Bok not only saw an opportunity to better the exterior of the small houses, but he determined that each plan published should provide for two essentials: every servant's room should have two windows to insure cross-ventilation, and contain twice the number of cubic feet usually given to such rooms; and in place of the American parlor, which he considered a useless room, should be substituted either a living-room or a library.He did not point to these improvements; every plan simply presented the larger servant's room and did not present a parlor.It is a singular fact that of the tens of thousands of plans sold, not a purchaser ever noticed the absence of a parlor except one woman in Brookline, Mass., who, in erecting a group of twenty-five "Journal houses," discovered after she had built ten that not one contained a parlor!
"Ladies' Home Journal houses" were now going up in communities all over the country, and Bok determined to prove that they could be erected for the prices given.Accordingly, he published a prize offer of generous amount for the best set of exterior and interior photographs of a house built after a Journal plan within the published price.Five other and smaller prizes were also offered.A legally attested builder's declaration was to accompany each set of photographs.The sets immediately began to come in, until over five thousand had been received.Bok selected the best of these, awarded the prizes, and began the presentation of the houses actually built after the published plans.
Of course this publication gave fresh impetus to the whole scheme;prospective house-builders pointed their builders to the proof given, and additional thousands of sets of plans were sold.The little houses became better and better in architecture as the series went on, and occasionally a plan for a house costing as high as ten thousand dollars was given.
For nearly twenty-five years Bok continued to publish pictures of houses and plans.Entire colonies of "Ladies' Home Journal houses" have sprung up, and building promoters have built complete suburban developments with them.How many of these homes have been erected it is, of course, impossible to say; the number certainly runs into the thousands.
It was one of the most constructive and far-reaching pieces of work that Bok did during his editorial career--a fact now recognized by all architects.Shortly before Stanford White passed away, he wrote: "Ifirmly believe that Edward Bok has more completely influenced American domestic architecture for the better than any man in this generation.
When he began, I was short-sighted enough to discourage him, and refused to cooperate with him.If Bok came to me now, I would not only make plans for him, but I would waive any fee for them in retribution for my early mistake."Bok then turned to the subject of the garden for the small house, and the development of the grounds around the homes which he had been instrumental in putting on the earth.He encountered no opposition here.
The publication of small gardens for small houses finally ran into hundreds of pages, the magazine supplying planting plans and full directions as to when and how to plant-this time without cost.
Next the editor decided to see what he could do for the better and simpler furnishing of the small American home.Here was a field almost limitless in possible improvement, but he wanted to approach it in a new way.The best method baffled him until one day he met a woman friend who told him that she was on her way to a funeral at a friend's home.
"I didn't know you were so well acquainted with Mrs.S--," said Bok.
"I wasn't, as a matter of fact," replied the woman."I'll be perfectly frank; I am going to the funeral just to see how Mrs.S--'s house is furnished.She was always thought to have great taste, you know, and, whether you know it or not, a woman is always keen to look into another woman's home."Bok realized that he had found the method of presentation for his interior-furnishing plan if he could secure photographs of the most carefully furnished homes in America.He immediately employed the best available expert, and within six months there came to him an assorted collection of over a thousand photographs of well-furnished rooms.The best were selected, and a series of photographic pages called "Inside of 100 Homes" was begun.The editor's woman friend had correctly pointed the way to him, for this series won for his magazine the enviable distinction of being the first magazine of standing to reach the then marvellous record of a circulation of one million copies a month.The editions containing the series were sold out as fast as they could be printed.
The editor followed this up with another successful series, again pictorial.He realized that to explain good taste in furnishing by text was almost impossible.So he started a series of all-picture pages called "Good Taste and Bad Taste." He presented a chair that was bad in lines and either useless or uncomfortable to sit in, and explained where and why it was bad; and then put a good chair next to it, and explained where and why it was good.
The lesson to the eye was simply and directly effective; the pictures told their story as no printed word could have done, and furniture manufacturers and dealers all over the country, feeling the pressure from their customers, began to put on the market the tables, chairs, divans, bedsteads, and dressing-tables which the magazine was portraying as examples of good taste.It was amazing that, within five years, the physical appearance of domestic furniture in the stores completely changed.
The next undertaking was a systematic plan for improving the pictures on the walls of the American home.Bok was employing the best artists of the day: Edwin A.Abbey, Howard Pyle, Charles Dana Gibson, W.L.Taylor, Albert Lynch, Will H.Low, W.T.Smedley, Irving R.Wiles, and others.
