Celebrity Homes

This site was put together from notes and pictures I had saved from the many books I’d read over the years. As a favor to members of several...

Some time ago I found a site that listed personal belongings of some early 19th century Virginians as culled from wills or other legal docum...

This book, by Catharine E.Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe included a chapter about the ideal home, one which I've always found interes...

The first illustration shows how carpet or matting was put down without sewing the pieces together. Recall that in 1870 even even if carpets...

Also from How to Build Furnish and Decorate ... In portieres, change the color for each opening, even if in the same room, unless an entire ...

from How to Build Furnish and Decorate , 1897 The staining of wood is oftentimes necessary when we use whitewood or pine trim to relieve the...

Maria Parloa was a very popular cookbook author and teacher in the 19th c. The following is her description of a model kitchen. The size of...

MANUFACTURER AND BUILDER showed this window display in its May, 1870 issue. the article stated that any room could be improved by cutting th...

To begin with, I would have a kitchen well lighted; come, yes a great deal of the broad, expansive sunlight coming in boldly, as if it had a...

Portable Wainscoting The image shows the product in use on the wall, stairs and floor. A new product in 1869, strips of wood were glued to a...

A decorated wooden ceiling for a dining room. The room is 18 x 22 feet. The ribs are of clear pine, with a head chamfer covered with narrow ...

The following is information about townhouses in several eastern American cities. Most of it dwells on the houses of 1830, with a bit about ...

The house of the 20th c. as described by a visionary of the 19th The Twentieth-Century Dwelling The typical dwelling of the twentieth centu...

INTERIORS A well equipped Victorian kitchen should have a pot board or shelf between the legs of the table. Often equipment also hung on r...