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About The united American : a magazine of good citizenchip. (Portland, Or.) 1923-1927 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 1925)
Page Twenty-two THE UNITED AMERICAN DECEMBER 1925 Receiving More Than Fair Valuation in Advertising A LEADING newspaper of the East is crediting , California with having furnished the East with improved building methods. It must be conceded that California has introduced advanced ideas in building construction — particularly in the ereetion of homes, but had it not been for an ingenious school of modern architects, who found the climate in California most suitable for light construc tion, and for the builders who saw enhanced sales values in the new designs and attractive lines, the building styles in California would have been as severe and somber as they appear in other sections of that older America which testifies to a past era in building designs. Eastern builders and architects have put to service ideas that originated beyond the Rockies, especially in designing small servantless houses and in apartments which would be in themselves snug as separate homes. Beds and ironing boards stowed away in walls, dining alcoves in kitchens, have all but eliminated the necessity for bedrooms and dining rooms, and the cabinets for cooking utensils, the heatless cooker and small gas, oil and electric stoves have reduced kitchens to mere cupboards. But what is true of California is true of the Pacific Northwest. The construction designs and ideas in modern home-building are to be admired as much in Oregon and Washington as they are in California, but here it is again — California, to the Easterner, repre sents everything that is worth the while mentioning out in that unfathomable great beyond that is called the West. The average Easterner is strangely uninformed about the West, as hazy on the point of its specific geographical divisions and subdivisions as he is in regard to its resources and specific developments. If there is anything in building designs in Cali fornia which might be profitably patterned in the East, there is an unlimited amount of individuality, beauty and grace in home construction to be found in Oregon and Washington, the two huge North western states, which might be copied in the East with still greater advantages to be derived. A Cali fornia home would afford an Easterner slight protec tion in the winter. The lines may be there, but the better construction, added to the lines, may be found in Oregon and Washington where the climate is mild, yet calls for more substantial building. Nowhere in America is beauty and grace in appearance, substantiality in construction, a practical interior, with every modem convenience, to be found so complete in a moderately priced home, within the reach of the average citizen, as in Oregon and Wash ington. The erection of a home in these states begins with the excavation of a full size basement which is all completed in concrete — floor with drainage connec tions laid in and walls from seven to eight feet high (three to four feet below the ground level and two, three to four feet above). On this foundation the builder erects the wooden structure, studded frame, lathed and plastered inside, a walling of rough lumber, tar-paper and finished siding or stucco on the out side. The plumbing is put in while construction is on, I pipes laid in and connections made so as to give protec tion against the occasional chilly blasts from the East. I Stationary laundry trays in the basement, convenient! arrangements for washing machines, entrance from! basement leading directly out to the back-yard with! an inside staircase leading up into the kitchen, furnace! for wood, coal or gas with hot-air vents leading! through walls to every room. Large living room! with fire-place, spacious dining room, kitchen ad joining, bath and lavatory room, usually between two! bedrooms, completes a one-story all-on-one-floor plan! modern home for the industrious thrifty laboring or I crafts man in Oregon or Washington who has acquired I a 50x100 foot lot for a home. This size ground space allows room for such a house, set about fifteen to I twenty feet back from the sidewalk, and on one side of I the house sufficient space for runways to an automobile I garage in the rear. Still it leaves enough ground space I for a little vegetable and flower garden and a lawn I space, all in the backyard, with wonderful possibilities I for landscape gardening effects along the fifteen to I twenty feet deep and fifty foot wide space in front. The added refinement and cultural atmosphere! such a home creates, enhanced by elegant furniture and I rugs to match, electrical light appliances from front! porch to bathroom with shade lamps of any desired! color for the living room, makes such a home al paradise on earth, conducive to individual refinement, I the first base to a higher standard in citizenship. Such homes may be found a-plenty in our cities I in the Northwest, they may be found on acreage and I garden truck tracts and further away from the cities, out in the great fruit orchards and on the farms. Hundreds of citizens of foreign birth are the pos sessors of such homes, enjoying a comfort they had thought possible only for millionaires, while they were living in the old country. Numerous Italians and immigrants from the Medi terranean borderlands who received scant educational advantages in their old homelands have erected and live in homes, in Portland, Oregon, which surpass the description we have given a typical Oregon home, where the arrangement permits of all imaginable home comforts without forcing the suggestion of one or two maids. Such a home of moderate size rooms, including the lot, is obtainable in Portland or Seattle for an approxi mate sum of three thousand to five thousand dollars (Continued on Page Twenty-Five) b iiiiiiiiiiiltllllltllliillllliiillllllillllllillllliii"llillllllllllllllllllillllllllllllllllllillllllllilllliilllllllllllllltllllllllllllllllliilllllllllllllllllliH2 I I The Store That Undersells Because It Sells for Cash | All Mail Orders Promptly and Carefully Filled Agents for the Butterick Patterns and Publications place Your Orders With The United American Advertisers—and Tell Them Why
