Style of house called Women's Day?
August 20, 2016 5:25 PM Subscribe
Our realtor said the design or floorplan of our new house is known as "Women's Day," because it was featured in the magazine of the same name back in the early 1970's, and was popular because of that. A Google search is yielding nothing. Perhaps it was a different magazine?? Perhaps it was the late 1960's?
To give you a vague idea of what the house looks like: downstairs has an open floor plan for kitchen dining area and living room, and 2 bedrooms + 1 bathroom. There's a laundry area off the kitchen and a bathroom. Screened in porch off the LR/ dining area. LR and bedrooms have sliding glass doors. Upstairs has 2 bedrooms with a Jack & Jill bathroom between them. The defining feature there is the hallway between the 2 bedrooms; the hallway is an open loft overlooking the living room. It's located in the Poconos in PA. Does this style, or the fact that there's a style named after a ladies' magazine, ring a bell? Would love to find out more. Thanks.
To give you a vague idea of what the house looks like: downstairs has an open floor plan for kitchen dining area and living room, and 2 bedrooms + 1 bathroom. There's a laundry area off the kitchen and a bathroom. Screened in porch off the LR/ dining area. LR and bedrooms have sliding glass doors. Upstairs has 2 bedrooms with a Jack & Jill bathroom between them. The defining feature there is the hallway between the 2 bedrooms; the hallway is an open loft overlooking the living room. It's located in the Poconos in PA. Does this style, or the fact that there's a style named after a ladies' magazine, ring a bell? Would love to find out more. Thanks.
The realtor might just mean that it was a house plan sold in a Woman's Day collection or that it reminds him or her of one of those house plans, or that some other realtor mentioned once that it was one of those home plans, or some other realtor once heard a third realtor remark that some of the houses on a street nearby but not on that street reminded him or her of a plan he or she saw in a Womans Day collection one time in 1965.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 5:43 PM on August 20, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 5:43 PM on August 20, 2016 [3 favorites]
Best answer: Yeah - Woman's Day still publishes plans for kitchen remodels, etc. Their home plans were coming out at least as late as the 1990s. You can find the collected plans in volumes like this. Check eBay too.
posted by Miko at 7:41 PM on August 20, 2016
posted by Miko at 7:41 PM on August 20, 2016
In Minneapolis we have a lot of 1900-1920s homes, some of which were built from home kits sold by Sears and others. You might talk to someone who says "oh, that's a Sears home" but it might not even have been from Sears. Plus, those houses look just like their neighbors, since they were all selling similar styles, and local architects were building in those styles too. So maybe, like ROU_Xenophobe says above, someone called it a Woman's Day home in the realtor's earshot, but it may have been Better Homes & Gardens, or some other catalog, or not at all. Even if it was from a Woman's Day catalog, it would have a model number or name.
I've found Pinterest to be a good source for individual images from old house catalogs.
posted by cabingirl at 5:48 AM on August 21, 2016
I've found Pinterest to be a good source for individual images from old house catalogs.
posted by cabingirl at 5:48 AM on August 21, 2016
Also, consider looking at building records in your area for clues. You could find out who the builder was, when the house was actually built (the plan could be from a year or more before the actual construction date), etc.
posted by cabingirl at 5:51 AM on August 21, 2016
posted by cabingirl at 5:51 AM on August 21, 2016
Best answer: Newspapers.com has a couple hits in The Poconos Record from Stroudsburg, PA in 1969, with ads for the "Woman's Day House." The site's OCR for an ad on page 37 of the April 30, 1969 edition says:
THE WOMAN'S DAY HOUSE Comfortable, livable, this year-round vacation home designed by Herman York has a charm that comes from adapting lime-honored architectural details to modern needs. First door has large room, with one close), and kitchen. Second floor has two bedrooms and an alcove that can be partitioned off for a third bedroom, plus bath and four closets. Front entrance is at left, facing porch privacy wall. Price includes electric heating and kitchen and bathroom equip- J ment. COMPLETE PACKAGE DELIVERED TO YOUR FOUNDATION IN THIS AREA FOR $8,950 BEDROOM 10"xlZ' BEDROOM 9-xlO' HARVEY W. HUFFMAN CONTRACTOR-BUILDER Marshalls Creek, Pa. Phone 421-0260
The preview for this page includes a floor plan sketch.
Harvey Huffman's 1992 obituary credits him with the development of Birch Acres, Craigs Meadows in Monroe County, and Jay Park, Marshalls Creek. My guess is that this contractor built a number of these houses in the area based on the same floor plan, and because they were advertised as such, they are locally known by realtors as the Woman's Day houses. Perhaps builders elsewhere used similar advertisements, resulting in similar local labels.
posted by Snerd at 11:28 AM on August 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
THE WOMAN'S DAY HOUSE Comfortable, livable, this year-round vacation home designed by Herman York has a charm that comes from adapting lime-honored architectural details to modern needs. First door has large room, with one close), and kitchen. Second floor has two bedrooms and an alcove that can be partitioned off for a third bedroom, plus bath and four closets. Front entrance is at left, facing porch privacy wall. Price includes electric heating and kitchen and bathroom equip- J ment. COMPLETE PACKAGE DELIVERED TO YOUR FOUNDATION IN THIS AREA FOR $8,950 BEDROOM 10"xlZ' BEDROOM 9-xlO' HARVEY W. HUFFMAN CONTRACTOR-BUILDER Marshalls Creek, Pa. Phone 421-0260
The preview for this page includes a floor plan sketch.
Harvey Huffman's 1992 obituary credits him with the development of Birch Acres, Craigs Meadows in Monroe County, and Jay Park, Marshalls Creek. My guess is that this contractor built a number of these houses in the area based on the same floor plan, and because they were advertised as such, they are locally known by realtors as the Woman's Day houses. Perhaps builders elsewhere used similar advertisements, resulting in similar local labels.
posted by Snerd at 11:28 AM on August 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
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posted by listen, lady at 5:28 PM on August 20, 2016 [2 favorites]