The record-union., 1892-11-10
CHAUTAuQuAs DISGRACE.
Unsanitary Condition of the Great Edu
cation Center.

cation Center.
The village of Chautauqua is one OF the
most celebrated places in America. The
home of one of the most successful cen
ters Of popular education, designed and
arranged by men Of culture, IL is the
Mecca OF thousands ofintelligent students
who look there for evidence of the most
refined culture and advanced progress.
A1chItecturally it is one OF the most afro
clous places on the continent. The
houses, in themselves chiefly of an abomi
nable style OF architecture, are crowded
together almost as closely as.inNew York
City. There is scarcely breathing space
between them. There is no sanitation,
and the lack of drainage and sewerage is
frequently unpleasantly manifested to
visitors and native alike. The Streets"
II such they may be called, are country
roads of the toughest description. The
water is obtained from the lake on which
the town faces, and is daily polluted-to
mention no other source-by a numer-
GUS fleet of excursion steamers, To
crown all, the most pretentious edifice in
the place, the Amphitheater, is a plain,
straight flat roof supported on poles, one
side only being inclCsed with wall, in
which an organ is inserted.
1t IS hardly possible to conceive of q
town wherein the most elementary rules
of architecture and sanitation are more
openly or apparently more gleetuly
violated. The condition of the place
would be bad enough for an ordinary
country village, but for an educational
center, an offspring of cultured minds, a
model intellectual community, it is moth
ing short of disgraceful. OF course decent
sanitation and respectable architecture
cost money, and the Chautauqua Assem-
bly, has labored. and is laboring, under
heavy debt. Further, plans are under
active consideration for important
| changes and improvements, which, it is
hoped, will materially affect the chief
items contained in this Indictment.
! These, however, will not alter the fact
that the houses have been permitted to
| crowd together in one place, albeit one
would suppose that, when a situation so
remote from great centers was selected,
ample room for healthful, cheerful build
ing would have been had. II is simply
| another Illustration of the old story Of
popular indifference towards architecture
and ignorance OF it, which is always the
more alarming when cultured men, as
was the case here, undertake to design
architectural work.
To one who las not seen Chautauqua
in the hight of lis season, when from
$4,000 to 10000 human beings crowd its
narrow limits, it is impossible to imagine
the unspeakable horrors which must
exist there, and which are not less
marked, or less detestable because they
may be overlooked in the enthusiasm Of
ardent study. An educational center
like Chautauqua needs to be a model
community in every respect. Practical
architecture, as well as exercises in He
brew accents, AssyriolOgy and surd roots
should have ample, practical illustration.
The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific
Circle has done too much Tor education
in America for its headquarters to be a
mockery of architecture and a positive
danger TO human life. A fresh mortgage
on the town would be preferable to con-
| tinulng its present unsanitary state
Barr Ferree in the Engineering Maga-
zine.