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Floor Plans: Family Rooms — Born in the 19th Century
Common knowledge has it that the “family room” came into being during the latter half of the 20th century when families outgrew the tiny ranch houses built immediately after World War II and began seeking larger, more luxurious homes.
Well, common knowledge is off by more than a century.
That relaxed, informal space for families actually emerged in the 1870s (if not before).
A Home With a Formal Parlor, Plus Room for the ‘Family’
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Ground floor plan with family room |
Plans for the vintage home featured here were first published in the December 1877 issue of Manufacturer and Builder, a New York City-based building industry news magazine. The plans clearly show a separate family room in addition to the more formal parlor.
The visionary architect who — almost 130 years ago — anticipated one of the most important home design trends of the late 20th century was Lawrence V. Valk. He worked out of offices at 229 Broadway.
According to the magazine, the frame-built house sat on a stone foundation, sold for $3,600 and included a parlor and “a family or sitting room” on the first floor. Also on the first floor were a kitchen and pantry off the home’s dining room. Upstairs were “five good-sized bedrooms.”
Beautifully Finished — For Less
The home’s interior was “finished in pine — no painting; but filled and varnished, a beautiful and inexpensive way of interior finish.”
The home also featured brick fireplaces with flues made of “new fire-proof composition pipe, plastered over the same as brick.”
While a note on the floor plan also indicates that the home did have a bathroom on the second floor, the exact configuration of the second floor is unknown.
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House with same footprint, but no family room |
Instead of publishing the floor plans for the first and second floors as it usually did with the houses that it featured each month, Manufacturer and Builder opted to print an alternate first floor design utilizing the same footprint — but without the family or sitting room.
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Ground floor, sans family room |
Cisterns, Indoor Plumbing — and More Savings
The article also noted that both versions of the home “have shingle roofs, and cellars under nearly the whole, also a cistern, and plumbing in bath-room, water closet, etc.”
Following a new trend in home building, the design dispensed with setting ranges in brick, “for the new patterns lately introduced do not require brick-work, which is a great saving.”
Even though our contemporary home building industry can no longer lay claim to having originated the concept of the family room, we can take comfort in the sure knowledge that the home’s single bathroom wasn’t equipped with a whirlpool tub, a handheld shower massage or a dual-sink vanity.
And, of course, Valk’s design didn’t include a low flow toilet.
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Features and Specifications |
- Price: $3,600 with family room
- Price: $3,200 without family room
- Five bedrooms, one bath — unknown dimensions
- Parlor: 13x20 feet
- Family room: 12x15 feet
- Kitchen with pantry: 12x14 feet
- Dining room: 12x18 feet
- Double boarded framing
- Stone foundation
- Brick fireplaces with fireproof composite pipe flues
- Interior finish: Varnished pine — no painting to cut expenses
- Indoor plumbing
- Full-house cellar
- Cistern
- Shingle roof
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Plans courtesy of:
Cornell University Library, The Making of America Digital Collection
"Two Designs for Cottages"
The Manufacturer and Builder magazine. Volume 9, Issue 12, December 1877 pp. 284-285
To read the Cornell collection article about the cottage featuring Valk’s family room design, click here.
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