The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-11-13
M. G. M. A.
Lecture by e. H. ElwelI, Esq.

~oO ocCOuO loO tuIO Al tLe hdlu6 OIdIlb1ult
Mechanic Association, free course, was given
last evening in Mechanics Hall by E. H. FL
well, Esq. The attendance was large and the
lecture proved very interesting. The subject
was Building the House,
The lecturer remarked that he had often
wondered why some poet has not done for Tho
home what Longfellow has done for the shin.
The latter may be the more picturesque object.
out the former is more closely associated with
all the events of human life, sour hearts. our
hopes, our prayers, our tears" He then touched
upon those aspects of the home which appeal
to sentiment and poetry, its association with
our early years, our ambitions, with tbougbts
OF festvty. of hospitality, of family ties and
long years of happy life. He alluded to the
peculiar aspect OF all homes, whose glory has
departed, and stretched the history of the Gen.
Knox mansion at Thomaston in its early mag
nifcence and its sad decay
He said the building int instinct Estropg in
man, and of early development, as seen in little
children following out houses in the sand, and
he drew picture of the young men and wo-
men planning their future homes like turtle
doves building their nests. In woman the
building instinct concerns itself chiefly with
ornamentation and the details of household
conVeniences, Man builds the house, but wo-
man gives 1t the charm of home. Her taste
beauties and adoIns it, and there is no end to
the closets she can contrive, the convene noes
she demands.
In some men this instinct of building runs
to seed. This is the trait of the romantic Yam
kee, who builds house, moves in and the next
morning puts up notice on the outer gate
post "This house for sale." Some mems lives
can be traced by the houses they have built, as
the existence OF antediluvial animals is re-
vealed by their fossilzed footprints. The lee
turer told of builder who was never content
to let new house go out of his hands until he
had inhabited it himself. 1t was hard on his
wife, No sooner had she got one house well
broken in than another was thrown on her
bands. She bore up bravely for a time. but
succumbed at last. She died of too much new
house.
Everything enters into the planning of the
house-all the needs of humanity, all the i'm
provements of the age. all the demands of
health, refinement and luxury. But most men
build their houses first and plan them after
wards, whence cnme alterations which never
result in consistent plan. He described the
confusion wrought in an old monastery on Lake
Maggiore, Italy, by altering it into a hotel. In
well-planned house the law of correspond
enoes comes into play, the lkitchenEanswers to
the demands OF the digestive orgaDs the living
room to family ties, the library TO the intellect
ua faculties the attic to the associations of the
past. But smost homes are dispropurtoned,
some all kitchen, some all parlors The ideal
house corresponds to well-bahnced physical
and mental constitution, and is aforementioned
10 none of its parts
Houses have recognizable types. They ara
the Larger Inhabitants" and give the general
we take our first impression of it from its
houses. The houses of every country have
distinctive character, especially where the Gus
tom prevails, as in Europe, of but ding with
the native stone. The lecturer described the
style and material of buildings in the north Of
Ireland, the north of England, and the Lake
region. He also described the only distinctive
~ Maine house he had seen.-at Brownville,
Me.,-clapboarded as we'll as singled with
slate and finished with native woods. Houses
have not only distinctive types they have indi-
viduality of character, a physiognomy as va
rlous as that of humanity. Some dwellings
you like at first sight; for others you can never
get a friendly feeling. The square oId-fash-
Toned mansions of our city tells of the jolly old
sea captains and portly merchants who built
theM. Then there are OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
dwellings,, ill-proportioued, an offeuce in their
deformity; OVERLOOKING habitations that one
avoids as he would highwayman; squad
structures, ike sturdy oeggars displaying their
sores by the roadside an offence to good NOR
ais. Why should landlords be PERMITTED to
keep such buildings standing? Think of the
evil influence they exert. Think of the whole
some influence they might exert if all houses
were well built and ar, anged with due regard
TO the health and convenience of the occupants.
Inc building OF houses with their gable ends to
the street was condemned on the ground that
they present shut-up and dismal air, the fam
lily living in the tail end, and presenting no life
to the street. An honest house should face the
world and not stand peeping over its shoulders.
The house, like everything else, is result of
evolution. 1t finds its primitive type 10 the
cave. Man at first nestled in the bosom of his
mother earth. The lecturer here sketched the
progress of the same from the hut to the
cathedral, the house of God, and showed that
every style was best where it originated, and
out OF place elsewhere, unless the conditions
OF cima ate, situation and native materials were
the same
The development of the house in this coun-
try has been of comparative slow growth
The lecturer here described the rude habitatons
OF the hrst settlers on the coast of Maine, and
showed that they were little better in flushing
or furnishing than the wigwams Of the Indians,
and that this state of things continued for
hundred years. A mans house was often not
worth SO much as his pew in the meeting
house. He then passed to the consideration of
the house OF to-day, and showed that it is a
thing OF transition and experiment. 1t has no
end OF modern improvements, but scarce ona
of them is perfected. 1t IS 10 an inchoate con-
ditlon, Its Boosted Improvements simply begun
and far from completion, involving in their i'm
perfect state numerous changes and incon-
veniences-as defective drains, bursting water
pipes, gas-generating furnaces, explosive mate
rails for illuminating. Our houses are defec-
lively built, and la this state burn down at the
rate OF two or three per day the year through.
Passing next to the consideration of the house
OF the future, the lecturer described how it
should be built so as to secure free admission
of air and sunlight; aud the elimination of
domestic processes, so that not only water and
light, but heat and food shall be supplied from
common centres open to the whole Town. he
c'osed with some humorOusly fanciful remarks
on the influence of the future house on the
coming man, showing that 1t will bring about
such state of perfection that the professions
resulting from the imperfect condition of hu-
man life-as those Of law, medicine and divin-
Itn- mil hOn nhC nlafA i'll II
enter on the millennium throughzthe perfected
house.