Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-08-17
H0sPITABLE HOMES
Large Rooms Demanded, Especially
for Dinner Parties.
old AND new RES D ,NCES HERE
Some of the Notable City Houses
and Their Facilities.
FOR SOCIAL OCCASIONS
u| HE WIN

TNHE WIN G
!. !. !.
taste for big rooms.
~ II either picture CALLER
\ tl\S> les, living rooms or
)NS II dining rooms, nota-
Il E& NASS bly, the latter, In the
NM3lS@ building or recon-
,NESTs{1% struction of so many
MkE2MMWI houses is another in
TdS$&HT/ d C ton that the
MTa chief business in life
N IA of many Washing
Ia tQnians is to throw
x open their hospitable
doors and enjoy the
charms of a society which is admittedly
unapproached except at a few foreign
capitals. SraciousEcss Is a feature that
everybody endeavors to secure, and
while the palaces covering two or three
ordinary building lots are not in the ma
jority, the great stride which has been
made in house building the last ten years
has completely changed the idea of what
used to pass current as the proper size for
a city home. OF course if people did not
expect three or four, or perhaps six hun
dred, acquaintance at the same time, an
ordinary-sized house would amply accom-
modate the ordinary-sized family. But for
such social emergencies as these it Is
necessary to provide at least elbow room,
and the new house finishings now with
out one big assembly hall, with two or
three ways of getting in it and out of 1T,
whether 1t be dignified by the name of
picture gallery or not, is almost unknown.
The big dining room, or the basement sup
per room, which is a feature of several of
the houses most given to large entertain
ing, is the most frequent form hospitable
tendencies are taking lately. 1t is decidedly
good idea, and in several houses where
Lot only the theory but the practice of
entertaining large gatherings is in force
there has been provided almost two-thirds
more Of dining room space than drawing
room facilities. The opportunities for
decoration and beautiful effects are Just as
possible in one as the other, and, indeed, in
many cases there are Washington dining
rooms more artistic than the parlors of the
same house.
Where the Demand Is.
A Washington girl who made her debut
in society few years ago was considered
rather pert because she had way of CIV
ing her experiences of the fashionable
world and things in general in the most
matter-of-fact and practical manner. with
out caring very much whose particular
idol she might happen to topple over. After
a round of afternoon teas in which she
reveled the first weeks of her appearance in
the social realm, she summed up the whole
business by this remark: well! my estab-
lishment, If ever l succeed to one, shall
have just twice as much dining room space
as parlor. In all the big houses 1 have
been lately / found that parlor ten feet
square would have amply accommodated
all the guests who wanted to stay there
with the hostess, or the bud or whoever
else was in the main receiving party, while
the dining room, into which it is generally
only possible to enter or leave by the same
door, was packed and jammed to the very
walls
These rebellious comments at the time
We're received with mild reproofs, but long
since have been accepted as stern facts.
WE'LL when this lady returns here next
winter she will find that she was only
slightly in advance of her time, and that
the modern establishment is nowadays SO
well arranged that the dining room and the
approaches thereto no longer on festive oc-
casions present the congeSted appearance
which has made the idea of entertaining
so repugnant to. many persons to whom a
spacious house is as yet unattainable.'
White House Dining Room.
President and Mrs. Cleveland, at the head
of official entertainers. are the most dis
tinguished also for want of space when
they carry out their hospitable intentions
Last winter when the diplomatic state din
ner was given it was impossible to have
all a. the same time if the table was spread
in the dining room. So the dinner table
was laid in the corridor. Sixty-six guests
were present, and everything went off
beautifully, although it does seem too bad
that the Presidents dining room is not
large enough so he need never restrict the
number at dinner.
OF the big houses where large gatherings
are steady features of each winters pro-
gram, Corcoran house, the home of the
Br:ces; Mclean, Wallach, Riggs, Board
man, Mcmillan, Mcpherson. Glover, Ffoulke,
Henderson, Mackay-Smith Foster, Barney
and Thompson, and houses with various
foreign embassies and legations, have both
large ball rooms and dining halls. Cor
coran house is especially comfortable when
large companies are entertained, as the
porticoes and halls add many more feet of
space, besides making it practically i'm
possible to crowd any one entrance to
either ball room or dining room.
1t was probably Mr.. and Mrs. Whitney
who had the best idea OF what was needed
for the big events they contemplated at
the beginning of the first Cleveland admin
still obtains The old Frelinghuysen house
was up to that time considered all-suffi-
cient, but they added the ball room and
increased the size of the dining room. The
since, each time something added Mrs
s. S. Rowland added a room on the east
side and an aviary over it, and finds 1t none
too large for her friends.
When Mr.. Morton was elected Vice Presi-
dent he did not add any dancing space to
his house on Scott circle. but he did pro-
vide dining room, and a great big one
He had habit of having thirty or. forty
N'NSAA
on occasions of Mrs. Morton's receptions
instead of one young lady doing the hon
ors at the refreshment table there were a
couple of them at each end of the board
He also added cloak rooms, so that the
guests at reception had no stairs to
climb.
The Stanford Dining Room.
Before the late Senator Stanford began
to fail in health he wanted to give a din
ner In his house here to the Senators of all
the states west of the Mississippi. There
was not room to seat them in the dining
room. and it was decided that the table
should be spread in the parlor. The menu
cards, on which were engraved a map of
the whole country, with the favored section
In brighter colors. were designed by Mr.
Stanford and gotten up at great expense.
The dinner was never given, although II
was a question of Mr.. Stanford's health the
next winter, and not the iradequacy of the
dining room.
Mrs. Stanford. just before she left for the
west that spring, decided on the plans for
big dining room, and it was finished be-
fore her return in the fall The Senator
knew very little about the work, but when
he moved around the new room and found
how spacious 1t was, expressed his pleasure
with SO much earnestness that his wife