The San Francisco call., 1899-10-21

OF brick and the makeshift which marks
much of the cheap building She can
learn also what constitutes a good cellar
! and good foundation, and how a cellar
| floor should be made, with the virtue Of
cement and the value of smooth cellar
! walls These are all phases of home sani-
! taton, and honest materials honestly put
| together are an equal part of it. Crack
| ing walls, settling and uneven floors, base
| boards shrinking away and doors sagging
| are due either to lack Of knowledge or
! lack of honesty on the builders part. We
are hasty people and kiln-dry our wood
with no thought Of the consequence. And
| We are welded to wood when all about is
another material more beautiful, more
! durable and in many places less costly.
Common "rubble,' the loose stone of the
neighborhood, put together with good
| mortar and a course of brick here and
there, over windows, doors, etc, as fin
| ish, will make a house beautiful to look
at, beloved of all climbing vines and pic
turesque under all conditions. Or there
may be story of rubble and brick and
the upper portion finished in wood. But
architects-the thinking ones-urge more
and more the adoption of stone and brick
and give models within even very narrow
means.
Construction and It's Ethics.
Practically this is in great part included
in the heading Materials" But there is
another point seldom thought of in the
matter of f1imsy or substantial structure,
and that is the educational effect of hon
est workmanship, whether in house or it's
finish and furnishing. The day for gin
gerbread work in house finish, the cheap
and most unbeauttful production of the
j1gsaw, Is fast passing. Sanitation is
| teaching US that smooth surfaces are not
only more healthful, since they give no
| lodgment to bacteria, but are also more
beautiful. Veneers, save where wood is Of
so costly an order that it must be so used
or not at all, are also out of date But we
still put cheap finish whenever we can,
covering half-mixed mortar in walls with
gay papers and making all out of sight
construction of the poorest quality Of
wood. Our public buildings share often
the same fate, because the sort of con-
science that would not admit poor con-
struction is not yet part of our teaching.
These things are to be a necessity, when
we are little wiser, in all education and
when that good day comes even our poll
ticians will have been drilled in what
constitutes honest building that we shall
have a new order of homes and of public
buildings.
1.-THE HOME ENVIRONMENT.
Here again we have the possibilities of
a volume in our title, but being held rig
idly 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 them
selves:
a. A 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 environment
is like all the rest that bear upon ways
of living made easy or difficult by the
depth of the purse. But for the rich or
those Of moderate purses there must be
| first of all some sense of beauty and fit
ness or the story of their lack will be
plain to read in every line of the build
| ing and its surroundings. The country
home should seem to have grown natur-
ally in the spot where we find 1t, even
If set close among it's neighbors 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 different treatment, and is al
ready receiving it. But for every town
and village that has come to the sense
of beauty sufficiently to desire the best
arrangement and planning a harmonious
whole, 1t is still possible to reconstruct
at least a part of the space occupied.
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 re-
| latiOn to its effect to the whole. Now
and from the beginning it has all been
| chance work, and the thought of a gen
eral 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 inco-
herencies. 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
! common obligation to make the most and
! best of every opportunity for larger, hap
pier living. To this end a group of friends
! who purpose building could easily take
counsel together, pool their resources, en-
ploy 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 hav-
ing begun with this united purpose would
give a different expression TO the whole.
AS we do and have already done, town,
even with the best natural advantages,
fails to show them to real advantage.
The Weather people are planted in the
best places, and when it is presently dis
covered that parks and bOulevards and
| free access to a lake or river, for in
stance are required as public needs,
every desirable foot of ground has already
been appropriated and everybody wonders
why nobody thought about it in the be-
ginning.
Some thought and plan, then, is what
all must take with them who make a
country home. Suppose, however. that
one must live in a block. Even then 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 lessening of labor,
a common heating apparatus and plumb
ing system doing away at once with some
of the heaviest labor of the private home,
the care of fire and all the dirt and trou-
BILE of coal and ashes. A well-known
Brooklyn builder Alfred White, who put
up the first model tenement houses, has
since built a block of small houses. the
first one in this country about an open
court 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 a small city
lot there seems no chance for change.
Not long ago one of our best and most
progressive architects, Russell Sturgis,
told us in a popular magazine how to
build on a city lot so that there might