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Libby's avatar

Thoroughly enjoyed this.

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Jessica Weingarten's avatar

YAY!

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Sharyn's avatar

I love this! I share your passion and interest in this topic! Our new house in the Hudson Valley was built in 1956. The whole neighborhood has the same model. Wonder if it’s a Sears house?!

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Jessica Weingarten's avatar

If you look in the link to the Sears Houses catalog - they have information (under "Honor Bilt") about things you can look for to see if you've got a Sears House -- like go up into the attic and see if there are stamps on the rafters.

I wonder if our shared passion is genetic????

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Caroline Terrell's avatar

Oh My! I do love a good floor plan! My dad, George Sprau, was an Architect and as a result I studied drafting in High School (even worked for him part time as a draftsman). He worked for the TVA post WWII designing dams and bridges in Knoxville TN and then returned to Kalamazoo and designed hospitals, colleges, churches and schools but his real passion was home design. He even partnered with Frank Lloyd Wright in the development of Parkwyn Village. https://www.parkwynvillage.com/75th

His designs were innovative - a multi-level circular ICU at Bronson Hospital with the nurses station in the middle so patients could be better monitored. The design of food service facilities at Ferris State College introduced early designed microwave ovens. I remember him coming home and describing how they worked - it was so futuristic and as kids we were in awe.

Additionally, growing up in Kalamazoo having a class field trip to Kellogg’s in Battle Creek was a frequent occurrence. We would tour the cereal factory and then top it off we would be ushered into a lunch room and served a scoop of ice cream topped with corn flakes.

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Caroline Terrell's avatar

I also remember visiting friends (late 60’s early 70’s) apartments on the upper east side of Manhattan with bathtubs in their kitchens - they had rent control so it was the ‘price’ you would pay for cheap rent.

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Jessica Weingarten's avatar

When you come over to visit, I'll be so glad to pull out floorplans we can look at -- especially the true failures (like the house an architect designed for herself that has NO closets, and a separate bathhouse which would be OH so useful if one had stomach trouble during a snowstorm). And some really great ones!

I once almost rented an apartment with a bathtub in the kitchen, but thought better of it. Glad about your dad! What a great upbringing.

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Caroline Terrell's avatar

That’s hilarious- I’m sure there are lots of fails out there - I’d love to peruse some floor plans

with you!

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Jessica Weingarten's avatar

Maybe this coming weekend? Would you like to visit? I know Fiona would love to see you. We could look at floorplans as long as you like (trust me, one day won't do it -- I have a ton) and we could catch up! I'd love to see you!

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Tina Stein's avatar

Fascinating- what a great way to study history!

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Jessica Weingarten's avatar

It's also a great way to study geography -- different houses in different areas need, for example, different roof pitches if they get a lot of snow, or are in a desert. Not to mention the issue of basements vs slabs and crawlspaces. Plus external design features predicated on local availability of wood, concrete, stucco, etc.

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Jan Haig's avatar

Now that I'm retired, I don't write anything more exciting than blogs for fancy doctors. But even those I like to write.

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Jessica Weingarten's avatar

When the writing bug bites you, it never goes away!

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Richard Weingarten's avatar

You can "bore" me anytime. Are you publishing a Substack today?

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Jessica Weingarten's avatar

Sorry - no -- I have two half done, but I ran out of steam yesterday - sent you an email.

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Richard Weingarten's avatar

Never knew that. Always assumed that all cities had indoor plumbing just as we did and that outhouses were a rural thing. This was back in the day before TV so our knowledge about the rest of the world was Quite limited.

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Jessica Weingarten's avatar

When I was a freshman in college, I studied "Intro to Geography" under the late, GREAT, Dr. Gerald Karaska. One of the things we learned was about a hierarchy of cities. So, a city on a river would have transportation options that a landlocked city did not. A city on a river that also had rail service was higher on the hierarchy.

In terms of sanitary sewage, sewer systems were higher than places dependent on septic tanks -- and you can see that to today in Florida where the topography didn't easily allow for sewer systems, and now the septic tanks (especially on the east coast of the state) are in trouble due to rising water tables.

I could go on and bore you to tears about what I know about how different American cities grew over time.

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Linda Crownover's avatar

You would enjoy his book A Body: A Guide for Occupants. He presents so ny interesting facts about our bodies in ways we don't typically think ofthem.

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Jessica Weingarten's avatar

Thanks

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Richard Weingarten's avatar

Thanks for the enjoyable trip through time for American housing. I do remember that we did have indoor plumbing in our Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan apartments back in the 30s, but there was only one bathroom shared by all, so it was Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, with a rap on the door if you daddled. And we did eat in the kitchen where we had an ice-box rather than a refrigerator into the 40s, and I still visualize the Iceman knocking on the front door, coming in with a block of ice on his shoulder held there with a metal grasping tool. We in America have much to complain about but it is the shortage of housing for the many not the type of the housing for the better off that is the real concern.

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Jessica Weingarten's avatar

There were indoor bathrooms in the major cities earlier than other places. Specifically, Chicago, NY and Philly all passed the earliest laws related to sewer systems, under the heading of disease-reduction. But throughout a lot of the country, it came later under New Deal programs. This chart (scroll down) https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial/tables/time-series/coh-plumbing/plumbing-tab.txt shows the percentage of homes with indoor plumbing, by decade. In the 1940's - it wasn't yet a thing.

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Jan Haig's avatar

This article's so good, you should consider submitting it to a major online publication like The Atlantic!

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Jessica Weingarten's avatar

Thanks for the compliment. I have no idea how to do that - nor do I have the bandwidth. However, if you want to shop it, and you can get someone to buy it, you can keep any money.

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Jan Haig's avatar

I'll sniff around. And BTW, I'd point them to you as the author for payment and a byline, of course!

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Jessica Weingarten's avatar

Kind of you! But if there’s so much as a dollar, I cannot take it - my job does not allow for any outside income, unless I report it for “evaluation” - when I speak and there’s any payment, I turn it down. I don’t monetize my Substack. I need to keep my job - I write because I love writing!

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Jan Haig's avatar

Ok, no worries. But too bad -- as a writer myself, I think that piece is very cool, and everything you write is so well done!

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Jessica Weingarten's avatar

Thanks for appreciating my work! I was actually born to write -- my first poem won a statewide contest when I was 10, and they hung a copy on the bulletin board of the classroom.

And the money isn't an issue - even if I could make a living at it, there's no corporate health insurance in being a freelancer.

But you! What do you write? Can I read something of yours?

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Linda Crownover's avatar

I'm guessing you've read the fabulous Bill Bryson's great book, At Home?

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jun/06/bryson-at-home-book-review

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Jessica Weingarten's avatar

Sorry -- never heard of it, but I'll check it out.

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Linda Crownover's avatar

Bill Bryson is one of my favorite writers. A Short History of Everything and A Walk in the Woods are probably more well known, but At Home is fascinating.

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Judith Green's avatar

So interesting! Like the move in the 70's to historians studying the lives of ordinary people of the past, not just eminent men and major events

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Jessica Weingarten's avatar

Even prior to that, there were librarians (my mom was one of them) who recorded oral histories of ordinary people and compiled them based on the countries from which the people had emigrated, or where their people were from in the US. I used to listen to them when I was a kid, and one of the most fascinating things I learned was that there used to be no garbage.

Today, we talk about recycle and reuse -- but these folks took it to a whole 'nother level. A piece of fabric would be a dress, handed down, then cut into squares for use as a quilt, and when that was finally done, then used as rags. Food jars were all glass, used, washed, reused....it was a thing that nothing went to waste.

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Robin Agerton's avatar

I took some architecture courses in school, and enjoyed Architecture tours in New York City, San Francisco and Savannah. However, I was never interested in building a home, or God forbid decorating one. Now in our 70's, we are leaving our 5 bedroom Victorian home after almost 40 years. I have spent a year looking at and creating a floor plan for a 950 square ft. trailer. Though we are not 'trailing' it, anywhere, we literally found a 'village' to park it in. ( Think gypsies in Peeky Blinders, with more Republicans.)

I vetoed the manufacturer's combined living space design, all the current trends, decorating tips, and color palettes and went rogue.

One bath - I'm done cleaning two, a gally kitchen- I'm fine in there by myself, just two bedrooms, with a huge utility room for everything we 'utilize', plus a full size washer/dryer, so our grands in college can do their laundry.

We're not in yet. We have our beds, a card table,with four chairs, a china closet (we're not animals) and our TV.

It all looked good on paper.

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Jessica Weingarten's avatar

I had considered living in a tiny house - and while I never did it, I DID read a bunch of books -- plus watched tv shows like "Tiny House Nation" -- and their storage ideas were really great - and applicable -- for example, if you lack counter space in a kitchen, you can get a piece of butcher block to place over your sink to use as a cutting board, and when you're done, it hangs on the wall.

Everything had double duty - like a staircase up to a loft (against a wall) would house a washer-dryer, drawers for clothing, a pull-out table with hanging chairs, or other interesting configurations.

Can't wait to see your new house! Good luck with it and ENJOY!

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Abbe Seldin's avatar

This is fascinating. I too always find real estate, floor plans, designs amazing. That is why I work in the field. Great post. I will read it over several times. Thanks my friend .

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Jessica Weingarten's avatar

Glad you liked it -- make sure to read the link to the Sears houses -- not only is it fascinating, but since you're out and about, I bet you see Sears houses and didn't even know that they were!

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