The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-10-21


of a volume in our title, but being held
rigidly to the limits of a column or
two, can only outline certain points
that bear upon all homes, whether rich
or poor, in city Or country. Four
phases present themselves:
a. A new thought about building.
b. Possibilities of a back yard.
c. Building for privacy.
d. A new phase of factory work for
the home.
This question of the home environ
meant is, like all the rest that bear upon
ways of living, made easy on difficult
by the depth of the purse. But for the
rich OR those of moderate purse there
must be first of all some sense of
beauty and fitness. or the story of their
I lack will be plain to read in every line
of the building and it's surroundings
The country home should seem to have
grown naturally in the spot where we
find it, even if set close among its
neighbours. The city house is limited in
expression by the narrow space upon
which it stands; yet even this, as we
shall presently see, is capable Of diff
ferent treatment, and is already re-
ceiving it. But for every town and
village that has come to the sense of
beauty sufficiently to desire the best
arrangement and planning d harmoni-
Gus whole, it is still possible to recon-
struct at least a part of the space oc-
cupied The time is nearing when the
smallest settlement will be subject to
building laws laid down by competent
authorities, and every house will be
planned with relation to it's effect to the
whole. Now and from the beginning
it has all been chance work. and the
thought of a. general unity of plan and
effect absolutely unknown. Public
buildings have been at the mercy of
mere contractors, and each town has
been a mere tumble of fncoherencies
A change in this respect means a
change in the whole handling of every
phase of building; the growth of the
civic sense and of that sense of a COM
mon obligation to make the most and
best of every opportunity for larger
happier living. To this end a group of
friends who purpose building could
easily take counsel together, pool their
resources, employ a thinking architect
and start in with a definite conception
Of what plan of planting and building
would produce the best results. The
very fact of having begun with this
united purpose would give a different
expression to the whole. AS we do and
have always done, town. even with
the best natural advantages. fails to
show them to real advantage. The
WedTtn1eT people are Planted III the
best places, and when it is presently
discovered that parks and bouleVards
and free access to a lake or river, for
instance, are required as public needs,
every desirable foot of ground has al
ready been appropriated and everybody
wonders why nobody thought about it
in the beginning.
Some thought and plan, then, is what
all mus. take with them who make a
! country home. Suppose, however. that
one must live i'm. a block. Even them we
are by no'means so helpless as we have
believed. The great apartment houses
have shown us how much comfort can
/, be increased by the lesseIing of labor,
a common heating apparatus and
plumbing system doing away at once
with some of the heaviest labor of the
private home. stf1e care of fire and all
I the dirt and trouble of coal and ashes.
a we'll known Brooklyn builder, Mr..
Alfred White, who put up the first
model tenement houses, has SINCE built
a block of small houses, the first one
with fountains, trees and shrubs. No
millionaire's house has more perfect
finish, and building an entire block at
once, the expense for each house was
so reduced as to enable the landlord
to rent them for less than the same
sum charged for individual houses. On
q. small city lot there seems no chance
for change. Not long ago one eff our
best and most progressive architects,
Mr. Russell Sturgis, told us in a popu-
Tar magazine how to build on a city lot
SO that there might be an actual front
yard planted in such fashion. all given
| in detail, drawing by drawing, that the
street scented quite put away.