Sun Porch: 1920

It's a lovely porch - but there's something about the dead-straight composition that makes me think of Stanley Kubrick's version of "The Shining." What horrors took place out of the frame?

Au contraire. I think every detail of this sunporch reflects Mrs. Compton.

Perhaps Mrs. Compton was invisible and chose to conduct the photography session in the nude. My Aunt Phyllis was like that. Every time a camera would come out, she'd disappear.

Many of these sun porches survive in older communities, and they are still a delight to behold and (I hope) use.

Around 1920, former FTC economist Wilson Compton (1890-1967) was the secretary of the National Lumber Manufacturers' Association. His wife, the former Helen Harrington of Bowling Green, Ohio, was a high school teacher who had become a homebuilder in Bowling Green. In the two years before their marriage in 1917, she had constructed fifteen homes. Daughter Catherine (the future Catherine Compton Chase) would arrive in 1921. Wilson Compton would ultimately become president of Washington State University, notable in part because his brothers were also serving as presidents of universities at the same time - at the University of Chicago and M.I.T.

Nice roomy ashtray. What is the box on top for? Matches, maybe a cigar cutter?

I'd love to relax there with a book and a glass of iced tea. There's nothing really "dated" about it, either, except maybe the ashtray.

A very comfortable mix of materials and textures, from the tiled floor to the stone work to the plaster ceiling. A space that would be very easy to spend a day in. She wasn't required!

Mr. Compton appears to have been involved with the trade association(s) for the lumber industry; he did some time in government in Washington as well (FTC, and so on). There's a nice bio here (and photo of him, but not the missus), where his papers are archived:

http://fhsnb.oit.duke.edu/Research/Faids/Compton.html

Wilson Compton was a diplomat and president of Washington State University. Brothers Karl and Arthur were physicists; Arthur won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1927 and was prominent in the Manhattan Project. No word on Mrs. Compton's accomplishments other than maintaining a nice sun room.