Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-05-13
A NEW FORM OF SOCIAL LIFE.
The French and American Systems of
Private Living Combined.

Inc EEGhGn anu AhAtFAtaD HAGuAH w
Private Living Combined.
The New York World, of the 9th, con-
tains diagrams and lengthy description
of a new hotel project now being broached
in that city. 1t is to be an immense struc-
ture, the stories above the first being divi-
ded into sections composed of suites of
family rooms, each distinct from the other,
but under one roof and communicating by
common entrances TO the whole building
and its interior court. 1t says:
We present detailed description of a
building which it is proposed to erect in
this city, TO accommodate number OF
families under one roof, on plan which
combines all the advantages of what is
popularity called the French plan of living
on fats, with notifications and features
adapting it more closely to the require
ments Of American city social life. The
detail of such plan requires a great deal
of consideration to adapt it we'll to the OBJ
ject proposed, for it proposes to unite all
the benefits Of seclusiOn and privacy with
the conveniences of cooperation and hotel
life as popularity understood.
If this result can be accomplished, by
this OF any other plan, the family will live
in their suite of rooms, with The same isola-
ton and privacy that is now attained by
keeping Eouse in building all their own,
freed from many Of the cares that make
housekeeping so burdensome, such az the
preparation of meals, attending TO fires,
and the care of the passages, entrances and
sidewalks. The family will to these ad-
vantages join those of living in a splendid
building, with every convenience and i'm
provement, in these respects equal to any
first class residence, of having their meals
served TO them in their own apartments, or
in a private dining-room attached to a
restaurant, and with all the public rooms
and advantages that belong to the most
elegant private hotel life.
METHOD OF LIVING.
The different sections would be let un-
furnished, in the same manner az ordinary
dwelling-houses adapted for one family are
now rented. A family would select one
section for their own use, taking into con-
sderation its size, location, number and
arrangement of rooms, and rent, in the
same manner that they now do in renting
a residence. They would move in with
their furniture and take possession. They
would appropriate their rooms according
TO their own convenience TO drawing, Ii
brary, sitting, dining and bedrooms. They
would have all the rooms in ordinary use,
including full supply Of closets, except
cellar, garnet and kitchen. They would
have no need of a cellar, for their rooms
would be heated by steam; and if for sick
ness or cheerfulness they at any time
lighted fire, small box of camel coal,
or the new apparatus for burning gas in a
CRATE, wOuld meet their wants. To any of
the ordinary uses of garret they might,
if their accommodations afforded INSULT
cient space, obtain one of the single rooms
spoken of as filling the attic story. For
their meals they would either go down to
the restaurant, using the public or private
dining rooms according to their
preference, or they could habitually, or
as often as they chose, have their meals
brought up into their own rooms. For
this purpose, as we'll as moving their bag
gage and furniture up and down, the ele-
vator wonld be handy to have in the house.
Ifthey preferred to have their meals served
in their own rooms, they could set apart
the one designed for that use for that pur-
pose To each of these dining-rooms a
pantry would be attached, where a family
could keep their own dinner service, linen
and silver, and where, by means of gas
stove, cup Of tea could be prepared, or
the ordinary purposes and needs of a sick
room or nursery could be supplied. IL
is not proposed to attach a kitchen to these
suites of rooms, because il is supposed that
the whole house would be more cleanly
and wholesome without; that families
would prefer to be free from the care, and
to purchase their own food already cooked
and that the system on which the restau.
rant would be conducted would make il
universally chosen as the best method
Being thus freed from 80 many of the cares
of housekeeping, a family would need tC
keep one servant, whose duties would bt
to attend to the front door of their apart
ments and the ordinary services of cham.
bermaid in keeping the rooms in order.
The tenants would have no more occa
sion of coming in contact or collision thar
they do now, when residing side by side il
a row of houses along the same street. on
of the multitude who would apply to b'
tenants regard could be had TO their char
acter and standing, and an unobjectionabl'
selection be made. The stringent provi
sions of their tenure would secure the home
from occasional disorder. The project haI
some original features. 1t seems adapted
TO the peculiarities and preferences oi
American life, and its imports many fea
lures which have been established by the
| Al,
abroad II is without doubt open to criti
cism, and subject TO improvement, anC
with the aid of these and individual enter
prise, we may one day see the structur
arise.