New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1853-03-24
HOUSE ARCHITECTURE.


invention ia strikingly illustrated BY mode
ofbuilding employed in very many Of the houses
recently erected in the City. The enormous
price of lots in the more fashionable streets,
and the painful fact that every man who desires
to live in splendor is after all not millionaire,
render it necessary to consult economy even in
gratifying taste and providing for maguifcence.
Accordingly, instead Of lots fifty, thirty or
twenty five front, and houses, of proportionate
dimensions we find ourselves reduced to build
on narrow lots, Of sixteen, eighteen, or twenty
feet but even on such strip of land it is
found quite possible to have spacious, or even
q palatial house, with every convenience, and
quite as many rooms, of quite as good size as
used to be obtained from broad lots and houses
Of extensive magnitude on the ground.
This ingenious and convenient style of build
ing is known sometimes as French and some
times as English The house must be Of four
or FIVE stories, with kitchen, wssllroom, &c,
mainly below the surface of the ground. The
depth of the building is from fifty to sixty feet.
The first story is occupied with the entry, the
library and the dining-room. The entry is
made very broad, say from seven to nine feet,
according TO the width of the house; we have
seen some houses where it occupies half the
width, giving very spacious aud fine effect it
runs back say thirty feet, afording abundant
room for wide staircase; the librsry, which
is also in front, is Of the same width as the
entry the dining. room is in the rear, occupy
ing the entire width of the building between
it and the library is room for closets, dumb
waiter, &c. The psrlOrs, two in number, are
in the front and rear of the second story, and
are of the entire width of the house; each has
sliding glass door to separate it from third
room in the center, of the same width, which
includes the landing at the head Of the stairs;
the stairs are not psrtitioned off, but hand
somely finished with balusters, &c, aud left
open in this middle room and thus when the
sliding doors are drawn there is one con-
tinuous salon, occupying the whole breadth
and depth of the house, say 20 feet by
60, or Is by 50. A handsomer drawing
room no one need desire. The bathroom,
sleeping rooms, &c, are in the third, fourth
and fifth stories. BY this arrangement the ut
most amount of habitable space is obtained
from the smallest lot of ground. We know Of
houses containing in all twenty rooms, and
those airy, spacious and nvenient,-except
perhaps there may be too many flights of stairs
to climb, built on lots no bigger than 90 by %.
1t seems that in this direction ingenuity can
20 no further The next move must be in the
contrary way, toward palaces in external pro-
portions as well as internal arrangements.
When will moneyed men think of making
money by erecting great and elegant houses
on the plan of Paris and Edinburg We
mean houses 70 let out in fats, or complete
suites of apartments, &C such rents as those
who are able to live in comfort or even ele-
gance can afford to pay, but yet less than
81 900 OF 81 500 year,-which let us say TO
our country friends are but common rates for
good habitatiOns. Mr. Aston has lately erected
plan if he or any other well Known capitalist
would only introduce the innovation just men
toned We are persuaded that it would prove as
profitable pecuniarily TO the man as useful TO
the public.
Meanwhile let us praise the architects and
proprietors who have brought into fashion the
building of large houses on small lots. Those
of our readers who are curious TO see such
houses may find tlsm in almost all of the more
recent parts of the City. Some of the hand
soonest we have examined are in Twenty-third-
7 ST.; others are near Gramercy-psrk. Less ex-
pensiye ones may be seen elsewhere. CandOr
compels us 60 add that We have looked at some
built year ago, which, after six months winter
fires, were not ereditable to the builders, owing
TO settling, shaking and cracking Of work.
Persons who think Of buying houses, cannot
too closely scrutinize the carpenters and
masOns work, especially, Of such as are put up
in blocks for the immediate purpose of being
sold