St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-09-01
THE FUTURE HOME.

There is some misgiving in the minds
of certain classes of our people that st.
Paul is OVERRIDING itself on its building
record. Over twenty millions of dollars
went into new buildings last year;
about twenty-five millions will go the
same way this year; and some of the
older citizens, who remember st. Paul
when a half-million year was re-
garded as monstrous building record,
are now shaking their heads in that
dubious manner which indicates their
lack of faith in the wisdom Of expend-
ing so much money in this dIrec-
ton. They are satisfied in their own
minds that tenants will never be found
for all the new offices and for the new
residences and apartment flats that are
now being built. Well. they will live
to see their mistake. The same pre-
dictions have been made before and
failed of fulflment. Every new build
ing that went up last year was occupied
almost as soon as completed. Every
building that is going up this season
will be occupied before the beginning of
another season. As rule. the builders
are wiser than they get credit for.
There will be returns on their invest
ments, for the building of new houses
is an aid to the growth of the city'S pop
ulation.
Yet in the midst of this phenomenal
building boom 1t might be wise for those
who are building apartment houses to
study the signs of the times, in order
that they may discover the coming rev.
olution in housekeeping, and adapt
their structures to the changes that are
inevitable. The American home of the
future is to be reconstructed on basis
different from that on which it now
rests. The future domestic arrange
ments of the home will eliminate the
kitchen, that distressing source of an
noyance to every housekeeper. IF l
had no kitchen t. bother me my home
life would be perfect" was the remark
made by st. Anthony Hill lady few
days ago; and probably she voiced
the sentiment of nine-tenths of
our American housewives. To the
mind of every housekeeper the
ideal home is the one which requires
no servants. With the kitchen and
laundry out of the way, the servant
problem would be solved. The eco
nomic law of the organization of labor,
which has been extending its opera
tiOns into all other departments Of the
worlds work, is now beginning to give
its attention to housekeeping, and there
=. b 10 1nfo nlrttf in
the system of domestic service. Its
movements are already perceptible in
some of the American cities in the radi-
cal changes in the methods and appli-
ances of household work. 1t has not
been so long ago but that most of us re-
member when clothes-making was part
of the home work, as was starch-mak-
ing, and yeast-making. and coffee-brOwn-
ing, and many other things that came
within the routine Of hOuSekeeper's
supervision that have all been ban
ished. In many homes the laundry
work is gone, and all that is left Of the
old burthensome details are cooking and
housekeeping. Now they are to go
also. Ghe current number of the Forum
contains an article by HELEN EKIN
STowELL on Housekeeping" in which
she conveys the same idea and predicts
that the city of the future will not build
| houses in squares, giving to every house
an individual kitchen and prisOn-like
back yard. The home will be disbur-
dened of the incubus of expense and
care inseparable from the present sys-
Ii ah 10
irresponsible servant by an Organiza-
ton of capital and labor which will
provide table supplies at a reasonably
low rate. One scientifically constructed
kitchen and laundry, separate and apart
| from the residences, will do all the
work for whole block or square, while
the houses will be built all around an
open square, and the part now disfig-
ured with a kitchen will be occupied as
household sitting room or nursery,
opening into a green space where
children shall play in safety and
through which the pure air of heaven
| shall blow into the houses surrounding
it. This is Mrs. STowELL's idea of the
future American home, and the signs of
the times give unmistakable indications
that she is right. We are now evidently
in the transition period between the
| past and the future methods of house
| keeping, and our home builders would
do we'll keep this fact in mind. Organ
lied labor is to perform the domestic
work; and the hOusekeeper OF the future,
freed from the formerly harassing
cares of the kitchen and the ''hired
girl,' will be able to become the ideal
homekeeper that she longs to be.