The Well-Dressed Servants of 1931

A fairly small establishment can get along with a butler, chauffeur, footman, cook, valet, wife’s maid two chambermaids and two kitchen maids, if there are no children requiring nursemaids and a governess, the servants are usually under a secretary. – Photo source, Pinterest

NEW YORK.—Costuming servants, I am told by people who know people who have servants, is a big problem in the town’s lavish homes. The butler must be attired properly for the time of day. The chauffeur must present the right “front” as he waits for his master outside the bank. And one of the cares of living on Park Avenue is whether the footman should appear in knee pants. Then there’s the color scheme. Green or maroon is favored by most families for the servants' livery. The Vanderbilts are marooners, but the Whitneys deck their men servants in blue. 

One of the finest staffs of servants in the country waits on the family of Edward F. Hutton, the stock broker. The exact number serving the Huttons is not available, but they have about 32 in their Florida home alone. Even John D. Rockefeller, Sr., a leading livery tailor says, has a less elaborate menage. Like other extremely wealthy families, the Huttons have head butlers and chauffeurs, with staffs of subordinates. The Huttons ordered seven butler outfits from a tailor at the same time, so he figured they must have several butlers. Their chauffeurs are six. 

A fairly small establishment can get along with a butler, chauffeur, footman, cook, valet, wife’s maid two chambermaids and two kitchen maids, if there are no children requiring nursemaids and a governess, the servants are usually under a secretary. The butler ranks next. He never wears livery, if he is young and the family smart, he may wear a cutaway in the morning. The old family butler retains a gray-sack coat. In the afternoon, the well-dressed butler changes to a tail coat with his striped trousers. For evening, he changes trousers and emerges in formal dress, like his master’s, except that he wears a black vest with his tail coat, wing collar and white tie.– From “Broadway Echoes,” 1931

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia