The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1883-05-18
The Curious HOUSE Which New York.
Man Has Put 10.

The narrowest house in this city may
be seen ut the northwest corner of Lex
ington avenue and Eighty-second street
When Lexington avenue was cut
through, some years ago, II strip of
land feet wide and 100 feet deep was
all that was left of certain lot belong
ing to u person who did not own the
next lot on the street. The strip.
while Of little value by itself, would be
valuable to the person owning the adj
joining lot on Eighty-second street, be-
cause it would not only enable him to
build house five feet wider, but would
give him windows all along the side of
his house on Lexington avenue. The
two owners. however. could not agree
rs to the terms, and house was erect
ed on the lot adjoining the narrow strip.
The owner of the latter had nothing to
do but abandon his lot or build n house
five feet wide uponit. The latter course
was perhaps adopted because such q
house would shut up all the side win
dows of the neighboring building and
considerably reduce its value.
The new building, which has been
finished for some months, is therefore
five feet wide. one hundred feet deep
and four stories high 1t is divided into
two houses, each fifty feet long, and the
entrance doors are, of course, on the
avenue, as there is no room for u door
at either end of the building. The law
allows building at the corner of u
street to have projecting bay windows
along the side, and taking advantage of
this circumstance, the architect has
managed to plan II house, which, while
peculiar in inside appearance, and prob
ably very uncomfortable To- live in, may
find tenants. Without these bay win
dows or square projections running
from the foundation to the roof, it
would not have been possible to build
Il house at all, for no room would have
been wider than three feet. Each house
has, therefore, two bay windows, in one
of which are the stairs and in the other
onesroom about eight feet wide by fif-
teen feet long, upon each floor. The
long passage between the stair-well and
the room is about three feet wide.
Each house contains kitchen eight by
fifteen feet and four rooms, each of the
same size, but on different floors. There
are also ingeniously-placed closets at
each end of the building and under the
stairs. Both houses are occupied. One
is offered for rent at $500 year.
If the object of the builder. of these
extraordinary houses was simply to
shut out the light from his neighbours
building, he would probably have ac-
complished the same end at much less
expense by adopting Mr.. George Kemp's
device of sheet-iron shields. Mr..
Kemp did not wish the occupants of the
building in the rear of his house, at 720
Fifth avenue, to overlook his premises,
and so he built an iron scaffolding in
the back yard and placed iron shields
against the obnoxious openings, shut
ting out the air and light as completely
as q brick wall would have done. This
arrangement has been for years the
source of no little comment from the
neighbors and passers-by. --New York
TeHRr
II married lady in France passes
herself off as unmarried she can be
fined or be imprisoned. Lucky there il
no such law as that in this country.