceptionable. Felt, velveteen, canvas, satin, are all used for this purpose, and embroidered as fancy dictates.

Brackets, pictures, knickknacks, give a home look to a room ; but, with abundant means, there is such a tendency to overload in these matters that some are disposed to resort to the opposite extreme.

MIRRORS AND PICTURES

Large mirrors in quiet frames, a walnut frame with a gilt line of from a quarter to three eighths of an inch in the middle of the molding, and with perhaps a slight ornament at the corners, is recommended as having a richer effect than a gilt frame. Mantel mirrors are always handsome ; but a long, narrow one in the pier is a by-gone fashion belonging to heavy gilt cornices and immovable window draperies. Small, ornamental mirrors are almost as decorative as pictures, and may be hung in any part of the room.
The subject of pictures is one which opens a wide field for discussion ; and bare, indeed, are the walls that have not two or three of these ''counterfeit presentments" to relieve their bareness.
The next two art works mentioned by Mrs. Church must have been displayed in many a parlor.
What pleasure is there, for instance, in contemplating that dreary engraving, " The Death-Bed of Washington," or " Queen Elizabeth signing the Death-Warrant of Essex"?

I believe the engraving mentioned may have been based on this painting done in 1851

And here is Queen Elizabeth signing the death warrant of Essex

Yet there are rooms where these are the most cheerful adornments of the Avails. Neither is a picture made up principally of figures in black coats capable of giving the pleasure that a picture should give ; and many dismal representations of an historical character that are fondly supposed to be embellishments cast a gloom over country parlors, and depress the casual visitor.
Many valuable paintings, especially those of the Spanish and French schools, are no better, but rather worse : who, for instance, wishes to see portrayed on the wall the very unpleasant manner in which Cato committed suicide, or the details of a dissecting-room ? A picture that treats of a revolting or gloomy subject, if designed for a mural ornament, should be discarded as not answering the purpose for which it is intended.
Oil paintings are handsomer and more valuable than any other kind of pictures ; but fine oil paintings can only be secured at a price that places them quite beyond the reach of the majority.
Paintings in water-colors, some of which are expensive enough, may often be found at moderate prices by those who understand buying such things ; and, as a rule, they are better suited to moderate rooms than more pretentious pictures in oil. Colored pictures are bright and cheerful-looking, and their moderate use is very effective in a quiet parlor. Steel engravings, on the other hand, are somewhat depressing from their somber tone, and require the neighborhood of warm hues in walls and hangings to be thoroughly pleasing.
Engravings and photographs of the works of the old masters, or of any paintings that educate the eye, are always desirable ; and the low price at which really fine works of art may be purchased brings them within the reach of nearly all who care for such things.
The latter class of pictures look even worse side by side with water-color sketches than do the water-colors with oil paintings; "the print looking cold and harsh beside the water-color sketch, and the sketch seeming unreal and gaudy by the side of the photograph." It is also advised never to hang glazed drawings, when it can be avoided, opposite a window. " The sheen of the glass reflects the daylight and annihilates the effect of the picture behind it."
The frame of a picture should always be subservient to the picture itself, and, except in the case of oil paintings, it is better to have it of noticeable plainness. It should be substantial, but not wider than is absolutely necessary for a look of strength, a slight frame around a heavy picture being particularly objectionable. A walnut frame, with straight lines and a little gilding in the middle of each of the sides, or one of eboriized wood treated in the same way, has an appearance of quiet elegance; and very suitable
frames for engravings and photographs can be made of common pine, painted or covered with velvet.
Steel engravings and water-colors can not, like oil paintings, be framed with the frame close to the picture, and a space of white paper usually intervenes, which commonly makes an ugly and inharmonious spot on the wall. This can be avoided by first having the picture mounted in a passe-partout with a mat of gray or some neutral tint, and then placed in a frame. The required space around the picture is thus secured, while the objectionable expanse of white is avoided.
On the hanging of pictures we are told that, " to see them with anything like comfort or attention, they should be disposed in one row only, and that opposite the eye, or, on an average, about five feet six inches from the floor to the center of the canvas. A row thus formed will make a sort of colored zone around the room; and though the frames themselves may vary in shape and dimensions, they can generally be grouped with something like symmetry of position, the larger ones being kept in the center and the smaller ones being ranged on either side in corresponding places along the line." The cords used to suspend them should match the general coloring of the room ; wires, which have been so much in fashion, give an uncertain look to pictures, as though they had no visible means of support.

WINDOW COVERINGS
Finally a few window covering suggestions from Mr. Eddis
In the lower sitting-rooms of most town houses it is necessary to have some sort of lower screen or blind, to render the rooms fairly private from the gaze of too curious passers-by. For this purpose all kinds of contrivances have been carried out, from the old wire-gauze blind, with its general dirty and dingy look, and everlasting painted ornament of Greek fret or honeysuckle border, to the curious twisted cane inventions, which are bad in design, and infinitely too spotty and strong in colour to be pleasant accessories in any room, in which artistic decoration of any kind is thought of. Instead, therefore, of these coarse and unsatisfactory arrangements, I suggest that either a pattern of good diaper (note, by this is meant a piece of prettily embellished cloth hung in a triangle, or draped over a simple rod, point downwards.)or good ornament, be done on the lower portion of the window-glass, by the ordinary means of embossing, or that a second sheet of glass containing the pattern which may be done in slight tints be fixed on the inside face ; or, better still, have blinds of what is called jewelled glass in square quarry lights, or good figure or flower decoration in leaded glass, either done in outline, and stained in delicate tones of yellow, or worked out in good stained glass of various colours ; these can be made to any height, and fixed inside the sash so as to be easily removed for cleaning purposes....Blinds fixed to the sashes in this way may be objected to, on the ground that the sash weights will have to be altered to carry the extra weight of the blind, and that when the lower sash is opened the use of the blind is practically done away with ; but the first objection may be got over at the price of a few shillings per window, and if flower-boxes are fixed on the sills outside, made of ordinary zinc, with blue and white tiles inserted in the front, at a cost of from 205-. to 30^. each box, not only will the latter objection be done away with, but the bright and cheery look of low shrubs in winter, and many-coloured and sweet-scented flowers in summer, will add materially to the pleasantness of the room.
I am quite aware that I am offering no new suggestions in these remarks on blinds and flower-boxes. I am simply advocating their much greater use. For, beyond the pleasure to yourselves in the pleasant outlook upon bright flowers, the colour of the tiles and flowers would be grateful spots of life and colour in the dreary monotony of our town streets. All this kind of arrangement will be found much better than the ordinary frame blinds, which are fixed with bolts to the sash-beads, and are troublesome to take down and often in the way, especially when flower-boxes are set outside as I have suggested.
....Eddis

Decoration & Furniture of Town Houses: a series of Cantor lectures delivered before the Society of Arts, by Robert W. Eddis, 1880

How To Furnish a Home, by Ella Rodman Church, 1882

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A couple of books

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Two books that I have recently read that have wonderful pictures are:
Authentic Décor, the domestic interior 1620-1920
by Peter Thornton
and
Victorians at Home
by Susan Lansdun
I learned a few things I hadn't known from Lansdun's book.
In the 1830's people were advised to arrange their furniture so that it looked as though someone had just left the room, with chairs comfortably set by the fire and perhaps a book left open on a table. This was considered a warmer and more welcoming arrangement than the previous practice of having furniture set along the walls, to be later placed near the window or fireplace when needed, then returned to its spot by the wall. This new furniture arrangement allowed the use of heavier tables and chairs. The fact that there had been improvements to heating and lighting were helpful.
Poor Queen Victoria found Buckingham Palace so cold that she used to take brisk walks along the great corridor to stay warm.
As late as 1880 open fires were still recommended in Britain as the best heating system, in spite of the fact that stoves were used on the European continent and the US. Visitors from these places often commented on the cold English chambers. One visitor to an English country house party complained that his room has too cold in which to pick up a pen, so he decided to go down to the drawing room to be by a fire. When he got there, he found the room overcrowded as everyone else had the same idea.
Finally we come to that beloved Victorian plant the aspidistra, also known as the cast iron plant. It seems that the fumes from gaslights killed many Victorian houseplants, but not the tough aspidistra. It was impervious to the fumes.
The gas was also another reason for the interest in plants grown in glass cases. The glass protected the plants inside.

THE DINING ROOM circa 1880

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WALLS
Some Americans called the dining room the “eating room”. Ella Rodman Church wrote, “The common practice of furnishing dining-rooms in green has much to do with their cold appearance, for green is eminently a cold color ; and the absence of any play of flame, from the apertures in the wall that usually serve for heating purposes, gives a hard, set look to the stiff belongings“. On the other side of the Atlantic, Robert Eddis pleaded, “but, for goodness' sake, avoid the dreary commonplaceness of light apple and sage greens, which seem to be the only colours thought appropriate for dining-room walls”.

One recommendation for the dining room walls was for a darkly painted dado, with a chair rail or painted paneling about 3 to 4 feet high, then paint or paper above to within 2 or 3 feet of the ceiling. It was felt that a warm brown, or chocolate was a good background color for pictures.

Below is a picture of a dining room decorated by Robert Eddis, and his description.

“In this room the mantel-piece, with the étagère over, is made to form an important feature of the general design ; the wall space is divided by a high dado or picture rail slightly moulded with ½ inch gas piping under, as a picture rod. The frieze is painted in plain vellum tone of colour, and decorated with stencil pattern enrichment. The woodwork generally is of deal (pine)varnished, the panels of the doors and shutters filled in with stencil decoration in a light shade of brown under the varnish. The general wall surface is hung with an all-over pattern paper of good warm golden brown tone of colour, admirably adapted for pictures. The furniture throughout is executed in Spanish mahogany, and designed to harmonize with the general character of the decoration.
The use of what is called a flatting coat, or finishing coat, of paint mixed with turpentine only, for wall surfaces, so as to produce a dull flat or dead surface without gloss, is, I think, a mistake, for this kind of work does not last when exposed to the weather; it shows every mark of dirt, and will not stand washing. This picture-surface, if painted, should not be varnished, but the dado and all woodwork of the doors and windows will be made much more effective if varnished, as I have before recommended. The woodwork should be painted of similar colour, as a rule, to the walls, but of much darker tone in two shades, and the panels covered with good ornament, stenciled on, all of which is inexpensive, and adds materially to the general artistic effect. The broad frieze, above what I call the picture or general wall space, should be much lighter in tone, and here of course there is an opportunity for real art-work. A broad decorative painted frieze, painted in compartments or panels, with figure-subjects, is of course, to my mind, the most desirable finish.”

***
The American, Mrs. Church, admitted that for the average American homeowner, the illustrations and styles described in decorating books of the day were much too expensive. Chair and picture rails would not be found in a moderately priced American home of 1880.
She advised that a large room should have “dark, rich furnishings, while a smaller one requires lighter coloring and style”. Walnut, rosewood and dark mahogany were woods for a large room, while oak and other lighter colored woods were better suited for a smaller room. Many critics of the day suggested the use of crimson in dining rooms, though brown or green were the more often used colors.
Church described the following wall treatment. Place a picture rail 12 to 15” below the ceiling and a chair rail about 3 feet off the floor. These should be painted crimson, dulled slightly with Indian or Venetian red, using a flat paint. Between the picture and chair rails paint or paper the wall in a green-gray tint. Use a light olive-green, somewhat darker than the field color, and finish with a crimson line at the top, about one inch wide, of molding or paper. Use a dark, rich, maroon and gold or black and gold in the dado space.
An ad for lincrusta

I wanted to point out something on the subject of the chair rail or height of the dado. Nowadays people feel all too often that it must be 3 feet high. This is not necessarily so. In the dining room, most chair backs were approximately 3 feet high, so if they were pushed back against the walls of the room, the chair rail would stop them from causing any damage. If the chair backs were higher, a higher chair rail would be needed. In other rooms, the height of the dado or rail would depend on the overall look desired, they were a decorative element, as opposed to their function in the 18th century, when furniture was ranged along the walls of a room and only pulled out to the center of the room when needed.
Further on Mrs. Church points out that since “In all probability, neither chair-rail nor picture-rail will be found in a moderate-sized, inexpensive house, ……crimson lines may be placed to advantage on the flat surface. The wood-work where walls are so colored should be neutral-tinted green or black, with some of the moldings in crimson ; and a bright look would be given to the whole by papering the frieze, the space above the picture-rail, with a gay pattern of birds or flowers“.

FLOORS

Eddis advised the householder paint or stain and varnish the floor for 2 or 3 feet all around, then place a good Indian or Persian rug in the center.
Mrs. Church felt one could dispense with carpets in a dining room altogether, staining and varnishing the floor and using a drugget in the center under the table. She went on to describe a covering of painted burlap. “This home-made floor covering will look quite like an old-style Turkey carpet if worked in arabesques of light blue and scarlet, with a judicious mixture of black and white, and fringed on two sides with either of the bright colors scarlet being, perhaps, the more desirable. It is a very convenient fashion to do without carpets, for they are perfect locusts to a limited purse, and nowhere can they be better dispensed with than in the dining-room”. She did write that for those who feel they must have carpets, there were new designs with black backgrounds, some with Japanese figures and bordering, which would go well with a red and gold Japanese wall paper.
If you read the article about the front hall, you’ll recall that the Japanese style decorative touch was popular.
Parquet flooring

Church referred to parquet flooring several times in her book.” Parquet or inlaid floors, sometimes known as wood-carpeting consists of narrow strips of oak, ash, walnut, or other hard woods, kiln-dried, and cemented to heavy muslin. An ornamental border and center-piece in contrasted colors usually accompany each design. ……. Parquet borders are often laid in a room, with a carpet in the center. The material may also be used as wainscoting, and even ceilings and walls may be paneled with it. This flooring is a quarter of an inch thick, and can be rolled up like oilcloth”. These wood carpets were used to cover old softwood floors that were unsuitable for staining and varnishing, and I’ve mentioned them before.
An ad for "wood carpet".

If you’ve read the previous articles, you’ll know that until the 1870’s homeowners generally covered their floors with carpet, wall to wall. It was in the 1870’ and 80’s that the move toward varnished hardwood floors began. Design critics had been suggesting the use of hardwood floors for some time, but they took quite a while to catch on. Some could not afford to redo their old softwood floors in hardwoods, others liked their carpets.
One design critic exclaimed “It is a matter of astonishment to me, to find that there are still a large number of people who are content to keep this exceedingly bad arrangement of floor covering, and who object altogether to having a certain amount of plain floor space all round the sides of the room. In the first place, this covering of the whole surface is unhealthy ; in the second place, it is dirty; and, in the third place, the cost of the carpet is infinitely more than the cost of painting or staining the edges of the rooms.
By these last few words, one can safely assume that many were still purchasing new carpeting instead of replacing their old floorboards with hardwood flooring.

FIREPLACES

If one didn’t have a fireplace similar to one of these in their dining room, having only an old fashioned, outdated marble one. Mrs. Church had a suggestion, “…..the ordinary marble mantel-shelf will be much improved by a covering of maroon leather, or velveteen, finished with fringe. These coverings, when well made and harmonizing with the rest of the furniture, are extremely ornamental; and foundations of satin, felt, or momie cloth will also be found suitable“. She goes on describe how it was done.
“To make the cover fit smoothly, a board is cut the exact size of the mantel-shelf, and an under covering of cambric muslin is fitted carefully over it. The embroidery is put on the curtain, or lambrequin, which is usually made quite straight and without fullness. For a rich material, heavy fringe is sufficient ornament; while crewel or cretonne embroidery is very handsome on the last-mentioned fabrics, and affords scope for the exercise of artistic taste.”
To add additional ornament…..
“At the sides of the fireplace, tiles painted on a pale pink or green ground are a bright and suitable ornamentation. A skillful amateur could do this herself, and the numerous representations of mediaeval dining-tables and customs would furnish appropriate subjects. If tiles are impossible, small wooden panels, painted a dead white and ornamented with transferred French pictures, the whole highly varnished, and set in narrow maroon-colored frames or borders, will produce the desired effect. A legend across the front, in old English lettering, is very appropriate for a dining-room mantel, the ground-work being of the same color as that of the tiles or panels, and the letters either in black and gold or maroon and vermilion“.
If one could not have an open fire in the fireplace, a screening of ivy or other plants would do.
In another article, I mentioned the practice of using a curtain in front of a fireplace. Here's an example used in a dining room.

WINDOWS
Ella Rodman Church liked the colorful look of a bit of stained glass in dining room windows. If stained glass was out of the question, one could achieve a nice effect by pasting thin figured muslin or lace over each pane. One could go a step further by arranging ferns and autumn leaves over the lace, or perhaps pressed pansies or daisies.

A plain brass or wooden rod, or even iron gas pipe was considered more appropriate for hanging curtains than “the heavy lacquered brass or wood poles and unmeaning fringe valances, which only serve to show dirt and dust, and are execrable in taste“.
The curtains themselves could be made of almost any fabric.
“Unbleached muslin trimmed with parallel bands of blue and red has a macaw-like effect that is quite wonderful considering the material; horizontal stripes of Turkey-red and crash-toweling are very Oriental-looking ; our maroon-furnished room would be elegantly finished with curtains of horse-girths or netted twine, separated at intervals of half a yard or so by five-inch bands of maroon velveteen. All the pretty Oriental stuffs that are to be had at such fabulously low rates seem to find their natural sphere as dining-room draperies; while curtains of crewel-work, appliqué on Turkish toweling, cretonne-work almost everything that can be invented or made appear to be just the thing in the dining-room. Anything but lace draperies, on the one hand, or material that is too rich and heavy, on the other“.

FURNITURE
The most important article of furniture in a Victorian dining room was considered to be the sideboard. It was a massive piece, as a rule, and all the glittering best china, glassware and silver were arranged upon it.
In addition to the table and dining chairs buffet and sideboard, both Church and Eddis recommended a couple of comfortable lounge or arm chairs, perhaps with a hassock for each.
A dining room lounge

A sideboard

The normal lighting in a dining room was a gas chandelier, or gasolier, hung over the table. Out in the country it might be replaced by a lamp sitting directly on the table. Apparently neither was quite satisfactory.” Side-lights, or sconces, may be placed on either side of the sideboard and the mantel-piece, one or both. It is better to have them on two sides of the room. It is also very pleasant to have one set, those by the sideboard to burn gas, and those on the chimney-piece made for candles. Many designs are now produced, and many very good ones ; some are wholly of brass, some enclose a bit of mirror or a plaque of pottery. "
Some pleasant pictures were advisable for the walls of the room. Paintings of fruit or flowers were agreeable, pictures of dead animals were passé. Though portraits were often hung in the dining room, Mrs. Church felt they should be kept out of the dining room or parlor .
Finally, an example of a very simple dining room

THE FRONT HALL circa 1880

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The information in this section is culled from two books, one British the other American, published in 1880 and 1882. Both were very similar, and expressed opinions I'd seen echoed in other, later books.
In both cases the books were geared toward the well to do for the most part, but they were also read by the budget-minded.

The above sketch shows an “inner” hall for a large, important house designed in a “modern Jacobean style….as a fair example of the kind of internal work suitable for the new style of architecture, yclept, for want of a better name, ' Queen Anne.'.” Just as a note of interest, the word yclept is not a misprint. It is a word that was already archaic in 1880, meaning, more or less, ‘called’ as in, called, for want of a better name, ‘Queen Anne’. I went and looked it up.

THE FRONT HALL
A Victorian era house’s front door was generally painted, then varnished for protection against the weather and for easier washing. A recommended color was chocolate or some other warm shade of brown.

FLOORS
Most London town houses apparently had stone floors in the front hall. Though stonework could be kept clean and white with judicious scrubbing, Robert W. Eddis suggested that it may be desirable to paint the stone margins in a soft brown or other similar color. The center of the hallway should be covered with a rug or thick felt drugget. Oilcloth and linoleum were also commonly used, but some didn’t feel that the painted pattern on the oilcloth bore up well under daily wear and tear, over time they could crack. Linoleum was a new product that found favor with many, and came in assorted colors and patterns.
Parquet floors, in squares of one inch thick solid wood were another option, though quite expensive, so not as often seen.
Ella Rodman Church suggested…
“A strip of cocoanut or Japanese matting looks very well …..and a brightly checked Canton matting also makes a pretty and inexpensive hall carpet. A band of color at either edge, blue or crimson flannel or felt, makes a very good finish. A width of carpet running through the hall, with a bordering of inlaid wood, wood-carpet, or the brown walnut stain of the floor, showing at either side, will also look well. The carpet itself, if in harmony with the walls and staircase, may be in two shades of green, crimson, or chocolate-brown, in small set figures. If the hall is square in shape, the carpet should be so also, with the bordering on the four sides.

Marble mosaics and plain or encaustic tiles had come into the forefront, and it was advised by some that when using tiles one should stick to simple patterns and plain colors like red, grey, or buff….“the all-over patterns, which are published in most of the pattern books laid before the public ; not only are these elaborate geometrical patterns unsatisfactory when laid, ….but they are infinitely more expensive than plain red 4 or 6 inch tiles laid over the whole space, with a simple border of black or buff. A plain red tile pavement of this kind is infinitely pleasanter, warmer, and more suitable for a town hall, than any of the elaborate patterns which are offered for the public choice, and repeated ad nauseam, in oilcloth and linoleum.” The marble mosaics and tiles were more expensive in America, and at this point were not often used

WALLS & CEILINGS
The walls of the front hall could be treated in several ways. One, which was considered the most suitable option, was to paint the walls about two thirds of their height with a pleasant color that wouldn’t show up finger marks. A pattern could be stenciled onto the painted wall, a dark over light or light over dark. The wall was then varnished to make it easier to clean. The upper third portion of the wall could be divided from the lower by a “plain wooden molding” which could, if desired be made in the form of a narrow shelf to display pieces of porcelain or stoneware, etc.
The question of how high the dado should be was a matter of personal choice. As stated above, some preferred the 2/3 height, while others specified a height of about 3 feet. The “plain wooden molding” mentioned, when lowered became what is known as a chair rail. The chair rail was sometimes dispensed with and a paper border was substituted.
Around this period the idea of a dado was a rather new one, and many still preferred the entire wall painted or papered as one. American critic Ella Rodman Church wrote,
“The field to choose from is so large, and so much is to be considered in the way of harmony with regard to the other furnishing, that the covering of walls is a subject for almost endless discussion. Among the things to be absolutely excluded, however, are " wall-papers in imitation of moldings, pilasters, and heavy carved cornices, which are vulgar in the extreme. In the vast majority of instances, the things imitated would be out of place; for no one wants a row of fluted pilasters with Corinthian capitals or elaborate cornices in an ordinary hall. If the reality would be objectionable, the cheap imitations are much more so ; and, if it is considered desirable to break up the blank walls, it can be done much better and at less cost by other means. Papers printed in imitation of marble,
granite, and wood graining are also in bad taste. Perfectly plain tints are very much handsomer."

Among Mrs. Church’s recommendations were “…. dado of paper, the ground of a dull red, with the pattern in black, and the wall above painted in pale buff, green, or gray. …
For a hall, the palest of greens or browns is usually the most pleasing in effect; or the walls may be paneled artistically.”

The upper portion of the wall under the cornice usually became discolored quickly from the effects of gas lighting. Robert W. Eddis recommended using distemper, a paint that could be washed off every year and redone cheaply.
“In the frieze might be panels containing birds and figures, which could be done in distemper with good effect, the general drawing being done in plain red outline, contrasting well with a cream-coloured general tone of ground. ………a plain running stencil pattern of foliage, shields, and birds, as an enriched border just below the cornice, might be judiciously introduced, or a good light-toned and simple pattern, or stamped paper…..may be hung over the whole space instead of distemper. …….Decorative wreaths of one or two colours, and pots of flowers or foliage sufficiently large to form a good decorative frieze in distemper colouring, may be done from 2s. 6d. to 3$. 6d. a yard run, and the patterns may be kept, so that the work may be renewed, if necessary, each year, or changed with new patterns, which can be cut out at a very small expenditure of time and money. The ceiling should be lightly tinted in a vellum, pink, or grey tone, with some slight stencil decoration to relieve it, and the cornice treated in very light shades in distemper.”
The author continued…….
“Remember these ceilings are certain in a little space to get dingy from ordinary town atmosphere, and the wretched impurities of gas. It is unfortunate that in this nineteenth century we are still obliged to burn gas which is generally impure and a disgrace to
modern science and civilisation. Consumers are made to pay a large price for this kind of light, and ought fairly to expect to be supplied with it free from all those impurities, which tend to destroy, not only the painting and decoration on our walls, but all pictures, gilding, and other works of the kind which are left unprotected by glass. At a little extra cost, plain deal or canvas plaster ribs might be laid over the existing plaster work, and the panels thus formed could be filled in with good flock paper to relieve the general flatness of the surface, and could be painted whenever required, or the whole surface may be covered with canvas plaster in a delicate all-over pattern of naturalistic or conventional leaf ornament cast in low relief, the ground work being tinted golden-yellow colour.”

Another wall treatment recommended for the hall was to panel it to a height of 6 or 7 feet with a plain inexpensive wood, like pine, then paint it in red or dark blue lacquer. Above
Use a flocked wallpaper, painted golden yellow, flecked with a bit or a reddish or golden color.
Polished marble or mosaic tiles or slabs were another wall recommendation. It was advised that the woodwork be painted in two colors, with the moldings done in a darker shade, “….if the mullions and framing of the door be done in a dark shade, let us say of chocolate or brown, the panels might be lighter in tone, with stencil decoration of flowers, birds, or fruit in a darker shade. Here let me say that all woodwork, such as doors, windows, and shutters, which are subject to the wear of not always clean hands, should be varnished throughout “.
Yet another decorating option…….
“A warm golden-brown or yellow forms a good general tone for a hall and staircase, with a Pompeian-red dado painted, with black skirting and rail, and a frieze of light pattern paper or cream-coloured distemper ground, with line enrichment in dark golden brown or red. The general woodwork should be painted black, where there is not too much of it, or in two shades of good red or brown, or the general tone might be peacock or light blue, with soft vellum grey and blue pattern papers or distemper. A deep frieze
of boldly designed painted or stencil ornament will assist much in breaking the usual bad proportion of the staircase wall, while panels may be formed in bold lines of paint or distemper, wherein may be framed pictures or other art work. A good neutral tint or warm grey ground, with ornament in green and vermilion, has a good effect if the colours be carefully treated; or a wide diaper, with patterns interchanged, and charged with shields and legends here and there. Any good photographs, sketches, or studies are useful to hang on the rake of the staircase, on the eye line, to take off the general coldness. Many varieties of tints will suggest themselves, which will help to give a bright and cheerful character to the passage-way of the whole house, in place of the cold and dreary, rightly called, well, to which we are so accustomed.”

There was, at this time, a great interest in Japanese and Chinese art. Markets were full of colorful, inexpensive Japanese fans and prints, etc., and they were considered to be good pieces with which to decorate halls and staircases. Stencils done in an Oriental style were also in favor.
These fish stencils were used to decorate the panels of a door. The stencil was done in dark chocolate over a light reddish brown. Mr. Eddis felt that a door stenciled in such a manner was a marked improvement over the “……dull monotony of imitation graining of oak, maple, or satin wood, to which we are so much accustomed. “

* * * * * *

Sometimes the front hall was divided in two, the front portion consisting of a vestibule.
The inner door, with perhaps sidelights, was often glazed in plain plate glass. Critics advised the use of leaded or stained glass panels. Lace and figured Swiss muslin were two popular glass coverings. Some people used their crafting skills and applied things like diaphane and vitromania. If you’d like more information about these crafts check this book.
HOUSEHOLD ELEGANCIES: suggestions in household art and tasteful home decorations.
1875

In larger homes, with larger front halls, there could be a small fireplace.
‘If you wish for places for china, have plain painted deal shelves, made in groups, gradually diminishing from the lower to the upper shelf, and fixed above the mantel-piece. Do not, as is so often done, cover the mantel-shelf with a wooden top, covered with cloth or velvet, nailed on with a fringe and brass nails ; this will be an endless source of annoyance, from the fact that it never can be kept free from dirt and dust, not to say anything of its spotty and unartistic effect.”

For the basic, garden variety hall, finishing touches included a hat rack and umbrella stand, which in those days was one, often fairly large piece of furniture. A massive hall table flanked by similar chairs was in order when there was room for it. If the hall was a small one, a chair and a wall hat rack would do.

THE BEDROOM AND BOUDOIR CIRCA 1880

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Victorians were developing a mania about clean, undisease-laden fresh air. One of the reasons for having a fireplace in the bedroom was that the chimney flue helped ventilate the room.
“I take it for granted that every one understands the enormous importance of having a fireplace in each sleeping-room in an English house, for the sake of the ventilation afforded by the chimney”. The author of Bedroom and Boudoir (1878), went so far as to suggest that perhaps a brick in the wall might be loosened, or perhaps some holes drilled by an auger into the panel of the bedroom door.
If for some reason, one couldn’t sleep with an open window, then they should leave their door open at night, as long as there was a window open in the hallway all day and night, no matter what the weather.

If one cannot afford carpets, bare wooden floors with a simple animal skin will suffice.

It was advised that you paint or paper bedrooms in delicate colors. One author advised the walls be painted for washability with “harmoniously contrasting lines” at the ceiling. She also advised patternless cretonne curtains of the same shade as the walls, edged with stripes matching the ones near the ceiling. For those who preferred wallpaper, “…let it be all of one soft tint, a pearly gray, a tender sea-shell pink, or a green which has no arsenic in it; but on this point great care is requisite”.
Chintz, stretched tightly in panels, so it could be taken down for cleaning was another decorating idea for the bedroom wall. Yet another scheme mentioned was for panels upon which gathered white muslin was stretched over pink, blue or apple-green silk.
On the other hand, sometimes dark colors were desirable. The following paragraph illustrates a case.

“This pretty room is in a handsome, moderately sized country house, that was built and furnished by the occupants after their own cherished ideas. The result was eminently pleasing; and the bedroom in question, having plenty of windows and sunshine, was not furnished in the light colors that usually predominate, as this would have made it altogether too glaring. It was a large, square apartment; and the dark, brilliant coloring seemed to produce the effect of a gorgeous tropical bird. The ebonized furniture was relieved by scarlet cushions, and the curtains were in stripes of Turkey-red alternating with cream-colored stuff, and finished with a plaited ruffle of the red. The wall was covered with a particularly rich French paper, the pattern wrought in bouquets of poppies, daisies, and morning-glories“.

Assorted kinds of lightweight fabrics, generally washable cottons, were used for curtains.
If cheesecloth was used for the bedroom curtains, it was recommended that it be lined with a fabric the same color as the trim, with perhaps a simple straight lambrequin or valance.

Described as a Dutch bedstead

Beds
The old four poster beds were out of style, replaced for a time by “…frightful and vulgar frames of cast iron, ornamented with tawdry gilt or bronze scroll-work…” . But in 1884, noted design critic Ella Rodman Church suggested that an inexpensive metal or cane bed could be improved with a little gilding.

She gave instructions on how to make 2 kinds of bed canopies.
Head canopies, so much in use, have a very inviting effect. They are not objectionable in regard to ventilation, like close curtains, and they can be arranged with very little expense on almost any bed. Take two upright pieces of wood, two or three inches wide and as high as is desired for the canopy; have two short projecting side-pieces fastened at the top, and with these support a horizontal strip the whole forming a framework which may be covered with colored cambric stretched tightly over it, and afterward with dotted or plain Swiss, or any other thin material that may be desired. The curtain part is then gathered on to the back, sides, and front of this oblong frame, which should project not more than half a yard or so from the head-board ; then ribbon to match the color of the cambric loops them back at the sides, where they are fastened to the strips of wood. The curtains may also be lined with cambric, or silesia, which is softer.
Should the bed stand with one side against the wall, as it must where it is desirable to economize space, a very pretty canopy can be made on a frame shaped like half of a circle with the rounded part in front, and supported at the back with a narrow strip of wood fastened to the side of the bedstead, and also secured at the top against the wall. This is also to be covered with cambric and draped all around, the drapery at the back corning in front of the wooden support to conceal it. If the rounded top can be fastened to the wall (bracket fashion) without the strip of wood, it will be all the better; and a pretty finish can be made when the curtains are attached to this frame by a pointed valance of the cambric covered with the thin material, and trimmed with a plaiting or fluting of the same or lace. The trimming on the curtains should be of the same ; and they may be gracefully laid back over the head-and foot-board.
A canopy of this sort gives a peculiar grace and quite an elegant look to the whole room ; and curtains of dotted or figured Swiss, with the same at the windows, have a fresh, airy appearance that is very desirable in a sleeping-room.
People slept on the new, improved mattresses . The author of Bed and Boudoir felt that two mattresses, one of horsehair and another of wool made as soft a bed as anyone could want. “Frowsy old feather beds” were out, as were mattresses stuffed with chopped grass or seaweed. In the US, mattresses were also filled with cornhusks.

With about 8 yards of muslin and 3 bales of cotton-batting one could make a very nice “comfortable” or comforter. This, together with a couple of good wool blankets would keep most any Victorian warm on cold winter nights.
A popular kind of bedroom furniture of the day was painted and enameled, decorated with flowers and gilding.
Mrs. Church describes a bed ;" The bedstead of elder wood is painted white, varnished, and ornamented with red, blue, and green Turkish arabesques. The bedding consists of a spring mattress and a curled-hair mattress. The linen sheet is hemstitched on the ends. At the head and foot of the bed are bolsters, filled with curled hair, the length of which corresponds with the width of the bedstead. The bed is also furnished with a large and a small square pillow and an edredon, or down quilt. The fine linen pillow-cases are trimmed with embroidered insertions and ruffles, and the upper side of the case for the edredon is trimmed besides with embroidered foundation figures. In the center of the case for the small pillow is a monogram."

A draped toilet stand. The box held milady’s face powder, and any other cosmetics of the time that she may have used.

Described as a simple toilet table.

Toilet Tables
Although the ladies of the day didn’t use make up as we know it ( perhaps a burnt match to darken the lashes), they did use an assortment of creams and lotions to keep their skin soft and white. There were also hair preparations, back in the days before shampoos, to make one’s hair silky smooth.

Toilet tables made of drapery over a pine framework were a popular furniture item in a ladies’ bedroom of the 70’s and 80’s. Male design critics apparently railed against them, but the ladies mentioned them in their books with favor.
“If the room be an essentially modern one, and especially if it be in the country, nothing affords a prettier spot of colour in it, than the old-fashioned toilet-table of deal (pine) covered with muslin draperies over soft-hued muslin or batiste. Of course the caricature of such an arrangement may be seen any day in the fearful and detestable toilet-table with a skimpy and coarse muslin flounce over a tight-fitting skirt of glaring pink calico, but this is a parody…..” .
Ella Rodman Church felt it was “quite an article of convenience”, and described how to make one in detail.
An "antique" toilet table

“ Quite an inexpensive one may be made from a dry-goods box three feet high, four wide, and two feet six inches deep, with four blocks of wood one inch thick and four inches square nailed beneath each corner, to which casters are screwed. The box is placed with open side out, and fitted with a convenient shelf or two. The whole interior should be neatly papered or painted and varnished.
On each side (at the back) of the top are fastened two long, narrow boxes, which may be obtained generally from the drug or dry-goods stores. These should be about two feet long and one wide, and from eight to ten inches deep. By sawing pieces of lath to fit the sides, and tacking them on in proper position, shelves may be made that will be convenient for holding various articles. The covers to the boxes, fitted with small hinges, will make doors ; and the whole must be neatly finished with moldings put on with small brads, and an ornamental top and base made of square boards an inch or two deeper than the cases themselves. To these are screwed a pair of the iron brackets which we can purchase for from thirty-five to fifty cents, or for seventy-five cents to one dollar, fitted with lamps
complete.
These cases are screwed or nailed very securely on the top of the table, as they are to sustain the glass, which is of 'comfortable size 'perfectly plain, but of good quality and neatly framed. Such a one can be purchased new for three or four dollars, and at second hand frequently for half of that sum.
Over the top of the glass is fastened a frame …..around which is draped a hanging made of Swiss (figured or plain), lined with rose-color or other tint. First, a width reaching from the top to within a few inches of the floor is fastened to the upper back ends of the semicircular tester, the ends finished with a deep ruffle of the same ; then on the tester above this are arranged two pieces made by tacking a width of the Swiss and lining two yards long, folding it diagonally from corner to corner, cutting and trimming the two cut edges with ruffles of the same, and arranging them back of the boxes on either side. Around the top tack another ruffle made with an edge above the cord, which runs along the center of all the ruffles.
The table-top is covered with a piece of the Swiss over a lining like the curtains, and a drapery arranged around the front made with rings at the top, which slide on a wire beneath the narrow ruffle finishing the edge. This allows access to the shelves within. The wood-work of this table should be carefully polished and ornamented to correspond with the rest of the furniture, which may be ebonized, enameled in colors, embellished with marquetry, ivory inlaying, decalcomanie, painting, bronzing, and gilding, or enriched with carvings at pleasure. Any one of these methods of beautifying will be found elegant, and may be made perfect of its kind."
Some felt that the fashion for draping the mirror above the toilet table was a fire hazard, seeing as it was a time of open flame lighting, but others continued to do so.
A "modern" French washing stand

Other furniture
Folding screens were a favorite item in many Victorian bedrooms. One could dress behind them privately, if one was sharing a room, they could protect one from the ever present drafts, and they were pretty.
A couch or lounge, a low easy-chair or a rattan chair with a bright cushion were some other pieces to complete a room. Another example of seating was described as “ a round box on casters, with a low wooden back attached, curved to fit the back against it, and generously stuffed and padded. This should be covered like the other furniture, and finished with a deep fall of the material all around the seat.”
A round or oval table which could be used for writing or sewing was a very convenient item for the bedroom. In 1882, Mrs. Church described a bedroom table cover.
“A very appropriate table-cover for a bedroom may be made of squares of cretonne. There is a bordering cut from the striped material, and the groundwork of this bordering and that of the central square should be the same. These squares, for quite a large cover, are three eighths of a yard each, and seven in number, the ground of the central one being black like that of the border, and the other six being two each of red, blue, and buff. These colors may of course be varied to suit different tastes. The squares are joined like patchwork, and the seams are covered with a black worsted braid about two thirds the width of skirt braid, herring-boned with gold-colored silk. A lining of silesia, blue, pink, buff, or gray, and a deep edging of antique lace, completes an exceedingly pretty table-cover.”

Every bedroom of the period should have a wash stand, with a large basin and water jug, and space for sponges and soap. If there was no maid, or for convenience sake, one also needed to have a receptacle for the dirty water, which would be emptied occasionally during the day. The author suggested a china one, as tin ones began to smell from the dirty water and soapsuds. Some wash stands were available with a tipping basin feature. They looked rather similar to a sink, with running water, but when you finished washing, you’d tip the bowl and it would empty into a basin inside the cabinet. Of course, later someone had to come and take out the bucket of dirty water.

A wash stand for a corner of a boy‘s bedroom or downstairs corner or closet with a “long towel on a roller behind it”. My boys would have knocked this one over constantly.

If you didn’t have a separate room for bathing, you could bathe in your room behind the ever present folding screen. An oil cloth would be spread on the floor, and the tub placed upon it, then filled.

A small bedroom fireplace.

A fireplace in the bedroom was a desirable item, as mentioned in the opening paragraph, for proper ventilation, but also for aesthetic reasons.
On the subject of fireplaces, “When one thinks either of the imitation marble mantelpiece, or its cotton velvet and of false-lace-bedizened shelves, the artistic soul cannot refrain from a shudder.” The fireplaces now in favor harkened back to the old fashioned looking open hearths, lined with tiles. In England an iron basket for coals would be set within it, in America, where wood was abundant, a different sort of grate or iron “dogs” would be used.
It was a common practice to cover the mantel with drapery, which could match the curtains or the table covering. It could then be covered with china candlesticks, vases and a clock.

To finish off the bedroom, “one or two light stands are always convenient”, and a shelf by the bed for a book for bedtime reading. Some photographs, engravings and brackets for china statuettes or vases of flowers, though “china twisted into such outlandish forms as dolphins, frogs, porcupines, or small pink dogs is not to be tolerated “ as were “slippers with cut flowers in the toe, fishes with open mouths for the same purpose, and a host of other preposterous devices in china“.

A bedroom could be decorated and furnished simply, as seen from this 1880 illustration.

Or as lushly as this example from 1882. The lady is seated in her boudoir, her bed can be seen in the alcove in the background.

Finally, the following is a paragraph on a boy’s bedroom .
“If I had my own way, I would accustom boys as well as girls to take a pride in making and keeping their bedrooms as pretty and original as possible. Boys might be encouraged to so arrange their collections of eggs, butterflies, beetles, and miscellaneous rubbish, as to combine some sort of decorative principle with this sort of portable property. And I would always take care that a boy's room was so furnished and fitted that he might feel free, there at least, from the trammels of good furniture. He should have bare boards with only a rug to stand on at the bed-side and fire-place, but he should be encouraged to make with his own hands picture-frames, bookcases, brackets, anything he liked, to adorn his room.”

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A view of 19th century architecture as seen from 1907

2007-02-24T10:46:00.001-05:00

An excerpt from the book
THE HOUSE: its plan, decoration and care
1907 Isabel Bevier

TRANSITIONAL HOMES
The word transition suggests change and that suggests variety, uncertainty, and these are the words which characterize the period beginning about 1825. The war of the revolution was over, but the spirit of it yet remained; traditions and customs were being questioned. The Americans were experimenting in politics, business, and social customs and naturally this spirit of experimentation expressed itself in architecture. For a time Colonial customs and traditions were maintained, but they were bound to yield sooner or later to the demands of the revolutionary spirit for a newer style of architecture as well as changes in social order and business methods. Architecture is too complex to yield easily to experimentation. As a result the dwellings of the period show all sorts or incongruities.

The well-trained handicraftsmen lost much of their skill in their attempt to build quickly rather than well. They lost, too, the inspiration of association with skilled workmen and good standards as they journeyed westward. The amateur architects lacked judgment and adaptation. Greek art and architecture have been the standard of beauty for all ages, but these architects overlooked the fact that these models of beauty were public buildings, not private residences. The results were incongruities in domestic architecture. Imitations of Greek and Doric temples made strange looking houses on the Hudson. Many towns in the United States are still in their transitional period as regards art, and architecture, witness the tiny cottage with Doric and Ionic columns of a size sufficient for a Greek temple, or the house with Dutch gambrel roof, French windows and old Colonial outline.

The wooden Parthenon endured longer in the South. The veranda with pillars served to shut out some of the heat of the Southern sun. This lawless imitation of old world forms obtained not only in architecture, but furniture and furnishings as well. Empire furniture lacking the refinement and simplicity of Colonial became common and what one has called the "Dark Middle Age" of American interior decoration began.

The condition of New York residential architecture in the fifties may be gathered from the complaints of one-writer who does not like to have the "streets of New York filled with costly and meaningless copies of Greek porticos, of Gothicized dwellings, of ambitious imitations of baronial castles, Egyptian tombs, turreted churches, useless campanile towers." The writer adds, "As yet there is no American architecture whose name is known beyond the circle of his own employers" and he predicts that we must outgrow our childish dependence upon the old world before we shall be able to boast of our architecture as we boast of our ship builders. One style followed another in rapid succession. All lands, all materials were brought into requisition by the energetic American architect, aided by the ambitious rich man who had traveled in other lands. Perhaps the most extreme example of the incongruities of the house of the transition period may be found in "The Celebrity," where the new rich man gives this description of his favorite country seat.
"I had all these ideas I gathered knocking about the world, and I gave them to Willis of Philadelphia to put together for me. But he's honest enough not to claim the house. Take, for instance, that minaret business on the west. I picked that up from a mosque in Algiers. The oriel just this side is whole cloth from Haclclon Hall, and the gallaried porch next it from a Florentine villa. The conical capped tower I got from a French chateau, and some of the features on the south from a Buddhist temple in Japan. Only a little blending and grouping necessary, and Willis calls himself an architect, and wasn't equal to it. Now," he added, "get the effect. Did you ever see another house like it?"
Extreme as this description may seem, such monstrosities existed and similar examples are yet to be found. It would appear that the United States is still in the transitional period so far as its architecture is concerned though distinct types of American houses are being developed. It is also evident that while the house of the transitional period may be inconvenient it is certain to be incongruous because of its blending of elements which do not belong together.

What a House Should Be???

2007-02-24T10:43:00.000-05:00

THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT AFTER JACK’S HAD PROVED A FAILURE 1882
By E.C.Gardner , revised 1895

"It appears, Jack, my dear, to be absolutely indispensable to our future happiness that the house shall front north, south, east and west."

"Let's build it on a pivot."

"We must not have large halls to keep warm in cold weather, and we must have large halls 'for style.' The stories must not be less than eleven nor more than nine feet high. It must be carpeted throughout and all the floors must be bare. It must be warmed by steam and hot water and furnaces and fireplaces and base-burners and coal grates."

"We shan't have to go away from home to get into purgatory, shall we?"

"Hush! The walls of the rooms must be calcimined, painted, frescoed and papered; they must be dyed in the mortar, finished with leather, with tiles, with tapestry and with solid wood panels. There must be blinds—outside blinds, awnings, inside shutters, rolling blinds, Venetian shades and no blinds at all. There must be wide, low-roofed piazzas all around the house, so that we can live out of doors in the summer, and on no account must the sun be excluded from the windows of the first story by piazza roofs. At least eight patent sanitary plumbing articles, and as many cooking ranges, are each the only one safe and fit to be used. The house must be high and low—"

"I'm Jack and you shall be game—"

"It must be of bricks, wood and stone, separately and in combination; it must be Queen Anne, Gothic, French, Japanesque and classic American, and it must be painted all the colors of an autumn landscape."

"Well, there's one comfort," said Jack; "you haven't paid for this advice, so you won't be obliged to take it in order to save it."

"I should think not, indeed, but that isn't the trouble. These letters are from my special friends, wise, practical people, who know everything about building and housekeeping, and they speak from solemn conviction based on personal experience."

"Moral: When the doctors differ, do as you please."

THE VICTORIAN BATHROOM

2007-02-15T18:23:00.001-05:00

There were house plans in the 1850’s that showed bathrooms. There were plans in the 1890’s that showed none. Some of the earlier rooms labeled bathrooms had running water and tubs and perhaps even toilets, others were just rooms in which one could bathe if one placed a tin bathing tub within it.

By the turn of the 19th c at least 17 American cities had experimented with water supply systems. Philadelphia, the largest city in the US at the time, commissioned Benjamin Latrobe to build a steam powered waterworks. It opened in 1801, but it was plagued with problems and replaced by a new system in 1815. Boston embarked on a water supply system in 1846, and was soon supplying over 11,000 households with running water “for all domestic purposes, including private baths and water closets” according to an almanac of 1850. In 1860 Boston had 3,910 bathtubs and 9,864 water closets, for a population of 178,000. An interesting point is that even if your house was supplied by public water, it didn’t necessarily mean you had running water in the house. Some had hydrants in their yards and brought the water indoors by the bucketful.

In the 1850’s the water closet was expensive to install and imperfect in its workings, thus there weren’t very many in use. The bathroom of 1900, however would be pretty familiar to all of us.

In 1799 Elizabeth Drinker wrote in her journal that she had taken a shower bath, and that it was the first time she had been wet all over in 28 years. By 1836 it was advised that a young lady should wash herself completely with soap and water every 24 hours so as not to offend. Godey’s Lady’s Book , was advising readers in 1860 that bathing at night was ill advised, while bathing briefly in the morning once a week was fine. Before the 19th century, and even well into it, people washed themselves with water and a sponge when they felt they needed it. This final point was a matter of personal choice. Some felt they needed a washing every day, some once a week, or once a month or once every few years or so. At that, they didn’t use soap. Soap was for laundry. Soap for bathing wasn’t commonly used till the second half of the 19th c.

Before the use of bathrooms, bathing was often done in the kitchen, close to the hot water, and usually the warmest room in the house. Bathtubs often came under the heading of kitchen equipment.

The contraption on the wall by the door was for bathing. The sides slope down to the center basin to catch the water that was poured over the bather.

Another technological advancement that advanced the use of the bathtub, in addition to the increased amounts of public water systems was the attic cistern. It was filled by rainwater or by pumping water up from a well or spring. Gravity would then take over to provide running water to any room in the house.

Showers were generally used only by men. Elizabeth Drinker’s husband and sons had been using the shower for a year before she agreed to give it a try. Women were considered the weaker sex, delicate and fragile compared to men. The streams of water were widely felt to be harmful to women. Home décor authority Charles E. White wrote in 1914 that "……some constitutions cannot stand the rigors of shower bathing, a practice which should be resorted to only under the advice of a physician." Until well into the 1930’s few women showered, so there were few showers within the home. People bathed. Of course, there were households that didn’t mind paying extra to get a shower installed.

an example of one kind of Victorian shower, fill the can first.

the rest of the tiny bathroom
This is an example of a bathroom that was merely a cubby off the upstairs hall, in which a gentleman could have a very quick shower and a shave.

by the way, here's the commode in the same house

Following is a segment on the bath from the book Manners, Culture and Dress, published in 1890.

In most of our houses in the city there is a separate bath room with hot and cold water, but country houses are not always so arranged. A substitute for the bath-room is a large piece of oilcloth, which can be laid upon the floor of the ordinary dressing-room. Upon this may be placed the bath-tub or basin.
There are various kinds of baths, both hot and cold, the douche, the shower-bath, the hip-bath and the sponge-bath.
We do not bathe to make ourselves clean; but to keep clean, and for the sake of its health-giving and invigorating effects. Once a week a warm bath, at about 100°, may be used, with plenty of soap, in order to thoroughly cleanse the pores of the skin.

A douche or hip-bath may be taken every morning, winter and summer, with the temperature of the water suited to the endurance of the individual. In summer a second or sponge-bath may be taken on retiring.
Only the most vigorous constitutions can endure the shower-bath, therefore it cannot be recommended for indiscriminate use.
After these baths a rough towel should be vigorously used, not only to help remove the impurities of the skin, but for the beneficial friction which will send a glow oyer the whole body. The hair glove or flesh-brush may be used to advantage in the bath before applying the towel.
Before stepping into the bath the head should be wet with cold water, and in the bath the pit of the stomach should first be sponged.
There is no danger to most people from taking a bath in a state of ordinary perspiration. But one should by all means avoid it if fatigued or overheated.

Next in importance to the water-bath is the air bath. Nothing is so conducive to health as an exposure of the body to air and sun. A French physician has recommended the sun-bath as a desirable hygienic practice. It is well, therefore, to remain without clothing for some little time after bathing, performing such duties of the toilet as can be done in that condition.

IN THE VICTORIAN DRAWING ROOM

2007-02-14T19:05:00.001-05:00

If you’ve read the other articles, pertaining to color and design, that related what the critics felt was right or wrong, well, this is a slice of real life.

The drawing room, or as it was sometimes known in America, the reception hall, was the center of the house, it showed your status, your gentility, your good taste. It was not the living room of today, that role was filled more by the Victorian dining room. Decorating the drawing room was treading a fine line. You did not want to live ‘below your station”, that would be very bad, very damaging. On the other hand, you didn’t want to be seen as trying too hard, that could be worse. You wanted your room to be ‘handsomely furnished’, but not ‘showy’. Not living up to your income was bad, trying too hard was worse, and living above it was the greatest sin of all.
Charles Darwin’s granddaughter wrote about her aunt and uncle; “They were well off and lived in style and comfort; but it was neither for the style nor the comfort that Aunt Sara really cared. Her religion was Duty, and it was her duty to her position and her class to live like that. It was Right, for instance, for people of
her kind to keep a carriage and horses. This was not a manner of speaking: she truly felt it a Duty.” In Charles Dickens’s book OUR MUTUAL FRIEND, a character says….”we have come into a great fortune, and we must do what’s right by our fortune; we must act up to it“.
You were expected to spend a certain percentage of your yearly income on home furnishings, the more you made, the higher your percentage should be. Of course, it’s like buying a diamond engagement ring. They say you should spend X% of your income to buy your sweetie a ring. There are some who do and some who say “ are you crazy?”
Another interesting point was that a man was expected to provide his bride with a fully furnished house equal to her parent’s home. This is why so many men put off marriage, they just couldn’t afford it. A couple might court for years while the prospective groom kept trying to make more money.

In the beginning of the Victorian era the things they bought to fill their drawing rooms, or as they were more often known in America, the parlor, or best parlor, were ………sofas, ottomans, upright chairs and easy chairs, stools, ladies’ writing desks, console tables, work tables, sewing tables, occasional tables, and screens. And the must-have, the round drawing room table. Chairs were getting heavier and more comfortable, coil springs were appearing. Easy chairs were either standard or ladies’ chairs, which were smaller, had a more upright back, and had lower arms to accommodate full skirts. Also, the furniture they bought generally lasted the rest of their lives. Their children would remark how long lasting and ugly they were.

In the 1860’s and 70’s men began writing about home design. This was a signal that it had become a serious subject. There wasn’t good taste or bad taste, it was just right or wrong. A writer of the day said; “..let us not consider what is handsome or effective or taking to the eye, but what is suitable to the husband’s position.”
Charles Dickens’s granddaughter, Gwen Raverat wrote about her family; (which had a slightly different order of preference ) “ When they bought an armchair they thought first of whether it would be comfortable, and next of whether it would wear well; and then, a long way afterwards, of whether they themselves happened to
like the look of it.

Design experts began to condemn imitation finishes, such as a varnished paper that was meant to look like marble and was rather widely used. There were many articles written on the subject of “gross shams and vulgar imitations “, “shams of all kinds are to be objected to” ,”If you are content to teach a lie in your belongings,
you can hardly wonder at petty deceits being practiced in other ways.” But people seemed to be buying quite a few of these sham, veneered articles. You could get plaster stag heads, painted to look like the real thing, and put them up to give your room a baronial air.

In small English terrace houses the front door opened into a small hallway that led to two rooms that were often linked by a wide doorway so they could open into one another. The back room was generally a family used room, for dining or any other daily activities. The front room was the drawing room or parlor, which was kept only forthe best furnishings. In a larger town home, the drawing room would take an entire floor, usually the English first floor, or in American terms, the second floor. The ground floor, or American first floor would be for the dining and morning rooms. This was apparently done so that guests could proceed gracefully down the stairs, by rank, to dinner. The set up in an American city row house would be similar. By the way, the front door generally opened into a hallway or vestibule.
Vestibules were widely used in the Victorian era, on both sides of the ocean. They kept the cold air from rushing through the house every time one opened the door. In a middle class American row home, you might have a parlor or drawing room in the front, then a dining room with a back parlor, or family sitting room behind it.

The ideally decorated drawing room changed over time, but they were high ceilinged rooms and usually rather long, and always had the best household furnishings in them. At one point it was exceedingly stylish to use a lot of ‘drapery’ and bows. Some people carried this to excess.. An American visitor, looking for rooms in London was appalled by what she saw, “….the flower pots were draped, and the lamps;
there were draperies round the piano -legs, and round the clock; and where there were not draperies, there were bows…… the only thing that had not made an effort to clothe itself in the room was the poker, and by contrast it looked very nude.” H.G.Wells remembered the lower middle class sitting rooms of his childhood,” ….something was hung about or wrapped round or draped over everything. There was bright-patterned muslin round the gas-bracket……round the mirror over the mantel, stuff with ball-fringe along the mantel…..”. Mrs.Panton, an interior decoration pioneer, who wrote many books on the decoration and proper upkeep of the home, suggested that the piano (a Victorian drawing room necessity ) might be coveredwith serge, felt or damask “….edged with an appropriate fringe….which thus makes it an excellent shelf for odds and ends of china and bowls of flowers.” The music stool could be covered with fabric and sheet music stored in a cupboard with a cloth covering it with ornaments “scattered” on top. If one had a grand piano, “..a good arrangement in the bend” would be a big palm in a brass pot or stand or a table with plants and books and a couple of chairs placed in a “conversational manner” with another stool in front of them with yet another plant on top. “This gives a very finished look to the piano” .. A couple of years later she suggested that an upright piano be turned so it’s back faced the room, and it be covered with a curtain hanging from a rod across its back. A piece of Japanese embroidery
could be placed on top, some framed photos, a cup for flowers and a few ornaments..

No one wanted to be thought of as old fashioned. They seemed to be constantly wanting to redecorate because the furnishings of the past looked so ugly and dated. At the same time, no one wanted their stuff to look brand new, that would be so vulgar. What a dilemma. By the way, one of the biggest crazes to hit came in the 1890’s. It was the ‘cozy corner’. They’d set up a niche with small sofas, cushions ,
draperies, knick-knacks, stools…whatever would fit into the space. This was found on both sides of the Atlantic, and continued in the US in a slightly different look into the 20th century by adding many cushions and shawls and perhaps a hanging brass lamp and renamed a Turkish corner.

A Mrs. Haweis told of an unfortunate man who tried to join his partner in order to take her in to dinner. He crossed the room……”knocking over the chair next to him, and arriving at his destination with a fringed antimacassar neatly fastened to one of his coat buttons. He then backed into a small table, on which stood some books and photographs, and only saved this, to send another spinning; this time smashing the whole concern and depriving me of my pet flower-holders. …But the worse was yet to come; in one heroic effort to get away from the scene of the disaster he backed once more into a ‘whatnot’ full of china .” Her solution was not to get rid of her clutter, but to be sure that the tables and objects upon them were solidly
weighted and anchored from then on.

In some lower middle class their drawing room or parlor was used by the family only on Sundays. What they did there might differ widely family to family. There was a religious revival in the early 19th century both in Britain and the United States. Changes came about because of its influence. In England in the 1850’s the Lord’s Day Observance Society began to lobby for a total shutdown of all public civic life on Sundays. They did manage to get Sunday postal service stopped for a few months. What was successful was their mission to close “ national properties” on Sundays. Parks, museums and zoos were closed. Concerts were forbidden, bands were no longer allowed to play on Sunday.. Those who were well off could still find ways of entertaining themselves, but the working class, who had one day a week to enjoy themselves and the fresh air were forbidden to. In 1854 a booklet was published that illustrated the things that most people would consider acceptable, but that the
Sabbatarians wanted to prevent ; family walks in the park, excursions on the river, fish dinners in Greenwich. The author pointed out that the Sabbath society, by preventing music, dancing and fireworks and other entertainment ensured that the day would be devoted by many to ‘decorous hard drinking”.
In the 1890’s Gwen Raverat’s family could not play cards, sew or knit, not because her parents felt that it was wrong to do these things on Sunday, but that it set a bad example for the maids. On the other hand Sunday was approve for being “at home” to visitors, never mind that the servants had to come home after their half day off and clean up.

The gloomy Sunday was a reality, however, for many Victorian families, even those who were not particularly religious, just because it was at the time the “proper” thing to do. In one not especially religious family, for example, all entertainment after church was forbidden , and even reading could only be from appropriate religious material, or books that had stories to improve your moral fiber. There were even separate toys that were saved only for Sundays for the younger children. One of these commonly seen was a Noah’s ark with animal figures. One little boy was reproached by his slightly older brother for un-Sunday conduct. He made a stable with his animals instead of properly marching them up the ramp two by two into the ark in the acceptable manner.

As people became more prosperous, and manufacturing methods improved, toys became more common in middle class households. Weekday toys were so much more interesting than Sunday toys.. On Weekdays you could play with toy soldiers and little horses with removable harness and little carts with filled with tiny wooden planks. There were rocking horses and horses on wheels that you could gallop down the street. There were barrel organs that you put punched metal cards into that played music.. There were dollhouses and toy theaters, tea sets, dolls and dolls furniture, toy bricks, pull toys and reins. I even saw an ad for these reins. They were leather, one child would be the horse and the other the driver. A magic lantern was a magnificent Christmas gift the children of one family received, with over 100 slides from pictures of cathedrals to comic drawings.

Not only were children getting more toys, but the adults were gaining more possessions themselves. Their drawing rooms contained things like lamps, footstools, fire screens, candlesticks, clocks, mirrors, workboxes, sewing boxes, figurines of all description, paintings, etchings, drawings, photographs, drapery, china, ceramics, mineral displays, fossils, boxes, fans, feathers, wax fruit, plants, stuffed animals (The kind that go on the wall) , scrapbooks, books, albums, pressed flowers, magic lanterns, birdcages, fern cases, aquariums, trays, musical instruments, vases, cushions, stereopticons, ink wells, table covers, antimacassars, doilies and mats. Not to mention the things the lady of the house may have made herself, like the framed floral display made out of human hair. No wonder it took hours to clean a drawing room.

a hair wreath, the black hairs came from a horse's mane

Some interesting points to remember about some of the dangers of the Victorian era. Wallpaper…..many colors were produced with the use of poisonous dyes. Green papers were especially dangerous, as were lilac, pinks, some blues and ‘French gray’, they all contained arsenic. This was one reason why a “change of air” was so beneficial to invalids. They were slowly being poisoned at home, then taken to the seaside, where they would start to improve, but when returned to their poisonous environment, they would sicken again. Clothing also contained arsenic. In 1862 there was an article in The Times on how to detect arsenic on fabric by using a drop of ammonia, but the test never caught on. In the 1890’s women were still being warned about arsenic in their clothing.

To help keep dirt and airborne infection from entering the house in good weather through open windows doctors recommended that curtains be replaced with blinds, known in America as shades. Stained glass and leaded glass windows became popular because you could get rid of window coverings, yet have privacy. In spite of health concerns, many still preferred window coverings. One might have lace or muslin
curtains topped with heavier draperies and perhaps a swag, plus Venetian blinds or roller blinds or shades. The sun was usually kept out because the dyes used in that era were susceptible to fading.

Fireplaces and mantles were prime areas for decorating in the drawing room. They would put ornamental screens in front of them in summer, in winter too for that matter, if there was no fire in the grate. A common way of decorating the ‘hole’ was with paper curls. One woman described the long silver paper curls in their bedroom grate. There was even a lesson printed in a decorating book of how to cut up muslin into strips, with fringe, and spread it gracefully over the hearth. As for the mantle, the simplest decoration might be a mantle clock flanked by candlesticks with a few ornaments. Remember also that a large mirror was invariably placed over the mantle. A common way to make room for all the bric-a-brac was to enlarge the mantle
with a board, draped with fabric and then another structure of shelves, brackets, etc. would be built up on top.

Middle class and up women who had a staff of servants had a great deal of leisure time which they filled by doing all sorts of fancy “work”. They made more hand embroidered slippers, spectacle cases and watch cases , etc. than they knew what to do with. They decorated their homes with them, gave them as gifts, sold them at church bazaars…… There were instructions on how to make decorative guitars out of
cardboard and silk scraps, beaded pen wipers, that of course could never be used to wipe the nib of a pen because they were covered in beads. There were ornamental frames for matchboxes. An interesting point was that a great many of the things these women made were totally useless. A very commonly made gift throughout the era was a pincushion. Sometimes it would be downright huge and decorated with patterns and sentiments made out of hundreds of pins. Of course, you wouldn’t dare actually mar its loveliness by sticking a random pin in it.

A craze that swept 1850’s Britain, and probably the USA was Pteridomania, or fern collecting. Women would buy and collect all sorts of varieties of ferns. They would buy glass cases to grow them in, books to write lists in of what kind of ferns they had. They would make spatter pictures, a sort of reverse stenciling, or perhaps wreaths of pinecones, seeds or acorns. Below you can see illustrations of some Victorian ladies' handiwork.

a bouquet of spring flowers and grasses

a cone wreath

a spatterwork design to be used for cushions, screens, portfolios, etc.

a firescreen

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DECORATING IN THE 1890'S

2007-02-14T15:24:00.000-05:00

A housepainter in 1893 observed, “Some people want their houses pure white throughout, while others have them painted as dark as possible, and some peculiar combinations of color are often selected, but we never dare object or we might lose the job.”

In the last years of the 19th c there was no single critic who dominated design as Downing or Eastlake had. What critics there were favored divergent styles, like Craftsman or the various revival styles. Homeowners had to sort out and decide what they liked best.
The seeds of the two most popular styles of this period were born at the Philadelphia Centennial of 1876. The displays that brought Eastlake and his followers to the forefront formed the basis of what later developed into the Craftsman style.
Another exhibit at the fair was a New England log house, complete with spinning wheel, a walk in fireplace, cradle, etc. This sparked an interest in all things colonial, and reviving simpler times. People started hanging brass warming pans on their parlor walls, a fad that House Beautiful warned against.
Other critics also favored traditional, or revival, styles such as Louis XV, Louis XVI and Empire. American manufacturers continued to sell products described as Colonial, Louis and Empire well into the 1920’s. The Colonial style was in vogue all through the 30’s,40’s and into the 50’s.

The American public at large, lacking any sort of single leadership in what was “right” or “wrong” chose whatever they darn well pleased. Japanese fans, Moorish “cozy corners”, spinning wheels, peacock feathers, Morris chairs, French draperies and small rugs scattered atop wall to wall carpet came together to form a new kind of strange individual “style”. It was this hodge podge, found in homes throughout the economic strata that caused early 20th c critics to condemn all Victorian interior decoration.

During the 1890’s wall, ceiling and woodwork treatment depended on which style the homeowner preferred, traditional or Craftsman. For traditional interiors, fresco painting, paneling and tapestries were advised, but the middle class homeowner, who could afford this, achieved similar effects with wallpaper or cheaper fabrics like chintz. Many traditionally furnished rooms used wallpaper and friezes without wainscoting. Floral papers were popular in bedrooms and in sitting rooms were the furniture was of a delicate design. Other papers included those with narrow stripes in two shades of the same color, tapestry patterns, single color flocked papers and damask patterns. The simplest wall decorating scheme was a painted or papered wall with a frieze above, just below the molding. This continued to be popular well into the 20th century.

two revival style wallpapers
Craftsman style interiors used different kinds of papers altogether. The papers had more geometric, stylized patterns. If a room had no wainscoting, then a frieze would be placed above a paper. If there was wainscoting, then a single paper would be used. Many homes were using plain solid color papers, but these disappeared toward the end of the century, replaced by burlaps and canvases . These fabrics could be painted or stenciled if desired.

Decorated ceilings remained popular into the 20th c. Some critics felt plain ceilings were dull and gloomy. Manufacturers sold ceiling friezes to complement patterns used on walls. On the other hand, there were those who condemned overly decorated ceilings, preferring something simpler, or just a single color. One treatment for ceilings was to use a simple wallpaper pattern on the ceiling, perhaps carrying it down to the picture rail, which could be a distance of anywhere from 6” to 3’. The junction of the wall and the ceiling could be bridged by a cornice, connected by a cove or just left plain. Another treatment was to paint the ceiling in a color that blended with the wallpaper. A single paper would cover the wall from baseboard to ceiling. A picture rail could be placed either at the top of the wall, or about 12” below it.

Until the 1870’s woodwork had generally been grained or painted a hue similar to the walls but darker. Eastlake and other reformers advocated stained and varnished wood or wood painted a color to contrast with the walls. By the 1890’s those following the Craftsman school recommended stained and varnished woodwork, especially for the first floor. Critics of the revival schools preferred painted woodwork. They felt that natural wood might be appropriate in dining rooms or halls, but never for parlors or bedrooms. White woodwork was increasingly gaining favor. Both the revival and craftsman schools accepted painted woodwork in bedrooms, kitchens and bathrooms because of its sanitary qualities. In other words, it was easier to keep clean.
Picture rails could be either next to the ceiling molding or below the frieze, if a room had one. Larger pictures were still being hung from cords, but smaller ones were often hung from screws hidden behind them on the wall, the beginning of the modern method of picture hanging.

Primary and secondary colors began replacing the older hues. One writer recommended six hues of a single color for painting one room, beginning with grayish blue and working through to a greenish blue. Another decorator used creamy yellows through medium russets in a room. The fewer colors were in a room, the better. Some went as far as saying that all the fabrics in a room be of the same color, and the walls painted a neutral ivory or gray. Another view was to use contrasting colors that were not opposite one another on the color wheel, but adjacent to opposites. For instance, red with green would be garish, red with blue-green would be acceptable.
A decorating tip from House Beautiful...
If the hall had India red walls and ceiling and a dark red rug, the dining room should have a tapestry paper in green and red, a red ceiling and woodwork stained green, with a green rug, etc.. The parlor should be "old Blue" with a French floral paper above the picture rail and on the ceiling a paper containing red, green and blue.
Room use was another consideration in color selection. Halls were to have low, quiet tones, parlors should be light and cheerful, and never done in “hot” colors like salmon or terra cotta.
Dining rooms were to be “full-toned and rich” and libraries “thoughtful and sober”. Mineral and earthly greens, white, stone, slate, bronze and copper were all suitable for halls, dining rooms and libraries. Pure color tints, fawn, sky grays, sky blues, silver, gold and leafy greens were all good for parlors and bedrooms.
The darkest colors should be used on the floor and maybe the woodwork, progressing to a lighter wall, then frieze and lightest yet, the ceiling. Stained and varnished woodwork also played into color selection. Mahogany blended well with deep blue or orange yellow, but never with red. Maple should go well with old pink or gray, walnut with golden yellows, chestnut with reddish brown or tan and light oak with gray blue or pale olive. I’d like to note, however, in the previous paragraph, the tip from House Beautiful, the hallway done in red had mahogany woodwork.
1895 color combination recommendations for wall and frieze…
Robin’s egg blue wall with dull yellow frieze
Pale olive and warm salmon
Golden brown and blue
Claret and buff
French gray and vermillion
Olive and orange
Pale lilac and lemon yellow
Blue and warm fawn
Apple green and warm tan
Chocolate and pea green

Advice from 1898 if you had an old soft pine floor. If it was in fair condition, cover it with parquetry or a wood carpet, if it must be washed and scrubbed, cover it with oilcloth or linoleum, or paint it.
Wood carpeting was increasingly popular in the 90’s. Some used it as a border around the fashionable new rectangular rugs. Others covered the entire floor with it. It was used in both Revival and Craftsman homes. The carpets were laid directly over the existing softwood floors and wire finishing nails were driven in, set and puttied over to match the floor. Modern homeowners have found to their regret, that old floors that had been sanded often during the years, have had the surface layer of wood and putty removed, allowing the nail heads to reappear. Tongue and groove parquet was installed differently and so presents no problem

Hardwood floors were still considered a luxury, magazines from the 1920’s had ads telling people how they could now afford the luxury of oak floors. Many floors were being painted with a deep border to complement the rug placed in the center. The 1902 Sears catalog reveals that the rectangular rugs were commonly known as “art squares”.
Oilcloth was still used, but beginning to lose ground to linoleum. There were lino patterns that imitated wooden planks and advertised for “fitting around rugs”.
Encaustic tiles were still on the market, with new colors being added. Unpatterned tiles in white or black glazes began to be manufactures These could be laid in any design wished and became increasingly popular in bathrooms.
Matting continued in use, though primarily only in bedrooms or sitting rooms of country houses.
The Japanese matting came in a variety of colors and patterns, the Chinese matting was a bit simpler as far as patterns went.Denim was also used on floors, tacked down over a padding of newspapers, then covered with rugs.

The carpets of the previous decade continued to be purchased, and many homeowners still preferred wall to wall. New advice in this case was that if your floors were old soft pine, use the same carpet throughout the entire floor, removing door sills so that the carpet would flow from room to room.
The best carpets of the 90’s were simpler in pattern, excluding the Orientals. The new fashion was to have a pattern on the wall or on the carpet, not on both. Solid color carpets began to be produced, and since the seams are more obvious on a solid color, manufacturers adopted “broad looms”. By the beginning of the 20th c. carpets were produced in 12, 15 and 18 foot widths.

In another decorating development of the 90’s , a wallpaper manufacturer contracted with 2 other companies to produce carpets and fabrics to match their wallpapers. This was considered a wonderful new concept by critics.
The fashionable ideal was to have rugs atop hardwood floors, in both the Craftsman and Revival schools of decorating. There were, of course, true Orientals and imitation ones. Braided rugs were coming into vogue and Navajo blankets on floors and walls was another suggestion. Animal skins were popular, with or without heads. Some even placed these animal skins on top of wall to wall carpets.

decorated window shades
Spring-operated roller window shades, the kind in use today, began replacing the old pulley systems.
Many styles of draperies and curtains were available, but it was difficult to curtain the windows in a room when each one could be a different size and shape, which was a common problem at the time. Another dilemma was the lack of drapery men. The style of the last decades was predominately that of Eastlake, who advocated simple straight drapes. There were few who knew how to cut and sew anything else.
Some critics advised that curtains be hung to cover the woodwork of the window, and that the window would appear higher if the drape was hung just under the cornice. Others took the opposite view, that the woodwork shouldn’t be hidden. As a result, if you look at old pictures, you’ll see anything goes.

some popular window treatments

examples of french shawl drapery

A look popular in revival styles was “French shawl drapery” at the top of a window. A swag was draped over a pole with cascades on either side, a style that can be seen today.
A new development was the use of grilles in upper sections of windows that received little sunshine. Curtains would be hung below them. The grilles were also used in doorways and became quite popular. Sometimes they would be paired with portieres below them.

portieres with grille work above

Portieres continued to be popular. In the Craftsman style they were generally made of the same fabric as the window curtains, in Revival they tended to be of a different fabric. New innovations in portieres included once made of netted cords with fringe, beads, or bamboo.
The idea of bed curtains was fading.

bead portieres

from the 1902 Sears catalog

FROM THE BOOKSTORE

2007-02-12T16:04:00.000-05:00

There are a lot of books dealing with the decoration and life within the Victorian house. The Dover reprints are, of course a great resource.
I've read many books from my local libraries and every once in a while I'll find one that I have to buy simply because I thought it was so good and I knew I'd refer to it over and over. Here are some books that I've bought within the last couple years, so they are available in bookstores now. See if your library has copies.

Inside The Victorian Home, A Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian England
Judith Flanders
The best book I've read about the Victorian home and it's inhabitants. This is written primarily about the middle, and upper middle classes, but gives a fascinating view of the era,. Much of the information is applicable to the USA also.

Victorian Interior Decoration
Gail Caskey Winkler and Roger W. Moss
Covers the decoration of American interiors from 1830 to 1900. The best book of it's kind I have run across.It is set up 1830-1850, then 1850-1870. etc.It covers just about everything you could want to know about the subject.

Open House, a Guided Tour of the American Home 1637- Present
Merritt Ierley
This book answers all kinds of questions about heat, lights, indoor plumbing, bathing, building houses and the kitchen sink. I found it truly interesting.

Victorian Gothic, an Architectural and Interior Design Source Book
Linda Osband
Page after page of color photographs and sketches of rooms and furnishings and other assorted details.

The Rise and Fall of the Victorian servant
Pamela Horn
What was the life of an English Victorian servant really like? If you found the information about kitchens and other sundry day to day details interesting, you’ll probably enjoy this book.

By the way, I recently found a great source for old books, the Maine Statewide Library catalog. I can browse the catalog online and order books to be delivered to a participating library. I can order a book that's in the U of Maine Library or the library of some other town, and as soon as it's available, they send it to my closest participating library which happens to be in the town next door.
Check and see if your state has something similar.

1870-90, part II,colors, wallpapers, floors & windows

2007-02-12T15:23:00.001-05:00

At one time there were a few basic paint colors. These were mixed on the job site to produce the shades wanted. With developments in paint technology, manufacturers were able to introduce ready made paints in new brighter, longer lasting colors. Once sample cards were introduced the homeowner could see exactly what they were getting.

COLORS
The Hall
During the 1870’s most critics agreed that the hall should be decorated with tripartite walls in subdued colors. Some preferred paper, while others argued for more durable paint in this heavy traffic area. The, as one critic putit, “invariable Sienna marble paper”, which had been popular since the 1830’s, was out. Generally, they agreed that if the space was sunny, a deeper color like Pompeiian red or browns or deeper grays. If the room was dark, delicate greens or soft grays might be in order.
In the mid 1880’s homeowners were urged to use more vibrant colors in the entry hall.
Some color schemes for entry halls form 1886:
Walls painted in old gold or terracotta with old oak stained woodwork. The ceiling painted a lighter shade of the wall color, and the frieze have a background of Pompeiian red with designs in olive, red and yellow. The floor should be stained a deep olive green.
Walls painted old gold or terra cotta with old oak woodwork. Ceiling a lighter shade of the walls and a frieze of Pompeiian red background with designs in olive, red and yellow. Floor to be stained deep olive.
Walls painted olive green with old oak woodwork. Frieze with a plum colored background and designs in dull purples, tans and sunny greens. Floor to be stained mahogany or deep olive green.

Another listed the following color combinations to be used together with a 3 to 5 foot high dado finished in paint or paper.

walls Dado/woodwork
Yellow or buff with Chocolate or olive green or dark blue toned with black
Pale salmon with dark bronze-green
Pale sage-green with dark sage-green or dull blue-green or olive brown or India red
Turquoise blue with Chocolate or maroon

Yet another book suggested a higher, two part wall treatment with a paneled wainscot 6 or 7 feet high and the rest of the wall treated as a frieze. Two of the designs suggested using stained mahogany for the woodwork. One paired it with walls painted and stippled in light red similar in color to the mahogany with the ceiling painted yellow with red lines around the perimeter, and the frieze done in a yellow pattern. The other scheme used yellow walls patterned in light brown or bronze, the latter color being carried into the ceiling for about 18” and ending with painted moldings or bands in “strong colors”. The rest of the ceiling was to be painted in a lighter version of the wall color and left plain.

Drawing rooms

The term “living room” was first used in the 1870’s. Many critics writing for middle class Americans felt that a room just for show, to impress formal visitors, and another for family use were unnecessary. However, there were others who treated drawing rooms separately from sitting rooms.

For many, drawing room or parlor colors should be soft, delicate, gay and feminine. One author advised colors be used like “peach blooms”, “tender blues”, “ethereal greens” and “gold colored satins”. Another source preferred rich tints of blue, drab, gray or pale rose. These were some very old fashioned colors popular throughout the 19th c.
Other writers felt you should consider during what time of day the room was to be used. If the room was used mainly in the evening, then one should decorate it with colors that reflected artificial light like whites, sea greens, golden yellows, etc. Another critics recommended the use of a wallpaper with gold specks or threads to reflect light.

Sunny rooms were easier to decorate. A decorating scheme from one magazine for a south facing parlor with a peacock blue carpet, olive green window shades, bronze-green woodwork: lemon yellow or old gold walls and a lighter tint of that for the ceiling, with a frieze in either bronze-green flocked paper or a dull peacock blue.
For a darker look, the same room could use bronze-green walls, a pale yellow ceiling and a frieze of deep lemon yellow flocked paper.
Another room suggestion for a summer home, was terra cotta for the parlor walls, Tuscan red for the dado, gray for the ceiling, dark brown stain on the woodwork and stenciled patterns in “suitable primary colors” for the “center pieces, borders, corner-pieces and dados”.

One author suggested that the parlor should contrast pleasingly with the dining room, since these rooms were often next to or across from each other. Several other authorities agreed, thus ending the days “when dining rooms were decorated red. Studies brown and drawing rooms white and gold”. Trends were changing. Thirty years before most families of moderate means used the same room as a dining room and a sitting room, but by the 70”s they were using it only for meals. Even the art on the walls was changing. In mid century people were subjected to oil paintings of dead fish or game staring at them from the walls during dinner. Now pictures of flowers or fruits or portraits hung on the walls.

Since the urban working half of the population was getting home later, and no longer home for lunch, the main meal of the day was often eaten by lamplight. The old traditional dark, light absorbing colors were no longer appropriate. Brighter, more cheerful colors began to make their way into the dining room during this period.

Tripartite walls were very popular in the dining room. Those who weren’t too sure which colors went well together tended to stick to varying tones of the same color.

Below are various color schemes recommended by critics of the times.

Bluish slate gray outlined in dull India red with a royal purple carpet
Citrine colored walls with the purple carpet
Wallpaper of pale azure with a delicate lemon yellow pattern and peacock blue carpet
Red walls with a crimson and deep blue Turkish carpet
Black walnut wainscot with pale yellow paper with figures in dark green and red, ceiling papered in 2 shades of blue-gray, 3” cornice painted red and black with a ½” gold molding below it.
Baseboard and chair rail painted black, brown paint in the dado area and Venetian red for the walls
Pale green walls with thin red and blue stripes outlining the woodwork
Crimson dado and frieze with light yellow wallpaper covered in a blue and black design for the field.
Frieze of light olive green with a wainscoting painted maroon and gold or black and gold and a field of sage green.

Terra cotta, yellow or olive green schemes were considered good for dining rooms. Golden oak woodwork went well with olive greens.
Mahogany or walnut furniture went well with sage, olive green and dull gray-blue. Oak or ebonized furniture went well with reds and crimsons.

The Library
Most sources of the 1870-90 period seemed to feel that a library was vital to a refined household. Following are some suggestions on how to decorate this room.

High dadoes topped with deep purple, violet or emerald green colors.
Wallpapers patterned in rich red and blue with gold and silver.
Plain or embossed leather paper for the walls in brown, stone, dark green crimson or dull red.
Papers in shades of deep red with a golden olive ceiling, bronze picture rail and woodwork a golden oak.

Bedrooms
Simply put, there was a lot of diversity as far as color recommendations went for this room. Color selection would generally be determined by the amount of sun the room received. Bedrooms tended to be much more simply decorated than the rest of the house. Things like wainscot, dadoes and chair rail were not in use here.

Wallpaper
Throughout much of the century consumers continued to prefer wallpaper and carpet done in realistic three dimensional designs, even though quite a few critics hated them.

The Centennial of 1876 allowed visitors to see the new styling favored by Eastlake and his compatriots. In addition to the new English designs, visitors saw many exhibitions from lesser known, exotic countries like Japan and Turkey. Americans bought almost all the Japanese products exhibited.

Some wallpapers of the 70's and 80's

above and below are some wallpaper made from Eastlake's designs

Designers started producing Japanese inspired wallpapers during the 70’s and 80’s, eventually, however, by the end of the period, manufacturers were down to producing papers that were Japanese only because they portrayed patterns of fans, vases and kimono-clad figures.

The floral papers that had been popular were falling by the wayside. The newer designs were flatter, as the critics wished. Flowers and foliage, when used were portrayed in a stylized manner. Of course, consumers still bought papers that the critics hated. Vertical stripes were still very popular. One critic complained, “a favorite wall-paper lately has been white or gray, plain or watered ground, with a stamped and gilded bunch of flowers, or a huge ‘fleur-de-lis’ at regular intervals…”
Whatever their choices were, Americans became major consumers of wallpaper in the last quarter of the 19th c.

Floors
Americans were still buying a lot of wall to wall carpeting well into this period, but the idea of Oriental carpets laid over wooden floors was beginning to take hold. It still took some time for this look to become widespread. Most houses still had their original softwood floors. Critics advised painting floors, laying a “wood carpet” over them or replacing the floor with parquet. The latter, however, was quite expensive, so the idea of a parquet border was presented, with a carpet in the center. “Wood carpet” could give the look of parquet, but at a lower cost. The material was thinner, about ¼” thick, and glued to a muslin backing. It could be installed over an existing floor. The price of this kind of flooring was competitive with that of a good carpet.

wood carpet and borders
Even at this point, however, some architects continued to specify softwood floors, and many homeowners kept their floors as they were. Books and magazines offer suggestions on how to decorate your old wooden floors. Once the surface was cleaned, cracks puttied and the surface smoothed, you could stencil a pattern in 2 or 3 stains to resemble inlaid woods. The less adventurous tried staining the floor in dark brown with a little red, then coating with shellac. Another alternative was to paint the floor, perhaps with a decorative border. A carpet could be laid in the center. Paint companies were offering products meant expressly for floors. The Glidden Varnish Co offered a combination varnish and stain in 12 colors for floors, baseboards and wainscoting in bathrooms, kitchens, laundries and toilet rooms. Another company produced a line of 6 colors for floors: silver gray, lead, light yellow, dark yellow, terra cotta, and maroon.

Tiles for floors were still expensive, but heartily recommended for vestibules and entry halls because they could take the tough wear and tear. In order to meet the rising demand, many factories were opened in the US in order to produce tile for the domestic market. Tile was also advised for conservatories, porches, kitchens, laundries and bathrooms.
below are some approved tile patterns for floors

Oilcloth, linoleum and a cork product called kamptulicon were all generally less expensive than tile. Eastlake recommended oilcloths for hallways, but he condemned those cloths that imitated marble or parquet. From this we can surmise that those were two popular patterns. He felt the design should consist of a simple diamond pattern in 2 colors or even better, two shades of the same color. American critics liked the use of oilcloth and also recommended simple geometric patterns. One declared that the earlier much favored black and white marble pattern was “too gray and gloomy”. He liked a combination of chocolate and buff or Indian red and buff.

Writers also liked linoleum for hallways and other rooms. Some felt it was warmer than oilcloth, better wearing, cheaper than the imported British oilcloths and had better designs. Linoleum quickly gained favor in the kitchens of America. Kamptulicon, a rubber-cork product, was soft and pleasant on the feet, but expensive, so it wasn’t used as much.

Paper carpet was another floor covering used throughout much of the century, and you could make your own. Start by layering the floor with newspapers, then add a coating of thick flour paste. On top of this add a layer of wallpaper in a “decided” pattern. This was then sized with glue, and finally varnished. Another method was to stretch course muslin and tack it down into place, then wet it with a thin paste. After this, apply lengths of wallpaper in a checked or mosaic pattern. Varnish when dry with 2 coats of shellac topped with two coats of copal varnish. If finish coats were reapplied periodically, the cloth would last for years. It is not known how many homeowners made these.

Grass and hemp matting remained popular during this period, they were the least expensive floor covering you could buy. It was often used in bedrooms, because wall to wall carpet had come to be considered dirty and unhealthy. Few houses had hardwood or parquet flooring on the upper floors. In winter, carpets would often be put down over them for extra warmth. Mattings were available in assorted patterns and dark colors, but the dye didn’t penetrate the fibers very deeply and so showed signs of wear quickly. In order to make the plain, light straw colored mats more appealing, they often had a colored woolen border added. Matting was also used on stairs and in vestibules, though some didn’t care for its use in the latter as it held the dirt and dust. Sometimes it was used in formal rooms also, with smaller rugs and mats spread artfully about upon it.

Drugget was rarely mentioned in this period, except for use in the dining room. Suggestions for this room included a drugget of “coarsely woven flannel stamped in a brilliant pattern” or burlap painted to imitate a Turkish carpet. Earlier in the century drugget was placed over carpets to protect them, but by 1870 it was sometimes the only floor covering placed over parquet or stained and varnished floorboards.

Around this time most carpet making in America had become mechanized, resulting in a less expensive product. A rug that could be periodically lifted and shaken out was much more hygienic than wall to wall carpet. Of course, the new style of carpets laid on varnished wood floors took a while to take hold. Some critics advised that homeowners sew coordinated borders onto existing wall to wall carpets to make them appear more fashionable.

There were two methods of carpeting floors during the last quarter of the century. The preferred was to center the carpet on the parquet, varnished wood or matting. The other was to use the border over wall to wall carpet.

Critics preferred the costly Oriental carpets, but most Americans purchased the domestic products. Axminster carpets were the most expensive, followed by Brussels, Wiltons and mosquettes. The latter were thinner imitations of Axminsters and cost less than the Wiltons and Brussels. The older style carpets, ingrains and Venetians were still in use, though in wealthier homes they might be confined to servants’ areas.

Flowered carpets, so popular for so long and condemned by critics for almost as long were finally on the way out. Oriental designs and simplified patterns were being purchased. The vibrant colors of past carpets, in primary colors were being replaced by more subdued tints.

carpet patterns from Eastlake's book
Front halls might be covered with a small, easily shaken out carpet. Stairways built of hardwood could be carpeted if desired. In a narrow hall, the carpet might be the same color as the walls or woodwork. Carpets in double parlors did not need to match, but should complement one another.

Windows
Eastlake and his followers preferred simpler window coverings which they believed emulated Gothic styling, but not all householders subscribed to the new fashions. Many preferred the more ornate, traditional designs, generally based on French taste. Others continued to use old fashioned, simple window coverings.

Exterior shutter blinds were now painted to contrast with the body color of the house rather than being painted the nearly universal green or stone of the past. Interior shutters with movable louvers were being stained or painted to match the woodwork of the room.

an ad for window screens
Americans were using the still often home made gauze or wire screens to keep out insects. Many were still being painted with decorative designs. By the 1880’s, however, American factories were beginning to produce window screens. The wire mesh was painted to guard against rust in green, black or drab, or with landscapes.

Window shades came in several varieties. One was made of a fine linen called Holland and came in a variety of colors. An 1885 catalog listed white, ecru, sage, brown, blue and cardinal. Critics, however, preferred white, buff or gray. Darker colors would dramatically tint the light entering a room. A red shade, for instance suggested “a descent into the Inferno at every afternoon tea.” The shades were often finished with fringe or decorative stitching.
Some homeowners liked transparent shades made from artist’s tracing cloth. The artistic family member could decorate the shade with landscapes or tracings of medieval knights and ladies.
The third type of shade was opaque and made of oilcloth and came in white or colors. Some came in marbleized or grained patters and they ran the gamut from being simply decorated to quite colorful and gaudy.

An interest in Gothic design resulted in the use of stained glass in the home. The look of stained glass could be achieved inexpensively by using colored, transparent paper or transfers (similar to modern decals). One could also paint design on the glass or make an “epiphanie” by cutting a design into heavy cardboard, then filling the spaces with tissue paper or colored cellophane. One could make imitation etched glass by bouncing a putty bag all over the window, and once the putty dried, varnish it. This technique could also be used with stencils. As a side note, the effect was probably similar to the one achieved with Glass Wax for those who remember that window cleaning product.

Portiere hung across a doorway and Eastlakes preferred method of drapery hanging
Eastlake felt that draperies should be hung at doors and windows to keep out drafts. They should hang from rings strung on sturdy 1 or 1 ½” metal rods. Because the rod was placed just above the window, something was needed to keep any wind from blowing upwards and into the room. A wooden box was to be constructed above the rod, then it was covered with a simple valence. In general the window treatments critics advised were a call back to the treatments of the 1830’s and 40’s advocated by Downing and others. There was once difference, though. Curtains were not to be looped back during the day, but allowed to hang straight down on both sides of the window. Because they were no longer to be looped, they were now shorter, just floor length. By the 70’s curtains that puddled onto the floor were considered vulgar.
The height from which the curtains were hung depended on the style of the room. During the 30’s and 40’s, poles were usually attached to the molding at the top of the window. In the 70’s rooms decorated in the Gothic manner continued the practice with an addition of an ornate frieze occupying the space above the window. Rooms decorated in a Renaissance or Louis XIV style used cornices and lambrequins at the top instead of the frieze. No matter what style was used, window treatments did not cover the frieze or molding.
The manner in which lambrequins or as they are known today, valances, were used depended on the style of the rooms furnishings. Some were fairly simple, others ornate. Some were of the same color as the draperies below, others contrasted.

Lighter curtains and roller blinds were used in addition to the heavier drapes,. Eastlake liked Swiss lace made of heavy cotton thread as a glass curtain. Lace curtains ran the gamut as far as cost. Plain muslin edged with lace or having lace panels was a cheaper alternative, and a curtain made of cheesecloth edged in a bit of lace was cheaper still.
Most critics agreed, however, that sheer curtains alone were unattractive. A lace curtain with a lace lambrequin was allowable for summer, though.

Portieres, or doorway curtains were almost universal during the last quarter of the century, while they were almost unknown prior to the 1870’s. They were usually hung at the doorways of public rooms, the parlor, library or sitting room. They were also used in the doorways of double rooms, even with sliding doors. American architect E.C.Gardner would have preferred to do away with the banging nuisance if interior doors altogether and replace them with portieres. Other critics also advised homeowners to banish their doors to attics and basements and replace them with draperies. Portieres, once introduced, remained popular for about 50 years.

Portieres from Eastlake's book

During the 1870’s and 80’s many surfaces were draped. Critics disliked the old marble mantels of earlier days. They advised hanging a lambrequin about 6 to 10” long from the mantle. Others even recommended curtains to hide the grate when not in use. These mini-portieres took the place of the earlier fireboards. Embroidered velvet, felt or satin covers covered the old marble tabletops one critic referred to as “parlor tombstones”. There was a craze for doing needlework in the 70’s and 80’s and most surfaces began to be covered with the resulting artistic endeavors.

beautifying an ugly, outdated marble mantel
The favored fabrics for bedrooms continued in much part to be the washable cottons like dimity, chintz, cretonne, muslin and plain or dotted Swiss. It was stressed at this time that bedrooms required sunlight and fresh air. The half-tester bed came into favor, because while draped, it still allowed the movement of air around the sleeper.

a half-tester bed from Eastlake's book
Most American critics preferred that the bedroom toilet table be draped, in opposition to Eastlake. They suggested things like dimity for the top and cretonne, Swiss or lace over colored muslin for the skirt.
For beds and curtains, it was felt that the same fabric be used on both. If the walls and floors were patterned the fabric should be plain, or vice versa.

THE VICTORIAN KITCHEN

2007-02-11T15:17:00.000-05:00

Most of the books commonly seen about life in the 19th century seem to be British and therefore deal with life in Victorian England.
The following notes, are for the most part, from British books, however there are many similarities between the London kitchen and the American urban kitchen. The main difference, as far as equipment goes, seems to be the range or stove. The British went in one direction, the Americans in another, however, British style ranges were manufactured and sold in America also.

American stove, circa 1885
Below is a British style range manufactured in Philadelphia. The ad is from 1888

The British kitchen range
The open range was invented in 1780. There was a hob grate in the center, where the fire was lit. On one side was an iron oven with a hinged door, and on the other an iron tank for hot water. Fitted to the top bar of the fire grate was a hinged trivet, which could be let down for a pan or kettle to set upon. Unfortunately food cooked in the oven tended to be burnt on one side and underdone on the other, however modifications were made and passages for the circulation of warm air around the oven were introduced. Another disadvantages was that it used a huge amount of fuel and made the kitchen extremely hot. The fire box could become hot enough to melt the fire bars.

British open range, 2 variations.
Below is a picture of the later closed range

The closed range was introduced and was widely available by the 1840’s.
A metal hot-plate covered the fire box and had rings for pans and kettles to rest upon. Movable panels were on the front of the grate, so that a roast could be cooked in front of the fire if desired. Later these panels were replaced with doors. Some models had 2 ovens, one on either side of the fire-box, others had an oven on one side, a boiler on the other. Flues and dampers were used to try and control the temperature somewhat. Pots were placed on the hot metal range top, which could become red hot if desired. Later, holes were cut in the surface. They were usually plugged with hot plates, but they could be removed and a pot placed within the hole so that the direct flames would bring the pot to a boil faster.

GAS COOKERS -----Britain
Gas cookers began to be seen by the 1850’s. They were originally black cast-iron boxes with an oven. a grill and a hot plate. They did not become popular in Britain till the prepayment gas slot machine was introduced in the 1890’s, and lower income families found gas more affordable.
Coal gas was available in British towns and cities by the 1880’s.
Temperatures on gas ranges were much easier to regulate. They took
up less space, and could be installed at less expense in smaller kitchens. They were also much cleaner than the coal stoves,
and required less daily maintenance. Efficient gas ovens were
available by 1900. They were well insulated with shelves, grills
and removable enameled fittings. Thermostats began being included
in 1923.

ELECTRIC COOKERS
They were first designed in the 1890’s but slow to catch on because of the slow spread of electricity and their initial high cost. By the 1920’s, however, they were competing with gas.

SINKS
Sinks were originally made of wood or slate. Later glazed stoneware sinks became popular. They could be filled from a pump, a faucet or a bucket. The dirty water drained into a bucket or a waste pipe that often dumped out into the yard. A slop stone was a wide bottomed, shallow stone sink that was built under a faucet or pump. It was tilted slightly so that waste water would flow toward a drain hole into a bucket or pipe. The sink was shallow enough to be used for chopping meat or boning fish, etc. A bowl or wooden tub was placed in the sink for washing dishes.

The Victorian ideal kitchen was for cooking only. Food was to be stored in the storeroom and larder, much of the food preparation was to be done in the scullery, and cleaning up was done in the scullery or the pantry depending on what type of dish it was and how dirty. In actual life this was not necessarily so. Many middle class homes had only one servant and had only the kitchen for her to sleep in. Even in larger homes, with more staff, lower servants commonly slept there. Less prosperous people used to spend time relaxing in the kitchen themselves. Servants did not sleep in American kitchens, however. The American “hired girl” would never stand for anything like that.

An English kitchen maid washing dishes, late 1800's

When plumbing began being introduced into homes, it was generally only piped to the first floor or wherever the kitchen was. The scullery had running water. This is where any messy food preparation took place and the scouring pots and pans, etc. Generally, American house plans of the period do not show sculleries. I have seen them listed only on occasion and even then, they were in quite large and grand houses.
The scullery would have one or two sinks, the pantry sink would be lined with lead, so that dishes and glassware would be less likely to chip. With the arrival of proper water pressure sinks began to appear upstairs. If the house had a housemaid’s cupboard upstairs it would also have a lead lined wooden sink for washing bedroom ware. There would also be a separate slop sink to empty chamber pots into. After the arrival of indoor sanitation servants often had their own lavatory downstairs to ensure that they didn’t use the family lavatory upstairs.

The pantry was for storing dishes, glassware, etc, it had a sink where these things could be washed. In America, pantries were primarily a storage area. Some did come equipped with sinks for the washing of finer china and crystal, but these came to be known as butler’s pantries. Again, these were a feature of more elegant homes.
A larder was for the storage of fresh food and the store room was for dried goods, cans and cleaning equipment.

In England the kitchen was commonly in the basement level. In America in most country and even townhouses it was often on the first, or ground, floor. American city dwellers tended to have larger lots than those living in Britain. The butler’s pantry, where there was one, was placed between the dining room and the kitchen as a sort of buffer zone. Even the doors did not lead straight onto each other, so that you could not get a view of the kitchen from the dining room. Sometimes the kitchen connected to the dining room by use of a small hallway.

In actuality, the London kitchen was often just a dark damp basement. The scullery might be a passageway off the kitchen with a small lavatory in it. The pantry might just be a china closet, the storeroom a locked cupboard and the larder another locked cupboard in the coolest part of the basement away from the kitchen range. Generally windows were small and high in the London kitchen, sometimes there were none, just some kind of ventilation opening. The gas light would be on all day and the range would be blasting away up to 18 hours a day, as it heated all the water for the household. The basement level also contained a coal cellar.

The closed range was the first big technical improvement in British cookery since the open fire. They were invented early in the century but did not come into wide use for some decades. There were many styles of ranges, but they all shared an oven and a boiler to heat water. By the 1860’s the also had hot plates to simmer things on and keep them warm. It was wonderful in that for the first time the house could be supplied with a constant amount of hot water, but the biggest advantage was that you no longer had to worry about soot falling down the chimney into the food in the oven, it could however, still fall into the saucepans. If you look at old photos you’ll notice a difference in British and American cooking units. The British installed their ranges into the fireplace opening. Americans used freestanding stoves with a stove pipe leading into the chimney.

With all the kitchen ranges and fires for heating throughout the house, and London’s foggy climate the city was filthy inside and out.
From a Sherlock Holmes story……
”He struck a match on his boot and held it up against the wall. Across
the bare space there was scrawled in blood-red letters a single word.”
This took place in daylight. My mother lived in Manchester, England in the late 1940’s. She recounted that one day, while walking home from work she walked past her house and smack into a brick wall, all on account of the fog, which today we would call smog. She could not see her steps or even the brick wall. There was an interesting program on the History channel here in the US about the killer fog that hit London in the 1950’s. Thousands of deaths were attributed to it.

Back to London dirt…
Latches to both inner and outer doors had small plates or curtains over the keyholes to keep out dirt. Plants were placed on window sills to trap dust as it flew in. Muslin was often nailed across open windows to trap soot. Table cloths were laid just before mealtime lest they get dirty. In a large house there would be one servant who only cared for the fires and lights all day long.

An English maid preparing the fire in a stove, 1870's. During much of the 19th century many women continued to have to cook kneeling or sqatting on the kitchen floor in front of the hearth or a low stove.

All fireplaces had to be cleaned daily. The ashes had to be removed several times a day. The grate, fender and irons had to be polished and shining. The kitchen range had to be cleaned completely every day. First the fender and fire irons were removed. Then damp tea leaves were scattered over the fuel to keep the dust down while cleaning. Then the ashes and cinders were raked out. Cinders were pieces of coal that stopped giving off flames, but still were combustible. A housemaid had to sift through the ashes and pick out the cinders to be reused in the kitchen. The ashes were collected by dustmen. The flues were cleaned and
grease was scraped off the stove. The steel parts were scrubbed with powdered brick and paraffin. The iron parts were rubbed with black lead paste and polished. The oven had to be swept out. In a house with only one or two servants, they would sweep the oven and blacklead the front every day, doing the rest once a week. In a larger house this was all done every day. Also the oven would be scraped out and washed with vinegar and water. I read a book written by a woman who was a London cook in the 1930’s. She was still doing many of these things then.

THE MODERN HOUSEHOLDER‘S list for “cheap kitchen furniture” in 1872: (English list, but similar to what was used in US, except for the stove.
Open range, fender, fire irons
1 deal table (deal was a name for a cheap wood, often a low grade pine)
deal bracket to be fastened to wall and let down when wanted
wooden chair
floor canvas
coarse canvas to lay before the fire when cooking
wooden tub for washing glass and china
large earthenware pan for washing plates
small zinc basin for washing hands
2 washing-tubs
clothesline
clotheshorse
yellow bowl for mixing dough (The yellow bowl for mixing dough was a cheap stoneware bowl, the British called them yellow ware.)
wooden salt box to hang up
small coffee mill
plate rack
knife board
large brown
earthenware pan for for bread
small wooden flour kit
3 flat irons
an Italian iron and iron stand
old blanket for ironing on
2 tin candlesticks
snuffers, extinguishers
2 blacking brushes
1 scrubbing brush
1 carpet broom
1 short handled broom
cinder sifter
dustpan
sieve
bucket
patent digester
tea kettle
toasting fork
bread grater
bottle jack (a screen can be made with the clothes horse covered with sheets) A bottle Jack was a spit for roasting meat. The would have set this up in front of the fire of the open range
set of skewers
meat chopper
block-tin butter saucepan
colander
3 iron saucepans
1 iron boiling pot
1 fish kettle
1 flour dredger a sifter
1 frying pan
1 hanging gridiron
salt and pepper boxes
rolling pin and pasteboard
12 patty pans A patty pan was a small pan for making pastries or small pies.
1 larger tin pan
pair of scales
baking dish

A more extensive kitchen list might include things like
raisin seeders and cucumber slicers.

In the Victorian kitchen there was a constant war against vermin. We tend to but mice and rats in this category, but to the Victorians it was bugs...black bugs, beetles and even crickets. Beatrix Potter’s maids spent a night sitting on the kitchen table on a visit they were making to her grandmother’s home in 1886. At night the floor became “a living carpet“ of beetles. This was not too unusual. One book recommended that you keep a hedgehog to eat the insects. The fight against vermin was fought not only for hygiene but for moral grounds. A dirty house produced immoral people, not the other way around. People had a moral duty to clean their homes. They spent countless daily hours cleaning ( or having their maids do it )Blackleading the grates every day and whitening the front steps each morning made them no cleaner but it was the right and moral thing to do. It showed everyone what an upstanding citizen you were.

Victorians also liked to keep strict accounts of things, there were lists of what clothing you had and when it was cleaned, etc., inventory lists of your possessions, down to the last cup. Whom you visited and who visited you, did they stay, or just leave a card ?

A woman with several servants would check each morning that the house had been properly cleaned that day. If she had only one, she would also clean. She’d go to the kitchen and look over the leftovers and plan the days meals. She would also give out food from the locked storeroom, based on what was needed for the day’s use. Some things were handed to the cook on a weekly basis, like onions, flour, spices, oil, string, etc. Even cleaning supplies were carefully doled out. Many servants resented this kind of treatment, it implied that they were not responsible or even dishonest. One woman’s mother had the same cook for 30 years and still the cook had to go ask for a box of matches or whatever else she needed from the storeroom. In actuality, many women expected that servants would steal from them.

Shopping was often done seasonally, buying things at the time of year that they were cheapest. Housewives would stock up whenever the price of something fell. Rice could supposedly be stored for 3 years if you followed the directions.

Kitchen walls were usually plastered and whitewashed. They often had a scrubbable painted dado or wainscot covering the bottom half of the walls, made of beadboard. This was generally 3 to 4 feet high. Sometimes plain glazed tiles were used instead.

In Britain the floors were normally stone slab or unglazed tiles. Sometimes wooden duckboards were used around the table where the cook stood.. In American kitchens wooden floors were the norm, as they were not in the basement level. British architects of the Victorian era noted that hard stone or tile floors were noisy and advised that in a small kitchen, where it also served as a servants’ hall, a wooden floor would sometimes be preferred.

Kitchen floors in both England and America were covered with floor cloths or oil cloths, which made cleaning easier. After linoleum was invented in 1860 it quickly became very popular. It was used in kitchens, sculleries and passageways, anywhere there was high traffic.

VICTORIAN DINING

2007-02-10T20:48:00.001-05:00

For those who are interested in 19th century food

Most people in the first half of the century served roasted meat or chicken only on very special occasions. the reason for this was that most of them did not have ovens. Generally they got their bread from bake houses which also roasted meals. this was common throughout the western world. For the most part, people usually ate food that was boiled in a pot or steamed, since that was the easiest way to prepare it. This was a carryover from the previous century. Many stewed dishes were eaten. Breakfasts consisted of things like leftover meat or chicken, fish, bread, maybe some porridge or eggs.

By the mid-century mark meal times were changing. This was because fewer men
were working at home. Dinner used to be a meal eaten at noontime, but since men were off at work, the main meal of the day was pushed back to evening.

A cook book from the mid Victorian era gave a whole years’ worth of menus. For one Sunday it read;
Breakfast; broiled haddock, poached eggs, cold meat, honey
Dinner; oxtail soup, boiled leg of mutton, caper sauce, mashed turnips, carrots, potatoes,
mince pies, almond pudding, welsh rabbit
Vegetables were considered to be very bad for children's diets. In 1842 a cookbook author warned that you should not overseason, healthy food was bland food, however 20 years later cookbooks were starting to recommend the use of herbs and spices. By the way, Worcestershire sauce was initially known as anchovy ketchup.
Most weekly menus were made up of leftovers. One menu plan book listed new dinners 3 times a week, the other 4 were made up of the leftover meats, potatoes, etc
Fresh fruit was considered by most people to be ‘unwholesome'. One woman recalled that eating fresh fruit was " a pleasant treat, but rather dangerous." Most fruit was stewed
or in a tart or pudding and served maybe once or twice a week.

Soon it wasn't just the new class of factory workers who were no longer home at midday, but middle-class men were also no longer working at home. They were going out to offices in the city and commuting to the new suburbs being built in England and the US. Dinner was moved to 5 or 6. Those who did not have to get up early to go to work in the morning pushed meal time back even later to separate them from the class below them. It got to be a chain, everybody copying every one else.
With the improvement of gas and oil lighting it was also cheaper to light the dining room at night.

Now, about the English tea-time.
Tea was originally a light meal served in the evening, but since people were now dining much later, they did not need a meal at night. Tea was gradually shifted to a late afternoon snack. The well to do usually had just small sandwiches or cakes, but the working classes
would have something more substantial. This all gets kind of complicated, everything bears on what class you belonged to, how much money you had, etc.
In America things were slightly different, but people here did tend to look toward the British for 'social customs'.

The other big change in meals, if you cared to be "in" and socially correct, was the way they were served. In the first half of Victoria’s reign they were served "a la francaise" later the method was "a la russe" . More about this later. Complicated people these Victorians.

Serving dinner
In the middle and upper classes during the first half of the century dinner was served in a manner called A la Francaise. Most of the food was put on the table all at once, often over dishes of hot water to keep them warm. There would be a tureen of soup in front of the mistress of the house and fish in front of the master. They would each serve what was in front of them, either to the next guest at table or preferably handed to a servant
who would pass it to the guest. After the fish and soup were done a roast joint would be put in front of the host and a fowl in front of the hostess. They were then served to family and guests. The side or corner dishes were called that because they were placed at the
sides and corners of the table. They were passed or carried around the table depending on the number of servants and the formality of the dinner. These were dishes of single portion meats like sweetbreads, cutlets or kidneys, or meat based dishes like patties or croquettes. They could also be stews, or in England curries. They were all easy to serve and required no carving. The table layout was apparently the most important thing (next to having dinner served ON TIME). No two similar dishes were to be placed anywhere near each other. If there were 2 soups, one had to be at either end of the table. If there were 4 soups...top, bottom and middle at either side of the table opposite one another. The same thing applied if there were 2 fish dishes. The meat course was expected to have one brown meat and one white. Before 1850, men were expected to help the woman next
to them to wine.

After the joint the table was cleared , this was the first "remove". A sweet dish was placed before the hostess and a savory one, often game, before the host. The side dishes were now vegetables, jellies, creams, trifles and confections. At a formal dinner after
this the table was cleared again, the 2nd remove. Cheese, butter, salad, celery, radishes and cucumbers replaced the sweet dishes. Then the table would be cleared again, the 3rd remove. This time the tablecloth would also be taken away. The dessert would then arrive. This was simply fruit and nuts. Finger bowls would be provided if they were not there during the rest of the meal. After the fruit, he hostess would rise and the ladies would join her and leave the dining room. If the household was prosperous and the men had hearty appetites then more food would arrive, like anchovy toast, deviled dishes or other spicy things.

Family dinners were usually less elaborate with only 2 removes. Remember that not everyone ate like this, it all depended on money and social status, but this was what people aspired to. Also, they did not eat everything. The hosts wanted to be sure that there was something that would please each guest at the table. A regular dinner, according to a guide to correct behavior , should last no more than one and a quarter hours, though a large dinner party could go up to 2 hours. This is where all those leftovers come from that were served on other days..

By the 1830's a new way of dining started in Paris and by the 1880's was the norm in Britain and the US. This was service "a la russe" , but before going on to service 'a la russe' I thought you might like to see a menu for a winter dinner party for 8 as published in 1872.
On the table as diners enter; hare soup.....oyster patties......cotelettes a la maintenon....
oyster sauce.....cod's head and shoulders.
first remove;
boiled turkey.......mashed potatoes.......stewed sea kale.........saddles of mutton.
second remove;
cabinet pudding........jaune mange........punch jelly.......cheese fondue......brace of partridges.
Jaune mange was a pudding made with water, wine, lemon juice, egg yolks and sugar.
You can find some recipes for cabinet pudding on line, if you care to look.

One reason for the new service a la russe's popularity was that it saved money. In the old style, you had to have a lot of food on the table. You couldn't put out a half filled dish of peas, for example, for 3 people, it just wouldn't look right. The table had to look attractive. The new system was that the table would be set and dessert (fruit & nuts in display dishes) would be on the table. When the guests were seated, food would be brought in and served around in the manner we are familiar with today. You didn't need to have all those full dishes on the table, perfectly balanced by its opposite food on the other end so that everything would be symmetrical. You could now make a display
with just the dessert dishes and flowers. You no longer had to serve sweet dishes with savory or have to offer soup and fish at the same time. Each dish now had it's own spot in line.

New cutlery was invented. You now had also a fish fork and fish knife, an oyster fork, a salad fork, a cake fork, they all looked different. This new service style took a while to catch on. What food looked like was very important. If you had a small income you rarely entertained out of your family circle. You could not insult your guests by having an informal family style dinner. For a middle or upper class dinner party the table would be laid with a white cloth and would often have a colored runner down the middle which could be covered with another lace runner. If there were flowers they would complement the runner. By the way, it was hoped that you had 4 sets of dishes, the best, the breakfast,
the everyday and the dessert set. If dinner was formal there would be 2 soups, one clear, one thick. Fish and soup would be offered a second time around, but it was bad manners to accept. Middle and upper class hostesses ran into a problem when it came time for a cheese course. Bread and cheese was what the working class ate, and if you more
than just nibbled at it, it could lower your social standing.

Everyone knew what was done or not done by their group and if you aspired to move up to the next social level there were plenty of books and magazines to show you how.

Some final notes on Victorian dining, because I could go on forever.
"1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours to boil macaroni."
Ketchups were bottled piquant sauces, the most popular were anchovy, walnut and mushroom. Tomato ketchup was very rare, as were tomatoes.
Then common foods that are common no longer:
bullock’s hearts, fried ox feet, cow heel, sheep's head, pig's face (a breakfast or luncheon dish) , hare (the ears should be crisp), and calf's head ( put the head in boiling water., then take it out, hold it by the ear, and with the back of the knife, scrape off the hair....When perfectly clean, take the eyes out, cut off the ears, and remove the brain.)

The can opener was invented in 1858, that really started to get canned foods rolling. Dried soups started appearing in the 1840's and you could use 'gravy balls' to start soups, the equivalent of today's bouillon cubes. There were powdered eggs, too.
A device was invented that could cut sugar into cubes in 1872.
Packaged foods were very popular, but you had to watch what you bought. Milk would sometimes be sold diluted up to half and half with water. In one case in England they tested 49 bread samples and found all of them had alum added to them to bulk them up.
Potatoes and sawdust would also be found. This was common in the US too, as I found in several sources. Cocoa and chocolate would sometimes have dirt added to them. Coffee might have sawdust.
Poisonous substances were added to foods to color them. Housekeeping books told you how to test the food you bought for contaminants. There were tests you could try in the kitchen to find out if there was plaster in the bread you bought.

THE VICTORIAN HOME, perhaps not quite what you thought it was

2007-02-10T15:18:00.000-05:00

With the Victorian era came a large rise in the middle class, a period of evangelicalism and churchgoing, an increase of factories and offices, etc. It was in other words, a time of great change.

In times of great change people tend to turn inwards toward their homes. For the first time the home became the moving force in British culture. People wanted a place of their own, a castle, a nest, a private place. The demand for housing increased tremendously and thousands of inexpensive row houses were built. This trend was not followed on the European mainland, however. There they met the need for more housing by building large blocks of apartments, or flats.

In American cities they tended on the whole, to follow British trends, probably because the books on modern living were initially mainly by British authors. I guess if the Germans had translated their style books into English and shipped them off to America, there might have been a whole different look to cities. Even in US cities, there were differences. Philadelphia was nicknamed the city of homes and churches. This was because there was more individual home ownership there than in any other American city.

I recall reading that people who came to one of the World Expositions held in the late 19th or early 20th c. were astonished at the example of a Philadelphia row house that was built there. They were surprised that the inexpensive Philadelphia working man’s home could be so sturdily built and attractive. Now in New York, for example, more people tended to, on the whole, live in apartments or flats. I also wanted to note, for those in America, that in England the row houses, or as they are known there, terraced houses, were rented. It is estimated that only 10% of people owned their own homes.

It was also during this era that the suburb was born. A place where the working man, who could afford it, could have his own quiet place away from the noise and dirt of the city he worked in. I grew up in what were, in Victorian days, the new railroad suburbs of Philadelphia.
As the tracks moved north west, away from the city center, neighborhoods of houses rose. A ride on the commuter train would take you on a little history of domestic architecture. At one stop, the neighborhood homes would be of the style of the 1870’s. A couple of stops down the track you’d see the 1880’s, etc.

Renting your home worked well for the British city dweller of the Victorian era. They moved constantly. If you made more money you HAD to move to a better neighborhood. If your neighborhood starting changing you felt the need to move again.

The Victorians were very much caught up in doing the right thing, wearing the right clothes, decorating and serving meals in the proper manner, etc.

In the Victorian home the man was God. What he said was law, on the whole, anyway. The woman had the duty of running the home under his command. The husband expected to come home to perfection. A clean house, a well prepared meal, no children underfoot. The ideal was to have baby fast asleep upstairs before Papa came home. Under these circumstances it would be surprising for hubby to remember that he was a papa at all. Keep in mind that everything I write in these articles was not the norm for everybody.For example, someday far in the future perhaps folks will say, “Oh yes, early 21st century Americans rarely ate at home or cooked. They dined primarily on ground meat sandwiches and prepackaged salads that they bought at drive through food dispensing areas.” See what I mean? By the way, most of what is written about the Victorian era pertains to the middle and upper classes.

I found this section in a history book I read interesting.
In 1860, a child was murdered in a middle-class family home. People were shocked by the brutality of the slaying but also by the fact that it was ….”almost certain that some member of a respectable household-----such as yours, reader, or ours-----which goes to church with regularity, has family prayers, and whose bills are punctually settled, has murdered an unoffending child” as the author of this book notes
that the ingredients that made up a respectable household were church, family prayer, and prompt bill-paying.

Victorians had a large array of books and magazine that would happily tell them how to properly arrange their lives, and they read them eagerly. If you made some more money or inherited it, and followed the guidebook religiously, you too could climb into the next class up the ladder.

As to the house itself
The Victorian home was divided into public and private spaces. The drawing room, parlor, dining room, front hall, etc. were all public spaces that a guest would see, and were decorated accordingly. Everything else was private and not much money was spent there. Family rooms were private. The servant’s area was separate. Cooking smells should not waft through the house. You should not see any part of the kitchen from the hallways. Interior doors should open out into the room, and not up against the wall. This was so that a servant entering a room could swiftly recede without seeing who was occupying the room or what they were doing.

The Victorians increasingly felt the need for each room to have it’s own function. For example, you sleep in the bedroom, you do not play games there, or write letters there or use it as a sitting room. Rooms in the past were multifunctional. However, just because you were supposed to use each room for only one thing to be modern and fashionable, that didn’t mean that everyone stuck to the rules.

The English row house, and its cousins in America, often had a well, or area, in front of it, that went under the main steps to the house. There would be a separate flight down. This was the tradesmen’s entrance. The generic house would be set up like this, I’m using the British lay out here.
Top floor; servant’s and children’s bedrooms
Half-landing; often a bathroom was placed here
Second floor; master bedroom, dressing room ( in larger houses),
and second bedroom
First floor; drawing room
Ground floor; dining room, morning room
Basement; kitchen, scullery, perhaps a breakfast room

Smaller houses might have three floors, kitchen and scullery in the basement, dining room and reception room on the next floor and 2 bedrooms above. Servants were lucky if they had a room at all. Often they would drag out bedding and sleep on the kitchen floor. I recently studied many plans of Philadelphia row houses and comparing them to some Baltimore and New York and London plans, found them all remarkably similar. One difference was the renaming of the English ground floor to the American first floor, and that sometimes the drawing room was on the American first floor and the dining room and parlor were on the second. By the way, in English townhouses, the scullery would be a small ell attached to the back of the house, with it’s own chimney, and the privy, outhouse, whatever you want to call it was generally attached to it. By the way, it was very common to keep pigs in your backyard in London, even if you were well off. It helped get rid of the garbage for one thing.

The Victorians were great believers in waste not want not, they saved and reused everything. Sheets were expected to last 5 to 7 years, when they were worn down the center, you cut them in half and stitched the 2 outside edges together and used them some more. Later they would be used as dust covers, after that they would be torn up into strips for bandages or given to the poor. In Britain after 1875, refuse removal
became an obligation of the city. Before that you had to handle it on your own. Anything paper could be burned in the kitchen stove, but clean paper was re-used. Some of it was cut up and used for toilet paper, which did not become commercially available till some time after the invention of the flush toilet. Paper was also recycled to make ‘spills’ which were long strips of twisted paper used to light fires.

There were many street traders who went door to door buying used items.
This was true in every major city and town. Paper was bought by paper mills and manufacturers of paper mache furniture and ornaments. Dealers bought iron, metal, wood, lead, and old bottles. Old textiles and bones were bought by the rag and bone man who sold these things to paper mills, glue, gelatin, match, toothpick and fertilizer manufacturers.
Any kitchen waste that could not be re-used or burned in the stove was dumped into a bucket. A thrifty cook had very little to throw out. The contents of the bucket was called “wash”. A washman came regularly to buy it, it was then sold as “hog-wash”, or pig swill. There was a big demand for it. Many working people in London kept pigs in their back yard to make extra money. An unscrupulous cook could tell her employer that she needed money to pay the man to take the wash away, then collect from the wash man too.

Fish heads were used to make soup, the water vegetables were cooked in was used to make gravy, as were plate scrapings and unfinished wine. Tea leaves were rinsed and scattered over carpets to help collect the dust when sweeping, then burned in the stove. Leftover tea was used to wash windows.

In the US, cities had garbage removal. In Boston, during the 1870's there were 2 collections a week in winter and 3 a week in summer. New York City had regular trash collection by the mid 1800's. Trash was deposited in garbage boxes or ash barrels, and on windy days refuse would go flying down the streets.

Before refrigeration the best they could do in a city house was to use a cool cellar or a tiled room with a north facing wall. In the countryside you had the springhouse or a storage cellar of some kind. There were many ways to try to extend the shelf life of food. It was recommended that you check your meat regularly, and powder it with ginger or pepper against flies. Charcoal was also used to help keep it fresh and remove any bad odors. Scalded milk stayed drinkable for more hours than fresh. To keep it for several days you’d add grated horse radish to it. Eggs could be boiled and packed in sawdust and kept for 3 months.

Imagine doing all this yourself without any help, or even with the aid of a maid or daughter. That's one reason for the old tradition of Monday--washing ; Tuesday -- ironing ; Wednesday something else, can't recall offhand. There was a major job to be done every day but Sunday, because these jobs took up the whole day. It's why young girls took on so many wifely tasks at such an early age.
In America, by the way, the term servant was not used much, except by the highest classes. Most referred to them as "hired help", it was more democratic.

The Victorian city dwelling woman was constantly fighting a battle against dust. This was not the kind of dust that we are used to. It was dried city mud, with particles of decaying animal and vegetable matter, horse droppings, etc. Coal dust and soot were everywhere, from the smoke pouring out of the chimneys to the coals as they were carried about the rooms from fireplace to fireplace, to the ashes that had to constantly be swept and gotten rid of. Soot was thrown out by the fires and blackened everything. People would cover surfaces and wash the covers regularly. However, over time the covers became more and more decorative and less and less washable. The covers now needed covers.
Can you see where this is heading as far as Victorian decorating goes?

It was advised that you should have 3 hairbrushes. One to start the day out with a clean brush, the second to be washed and set to dry for the following day, the third to lend to a friend if she needed it. A woman remarked that it was impossible to keep your hair clean “ our brushes look black after one using”. If your hair got that dirty in one day, with a hat on when you went outside, imagine how filthy your clothes and furniture would be.

Heating
Central heating was usually found only in larger more expensive homes till later in the century.
From an 1861 book, Sloan’s Homestead Architecture : “It will be observed that provision has been made in all the rooms on both floors, except the chambers for warming by fire-places. However much this may seem out of date to those accustomed to the modern appliances of hot-air, steam, and hot-water furnaces, our experience convinces us that many years must elapse before the old-fashioned fire-place will be dispensed within the warmer portions of this country”.
The above was written about plans for a large villa.

Most homes relied on stoves in the rooms, but there was a strong interest in any modern heating systems. It took a while for technology to come up with more efficient ways of distributing warmth through the house.

Fireplaces were expensive to use and maintain and weren’t very efficient. The Victorians knew this, but loved them anyway. The fireplace was considered the heart of the home. In the 18th century Count Rumford developed improvements to the fireplace, which caused it to throw heat out into the room instead of up the chimney. I can attest to this, having had a regular fireplace in my old house and one designed on the lines of Count Rumford’s in my present home. My family room can get quite toasty with the glass hearth doors open. Generally most fireplaces of the 18th and 19th c. kept you roasting on one side and freezing on the other. A gadget from those days was the fire screen, a device meant to shield a lady’s face from the heat of the fire, while the rest of her person stayed cozily warmed.

The wealthy had the cash and the servants to keep their fires going as much as they liked. Those on the economic rungs beneath them couldn’t afford it, but wanted all those fireplaces, rarely lit some of them and told themselves it was healthy. Many books claimed that warm rooms sapped your energy, that sleeping in a warm room could make you become nearsighted. One author suggested that the proper temperature for a bedroom was 50 degrees, but a sick person might be more comfortable in 60 degrees. Another advised the maximum temperature to remain comfortable in a heated room was 56 degrees (Fahrenheit). Many people never lit the fireplaces in their bedrooms.
It was common to find the water in your wash basin frozen.

For some unknown reason the British apparently never warmed up to American or German heating methods. The Germans had large stoves covered in ceramic tiles for a couple of centuries, which did a fine job of heating. Similar stoves were used in various parts of northern Europe. Central heating was more or less born in America. Even those Americans of the Victorian era that could not afford central heating systems
were warmer than the British, from what I’ve read.

Parlor stoves were popular and much more efficient than fireplaces, and safer. I recall that in one of Louisa May Alcott’s books a young farmer’s daughter longed to be able to use the sealed up fireplace in her bedroom. She felt that the stove in her room was so boring and practical. Her father gave in and let her use the fireplace. Shortly after that a gust of wind caused her window curtain to fly up and it caught on fire. The stove went back to its customary spot and the girl decided she could live without her romantic fire.

In Britain fireplaces had a ‘hob’ or ‘grate’ as it is known in the US. Later in the Victorian era in England the ‘register grate’ was developed. It was a one piece unit that combined a hob, a chimney register (to control airflow) a fire back and an inner surround. Simple hobs continued to be used in smaller homes and rooms up to the end of the century. Fireplaces in America rarely used the register grate and
relied on simple grates supplemented often by cast iron stoves or central heating.

At the beginning of Victoria’s reign mantelpieces were mostly neo-classical and simple in decoration. Marble was the most common material. A cheaper alternative was the slate mantelpiece which was very popular in the 1880’s. Many were painted to look like inlaid marble panels on a black background with gold decoration.
Wood continued to be used for older classical designs as desired by the builder. Sometimes a circular cast iron register grate determined the circular line of the mantelpiece which enclosed it. By the late 1850’s and early 60’s mantelpieces of cast iron with register grates incorporated into them were mass produced. Many Victorian fireplaces came complete with a matching fender or marble curb. Since these fireplaces were smaller than in days of yore they needed them. Bedroom fireplaces could be even smaller.

During the 1800’s, fireplaces were increasingly replaced in the cold climates of the US by efficient stoves or central heating systems. The thermostat, by the way, was patented in 1885 by the Honeywell Co.
Hot-air systems grew more and more commonplace in the 1840’s and 50’s. A furnace was installed in the home of President Martin Van Buren in 1854. It remained in use until 1937. Today the original ductwork is still in use with a modern furnace.
The early central heating generally did not serve the entire house. Usually just the rooms on the ground floor were heated. Sometimes a duct would be built into the stairwell to waft some heat to the second floor. In some cases only the rooms on the north side of the house were heated, the rest were served by fireplaces or stoves. Even the heated rooms would often have fireplaces to supplement the heat. In addition, their flues helped hot air through the room from the registers.
By mid-century, however, central heating was still rather expensive.

Steam heat began to be used in America mainly after 1850. It was expensive to install, so it was mostly used by the well to do. Hot water heat began to be used late in the 19th c and used radiators virtually identical to the steam ones. There were several electric heaters patented in the 1850’s, but they were impractical and too expensive.

Lighting
Early Victorians relied mainly on oil lamps or candles, however, by 1816 gas lighting was common in London. By 1823 53 British cities had gas companies. By the late 1840’s it was available even in some villages. In 1862 London alone was consuming as much gas as the whole of Germany. In the US, by 1855 there were 297 companies selling gas to more than a quarter-million customers.

As much as the population embraced the brightness of gas lights, they also had a bad side. The gas depleted the air, it was dirty, smelly, and destroyed objects that the product came into contact with. Pictures began being hung with cords instead of wires because the gas corroded the wires very quickly. The heights of ceilings rose because the smoke from gas lights and the sulfurous fumes tarnished metal and discolored paint. The aspidistra became the exceedingly popular plant of the Victorians because it was one of the few plants that could survive the gas laden atmosphere. The gas could visibly weaken cotton fibers within one year of manufacture. For this reason many shops began to put the lights that illuminated
their windows on the outside.

In some public places gas was a mixed blessing. Going to the theater often gave people headaches because of oxygen depletion. It also raised the temperature. It could reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit at the seats in the top balcony.(38 degrees Celsius). Theaters began to turn to electric lighting as soon as it became available.

Many homeowners limited the placement of their gas lights to places that they found difficult to do without it, hallways (because drafts would blow out candles and lamps), nurseries (because of the danger of lamps and candles being knocked over by children), kitchens (simply because of the greater need for bright light) and sometimes bedrooms, so that a lamp could be lit to find a match in order to
light a lamp or candle.

Gas quickly dropped in price. By 1880 it was cheaper than candles. For this reason, many of the grander homes would be lit only by candles. Wealthy homeowners wanted to show that they could afford it. However, when electricity arrived on the scene, it was so expensive that the wealthy switched to it immediately.

In all, Victorian households used a mixture of lighting methods. There was oil, which
was rather expensive and could be dangerous. Kerosene, which was distilled from coal. It had a low flash point and sometimes the whole lamp could explode. By the 1860’s however, this was not as much of a problem, due to advances in technology. There were sperm oil lamps, but they were too dangerous to move around. Paraffin was a new product, but it was smelly. Also, insurance companies required higher premiums if you used it. As for gas… there were wall sconce jets and gasoliers (ceiling lights). Neither of these did a good job of illumination for reading or sewing, etc. so for these tasks people employed oil lamps which could be carried to the table or gas lamps which were connected to the gas supply by long rubber tubes.

Improvements in glass production which enabled the making of large plate-glass windows together with the new gas lighting made a big difference in shopping. The windows would be illuminated all evening. There was a downside to evening shopping, though. One man in desperate need of a suit, found what he thought was a nice gray one with a subtle lighter striping, just the thing. However, the next morning he discovered to his horror that the suit was a bright green with garish yellow stripes.

The use of gas lights continued into the 20th c., however, until electric light was available everywhere. During the latter part of the Victorian era houses often had a mixture of oil, gas and even some electric lights.

What was considered at the time to be terribly bright, dazzlingly white, bright as day or an artificial sun, to us would seem quite dim.
When light bulbs were introduced in the 1890’s they were about 25 watts, the equivalent to the light of one gas jet.
The light from a modern 60 watt light bulb is roughly equivalent to the light from 74 candles. A 15 watt bulb equals roughly 9 candles.

THE VICTORIAN BEDROOM

2007-02-08T22:45:00.000-05:00

Generally young children slept in the same room as their parents.
This could go on till the age of 10 or 11 in some cases. Some upper middle and upper class married couples had separate bedrooms. This was the genteel thing to do, if there was not enough room, then the husband may have had his own dressing room, even if it meant he had to use the closet under the stairs. The mode of sleeping apart never gained wide usage in America. Brothers and sisters shared bedrooms until it was decided that they were too old to properly do so.

The prevailing Victorian ideal was a single use for each room. In earlier years, rooms were multifunctional. Beds could be found in just about any room in a house, and you could entertain a guest in your bedroom.
In the book “He Knew He Was Right” the narrator said “It was one of the theories of her life that different rooms should be used only for the purposes for which they were intended. She never allowed pens and ink up into the bed-rooms, and had she ever heard that any guest in her house was reading in bed, she would have made an instant personal attack upon that guest.” A bit extreme, but it well illustrates the idea.

Furniture that was no longer good enough for the formal rooms downstairs made its way into the bedrooms. A woman described her room in the 1850’s and 1860’s, especially the carpet “ a threadbare monstrosity, with great sprawling green leaves and red blotches.” ( red and green were done to death in the first half of the Victorian period) The carpet had started in the drawing room, and when it got old, was cut and moved to the bedroom. The same woman described what happened to the dining room carpet. After 20 years it was cut and moved to the children’s school room. When it got too old for that, it got demoted to the girl’s bedroom. After that it might get recut and placed in a servants room, and finally be cut again and put in the kitchen. All this before vacuum cleaners. Imagine how dirty it was. The only cleaning in 40 years was the sweep of a broom or an occasional beating.

Bedroom furniture started showing up around the middle of the century. This was when some care started to be given to the décor in these rooms. A bedroom might contain a central table, a wardrobe, a toilet table, chairs, a small bookcase and a chiffonier, which in England was a small, low cupboard with a sideboard top. (In America the name chiffonier applies to a chest of drawers ).The nightstand did not yet exist.
The bed might be four postered, with curtains. There would also be a wash-stand, a tall mirror and maybe a couch or chaise lounge. If you could not afford a wardrobe, books showed you how to devise a closet in the space next to the chimney, or in a corner, with a curtain across it. Clothes were often stored in boxes and trays. Closets did exist in some homes even in the 1700’s, but there were more that had none than does that did. In the mid 1800’s clothes closets were usually about 14 to 18 inches deep. Clothes were hung from pegs or folded. Hangers were not in general use till the 20th century. They were initially called ‘shoulders’. A small house and yards and yards of dress fabric meant that they were forever looking for places to store things. Books were constantly showing how to make benches and ottomans with hidden storage areas. Even coats were folded and put into cupboards.

Toilet ware came in a wide range of cost and varieties. A typical washstand had towel rails on both sides and sometimes a tile backsplash.If there was no backsplash, a piece of cloth would be hung on the wall behind the stand to protect the wall from splashes. There would be a basin, a jug, soap dish, water bottle and glass, a sponge-dish, a toothbrush dish, and a nail brush dish. A lidded chamber pot often matched the above items. A hip bath might also be in the bedroom. They did not have bedside tables. Nurses who came to care for a sick person were to bring a table to set by the bed for the medicines.

During the second half of the century the Victorians started
learning how diseases were transmitted and became obsessed with the subject of hygiene. Bed curtains started coming down, or at least were made much lighter. Not everyone agreed on the subject of bed curtains. Some declared them unhealthy, others, as late as 1869 felt that the drafts were more dangerous than the dirty bed hangings.

Gas lights were not used upstairs as a rule. They used too much oxygen, one could get asphyxiated. Candles were used instead. In the 1890’s a glorious new invention was advertised. It was luminous paint and people started putting it everywhere, so they could get around and find the blasted matches to light a candle.

Apart from the kitchen the most worrisome area to be bug infested was the bed. The best mattresses were filled with horsehair, next step down was cow’s hair, then wool. A straw mattress was often put down under a hair one to protect it from the iron bedstead. Chain-spring mattresses were available in the second half of the century, but they were
expensive, and they still needed a hair mattress over them. A square of sheeting was often tied over the springs to prevent them from chewing up the mattress, which was then covered in sheeting to protect it from soot and dirt. If the bed had no springs, a feather bed could be added on top of the mattress. These were expensive and hard to maintain. An under blanket was usually put over the hair mattress.

All this needed to be turned and shaken every day, because the fibers tended to mat and clump. Your linens would consist of an under sheet tucked into the lowest mattress to protect it from soot, a bottom sheet, a top sheet, blanket (in winter 3-4 of them), a bolster, and pillows. They would be covered in Holland sheeting then with pillowcases. One good housekeeping writer recommended that blankets be washed every other summer, and sheets once a month, unless 2 people shared the bed, then wash every 2 weeks.

Not all sheets were washed at once. The bottom sheet would be taken off and replaced with the top sheet and a clean top sheet put on. The main bedding cleaning was twice a year, spring and fall. The mattresses and pillows would be taken out and aired and every few years taken completely apart, washed, and feathers sifted to get rid of dust. This kind of work could only be accomplished if you had enough room and help. Many could not manage it.

A good housewife was expected to check the bedding for fleas and vermin every week. If you found them it meant a major war had to be waged. The bed would have to be taken apart and the pieces washed or soaked with chloride of lime and water. The room had to thoroughly cleaned and
disinfected. All cracks had to be repaired and sealed. If the infestation was out of control the bed would be put in an empty room which was sealed airtight and then sulfur was burned to disinfect the bed and surrounding area.
People mistrusted laundries because they weren’t sure of what might be in their things when they were returned.
They felt the same way about buying used furniture.

GREEK REVIVAL,& 19th c heating, plumbing, etc.

2007-02-07T19:24:00.001-05:00

GREEK REVIVAL
From…
A HOME FOR EVERYMAN,
by Joyce K. Bibber

The Greek Revival style remained popular in Maine for over 100 years. Although this book was written about homes in Maine, must of it is applicable to Greek Revival or other Victorian era homes throughout the United States.

GREEK REVIVAL
Floors during the first half of 19th c. were usually of soft wood boards of medium width, not very narrow, nor very wide. Wooden floors were not expected to be showy. Sometimes they were painted, but often they had no finish at all. They were covered with carpets or oilcloths whenever possible. Hardwood floors did not become common till the second half of the century. While some could have been used in local
Greek revival homes, it is more likely that any found now would be from a later renovation.

Baseboards were also called washboards or mopboards. They were meant to protect the plaster walls from water used in mopping. In back rooms they might be just plain boards 5-6” wide, but in public rooms they would be wider and topped with molding. The exact height depended on the ceiling height of the room, but a 10” board under a 2”-3” molding would not be uncommon. The molding could be attached to the baseboard
itself, or separate. Sometimes the molding was so wide, even in some smaller homes, that it went up to the window and could serve as the apron under the window sills.
Some Greek revival rooms had chair rail, though most in Maine did not.

Cornices were generally no longer made of wood, but of molded plaster when they were used. They had become no longer necessary. It is unknown if the new wallpaper borders or the better quality of the plastering contributed to it’s no longer being used in many cases. The cornice, when used, was often applied to the ceiling rather than the tops of the walls. Before the Greek revival it was not often seen except in grander homes.

Greek revival homes generally had white exteriors. Interior woodwork was also often painted white or off white. Even Andrew Jackson Downing, who despised the over usage of white felt that a parlor in a townhouse could have white woodwork with a touch of gilt. From the fact that he stressed that varnished hardwoods or grained finished softwoods to imitate hardwoods should be used ,it can be assumed that during his period woodwork was often painted white. Graining had been around and was often used in the colonial period, and was also used in many Greek revival homes, from the parlor to the kitchen. It all depended on the whim of the homeowner. As a rule, expensive hardwoods were left unpainted, but other woods were painted or decorated in some manner.

A Greek revival house in Yarmouth, Maine retained it’s original parlor paint till recent years. The walls, mantels, doors and windows were white. The window sashes, however, were burgundy. A similar idea has been seen in some old paintings. It is possible that the darker color was used to downplay the muntins and make the window appear larger. A painter’s ad of 1838 offered “imitations of wood or marble” for chimney pieces and doors. Some doors of the period though painted, show graining on the panels.

HEATING

In the 1820’s most American homes were built with fireplaces in nearly every room . The one in the kitchen would be the largest, with often a brick bake oven beside it. By the 1860’s they were replaced by cast iron stoves, the one in the kitchen having an oven inside it. They heated faster, and required less fuel. It was in this era that quick breads like biscuits, began to become more commonly used.
Hot water for laundering might come from a copper boiler which had coils that went through the cook stove, or it might be heated in a pot on the stove. Another method was the use of a “set kettle”. This was a large metal pot set into a brick structure, with it’s own firebox with a door for stoking, and another door for ash removal below that.

SET KETTLE

Although stoves for heating were well known and used in Europe for centuries, they did not become popular in England, and the English colonists did not install them in their homes in America. However, in colonies with large German or Scandinavian settlers they were used.
There were many foundries in Pennsylvania that were producing iron stoves before the revolution.

Ben Franklin was familiar with these stoves, though he preferred an open fire. He invented a compromise which was an iron free standing fireplace which radiated heat from the back while the fire blazed in the front. This was the 1742 Franklin stove. Franklin’s heaters, however, apparently did not catch on in the English colonies any more than did the German stoves. Another Massachusetts born native was Benjamin Thompson, a “Tory” who later was created Count Rumford. He made a lot of improvements to the construction of fireplaces and also published descriptions of a fuel-saving metal roaster that would be set into the brickwork, with an individual firebox. He devised a brick range that was actually a series of boilers each having it’s own firebox under it. A tremendous amount of fuel could be saved by using
this device rather than a then conventional fireplace. It’s possible that the “set kettle” mentioned previously may be a variation of Rumford’s idea. He had meant for his kettles to be used for cooking, making soups, boiling water for the savory or sweet puddings that were common in his era. In Maine these set kettles were used for
heating water for laundry, for the most part. They were built fairly low, so as to be easy to fill or empty by pail. The term set kettle is a fairly recent name, and they may have been just called boilers in their era. There were no instructions in builders books for them, but the term ‘boilers’ was widely used. This suggests that they were widely known and that there was no need to publish instructions on their construction.

Stoves for “kitchen, parlor, shop and cabin” were advertised for sale
in Portland, Maine in 1804. Stoves appealed initially to lower and
middle classes because of the great savings reaped in fuel costs,
and by the fact that they required less care and maintenance than
fireplaces. There were hundreds of design for cast iron cook stoves
in the first decades of the 19th c. Many were of regional design,
unseen in other parts of the country. Ovens could be located behind,
above or to the side of the firebox. Some stoves had more than one
firebox. Some models had “rotary” tops, which brought different pots
to the fire as needed. There were stand alone models and others
designed to fit into the fireplace itself. Some were designed to be
built in specially designated niches.

Even with the great popularity of stoves in kitchens and for home
heating, there were house plans published in the 1850’s that featured
brick ovens and kitchen fireplaces. There was opposition to stoves
from some people. There were those who just liked to see the flames.
Others hated the smell of hot iron. Ben Franklin had written that he
suspected that the bad smell from stoves was due to the fact that
people did not clean up spills from cooking. In any event, it was
thought at the time that bad smells carried disease, so therefore
some believed that iron stoves were disease spreaders.

Some larger homes could have central heating at this time. Steam and
hot water furnaces were in use in America by 1850, but they were
primarily in large buildings because they were still a bit too
troublesome and expensive for the average homeowner. The hot air
furnace was also available, and was apparently the central heating
system used more often in Maine. The first coal furnace in Portland,
Maine was installed around 1833. In that year appeared ads in local
papers that offered to install furnaces “as practiced in New York
and Philadelphia”. The advertiser also said he did all kind of
masonry work, which leads one to conclude that perhaps the system
consisted of stove like units that were set inside brick chambers.
In 1835 a Portland dealer listed the names of 21 customers who
would recommend his work, and there were at least 2 more dealers who
were his competitors. By 1837 houses that had piped hot air were
being offered for sale.

Gas Lighting

Maine lagged behind the rest of the country in the widespread use
of gas. Baltimore had a gas company in 1816. New York and Boston
started theirs in the 1820’s, but they were primarily for street lights.
There were problems with installing gas lights in homes, but they
were resolved by the 1840’s. At that point other gas companies began
to operate across the country. The Portland gas co. was organized
in 1849, and by 1860 gas companies existed in many Maine towns.

Plumbing

During the colonial era and through the Federal period water
continued to be hand carried from wells or springs, but by 1860 more
and more houses were equipped with running water, hot and cold.
Some houses were planned with “bathing rooms” and water closets.
There are indications that some Maine houses had some kind of indoor plumbing before 1820. Houses that were built on land which was lower than a spring could have water piped in by a gravity fed aqueduct. A traveler noted in 1796 that a certain householder had “a cock in his kitchen and in his chamber” to turn on the water.
Hand pumps were for sale, but as yet there has been no proof that
any were installed indoors in the early 19th c. In the 1820’s brick
cellar cisterns were used to store rainwater, which could then be
piped into the kitchen. I’ve seen colonial era house plans for
Philadelphia that showed a large cistern in the cellar.

In this period there were those that thought bathing was healthful,
and those who thought otherwise. Some felt that all-over bathing
could cure practically everything, and others who felt that a warm
bath could be debilitating. ”No prudent person will, we trust, have
recourse to a hot bath without medical advice”.
Portland had 5 public bath houses during the first 5 decades of
the century, but the last one closed by 1850. It may be that by
then bathing at home may have become more common. By the 1840’s
everything from pipes to tubs and shower baths were offered for sale.
In one shower the water sprayed from not only the top, but the sides,
and was described as looking like a book case or wardrobe when closed.
Upright copper water heaters were used in the 1840’s and 50’s, and
were generally heated with pipes that ran through the firebox of the
kitchen stove. Water for showers and baths was still usually carried
by bucket, though some showers had hand operated bellows pumps that
filled a tank on top. I’ve also seen an illustration for a shower
sold in the Philadelphia papers, probably in the 1870’s that showed
a shower with a see-saw type foot pump that the bather tread to pump
water.
Porcelain sinks were offered by Portland dealers in the Greek
revival period, so they could have been installed in homes that
had the needed pipes and other plumbing arrangements.

Andrew Jackson Downing praised the “W.C.” in his 1842 book. He included
it in 3 of the 10 plans in his book, but showed in a separate area
away from the bathroom. Edward Shaw’s plan book showed baths, 2 of
which included a w.c. in the bathroom itself in 1843. On the other
hand, Samuel Sloan’s 1852 house plan book showed bathrooms and w.c.’s
only in the largest homes, and never together. Lafever’s
MODERN BUILDER’S GUIDE (1846) had one bathing room which opened
off the dining room.

LIFE IN A MAINE HAMLET 1894-1904

2007-02-05T07:57:00.001-05:00

The following information is from a book
A MAINE HAMLET by Lura Beam
The author related her life as a girl in Maine during the years 1894-1904. Her father was a sea captain and could spend a year or more away from home, so her mother often sent her to stay with her grandparents.
Much of the following could apply to earlier times and other regions of the country also.

4 am breakfast
Oatmeal with heavy cream, fried ham and eggs, fried potatoes, biscuits,strawberry jam.
A typical winter breakfast could be…..oatmeal with cream, eggs, blueberry muffins, applesauce and coffee. Dinner might be…….fried ham, mashed turnips, baked potatoes, tomato chow-chow, apple pie and tea. Supper could be…..fish cakes, cole slaw,
biscuits, ginger cookies, strawberry preserves and tea.
Variations could include….roast or salt pork, salt fish, venison, clams, kippers, chicken (on Sundays) , stuffed baked fish, vegetable stews, baked beans and baked peas. Sweets included mince, apple, pumpkin, squash,custard, berry and lemon pies.; gingerbread, ; chocolate, banana or whipped cream cakes; sugar and molasses doughnuts; hermits with raisins and nuts; jellies and sweet and sour relishes.
Occasionally in winter dinner would be a dish from her grandparent’s childhood from 1830’s & 40’s…Indian corn boiled in milk or cornmeal mush served with cream.
Toast was unusual except in times of sickness. Cornbread and brown bread were made weekly. Oranges, pears, bananas and candy were eaten as evening snacks. Butter was abundant.
Milk would have been plentiful, but the farm children hated it and it was usually given to the hogs and chickens. I had an elderly neighbor who recalled carrying pails of milk home as a child. She hated drinking milk. She didn’t care for the taste or for the flies and other insects that got into it on the walk home.
Lamb roast beef, turkey, sweetbreads and kidneys were not served and veal was unusual. The meat that the farmer brought from town when he could afford it was steak, cut thin, and served well done with brown gravy.
People did not eat a lot of meat. In August they might have a meal of potatoes, assorted vegetables prepared in various ways, pie and lots of hot bread. Fish was abundant because of the closeness of the sea.
In winter the only fresh fruit were apples, but stewed fruits were served at most meals.
Meals were served punctually, using white or red and white checked cloths, silver, glass and heavy white china. Table manners were strictly enforced. Children had no incentive to hurry through dinner, since they had to remain at table til the adults were through.
Only children drank water. Adults in this family drank tea, having aquired a taste for it during the Civil War when coffee was scarce.

The mother would cook 3 meals a day, since the family always came home for the noon meal. She would bake hot breads 2 or 3 times a day, cookies, cakes and pies every other day.
Please note that the kind of cakes we are accustomed to today, layer cakes with frosting, were not often baked. Most cakes then were more in the line of coffee or fruitcakes, or plain cakes topped or filled with fruits or preserves or custards or whipped cream.

Mother peeled vegetables and stewed sauces daily. In cold weather she fried doughnuts, sugar, molasses or cinnamon, -weekly. Most of her cookware was of iron. In summer she went down to the cellar several times a day to get food. The rest of the year it was stored in various cool portions of the house.

How well you ate in winter depended on how skilled the housewife was at canning, preserving, drying, pickling, and jelly making. Butter and eggs had to be prepared and stored away for winter, as cows went dry and hens stopped laying. Butter was made twice a week in summer. Soft soap and yeast were made at intervals.Dyeing of cloth was a part of remaking clothing into new ones, quilts and other household furnishings.

Washing and ironing was heavy tedious work. Blankets, rugs and quilts had to be washed by hand, clothes were covered in frills that were difficult to iron. The irons were really made of iron and heated on the stove, several had to be kept going at once. The ideal was to have the washing on the line by 8 am.

At this time many women still made all the families’ clothes, sheets and pillowcases.
It was during the winter that they did much of their sewing and knitting. The younger wives of this era didn’t care as much for a lot of the home made household contrivances. They tended to primarily sew mainly their children’s clothes or just the mending.

Herbs were gathered and prepared not just for cooking, but to be used as medicines. The housewife had to know what cured which symptoms. There were herbs that were injested,
and others that were used in poultices or flannel bags, or ointments, etc.

Families were getting smaller, and since there was no longer an older child to care for each younger one, the mother took on more child care herself.. She would teach her children to sing, memorize poetry, she’d build the parlor fire so the child could practice his or her organ or piano lessons.

Free time between seasons was spent “clearing up” .The lady of the house would clean out the house room by room and “get at the wood chamber” .
The man would spend time clearing rocks out of fields.

In summer dust in the roads could be 8” deep, spring mud in spots could be knee deep.
* * * * *
The houses ….., parlor, often a sitting room, dining room, kitchen, 3 or 4 bedrooms, un unfinished attic and woodshed, sometimes a summer kitchen. Barn, sheds,wagon houses, privy, poultry houses were all attached to the house.

Furnishings were abundant and a mixture of old and new.
A brand new upholstered chair would sit side by side with an old pine settle
or chest.
The average home had a pump in the house or dooryard. A rain barrel stood by the back door of each house. Each wash day water would be dipped out of it, carried to the stove to heat, then carried to the washtubs. In this village of 200 odd people there were about six houses that had no drinking water except that which was brought from the spring. These families would keep the tea kettle and stove tanks full and hold in reserve 2 -12 quart pails.
The author’s grandparents had a well for a while, but it caved in and after that the grandfather would bring water to the house up the hill from a spring. Rainwater was saved and used for washing.
The head of the family provided wood for his home.He either owned wood lots and cut on his own land, or traded labor to neighbors for the privilege of cutting on theirs. The stoves used an enormous amount of wood. The ones in the kitchen and sitting room would burn all day in winter. Those in parlor and bedrooms would burn at intervals, and
one in the cellar would be fired up in the coldest weather.There would be a wood bin the size of a trunk by each stove, and it had to be filled each morning and evening.. The stack of wood piled in the woodshed for winter could be as large as a typical ranch style house of today.

Hand made rugs or storebought carpets covered the floor.Rugs would often be laid down over the latter. Kitchens often had a large braided rug in the winter.
Sofas popularly had silk or velvet patchwork pillows.The chairs, plush or cane, had crocheted tidies with ribbons drawn through them. Surfaces of tables, etc. ,were covered with vases, shells, dried grasses, pottery, stereopticons, albums, books and pictures.
If walls had pictures they would be hung in profusion.

Lura Beam’s grandparents’ house contained….
SITTING ROOM
Rockers, table with cloth,sofa, Franklin stove, a hanging bookcase, seashells, religious motif pictures, rag rugs, and a hand drawn oilcloth rug.
PARLOR
Gray carpet, hooked rugs in flower and geometric designs, walnut and haircloth furniture, lace curtains, an organ, marble-topped tables, Victorian lamps, a mirror set between 2 windows, and sea grasses in silvered glass vases.
UPSTAIRS BEDROOMS
Low slanting ceilings, white walls, double size white beds, rag carpets, white curtains and counterpanes, a bureau, a commode, and several chairs. Parents and guests would have feather beds, children straw tick mattresses.
DOWNSTAIRS MASTER BEDROOM
Maple fourposter, bureau and chiffonier (1850 period )
There were stoves in all the rooms.
KITCHEN
Faced east, painted white. All of the rooms in this house were painted white.
Windsor chairs, a hard sofa covered in chintz, a clock, a huge woodbox and stove, an iron teakettle on at all times.
PANTRY
The size of a two car garage, served as storeroom and food preparation area. Flour and white sugar barrells and a smaller brown sugar firkin were closed off behind a door. Gray stoneware jugs with blue designs held molasses and vinegar under the shelves.Wall cupboards held the best dishes(blue Stafordshire, goblets, pressed glass preserve dishes) and everyday heavy white earthenware. Milk was kept in yellow earthenware dishes
on shelves set aside for milk alone. Cream was held in stoneware crocks for the weekly churning. In summer everything that had to do with milk was moved down to the cellar.
WOODSHED
Was attached to house behind kitchen. Wood piled to ceiling, enough to fill a good sized living room of today. Piles of kindling on the floor.Meal, corn, oats, feed for animals in barrels and chests. Kerosene and tools on shelves. In summer washing was done here. In winter, sausages, head cheese, smoked hams and dried herbs were hung from the ceiling. Root vegetables were stored in the cellar. Above the woodshed was the family storage area for old cradles, outgrown toys, baggage, etc.
GARDEN
Roses, old lilacs, bleeding heart, lad’s love, sweet-William, phlox, petunias, pinks, pansies, ragged-ladies.Syringa, weigela, pink moss-roses, hollyhocks, sweet peas, marigolds, nasturtiums, mignonette, dahlias, tansies.

* * * *

Both sexes were held in line by codes and taboos, which were heavier for women.
She could not go to Town Meeting to vote, and since this was a rough masculine affair, it was felt that she shouldn’t even go there to serve lunch. Within town she could walk for
miles to go berry picking or calling, but if the family had a horse she should never walk to town. That would cast a reflection upon her husband who should be able to keep a horse and drive her. She should not work in the fields, unless there was an emergency weather situation.
A man had to be concerned with his image as a provider. Any noticeable self-indulgence before marriage would get him “talked about”. This would damage his ability to get a good job, and his standing in the community. Any misdeeds of his own combined with shortcomings of his ancestors would never be lived down.

Marriage and children was expected, but the village had enough widows and single folk that people knew that life alone was possible. Single women were admired for the amount
of work they did. They were usually better educated and dressed than the average housewife. Gossip knew why they were single, demands of elderly parents,the limited chances to meet eligible men. The single men in town were said to be “cut on the bias”.
One was a famous walker, one was a tenor and another followed the horse races.

People felt that theirchildren had a better time than previous generations did, with more rights, freedoms, better clothes, and schooling. Their grandmothers had worn “back boards” to keep their figures straight. Their grandfathers slept in icy attics with snow drifting in through the chinks.
Times were changing, as seen by the names they were given. Their grandparents and those before them had English or biblical names, Ruth, Mary, Hannah, Abigail, Keziah; John, William, Ezra, Zephaniah, etc. Newer names were romantic and came from books or flowers, Lily, Blanche, Flora, Ivy, Teresa ; Vernal, Leslie, Percy, Austin, Seymour.

Children were not whipped as they were before, it was always threatened but usually not carried out. Generally a spanking was all they got. The child dreaded hearing Mom say “ I shall tell your father”. Showing off would by punishable by sitting still for a half hour. Destroying clothes or lack of punctuality meant being confined to the yard for several days. A lie sent you up to bed in broad daylight, with only bread and water for supper.

Life was supposed to be full of repressions and inhibitions. Children were repressed because it was felt to be good for them. Occasionally some people were proud of the fact that they had broken a child’s spirit. A girl ground down to total meekness might be admired as being refined.
A lot of the repression was rigorous because it involved safe conduct and caution. Fire and sharp instruments had to be handled on a daily basis. With wood fires going every day, and oil lamps burning several at a time, the village had only 1 fire in 10 years. An oil stove had exploded and caused the fire.

Once they outgrew their baby toys, children were given toys geared to their sex. Boys had stuffed animals when small, then things like wagons, tops , bats and balls. A girl could not have a rocking horse that she had to sit astride. She could have stuffed animals,
but not a toy lion or tiger, they were for boys only. They would both have hoops, sleds, skates and fishing rods and kites.

Boys had few toys, girls had many more. They had dolls, dish sets, toy stoves with cookware, doll furniture with linens to care for, everything a girl needed to learn to fulfill her role in life.

Some girls were never allowed to play with boys. Girls were told they shouldn’t play roughly or climb around. On sleds they had to sit up , no belly whopping. A saying of the day, “whistling girls and crowing hens, always come to some bad end”.

There were 2 school districts in the village, set up so that no child would have to walk more than 4 miles a day. The school year was 20 weeks. One term started in early April and lasted to about July 3rd. The other was from Sep. 1 to Nov. 15th. The only
holiday was Memorial Day.

The men of the family had to be waited on, and must never suffer to be delayed, as everything they were doing was considered important. However, a mother or family that showed a partiality for boys was considered abnormal. It was the norm that boys
and girls received equal clothes, gifts and opportunities.

The entire family worked together, parents, grandparents and children. The old continued to work and took an active part in the life of the community. There was little need for hired help in the village, and the people resisted the idea of being a servant. If the mother
was sick, a widow, spinster or neighbor’s daughter would come over to help. She would live as a member of the household and get @ $2 a week. If the same person went to work in town, she would be careful to be “help” only for an invalid or old couple, and would not take the position unless she dined with the family. Not eating with the family meant that you had dropped in status to “hired girl”.

In winter, after the holidays and the cold weather was established, pleasures came from a break in routine. Recreation for adults was going in to town. A woman went once a week if she felt like it and had the proper clothes. When the sidewalks were icy she wore
“creepers” or spikes on her overshoes. After she had done her shopping she usually had no where else to go and would slowly walk to meet her husband at the post office or sleigh. Many women never went to town at all in winter. A man who had nothing pressing to do might go 2-3 times a week. He might go in to buy the groceries or the newspaper, but mostly he’d prefer to sit in the store and socialize. During the other 9 monthe of the year he had no time for it.

Families used big spyglasses to see what was going on around the neighborhood . A family member might have one trained on the road down the hill and check every team that came along. When the right team was spotted the cook would put on the potatoes for dinner, and guage the serving time. Neighbors had codes. Hanging a red cloth out the
window might mean that a sick person was no better, or a visitor was coming. Some nosy pokes had the glass trained on everything at all times.
On stormy days no one ventured past the barn, nothing went on outside at all, it was dark by four o‘clock .Sleeping, keeping warm and eating were the pleasures of the family then.
In winter people might sleep as long as 9 hous a night. The fires in the stoves would burn down to ashes around midnight. After that they would just lay under the blankets in unheated houses.

LIFE IN LONDON, 1849

2007-02-04T19:12:00.001-05:00

The following section doesn't deal with decorating, but rather with life during the Victorian period.
The information in this segment is primarily from a book, "London 1849,a Victorian murder story" by Michael Alpert, Prof. Emeritus of U of Westminster. He was writing a study of an infamous murder of the period, and included a lot of background information

London was foul, noisy and stinking. Its narrow streets squelched with mud and dung….Ladies delicately lifted their skirts to cross the road and gave a coin to the ragged boys employed as crossing-sweepers, who brushed away just some of the dung and dust.

A description of a Manchester slum, which could be as easily applied to London, from novelist Mrs.Gaskell’s description in MARY BARTON, 1848...
“[ The street] was unpaved; and down the middle a gutter forced its way, every now and then forming pools in the holes with which the street abounded. Never was the old Edinburgh cry of ‘Gardez l’eau!’ more necessary than in this street. As they passed, women from their doors tossed household slops of EVERY description into the gutter; they ran into the next pool, which overflowed and stagnated. Heaps of ashes were the stepping stones, on which the passer-by, who cared in the least for cleanliness, took care not to put his foot.”

The ‘slops of EVERY description’ (every was in italics in the original) and the ‘heaps of ashes’ are both euphemisms for excrement.
**************
The time when people ate their evening meal was a marker of their social class. In the 18th c., 5:30 had been the time the upper class dined, but by mid 19th c. this had moved several hours later, to about 7:30. The “middle” middle class dined at 6:00, the lower middle class at 5:30. “Dinner” stayed at noontime for the working class. At night the men didn’t finish their work day til 8:00 or later. They had “tea” around 4:00, and when they got home, they’d have supper which could come as late as 11:00.

For most families the most important expenditure was food, and bread was the largest item in the weekly food bill.
The price of tea was kept high til 1833 because of the East India Company’s monopoly of the tea trade. Taxes on tea were also high, so in the 1840’s tea consumption remained low. Most people drank a very weak and watery brew. In 1853 the duty on tea was reduced and new sources were developing in India and Ceylon, therefore the price of it began to drop and consumption began to rise.
Milk wasn’t drunk very much, there was no way to keep it fresh and prices were high until the development of a large rail system which enabled farmers to ship large amounts of fresh milk to the city on a daily basis. People used to put a great deal of sugar in their tea, as sugar prices had dropped a great deal. A laborer’s family would consume a pound of sugar every week. A middle class family that was able to afford a servant and had 2 or 3 children would consume about 4 ½ pounds of suger a week, almost a pound per person.

The poor had few cooking facilities, barely any pots, dishes, etc. Many had no hearth to cook upon and no utensils at all. They got food whenever they could afford it. Many ate from shops and stalls, the fast food of the day.
The wife of a laborer who was making 15 shillings a week, if she was economical could buy for her husband, herself and their 3 children:
5 4lb loaves of bread
5 pounds of meat
7 pints of porter (beer)
40 pounds of potatoes
3 ounces of tea
1 pound of sugar
1 pound of butter
56 pounds of coal
The tiny bit that was left went for rent for their room, soap and candles. There was nothing left for clothing, shoes, etc.
A better paid workman could have meat every day. He could add cheese and bacon to his diet, unless he was in the building trades and it was winter and he was off work. Then meat would vanish from the table and be replaced by bread and potatoes.
At the bottom of the heap were those who lived on potatoes alone.
Food and drink was far from pure or fresh. Unscrupulous food purveyors adulterated their foods with sawdust, brick dust, chalk,alum, ashes, and powdered bones. They added toxic ingredients to beer to make it seem fresher or more flavorful. Gin could contain sulphuric acid and arsenic. Foods were colored with copper or red lead.
There were few hotel dining rooms open to the public around 1849. The word “restaurant” was still considered a foreign word and most likely pronounced in the French manner.
Of eateries, at the bottom were the “greasy spoon” places frequented by working men. Men who wore suits to work ate in “dining rooms’ at partitioned off tables, in booths. At a higher leve were unmarried men and retired officers who could dine at their “club” where they could eat cheaply and well.
In most places food wasn’t very good and service was generally quite poor, but people didn’t dare complain. Many people depended on credit to get by, and couldn’t afford to antagonize their local shopkeepers.
It was unusual for a lady to dine out alone. It wasn’t til later in the century when department stores started offering refreshment rooms and J.Lyons and the A.B.C. which provided lunches for the new class of female typists and office workers that ladies began to eat out.
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Almost all sales people, or assistants, in shops were men. Prices were not listed. In the smarter shops bargaining was not allowed. You were not permitted to inspect goods at your leisure. Even in America, you'd tell the assistant what you wished to purchase and he would bring it out for you to see. It's been remarked that the London shop assistants behaved rather as if they were doing you a great favor by showing you a pair of gloves or some lace cuffs and then accepting your payment for same.
The wealthy had their clothes made for them. When they tired of them, they'd hand them down to their servants who would then wear them or sell them.The clothes continued down the line til eventually they arrived, in tatters on the backs of the poorest of the poor.It would not be unusual to see a barefoot slum dweller wearing layers of remnants of silk ballgowns.
By the 1840's women were wearing wider skirts than they did in the Regency period, however the crinoline was not yet in use.Women wore layers of petticoats to fill out the skirts to the required shape. A respecable woman would never be seen without stays or corsets. It's said that the undergarments known as drawers were invented when women started wearing hoop skirts, because on occasion a gust of wind could come up and blow women over and their skirts in the air, however they were in use before the advent of the hoopskirt. No lady went out without her bonnet. One of the reasons for this was that the poke bonnet hid her face, so that it could be seen only face-on, therefore making her less apt to receive unwanted attention from strange men. This seems to have been quite a danger in those days. Prostitutes wandered the streets of even the nicest shopping areas, waiting for customers. There were men who would annoy even respectable young women to solicit sex. The Pantheon, an arcaded bazaar of fashionable shops, used female shop assistants, unusual for the time. These young women had to leard how to handle the bolder men who made unseemly suggestions to them. "Beadles", the security cops of the time were stationed at both entrances of the arcade to keep the undesireable elements out.
Men by the 1840's had begun wearing dark colored, somber clothing. This was in part due to the soot filled air which dirtied everything. Policemen, stationmasters, other men in authority and even cabbies and grocers wore top hats, some of which were made of papier mache. By the way, in the Victorian era there was even papier mache furniture which could be quite expensive.
Wide black neckcloths hid the dirt that accumulated on a white shirt by the end of the week.
If a man could not afford to have his suits made by a tailor, he'd either buy his clothes froma second hand shop, or go to a fairly new inovation, a ready made suit shop.
Elias Moses and Son was the most widely advertised outfitter in London. He offered trousers, vests, jackets and ladies riding habits in many sizes and would alter them to fit. Moses had fixed price tags, which was considered highly vulgar by those who could afford to have their clothes made for them. His shop assistants were trained to be polite to the customers and his store was well lit and nicely decorated. This was quite a change for those who had previously had to shop for clothes in the second hand market. By 1860, Moses claimed that 80% of the population were buying ready made clothes.
In the 1840's facial hair, except for a military man's mustache, was considered to be a sign of mental imbalance, eccentricity or imbecility. Men went clean shaven til the Crimean War of 1854-56 which obliged British military men to grow beards. At this point, facial hair suddenly became fashionable.
In 1849 a French tailor spilled some turpentine on a dirty tablecloth and found that it had removed some oth the stain. Dry cleaning was born and men were no longer obliged to stick to black or near black. Gray and brown began to be worn.

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In 1841 the average life expectancy in England and Wales was 41, but in London it was only 37. In 1839 half the burials in London were for children under the age of 10.
London air was foul and sooty and the very soil it stood on was decayed. Old sewers were blocked or broken. They leaked into wells and water systems, and through the walls of cellars of even the wealthiest homes. Where there were no sewers excrement and urine were thrown into the street. Drains, sewers and gutters emptied into the only source of drinking water the pooor had.
Huge numbers of animals were driven down the streets of London to slaughter houses which were often only a few blocks from fashionable shopping areas. Dung, blood, entrails and hides covered with swarming flies were in the streets of the meat markets.
Every year in the 1840's thousands of bodis were buried in London's overcrowded burial grounds. Each layer of bodies took 7 years to decompose, but the rate of dying was greater than the rate of decomposition. In cold weather the clay soil of the London graveyard didn't freeze beacause it was full of the grease of putrefying flesh. Graves weren't filled in til the piled up coffins were within a foot or two of the soil surface. When the gravedigger started digging a new grave he often inadvertedly broke an old coffin with his shovel or pick. Remains of broken coffins were to be seen scattered across the grounds of cemeteries.
Cholera epidemics killed thousand through the years.In the 1850's medical men began realizing that the disease was transmitted through dirty drinking water, and even though steps began to be taken to clean up the sewage disposal system and water sources, it wasn't til 1902 that the problem of a clean affordable water system was solved.
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People rented their homes. A small builder would build a row of homes and number them 1,2,3 etc.,then sell the houses to landlords, who in turn rented them out. A person might pay rent on the same house for 30 years. The writer, Thomas Carlyle and his wife Jane paid rent on their house for 31 years. In consideration for all the improvements they made on the house during this time, their landlord never raised the rent.
A woman had a hard time running a London house in 1849 without help.City kitchens were usually in the basement. If the house had an "area" in front of it, then the kitchen would get at least some light from the below street level windows. A wealthier home would have water piped to upper stories, but many homes with running water only had it in the basement level.
Bathrooms were still rare in 1849.There were public baths and wash houses. In 1849 there were about 300 baths a day taken at the George Street Baths.
Homes would have a privy or "necessary" at the end of the back garden. Excrement fell into a wooden box and wascovered with earth by a hopper or a shovel. "Night-soil men" came at night and emptied the boxes and soil the contents for fertilizer.
In 1849 ranges or "kitcheners" were just coming into use in homes. They were much more fuel efficient than cooking on a hearth, but landlords wouldn't install them without raising the rent, so many continued to make do with a hearth. A kitchen of this sort would often have a roasting spit hanging in it, and a trivet to support several pots. In winter, with the grime and fog a London kitchen would get greasy and grimy. The floor would have been damp.
London houses were heated with coal. The coal man would tip a load of coal, spreading black dust all over housewives clean laundry and washed front steps. Rooms were smoky from coal dust that came down the chimneys in downdrafts. Improperly attached chimney pots would come crashing to the ground in high winds.
Gas lighting was rare in homes before the 1850’s. Many people used whale oil or other oils in their lamps, and perhaps tallow candles in bedrooms. The poorest used rushes dipped in bacon fat for lighting.
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The lower middle class consisted of small manufacturers, shopkeepers, innkeepers, master tailors, clerks, teachers, lower ranks of professional people, railway and government officials, etc. They were “in trade” or were paid for their services, as opposed to those who lived on their inheritance or investments.
Below the middle classes were the working men. The 1844 Factory Act cut the hours that their children were allowed to work down to 6 ½ hours a day, and womens’ to 12. In 1847 another act cut womens’ allowable working hours to 10, but this law was often ignored.

The infamous workhouses were for the poorest. Many were fatherless children, lunatics and impoverished elderly. If a servant lived to old age, and his employer didn’t see fit to care for him or her, they took refuge in the workhouse. Life in even the best and cleanest of them, run by well meaning folk was still harsh.
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In 1834, of 130,00 couples who married, 1/3 of the grooms and ½ of the brides could not sign their names on the register. In 1851, the numbers weren’t much better. This didn’t include the many who didn’t bother to get married.

In 1851 a “religious census” was taken on Easter Sunday. The result shocked everyone. ¼ of church goers that day went to Church of England services, ¼ went to churches of other denominations and half didn’t go at all. Evangelism arose to rechristianize English society.
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In the 1840’s some families spent 20% of their income on beer and other alcohol, but this was just what was spent on consumption at home.In London an outlet for alcohol could be found, on average, every 100 yards. The pub was a warm and cheerful place when your home was dark and cold. In 1849 annual beer consumption in England and Wales was 19.4 gallons a head, or about 3 pints a week per each man, woman and child. Of course, some drank much more, because the population at the time also included a great many teetotalers.
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In 1840 a huge change occurred when the cost of sending a letter dropped . Before that it cost over a shilling to send a letter, a folded single sheet of paper, sealed with was, from London to Edinburgh. If you wanted to put your letter in an envelope, you paid an extra charge., as you did for each extra sheet of paper, but now you cpuld send a letter for a penny Six deliveries of mail came to the door each day, later that rose to 12. Because of the huge new influx of mail, London was divided into 12 postal districts. Before, when a postman came with a letter, he had to stand at the door and await payment. If you didn’t have the money, you didn’t get the letter. In 1849 it was advised that people cut a slit in their front doors, so that the postman could just drop your mail through the slot and be on his way. In 1853 it usually took 5 days for a letter to arrive in London from Spain. To send a letter you went to the post office, though when the penny service started a “bellman” would walk the busy parts of town ringing a bell and holding a bag with a slit in it in which you could post letters. There were no letter boxes in London til 1855.
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The term “police”, as in referring to men who kept the public order, was hardly known in England before the end of the 18th c. The force begun by Sir Robert Peel in 1829 was known dor some time as “the new police”. The very word was unpopular, reminding people of the authoritarian forces in foreign countries. Many suspected Peel’s police to be a standing secret army. It took about 20 years for them to be accepted and valued.

VICTORIAN DECORATING 1870-1890, part I and introduction

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By 1870 the first refrigerated railroad cars had appeared. By 1884 they were carrying meat, fish, fruit and vegetables across the continent. The foods were then brought home to the “ice box”, a term coined in 1860.
The departments store was born. Aaron Montgomery Ward started his mail order business in 1872. Post Civil war American industry created surpluses of goods which gave the average consumer a better choice of goods.
By the 1870’s there were fast, reliable, horse drawn trolleys. Cities began to grow outwards. The middle class began to move away from the cities centers to new communities that were set up along the new trolley lines, in the same way as they later moved out along the new commuter railroad lines.
In 1872 Charles Eastlake’s book, “Hints on Household Taste” was printed in America. Eastlake attained a level of influence previously achieved by Andrew Jackson Downing. Other British designers, architects, and critics began to greatly influence American interior design.
Eastlake loathed the ornate and polished furniture that was in use at the time. He urged his readers to purchase simple furniture without excessive ornamentation. Many of his designs had a medieval quality which was praised by William Morris and other British designers of the new Arts and Crafts movement.
In 1876 nearly 10 million Americans, about 25% of the population at the time, traveled to Philadelphia for the Centennial Exposition. There they saw all the newest and latest in technology, art and design. This event wrought great changes in the American home.
In 1879 Edison created a successful, practical lighting system. This too, greatly affected decorating choices made for the home.
And by the 1880’s some American writers on interior decoration began dwelling on the idea of the bathroom being a pleasurable space and not just a necessity.

Charles Eastlake dismissed the previously popular wall treatments, favoring the idea of a 3 foot high wainscoting around the principle rooms.
By using wainscoting, he introduced a new 3 part horizontal wall treatment which remained in style for 2 decades. This consisted of a dado or wainscoting on the bottom, a frieze or cornice on the top and a section called the field in between. He was the one who popularized this treatment and its imitations in all rooms of the house.
The top of the wainscoting was usually 36” to 42” above the floor, but English designer Christopher Dresser suggested that the most pleasing proportion be used for each case. Depending on the proportions of a room wainscoting could be up to 60” high or even be level with the tops of the doors.

In keeping with the new horizontal lines of rooms, pictures began to be hung differently. They were now being placed at eye level, around 5’ 6” high in a single row around the room rather than “skyed”, or placed high up, one above another in a row reaching upward as they were in the past..
IT also started becoming the custom to hang them from hooks and cords from a picture rail just under the frieze, therefore avoiding damage to the wall and making it easier to reposition them. Most seemed to prefer that the cords coordinated to the wall color.

There were many ways to achieve this new 3 part wall. The most expensive way was to use real wooden panels as wainscoting, but most households couldn’t afford this. Even then, this treatment usually only appeared in entry halls and dining rooms.. By the 1880’s, though ready made wainscoting was being offered for sale. It was made of plain vertical boards ¼” to 7/8” thick, glued to a heavy cloth. Sometimes two kinds of wood would be used to give a custom look. This was finished off with a wooden cap which made installation easy.
Another method to achieve the tripartite or three sectioned wall was to attach a molding (chair rail) to the wall about 36” to 42” high and paint or paper above and below it.
One could also achieve the fashionable look with wallpaper that imitated the dado, field and frieze patterns.

Sets of wallpapers for the dado, field and frieze.

Lincrusta was a paper that was used to this effect, and it became very popular in the 1880’s. It was invented by Fred Walton in 1877, who also created linoleum in 1863. Lincrusta was very durable and easy to shape into corners and curves. It was also paintable. These points made it very popular.
Anaglypta was a thick embossed paper product similar to Lincrusta but not as durable. It was patented in England in 1887by Thomas Palmer, manager of the Lincrusta-Walton company. It was suitable for walls, friezes and ceiling decoration and was painted or glazed to suit the homeowner. There were many other heavy embossed papers around at the time too.

By the 1880’s ceilings were commonly 8 to 14 feet high, and being more and more decorated. This remained the fashionable trend for decades. White ceilings were now considered “crude” and “harsh” and they clashed with the fashionable dark wall colors. By the 1880’s white ceilings were to be used only if the rest of the room was predominately white.
Some suggested tinting the ceiling a few shades lighter than the wall, then applying some ornamentation.
One technique was “pencil striping”, in which strips of color were applied to the ceiling or wall in varying widths from 1/8” wide and up, along the cornice. Another painted decorating technique used was stenciling.

Two examples of decorated ceilings done with paint and stencils

Center medallions, cornices and corner moldings were made of wood, plaster or papier mache.
Tin ceilings also provided the desired effects, and they were lighter, cheaper and more durable than plaster. They were shipped from the factory in “lusterless” white and could then be painted in colors to suit the homeowner.
The easiest way to decorate the ceiling was with wallpaper, which is what most people did. Ceiling papers, however, did not use the same patterns that wallpapers did.

No matter what materials were used for the walls and ceilings, the rule was fairly standard----- ceiling the lightest, then the walls, then the darker shade for the dado and the darkest for the woodwork. Critics recommended staining hardwood trim and painting softwood trim to match the overall scheme of the room.
At this point the traditional white paint for woodwork went out of favor as did graining. By 1893 few housepainters had the skill to even do a graining finish without resorting to stencils or special rollers.

1908, an illustration for a set of graining tools.

At this point in time, unless the room was painted in light colors, that woodwork which was to be painted was usually done in vibrant hues. One decorating critic recommended black, maroon, chocolate brown, orange-green, dull Indian red, dark blue or bronze green. There were also suggestions to use several values of one color to paint the woodwork or several different colors altogether. They also proposed using painted, stenciled or wallpaper decorations on door panels, but this later idea was in style for only a short time and was outdated by the late 80’s.

An example of painted door panels, used to illustrate books in 1882 and 1887.

Fashionable colors for the 1870 to 90 period differed greatly from those of the past because of new technology .

VICTORIAN DECORATING 1830-50

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A book on homes and decorating from 1844 reveals that some of the most frequently used tints were grey, pea, sea and olive greens and fawn. These were readily mixed from a narrow range of pigments on the job site using colors such as Prussian blue, yellow ochre and burnt umber.
Later ready mixed paints became available but there was still a shortage of colorfast pigments. Bright reds, purples, yellows blues and blue-greens tended to fade quickly. The normal Victorian range included black, white and cream, dark reds, browns and ochres of all shades and a wide variety of greens.
Other early Victorian interior colors til @ 1850 tended to be light and soft. Pearl, white, delicate pinks and lavenders were popular. Later deeper colors and complex patterns came into vogue. Throughout the period the dining room, study and drawing room tended to be more masculine. Bedrooms and parlors tended to be more feminine with softer colors and textures.

For entries and stair halls, cool and sober colors were suggested, such as grey (charcoal & white), stone ( a brownish-grayish mix ), or drab (raw umber mixed with white). These colors could also serve as bases for marbleizing.
Another wall treatment that was popular was to score the plaster while wet to resemble cut stone blocks, then marbleize the wall to look like stone. Wall papers in this pattern were also very popular.
Parlors and drawing rooms should be gay and elegant, advised decorating books and magazines. Green was very popular, with sea green, pea green and olive green being the most widely used. A soft grayish rose color, pearl grey and pale apple green were recommended colors, and it was customary for woodwork and moldings to be painted a darker shade of the wall color for contrast. White and gilt were confined to town house drawing rooms.
There were 2 schools of thought on how to decorate the dining room. One group preferred sober colors, another stronger , contrasting colors. Libraries should have sober, grave colors such as fawn, a light yellowish brown, or other brown or grey shades. Bedrooms, on the whole, should be painted or papered in light colors, but a bright room could be done in crimson, claret or dark green.
New walls had to dry for one year before being painted in oil paints, then the average was 5 coats of paint. Turpentine was added to the final coat to cut down the gloss. Whitewash was usually applied on the walls for the first year, and some people preferred this finish, and kept to it. It was cheaper, and it was matte, or flat. Coloring agents were added, so the term whitewash is a bit misleading. The drawback to it was that it was not durable. It was advised to wash it off before repainting or papering, therefore there is little evidence to show what colors were preferred when using it.

Color choices changed over the years partly because of changes in lighting. Gas lights were brighter than oil or candles, electric lights changed the room once again. Early in the 19th century vivid bright colors were used, since they became very muted in the dim light of evening. Toward the end of the century, paler hues began to be used more often used because of the brighter light cast by gas or electric lamps.
Walls, ceilings and woodwork were painted in 3 separate values of a color. The ceiling would be the lightest, then the walls darker and the woodwork either lighter or darker than the walls. In other words, perhaps pale green on the ceiling, light green on the wall and darker green on the woodwork.

By 1840 thanks to technology, wallpaper had become the popular way to decorate walls. Prior to this only the wealthy had wallpaper, as it was handmade and quite expensive.

Critics disliked this sort of wallpaper pattern in the 2nd quarter of the 19th c. They complained so much about the usage of this style of paper, that it is quite likely it was extremely popular.

Two versions of the same scenic paper produced by the firm of Jean Zuber. The top was "Views of North America" 1834. The second version was named "War of Independence" and issued a few years later.

Most writers of the 1840’s advised that the better rooms of the house be papered, especially the parlor and best bedroom. Wallpaper was applied in the French fashion, papered baseboard to cornice, with a narrow border for decoration. The dominant color in the paper determined the color of the ceiling and woodwork. Critics felt that papers should be architectural ,with columns, friezes, panels,etc.,, or landscapes. Also popular were historical papers with groups of figures or portraits, papers representing the previously mentioned cut stone (ashlar papers), or those imitating fabrics, like damask. Landscape papers were very popular across the country and seen in many hotels. Prices varied by the number of rolls in a set and by the colors used. Monocromatic scenes were much cheaper. If you could afford wallpaper, you could afford scenic paper. They were usually hung above chair rails or over architectural papers, that might imitate a stone balustered wall, etc. Wallpapers with depictions of statues were also popular. They were often hung in the front halls of middle class homes so that they would give the air of a statuary gallery. Another popular paper, especially in bedrooms and parlors was one with small repeating patterns of diamonds or stripes, often with geometric designs, fruits, flowers or ribbons worked into them. Some architectural authorities like Downing also liked flocked or “velvet” papers. They were generally the most expensive and did not wear well. They were on the whole confined only to parlors.
Borders were widely used. They covered mistakes in cutting as well as being decorative. In the 1840’s they were generally narrow, @ 3” wide. The most common were florals, trailing vines, or architectural. Fabric swag designs were also popular.

This is a reproduction of a marbleized style of wallpaper.

This is a version of an ashlar paper.

Two popular styles of wallpaper border from the first half of the 1800's.
Paper was rarely used on the ceiling in this period. Ceilings were generally decorated with a plaster or papier-mache center medalion from which hung a chandelier. The decoration was often based on leaves or a flower. Most critics of the period advised the use of a cornice to separate the walls and ceiling. If there was no cornice, then the wallpaper border would be used alone.
Graining and marbleizing appeared often on doors and woodwork. If you were having the house painted in oil paint, then the added cost for graining was slight. A coat of varnish was added to the decorative finish to protect it. This also made it smooth and therefore easier to dust and wash. Because of this, graining appeared often on doors, window sashes and baseboards, areas that were exposed to the most dirt.
Stencils and tromp loi were also popular.

Most American floors during the first half of the 1800’s were of softwood boards, often laid in random widths, and never stained and varnished. If they were not completely covered with some kind of floor covering, they had to be scrubbed with a stiff brush and sand, and sometimes bleached with lye. Painting floors was something the homeowners could do themselves and was a bit better than leaving them bare. This was a fairly common thing to do.
Floors were often painted in patterns to simulate rugs. The next step up was a painted floor cloth. These could be rather costly, but a homeowner could make their own and save quite a bit of money, and many did. Generally they were placed in hallways and parlors. There was a varnished paper floor covering advertised for sale in the 1820’s, but it’s not known if it ever became popular. Floor tiles came into use by the 1850’s, but on the whole, those that survived tended to be the less expensive solid colored ones. One of the most universally used floor coverings was matting. The coarse ones were made from coconut fiber, straw, and corn husks. Finer ones were made from sheepskin or thick wool. Some households used it to cover woolen carpets during the summer. Others used it as their only floor covering. Still others used it under carpets as padding, or as an edging if the carpet was not wall to wall. It came in @ 3 foot wide strips, which were cut and them seamed together.
Another popular floor covering was drugget. It was used to cover and protect carpets, or used as the sole floor covering or underneath rugs as protection and to cover any unattractive floorboards around the perimeter. It was so popular that it became the generic term for any covering used to protect another carpet, including baize, or heavy linen. They were also used as runners, with decorative borders stiched along their lengths. Some factories produced patterned druggets. They were also painted, and one article proposed that housewives make them from cloth remnants stiched together not unlike a patchwork quilt. Another article had an interesting idea. The author suggested that the home owner cover the large central section of the floor with a drugget, and then lay strips of carpet around the edges of the room, to suggest that there was an expensive carpet covered by the drugget.
There were many kinds of carpeting, but the machine made kind, and therefore the least expensive and most widely available, was a flat-woven carpet that had no pile. The machines of the day were only capable of weaving strips of fabric no wider than 36”. The carpet we use today is therefore known as “broadloom”, and not in wide use at the time. The strips could be used as runners, or cut into doormats, or stiched to what ever width was desired.

Most homeowners of the 1830’s and 40’s did not use elaborate curtains. English and American writers recommended “blinds”. This however, can be confusing to people today, as there were many different kinds of blinds. Shutter-blinds , or folding Venetian blinds, or Venetian shutters, were shutters with louvers that could be opened and closed. Venetian blinds were the wooden slats held together with tapes, that we now generally refer to as blinds. They were in use in America since the mid 18th c. They were often topped with cornices of wood or pierced tin. They were also used outdoors, but installed within frames to prevent them from blowing in the wind. Awnings were also described as blinds. Some were of linen or canvas, others were made of wooden slats.
Wire blinds were a version of the modern insect screen. Woven wire, or wire gauze was stretched on a wooden frame and placed on the window casing. Since the wire could rust, it was proposed that they be decoratively painted with landscapes, etc.

This is an example of a painted window screen
Another, more commonly used method of keeping out insects was the short blind. These were curtains placed over the lower half of open windows to keep people from being able to see into the house. They were hemmed top and bottom and gathered onto brass rods that were affixed to hooks on either side of the window.
Roller blinds were probably the most common window covering of the 19th c. There were spring operated blinds as early as the 1830’s, the ones we use today are spring operated. Much more common, however, were pulley operated blinds, since factory made spring rollers were not produced in America til 1858. Any kind of fabric could be used, and books gave instructions on how to make them. Many were decorated with paintings, the most popular seems to have been landscapes. Some homeowners used paper instead of fabric. “Curtain” papers were in production. Wallpaper was also used.

This is a painted window shade, circa 1840. It has a border around it, though in earlier years it was more customary to have the scene painted from edge to edge. Shades were also painted with floral designs.

Curtains were much simpler in design than the heavy ones generally associated with the Victorian era. A simple piece of fabric, with rings sown to it could be threaded onto a string which was nailed to both sides of a window frame. A frill or valance could be added to cover the rings at the top of the window.

Two examples of simple curtains that were widely used.

Here are two examples of curtains and valances. The one on the right would be identified as "Gothic", the one on the left, "Grecian". The shape of the valance is the only identifying difference.
A Venetian curtain was another popular window curtain. It was similar to today’s roman shade. Swags were also popular. A fully draped window consisted of a cornice, a drapery or valance, and one or more curtains. In the 1840’s a cornice was generally a painted, gilded or stained pole or narrow panel that was screwed to the molding at the top of the window. The drapery or valence hung below this, attached by rings, hooks or tacks, and over the curtains. The curtains were also not as full as those we use today, they used less width of fabric in ratio to the width of the window. Curtains were measured to fall to the floor when looped back. When they were closed, the extra fabric would “puddle” on the floor in order to help keep out drafts. Most curtains were drawn by hand, though there was a pulley system by 1800 called a “French rod” , but it was expensive and even as late as 1845 was not often used. By the way, pinch pleats did not come along til late in the century.
The boxed wood cornice served 2 uses. On one hand it covered the curtain rings or the rope pulleys. On the second hand it also was important in excluding drafts.
In the 19th c. a valance was a piece of fabric that hung in vertical folds from a rod or cornice, very similar to what we think of as a valance today. A drapery was a piece of fabric that was draped over a pole roughly horizontal to the floor. In today’s decorating terms a window scarf or a modern swag or festoon would fall under draperies. Many critics did not care for the draperies, citing them as being expensive, time consuming to make and care for and a depository of dust and vermin. An interesting note in the shift of fabric usage …In 1833 it was recommended that window fabrics should be identical to the color and fabrics used elsewhere in the room, such as upholstery or bed hangings. If there was no other fabric in the room, then they should match the woodwork, red, brown or scarlet with mahogany, for instance, and lighter ones with oak. By 1844 people were reading that window fabrics should only harmonize with other fabrics in the room.

A sketch done in 1841 showing Venetian blinds, folded back interior shutters, valance, sheer glass or undercurtains and draperies.

In England and America the best bedsteads at the time were either four poster, tents, or “French”. Most people, however, slept in simple unadorned beds. Curtaining beds took an enormous amount of fabric. A fully draped four poster used over 50 yards of fabric, a tent bed 43 yards. Hangings for a four poster included a head cloth, a valance, tester (canopy) and side panels which could be drawn at night. There could be more than one valance. Fully draped four posters or French beds would be quite expensive, and therefore not the norm for your average homeowner.

These are the three most popular "best" bedsteads of the 1830's through 1850. They are the "four post bedstead", the "French" bedstead, shown in the center, and the "tent" bedstead on the right. These beds, however were not in wide use in America or Britain. Most people slept in simple uncurtained beds.