Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 267, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 November 1915 — HOME TOWN HELPS [ARTICLE]

HOME TOWN HELPS

IMPORTANT PART OF HOUSE

Wise Builder Will Always Provide for Porch That Is Comfortable In All Weather. • A case before the city building commissioner for decision hinges on the question whether a porch is part of a house. It is a technical point the official is to decide, involving an interpretation of the municipal building code. Technicalities aside, however, the question almost answers Itself, of course, a porch is part of a house, says the Cleveland Plain Dealer. In the modern house it is likely to be about the most important part for six or seven months of the year. Some day a monument may be erected to the memory of the person who first suggested the porch, if anyone is able to fix his identity. More probably, an investigator would find that the porch is a result of evolution like a modern locomotive or an automobile, for which no individual could claim credit. The “stoop” of our grandfathers, like the wheezy “injlne” of pioneer days, has been exalted to a position of high service and respect. Part of a house? Ask an architect or a contractor. The modern man who plans a comfortable residence himself designs the kind of porch he deems suitable to his comfort and dignity and when that is done gives secondary thought to the rest of the house. The porch must be big enough to entertain on, big enough to eat on in seasonable weather; it must be screened for protection against insect pests. If one wishes for comfort de luxe he may give his porch a fireplace and defy cool evenings to drive him inside. The sleeping porch, too, has edged its way into our social consciousness in these latter days. It also is a big part of the house. Doctors prescribe and children cry for it. Statistics indicate a general lowering death rate among Americans, rural and urban. One wonders whether the advent of the übiquitous porch has had an appreciable influence in bringing about this result. The gospel of fresh air owes some acknowledgment to this part of the house which lures men, women and children out of stuffy rooms and fills their lungs with fresh air. The porch knows no social caste; it is not a rich man’s privilege alone. The humblest home may possess it and, in fact; usually does. More power to it.