National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Resource History and Description of Existing Conditions
The window has two sets of hardware for roller shades and sheers as well as an NPS-era
traverse rod. The bath has tile flooring and a tile baseboard. The electric wall sconce has been
removed and modern NPS-era lighting has been installed.
Sewing Room (MM&W: No. 8, Farley: Personal Maid's Room, Curry: No. 5)
McKim's original plan for this room included a window on the west wall which
interrupted the symmetry of the west elevation, as discussed above. The dog-leg revision to the
room's north wall resulted in a longer west wall and a window tucked into the irregular
northwest corner of the room. The plan did not include a closet, but a built-in closet, whose
lock is numbered in series with those on the entire floor, was added to the east wall. The only
other built-in closet on the floor is in the Housekeeper's Room. A wooden closet was also
added in the northwest corner, built into the irregular angle created by the window revisions.
The face of this closet is also angled.
The room was originally painted green. 1019 Today it is green with white baseboard, chair
rail, and picture rail. The wall and ceiling are white above the picture rail. The doorway includes a
frosted transom window. The radiator is below the window. The room has no call bell.
By 1938, the room contained a cream enamel suite of furniture including a full-sized bed,
dresser with mirrors, night stand, costumer, small rocking chair, side chair with a cane seat, and
dressing table with a three-glass mirror and bench. A satinwood, Adam-style lady's desk in very
poor condition, a wicker arm chair, and a very old Singer sewing machine were also in the
room. 1020 By 1940 the lady's desk and the sewing machine had been removed. In 1942, Mrs.
Farley described the furniture arrangement as follows: a white painted bed, night table, and
rocker on the south wall, a desk and chair (taken by Mrs. Van Alen) in the southwest corner, a
dressing table with mirror and bench on the west wall, an armchair and footstool and sewing
machine on the north wall. 1021
No curtains are reported in the 1938 or 1940 inventories. 1022 The room was carpeted
wall-to-wall with twenty yards of rose carpet, which had become stained and faded by 1938. 1023
The carpet has been removed. A metal bridge lamp and a metal goose-neck night lamp were
used in the room. By 1940 the lamps had been removed. 1024
The room was used originally as a sewing room, and the old sewing machine remained in
the room even after its conversion to another use. By 1927, the room was being used for guests'
personal maids, as its suite of furniture suggests. Despite this later use, a call bell was never
added to the room.
1019
Snell, "Master Plan Development Outline," 22.
1020
Curry Inventory, 92.
1021 rd
"3 Floor Furniture Plan."
1022
Curry Inventory, 92; Hopkins, 38.
1023
Curry Inventory, 92; Hopkins, 38.
1024
Curry Inventory, 92; Hopkins, 38.
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