From “Stewart Hicks”. ( Nebula )

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Old house plans often included a room called the parlor. Today, most of us live without one. So what were they for, and why did they vanish?

This video traces how parlors functioned as both waiting rooms and stages for displaying household status in the 19th century. It follows their rebranding into “living rooms,” and the persistence and decline of dining rooms, and the invention of the family room in the mid-20th century. Along the way, we’ll see how architects, magazines, and designers like George Nelson helped shape the way American homes are organized.

In addition to technical drawings, floor plans also capture shifts in daily routines, work, leisure, and family structures. By looking at what happened to parlors, we can understand how changing values reshaped houses into the open-plan, flexible spaces so common today.

Special Thanks:
Evan Montgomery- coproducer
Daniela Osorio Sanudo- Graphics

Sources:
Cohen, Lizabeth. *A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America*. New York: Knopf, 2003.

Grier, Katherine C. *Culture and Comfort: Parlor Making and Middle-Class Identity, 1850-1930*. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988.

Hayden, Dolores. *The Grand Domestic Revolution: A History of Feminist Designs for American Homes, Neighborhoods, and Cities*. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1981.

*Ladies’ Home Journal*. Various issues, 1900-1930. Philadelphia: Curtis Publishing Company.

Nelson, George, and Henry Wright. *Tomorrow’s House: How to Plan Your Post-War Home Now*. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1945.

Rybczynski, Witold. *Home: A Short History of an Idea*. New York: Viking Penguin, 1986.

Spigel, Lynn. *Make Room for TV: Television and the Family Ideal in Postwar America*. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Wright, Gwendolyn. *Building the Dream: A Social History of Housing in America*. New York: Pantheon Books, 1981.

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__About the Channel__
Architecture with Stewart is a YouTube journey exploring architecture’s deep and enduring stories in all their bewildering glory. Weekly videos and occasional live events breakdown a wide range of topics related to the built environment in order to increase their general understanding and advocate their importance in shaping the world we inhabit.

__About Me__
Stewart Hicks is an architectural design educator that leads studios and lecture courses as an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He also serves as an Associate Dean in the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts and is the co-founder of the practice Design With Company. His work has earned awards such as the Architecture Record Design Vanguard Award or the Young Architect’s Forum Award and has been featured in exhibitions such as the Chicago Architecture Biennial and Design Miami, as well as at the V&A Museum and Tate Modern in London. His writings can be found in the co-authored book Misguided Tactics for Propriety Calibration, published with the Graham Foundation, as well as essays in MONU magazine, the AIA Journal Manifest, Log, bracket, and the guest-edited issue of MAS Context on the topic of character architecture.

__Contact__
FOLLOW me on instagram: @stewart_hicks & @designwithco
Design With Company: https://designwith.co
University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture: https://arch.uic.edu/

__Attributions__
Stock video and imagery provided by Getty Images, Storyblocks, and Shutterstock.
Music provided by Epidemic Sound and includes music from Chromatic by Tom Fox
https://www.youtube.com/@chromaticbytomfox"

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