Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 212, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1916 — Old-Time Parlor Has Gone Into the Discard; Living Room Has Taken Its Place. [ARTICLE]

Old-Time Parlor Has Gone Into the Discard; Living Room Has Taken Its Place.

That we are becoming a parlorless nation Is one of the interesting developments in modern domestic architecture. This disappearance of the parlor and the evolution of the living room Is typical of the new social feeling and marks the change from the conventional and superficial to the more informal and intimate intercourse of the present day.

This movement, begun in the apartment house and developed in the bungalow, was probably brought about by the limitations of space, as well as by the Increased cost of building a house. The praiseworthy desire of simplifying the house may have contributed also to the result. But, whatever the cause, the fact surely remains that, however large the house or numerous the rooms, there seems to be no place for the parlor. So the parlor, which was once the most Important room In the house, is now crowded out or else relegated to a corner of the hall, with two chairs and a palm. The living room Is all that Its name suggests. Comfortably furnished, well lighted and with no useless ornaments to be sidestepped or knocked down, it belongs to the man quite as much as to the woman, which is, perhaps, the finest thing about it.