The Westerly echo, & Pawcatuck advertiser. [volume] (Westerly, R.I.) 1854-1858, 1855-10-18
Wanted.

While peripatcting about our beau,i-
fnl, enterprising, growing, &c, village,
a short time sincs, luxurating, as usual,
in the shade of our venerable parachute,
the idea struck US very fo,cibly that
there we're qnite number Of improve
mcnts which might be made, greatly to
the advantage of the village, both in
appearance and utility. We propose,
in this article, to Set forth few, a rery
few, of those improvements to which We
would take occasion 10 call the attention
Of our fellow citizens Not but what we
suppose the dcsirablcness of these things
are as apparaut to others as to us but
because we think it well occasionally to
stir up the minds of our readers on these
things, by way Of remembrance
The first thing that we would men
ton, in which our village is greatly de-
ficicnt, is ARCHITECTURAL taste 1t must
be confessed that there has been very
little of that displayed, as yet, in the
buildings that have been put up here.
To be sure, there are a few very re-
sp" "ctable looking buildings in the vii
lage but as general thing we have
been too much induced to follow in the
footsteps of our furefathers, without ak
ing ourselves whether their tlans might
not be greatly improved on OF course,
in so important matter as that of buil'l-
ing house, no person would b.. expect
ed to sacrifice convenience to appear.
aucc. Neither can it be expected that
person with limited means should ex
pend Il large proportion of that which
he has set apart for the purpose of erect
ing dwclling-houSe, store, or u shop,
in Ornamental fixtures. Bu it is by uo
means necessary that such should ,e
the case. A building combining con
v"nience and architectural taste may bp
put up quite as economically as eat
uncourh square pile OF lumber, such -,
We often see, destitute of any pr-trn
sions to the rules of syumet,y ami Or
namcnt. We presume there is ha dly
a puolc building in the village that was
erected with an eye to ornament Per-
haps We might except the Mantle Bank
ing House. We have heard that called
beautiful building We admit that it
is but We must bs allowed to say that
according to our taste, the ornamental
work on it is altogether TOO heavy for a
building of that size. And besides, it
strikes US that there is Il fitness of things
which would dictate that building for
banking purposes should combine an ap-
pearancc Of durability, strength, and
simplicity. While We conced, to this
building the two former qualifications,
we submit that it is eminent.y lacking
Il, the latter. We have taken upon
ourselves to be somewhat critical On this
house because it is public building and
about the only one in the village which
was erected With any great pretensions
to elaborateness OF arcLit, ctural design
and finish.
| 1t certainly would not be in good
taste to put up very splendid building
on some of our narrow, crowded, mud
dy, dusty streets and that brings us to
say, that with one single exception, our
streets are entirely unworthy the wealth
and general business habits Of the vii
lagc Thanks to individual enterprise
aud liberality, Broad Street is very
pretty one, and reflects much credit on
those who have SO greatly improved 1t
within a year or two past. But in con-
trast to that we must call attention to
Main Street.-The principal street of The
village, aud yet in some places it is
barely wide enough for two teams to
meet, while it is always very dusty or
muddy and as 70 the sido-valks, they