Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 60, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 March 1918 — Fann Home Architecture [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Fann Home Architecture

First Prize Awarded in Planning Contest Conducted by die University of Wisconsin College of Agriculture

Farmhouses designed with due consideration to the woman who must spend most of her time and energy in the fine art of home making are becoming more and more the rule. In order to stimulate greater interest In this line, the University of Wisconsin College <ff Agriculture recently held a farmhouse planning contest, open only to people who were living or had lived on farms. The Northern Hemlock and Hardwood Manufacturers’ association not only offered prizes for the best five plans, but promised to back the College of Agriculture in a move to erect a convenient and comfortable practice farm home on the university grounds. The best idea from all of the better plans in the contest will likely be drawn upon for suggestions in drafting the specification for the proposed building. Business and home needs are combined in the plan shown. The perspective of the plan shows it to be of a neat and attractive cottage type, with an extra wide cornice as an additional feature, of distinction. The

latter element Is, of course, a matter of exterior design and can be modified. The floor plan works for “sanity first.” On entering the front door, one can either pass into the living room for a chat with the mistress of the house or step aside to the office just off the entrance to the left, where father is busy with his accounts and sales records —but not too busy to stop and smoke a pipe with a guest. From father’s den a door to the left leads directly to both the outside porch and cellar. Note that father will get, as he should, light on his desk from over his left-hand shoqlder. The main stairway leaves the entrance hall just opposite the living room door—which, if desired, may be a “cased opening.” The living room, lighted by five windows and made cheery by a fireplace, is 18 by 13 feet in dimensions, giving plenty of room for the family and company. Just off the living room, relieved from stiffness by a “jog” which admits of a window opening to the rear, is the dining room. This room and the kitchen have many features of merit and are worth studying when planning a new farm home. The cup-

board In the wall between the two rooms is there, and the arrangement of the stove, Work table, sink, and other equipment tends to carry out the general scheme of convenience. Note the washroom and men a toilet on the rear porch, to save tramping and splashing indoors. The expense of building this house depends wholly upon labor and materials, of course, and it would not be safe to estimate from the designs submitted. • , . . . Crisp and clean-cut lessons on what the farmer’s family most needs to make a more ideal form of house design have been gleaned by glancing over a number of the suggestions sent to the Wisconsin home planning contest committcc 54 Almost without exception the womeh who submitted plans have hard and soft running water connections in the house as the most important of all farm-home comforts, followed by furnace heat, sewage disposal, and electric lighting Nearly all would'have dining room and living rooms separate The majority also seemed to want built-in china closets and bookcases and in some cases cupboards aS part of the equipment. Only a few of the women seemed to desire a small kitchen—that is, one less than 12 by 14 feet. Only three suggested 9by 14 feet or less.

Neat and Attractive Cottage Type.

Floor Plan Works for “Sanity First.”