The turn-of-the-twentieth-century etiquette book Twentieth Century Culture and Deportment, or The Lady and Gentleman at Home and Abroad by Maude C. Cooke (Philadelphia: National Publishing Company, 1899) devoted part of a chapter on artistic home decorations to the "cozy corner". The construction and decoration was described in some detail:
Have your carpenter make a double right-angle bench, with a high, straight back. The seat must be two and a half feet wide, and the top of the back five feet from the floor. This now looks like an ungainly three-sided square, or rather oblong, for it is better to have one side somewhat longer than the others. The wood should be stained cherry or oak, to match the other furniture in the room, and oiled and polished so as to be smooth and of rich appearance; or, use hard wood, black walnut, ebony, mahogany.
The seat and inside back may be thickly and prettily upholstered, and then piled high with pillows, or, the wood having been nicely finished, the upholstery may cover the seat only. Be sure and have the seat made low, otherwise the Cozy Corner will be uncomfortable, its name will be belied, and no one will hie to what might have been the favorite seat in the room...
...The seats should be piled with sofa pillows, and in the inclosure a few hassocks would not be found amiss.
The purpose of the cozy corner?
The word cozy suggests warmth and pleasantry, as well as comfort. Therefore, this corner is always by the fire, and those occupying it are presumably cheery and happy.
It is just the place to rest in, just the place to read in, just the place for you and your dearest friend to chat in, just the place to play a game in, as bags, balls, etc., could easily be tossed from one seat to the other; just the place to lay plans in, for you are in no hurry to move, and so your plans, not being hurriedly completed, would be more apt to prove satisfactory; just the place to nap in, just the place to frolic in. Indeed, just the place to add to our already comfortable homes if we would have them one remove nearer the ideal home than they now are.
(quotes from pp. 479-80; the entire book may be found online at Project Gutenberg)
This being a dance history blog and not a nineteenth century home decor blog, one might wonder why exactly I find cozy corners worthy of attention. Oddly enough, at least in early twentieth century Maine, they seem to have sometimes formed part of the decorations at college dances!
Witness the following excerpts from descriptions of events from two different campuses' editions of the University of Maine's newspaper:
Sigma Alpha Epsilon Dance and Banquet
"The Maine Alpha chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon gave an informal dance in the gymnasium, Friday evening, February tentieth, which was a thoroughly enjoyable affair. About two hundred couples were present and the dancing continued until nearly midnight. The gym was tastefully and comfortably arranged with couches and cozy corners; and the orchestra, which was placed in the centre of the floor, was surrounded by potted plants." The Campus. Orono, Maine.Vol IV, No. 10, March 2, 1903, p. 133.
The Beta Dance
"In the corners and various other convenient spots, prettily arranged cozy corners, added to the comfort of the guests and lent a home-like appearance to the otherwise bareness of the large floor space." The Campus. Orono, Maine. Vol. IV, No. 15, May 15, 1903, p. 200.
Sophomore Hop
"The decorations were very effective, the general color scheme being red and white, the class colors. Pretty little cozy corners were arranged about the hall for the comfort of the dancers, while overhead the suspended running track was draped with red and white bunting, and high up among the trusses the arc lights shaded with red, threw their soft, summer, sunset rays down on the merry scene below." The Maine Campus. Orono, Maine. Vol V, No. 16, June 1, 1904, p. 226.
Cozy corners at these dances featured cushions, just as described in Twentieth Century Culture and Deportment:
Sophomore Hop
"[Alumni hall] was decorated very attractively with long streamers of bunting, radiating from the centre of the building. There were palms and potted plants in profusion, and several cozy corners, loaded with cushions, added to the general effect." The Maine Campus. Orono, Maine. Vol. VI, No. 15, May 15, 1905, p. 213.
The Beta Dance (description excerpted above) was also held in Alumni Hall. Several other balls are described as having been in the gymnasium, which may have been the same place. There is actually a surviving photo (undated, alas) of cushion-loaded cozy corners set up for a ball in the Alumni Hall gymnasium:
The information page for this photo states that the provision of cozy corners and cots was "a practice forbidden by the administration and faculty". I can certainly see why, just I can guess why the students might have liked them. The home version was billed as "just the place to frolic in", and one can imagine what sort of frolicking college students might have gotten up to in these bed-like nooks!
Given the number of descriptions, the prohibition seems not to have been much enforced. And perhaps cozy corners were not as forbidden as all that: the 1904 Sophomore Hop (description excerpted above) was attended by the University President and his wife as well as Fellows of the University, who must have managed to tolerate or at least strategically overlook them.
Cozy corners were often associated with fraternities, either by a fraternity or sorority hosting the dance or because the decor was provided by fraternities and fraternity-themed:
Delta Sigma Dance
"The gym was very tastily [sic] decorated for the occasion and presented a pretty sight to the guests as they were ushered in. Especially attractive was a "blue cozy corner," which received universal admiration. The draperies and background consisted of festoons of the college blue, while inside temptingly arrange were countless sofa pillows, all of Greek letter design, contributed by the various fraternities of the institution." The Campus. Orono, Maine. Vol. V, No. 14, May 2, 1904, pp. 197-198.
The Second Assembly
"The decorations were simple, although very tasteful and as usual the color scheme was blue and white. The cozy corners which were decorated by the different fraternities gave the gymnasium a very attractive appearance." The Maine Campus. Bangor, Maine. Vol. IX, No. 19, March 10, 1908, p. 194.
Military Hop
"On Friday evening, April 29th, was held the only distinctly Freshman affair of the college year, the Military Hop. The gymnasium was decorated in red, white and blue crepe and bunting with colored lights and green plants and palms. A portion of the Sophomore Hop decorations of crepe paper were left up and were worked into the scheme very skillfully. Cozy corners were arranged by the different fraternities and the non-fraternity men in a very attractive and pleasing manner." The Maine Campus. Bangor, Maine. Vol XI, No. 26, May 3, 1910, p. 283.
By 1918, cozy corners had achieved "customary" status:
Junior Prom
"The gymnasium was simply but attractively decorated with black and white streames or crepe paper and a large '19 was lighted at one end of the hall...Around the gym walls, the fraternities and dormitories arranged the customary cozy corners, decorated with fraternity and college banners." The Maine Campus. Orono, Maine. Vol. XIX, No. 23, May 1, 1918, p. 1.
Was the cozy corners craze limited to the University of Maine? Apparently not:
“The swellest social event of the season so far took place on Saturday eve, January 25, in the [Lombard] college gym. It was a dancing party given to the Sigs by our most faithful and loyal friends, the Alpha Xi Deltas. The gym was prettily decorated in light and dark blue, their colors, and the gold, black and white of Sigma Nu. Inviting cozy corners were arranged here and there, which of course, were always occupied."
The quote is from the February, 1902, issue of The Delta, the magazine of the Sigma Nu Fraternity, which was included in an article published by the woman's fraternity Alpha Xi Delta in the Fall/Winter 2006 issue of their magazine, The Quill, that was excerpted at length here. Lombard College was a coeducational college in Illinois in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Alpha Xi Delta was founded there.
I'm mildly curious as to when cozy corners at college dances first became a trend, whether they were truly widespread, and whether people (parents?) found them scandalous or shocking. But since they're not directly dance-related, just an interesting tidbit of ball decor for a very specific set of balls, I'll leave the topic for now.
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A final bit of dance trivia: five of the eight balls at the University of Maine mentioned above were provided with music by Pullen's Orchestra, led by the same Horace Pullen who was the choreographer of the Woodland Yorke back in 1894. This is not a coincidence; I first made note of these cozy corners when researching Pullen for my post on that dance.
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