The Typical American Home

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 33, 27 February 1931, Page 32

The Typical American Home

Ne ee New or Old?

LTHOUGH America possesses houses with a past, and homes dating back to the early part of the seventeenth century, full of atmosphere, they are not typical American "homes," according to-an English writer:in the "Spectator." .The typical "home" is generally new, and its: inmates have almost certainly lived there not more than ten years, probably only two. One is immediately struck by a certain sameness in all American houses: no matter what size the house, it already seems familiar. For one thing, there are never any doors in livingroom. doorways, everything.is as open as a bungalow, and the sound of the radio as well as central heating permeates everything in a way which somehow startles the Wnglish. visitor’s feeling for privacy. Then the walls are invariably scrumbled, the electrical fittings ornate, either pseudo-Renaissance or ultra-modern. .- . There is only necessary furniture, and a striking absence of those oddments, worn pieces, photographs and general human residue which give to our idea of home so much romance. New York apartments, or houses on the hedgeless lawns of Long Island, are all alike in this; and the smallest places enjoy labour-saving comforts that only the wealthy English aspire to. The more sumptuous "homes" are merely larger, not so much finer. The rent, unfurnished, for a New York apartment may be £3000 a year, for a six-room dwelling at the sunlit top of a towering block, with two bathrooms, one of which is really a luxurious boudoir, a" maid’s room and bath, -all reached by noiseless elevator from a splendiferous entrance, guarded by a regal commissionaire and decorated again in pseudo-Spanish or modern German, A luxurious apartment of ten rooms or more, with terrace, may be £10,000 a year. . The rent for a two-room apartment in a less gorgeous block (probably not on the east, or smart, side of Fifth PITT TTTTTTTTTL@TUTTTTITITTET@UTETTETLTETTI@UTTETETTET EET @TTTLTTETTT TLL @HTETELTTLTLL LS

Avenue) may be a mere £400, there may be only one bathroom, and the cloth-of-silver-covered divan in the main living-room may well be the bed, since a wealth of clothes and linen closets, recessed into the hall and bathroom, make it possible to keep: such a com-bination-room wholly deceptive in appearance, But there will still be ornate fittings and no doors to the livingrooms, and the bathroom and kitchen still make me sigh with admiration. A tiny house in the least smart part of Long Island, for instance, had a bathroom all tiled in lavender, with black bath and square black recesses over the black washbasin to hold soap, while, an alcove held a majestic and complicated shower, with good provision for drainage underfoot. The humblest kitchen, beautifully sunny, has its electric refrigerator, its noble china cupboard over the tiled sink, and, at a convenient height, a gas-cooker with cooking-table attachment and a bevy of plugs for electric toasters, grillers, coffee-percolators and. such, Crowning touch, from a cupboard flat in the wall comes forth on a hinge an ironing board, with its electrical iron, regulated to three degrees of heat. Other New Yorkers contrive some- thing more romantic, though less convenient, out of converted, old (30 or 40 years old) houses in Greenwich Village or near the Hast River. These do not necessarily have central heating, but the furniture (inherited or acquired) is older, there are more worn books and an atmosphere of more repose, and all the rooms have doors. At the top of a workman’s dwelling (which will be pulled down next year to make room for a sumptuous block of apartments) I have even seen something that looks very like "home" to me, with its two large and one smal room, its view down the river, its mantelpieces over the fireplace, its closed doors, and-above all-its rental, which is, even here in this fabulous city, a mere £7 a month. VETTES UTTTTTEEPTEL @UTTHTTTTTTLLPS TET UTTTTTTEE@ TTT TIEL TO rei Ttirt ae!