If we may judge by the amazing amount of new building going on, the West Coast, at least, has certainly emerged from that recent period of financial embarrassment which prevented most of us from building so much as a dog house! …With government backing of a better home movement, with research laboratories of great universities studying pre-fabrication possibilities, with the manufacturers outdoing themselves in the bid for new buyers, the developments for the House of Tomorrow are so intriguing, so far reaching in their implications that it all but takes one’s breath away.
For example, are we to live in gardened parks with winding streets and a centralized and beautiful business district? Are we to order a house to be delivered by truck to our lot and put up in a few days’ time? Is it possible to buy a pleasant, well-built house for $7.50 a week covering taxes, life insurance, interest, etc. with ownership achieved at the end of 20 years?
And what of glass walls and tubs in bath room and kitchen, or earthquake- and fire-proof steel houses which will require no upkeep expense? Shall we be able to forego the mess of re-papering and have everlasting wallpaper that needs only scrubbing or, if we prefer it, lovely burnished copper wall surfaces? Is it possible that the architect will insist on hermetically sealed windows so that the air in the rooms shall be positively pure by air conditioning? With apologies to Mr. Ripley, believe it or not, all of these questions can be answered in the affirmative….
Ethel M. Head
“Sunset Homes of Tomorrow”
Sunset Magazine, November 1935
“Sunset Homes of Tomorrow”
Sunset Magazine, November 1935
4 comments:
Now, this makes me wonder if Ethel and Edith are related . . .
1. Yes
2. Yes
3. No
4. No way (ha ha).
5. Not in this lifetime.
6. Absolutely yes.
7. Not sure but yes.
8. In your dreams.
What do I win?
@Bridget B.: I had never heard of Edith Head, but since it says here she was born "Edith Claire Posener" it seems like an unlikely relation. Googling "Ethel M. Head" yields the unlikely revelation that "Ethel Head is on Facebook!" and Googling "Ethel Head Sunset" yields this very post, so it seems like our purple prosologist did not blaze a still-burning swath through magazine journalism.
@Critical Bill: You will I think be happy to hear that both Mrs.5000 and myself independently spent quite a bit of time trying to correlate your answers to Ms. Head's questions.
There's no place like home, there's no place like home,
there's no place like home.
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