Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-24
THE CITY OF HOMES.
Philadelphia Residences Compared
With Those of Pittsburg.
HOUSES BUILT By THE HUNDRED.
Neat and Cosy Dwellings Erected for
Working Men.
A BUsTLING AND WIDE-AWAKE CITY
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH, ]

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are built by the hundreds and sold as rapid
ly almost as they are finished, many long be-
fore they are finished. The lot is generally
from 16 to 20 feet wide by 30 to 100 feet deep.
They are mostly built in long rows; some
| times whole blocks. One man, William
Singerly, proprietor of the Record, started
to build $50 houses in one section of the city
several years ago, and he has probably ex-
ceeded that number. He bought large
section, several squares of open ground
northwest of Broad and Norris streets. He
graded and paved all of the street and side
walks; had water and gas pipes laid, and
trees planted; had Diamond street opened
through Odd Fellows Cemetery after long
and hard fight; put up planning and join
ing mill and made his own brick. These
houses were sold for from S., 900 to 81, 600,
according to size and location.
The houses built in Philadelphia are very
different from those in Pittsburg in many
respects. The parlor is longer, having two
bedrooms over it. The laundry is back OF
the kitchen. with hydrant at the door OF
the laundry. The whole house is generally
heated from the cellar furnace through
register in each room. In the cheaper
houses no room except the parlor has a man
tel, the rest having shelf over the register.
Over the dining room and kitchen extends
the sitting room, which is the family room,
always light and airy. The front rooms
have large, double walnut wardrobe built
into the wall having often mirrors in the
doors. and a marble washstand in the center,
where Pittsburg fireplace would be. 1t
sets the room off wonderfully. Some
have a mirror over this washstand, and none
in the wardrobe doors.
These conditions will be found in almost
every house in the many new operations.
Some divide the parlor by portieres or
sliding doors. The better class have
third floor. A great many have only one
large window in the parlor with box of
vines or flowers under it. In West Phila-
delphia many OF the houses have porches,
which makes them far more popular, both
for renting, and selling as it does
away with the very disagreeable habit
of sitting on the front door step
in the hot summer months
AS there is not much back lot there is not
the usual amount of weeds and dead grass,
old vines and poles seen in most city lots.
Close fences of flooring boards usually sur
round each lot and the fences are always
painted when the house is. There is an al
ley between the rows OF back lots of from
three to five feet, which has an outlet at
each end, and is always paved with brick.
NOT NEEDED IN PITTSBURG.
Most houses have a coal bin in the cellar
at the front window. The coal wagons are
all supplied with shut iron ''shoots,"
through which the coal is run from the
wagon across the pavement into the bin in
the cellar without any dirt, excepting
trife of dust, which blows away. There is
no trouble in Philadelphia with great piles
of coal on the sidewalks unless it has to be
carried upstairs, which is done in baskets.
That is quite trade in itself, and many
poor fellow puts in good winter with his
basket, shovel and broom by carrying coal
up several flights of stairs.
The city lets contracts by the year to take
away the ashes and garbage. Once a week
all of the dwelling part Of the city (eaeh
section has a particular day) turns out of
its cellars onto the sidewalks all sorts of de-
luvian and anti-deluvian vessels filled with
the weeks accumulation of ashes, old bot
ties and cellar truck generally. While
twice week the slop and garbage man
comes to the back gates and removes the
offal. Thus large amount of cleanliness is
maintained. Pavements must be scrubbed
before 8 o'clock in the morning and after Z
in the evening. The sweeping of the pave
ments every morning includes the CUTTERS
of course, this refers to the greater part of
the city. There are in every community
those who are natural born slovens, who are
a disgrace to themselves and an eye-sore to
their neighbors. They cannot be intimi-
dated, shamed or suppressed.
Another custom is that as almost every
street has a horse car line on it, running
in one direction, all of the vehicles follow
the car, going their way, and woe to the
''hayseed" who drives against the stream.
Billingsgate is a mild language compared
with the one he learns that day, compiled
from the slang of every nation under the |
sun. When he pulls out to one side, as the
tide goes past him, he becomes dazed at the |
constant run of sarcasm he gets from each |
driver. When coal wagon backs up to a !
curb and gets the shoots adjusted the driver |
won't move even for a horse car until his |
load is of, but he can always hold his own |
in the chatting he gets.
The hucksters commence their discordant |
cries quite early in the morning as they run |
from door to door, crying their vegetables, |
and ringing the door bells. They, too, are |
proof against the salutes they get from the |
girl who has just washed off her steps. when |
she sees that her work has to be done over |
again, as they have ruined the white steps |
with their dirty feet. These hucksters, and |
their cousins, the .clothes-ringer men, the |
old clothes, old hats and boots men, book |
peddlers, male and female, coal and kindling |
peddlers, insurance men, both life and fire. |
sewing machine and lightning rod men, |
make life in Philadelphia house a weary |
burden, by the constant ringing of the door |
bell, and the persistent endeavors to excite |
sympathy on the outside, and corresponding
efforts to suppress emotions of a different |
kind on the inside of the front door. The |
welkin rings all day long with the many |
cries of the perambulating tradesmen. In
these long rows of houses, built alike. many
strive to outdo their neighbors in the matter
Of vines, flowers and singing birds, especially
in the back premises, which really makes
the backs of the houses, looking out over
the neighboring lots, by far the pleasantest
part. The sitting room, being always over
the dining room, kitchen, and sometimes
wash house, is rendered very pleasant. es-
pecially in the summer, by these arbored
Outlooks.
EASY TRANSPORTATION,
The many street car lines, running north
On one street and south on the next, make
locomotion not very difficult, and the fare of
cents on the main line, with or 8 cents
extra for a transfer into bisecting line,
makes transportation cheap and enables the
great mass of work people to live away from
5he busy part of the city at small daily cost.
The Pennsylvania, the Reading two de-
Dots), the North Pennsylvania, the Schuvl-
Kill Valley, the Baltimore and Ohio and the
Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore
together with the Jersey railroads
with the city by dozen ferries,
lford vast outlet from the city, which is
being more availed OF every year, for it has