European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 16, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A 900-foot porch tet with while Wicker Chain extends along the Bidet of the mount Washington hotel in Bretton Woods . The vanishing Grafl Neur of the Ameri Gln Preh three grizzled vermonters sat enthroned in rockers on an ornate wooden porch that architects Call Carpenter gothic when a Yuppie and his lady Friend roared up in a Low Slung sports car. We want to go to Burlington the City Feller hollered out the window. Doing a deliberate Rock of sages the Trio consulted among them selves. At last the appointed spokesman spoke. We have no objection he Twan ged. By Hugh a. Mulligan associated press he Story begs the question of what has become of the old front porch that Cool Shady cloister of philosophers stage set Lor Romance gathering shed Lor gossip and launching pad Lor at least three presidents of these United states. No other part of the House could match it Lor Charm and comport and mystery. Morning s at seven As Paul Osborn named his Fine play that called Lor a front porch he outside world unfurled at your door when the newspaper boy tossed up the local chronicle. As the Community stirred to life and headed of to work this was the Vantage Point to keep up with the March of Progress under the Guise of watering the window boxes or snipping the Lilac Bushes. Morning  i  school bus is late today. That new girl at the Library got herself a Perm. Got to be a Sale on someplace shoppers out Early in droves. Somebody sick across the Way doctor s car outside. Must ask the postman. With the Sun climbing into the Trees it was time to put the fold up Gate across the front Steps and let the baby crawl about in this enormous and Safe Playpen. Afternoons or or lipping lemonade in the Shade stirring up a Breeze with a cardboard an Courtesy of the local undertaker swapping gossip with passers by knitting or dozing in the Depths of a White Wicker chair listening to the bees Buzz in the Rose trellis. The grocery boy came by on his bicycle the knife Sharpener with a Grindstone on his Back the insurance Man heating his big Black Book and maybe a vacuum cleaner Salesman working his Way through College. Kids Home from school sprawled on the Steps plotting their Way out of Homework repairing their bikes or playing mumble  with a Jackknife. Evenings brought an incandescence of fireflies a chorus of crickets and katydids the pulsing red glow of Cigar embers in time with the creak of the rocking chairs a whiff of Citronella and deep in the shadows a ukulele strumming to the Moon above from a porch swing built for two. Kiss me again composer Victor Herbert heard a Lover whisper in the darkness of an Adirondack porch and found the inspiration for his loveliest Waltz. Heralded by a stir of sparrows in the eaves Dawn and the morning Star s last blink beheld a Row of empty milk bottles at Parade rest in this Gateway to America the front porch from the latin  meaning Gate or entranceway. Except in the South where the porch is grander and called the veranda. Sickness and weddings and courting and funerals Are the favorite topics on the porch wrote Truman capote. With a  Vladimir Nabokov s stricken Humbert Humbert first beheld his Nymphet Lolita sunbathing on a porch and yearned to sit in a nearby Rocker pretending to  on a country club porch . Wodehouse s oldest member told his droll Golf tales and the porch was the else in scene for Booth Tarkington s magnificent Amberson Sinclair Lewis s Babbitt. John p. Marquand s Wick lord Point and a whole Hammock full of american classics. In indent a Thant on a painted porch called a Stoa the stoic philosopher Zeno held court with his disc Laptef forerunners of those Vermont sages. In 1888, Benjamin Harrison ran for president from w front porch in Indianapolis because his backers figure his 5-foot-6-Inch Frame would t Cut a very imposing figure on the stump. The railroads ran special exc set to Canton. Ohio in the summer and Early fall of 1898. So politicians and newspaper types could View Viniam. Mckinley campaigning from his front porch where my Mentor Mark Hanna reasoned he was More effect Trio against a Stem wonder like William Jennings Bryan. Warren Gamaliel Harding conducted the country last front porch Campaign from his Home in Marlon Ohio in 1920, the same year election returns wer broadcast Tor the first time Over the radio which May have faintly signalled the approaching decline of tin j front porch in America. J radio then to and air conditioning killed the for porch diagnoses Jack Coogan. A Young Greenw Village architect who loves rescuing old House. People began moving indoors and turned their t on the Street out front. They wanted to get away the increasing noise and fumes of traffic. All that i Gingerbread Woodwork which few craftsmen can duplicate today went to waste As the action moved the Backol the House. Now people want a deck out Back Tor Barb and sunbathing or a Patio by the Pool. Outdoor i demands privacy these Days As a sort of Garrison mentality takes hold and shuts out the outside v Dean of housing architects Herman York of City. N.y., who was elected to the housing Haft of the stars and stripes