Why entertain in the spare room?

[snokkums]

i was reding thru some old posts, and one had stated that Lizzie entertained friends in the upstairs spare bedroom. My question is: Why? Couldn't she have gone to the parlor and closed the parlor doors for privacy? Was she afraid of evesdropping? Or was she not allowed to use the parlor for the purpose of entertaing? Just seems strange not to use the parlor. maybe she didn't want to see Abby.

[Yooper]

I think it was a common practice to use a sitting room rather than the parlor to entertain friends who dropped in for a visit. This is a good question, but the prosecution didn't pursue it during the proceedings so maybe they didn't think it was odd. Lizzie and Emma were likely trying to avoid using the downstairs sitting room rather than the parlor. Maybe it seemed more like their own separate apartment when they used the three rooms upstairs.

Robin, do you remember the old upper and lower flats back in Milwaukee? Most of the older ones were lacking a closet in the bedroom nearest the front of the house, a room used as a bedroom nowadays. Those were sitting rooms, so the flats advertised as two bedroom units were really one bedroom, and the three bedroom units were actually built as two bedroom units. The room we would have used as a living room was the parlor. I think they started putting closets in those front sitting rooms in the 1920's, that must have been when the style changed. They used the same floorplan and room layout, but the parlor was now used as a living room and saw day-to-day use.

[snokkums]

Yes, Jeff I do remember them. I remember my great aunt living in one.Seemed hers was rather cramped, but she had alot of stuff, quite the pack rat. Maybe thats the reason I have always remembered her place as being rather small. At least her bedroom was.

[Yooper]

Most of those old duplexes were pretty much the same floorplan, bedrooms along the north side with kitchen and dining room on the south side and the living room across the front of the house. They all seemed to have a built in china cabinet/buffet in the dining room, and a space in the back hallway with a floor drain designed for an icebox. The ice delivery man didn't have to come in the kitchen so the occupants didn't need to be home to have the ice delivered.

[Bob Gutowski]

As we've been told, the girls themselves took care of their rooms in the front. Therefore, unless Uncle John dropped by, the guest room was their territory, and they had no fear that Abby would interrupt them.

[DJ]

Yes, the Sistahs could receive someone at the front door, show them right up the front stairs, and directly into the guest bedroom, effectively bypassing everyone else in the house.

Furthermore, it was probably the most private venue in the house, aside from the cellar or a third-floor rafter room, neither of which would have been considered worthy for guests.

Therefore, Lizzie could discuss that "Mean Old Thing," She-Is-Not-My-Mother Abby, in private.

Also, the guest room was undoubtedly part of the "turf war" between Abby and The Girls. Abby stored things in there, but Lizzie and Emma were undoubtedly bound and determined to show her who was going to occupy it, outside of visitors.
It's interesting that Uncle John gets stuck up on the third floor during May 1892, when the guest room was overtaken with dressmaking. As if the bed couldn't be cleared for an evening. Makes one wonder whether there was a pressing reason for him to sleep in the guest room, in close proximity to Lizzie, in August.

[shakiboo]

Hi Bob, Hi DJ glad to see ya!! There's just so many things we'll never know for sure, maybe it was Andrew's idea for them to entertain their friends up stairs, and out of his way, down stairs. Especially if there was a chance some one might stop by to conduct business with him, he'd want privacy I'd imagine. Maybe they had clothes and material laying all over everywhere in May and from what I've read about Uncle John, they just thought it best he go to the third floor. And once again in August things had returned to normal, and the room was empty, he stayed in the spare room. It could have been something just that simple.....

[DJ]

That's a good point, Shakiboo, about Andrew wanting the downstairs clear for his business.

If we only knew whether the Sistahs were BANNED from the parlor, or whether they PREFERRED to entertain upstairs.

Maybe, they were encouraged to entertain upstairs, and they found they had more privacy there, and thus came to prefer it. Or, maybe they wanted a reason to take over the guest room and not have it become merely a repository for Abby's accoutrements.

Yes, maybe the Borden seamstresses feared Uncle John might pick up cut pieces for a dress pattern and wipe himself down. I wouldn't want him in the room; however, it's strange that he was third-flooring it with Bridget. Yes, they were in separate rooms, but ... it looks impropah. Why not sleep downstairs on the couch? Or was the odor that penetrating?

[shakiboo]

Nope, can't see the couch thing happening, it just wasn't done back then. If not the third floor, I'm afraid Uncle John would have been bedded down in the barn. lol