The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-16

| ~--o VI ttic moSt f6uaTkdDte ana lH-
 feresting groups of buildings in the world. the future home of the New
 xork Juvenile Asylum. When 1t is I completed 1t will form an Institutional community such as is to be found mo- | where else here or abroad, and not only will put the United States to the
 fore in handling of sociological prob
 iems In which Germany has held pre-
 eminence until now, but will, 1t is in-
 tended. set the standard for all kinds | or institutional work the world ovef There are to be sixty-five separate
 buildings in the Juvenile Asylums lit
 tie village. sheltering a thousand boys and girls from New York's streets. Eff I ty of them arc cottages, each with ac-
 commodations for twenty children; the
 others include every feature of a model
 modern town. except, of course, the
 shops. The full realization of the
 plans may not come for years. for 1t
 was required of the architects. York l and Sawyer of this city, that the insti- I tuition should be so laid out as to per-
 init of indefinite expansion in building. But enough of the necessary structures l are already nearly completed to as-
 sure the asylum moving in the late summer from the home on Washington Heights 1t has occupied for half a con- l tury to the new home at Echo Hills near Dobb's Ferry
 This relocation would have been ne- cessitated soon by the growth of the city even had not the management
 found the time right for such an ex-
 pansion of institutional methods as never before has been attempted
 When the Juvenile Asylum was opened nifty years ago, Washington Heights was far out in the open countryside.
 but year by year the city crept nearer | until its great tide laps about the yards
 and buildings of the three blocks the
 refuge occupies. 1t is to get them
 away from the influences of the city
 streets, to protect them against the ills of over-crowded living and indiscrim mate association, that boys and girls are intrusted to the asylums sheltering walls. The scheme of the arrangements undertaking to this end was so important in It's breadth and so unusual in detail that the most expert practical advice was | required, and when, after a competi- ton which engaged many of the lead ing architectural firms in the country,
 York and Sawyer were commission ed. their instructions looked as much toward overcoming the evil social in- fiuences of the metropolis on It's young as toward the mere housing of 800 or thousand children. So the community at Echo Hills will be an object lesson in what may be called sociological architecture. The
 boys and girls who leave the asylum will take with them into the outer world an inbred desire for good and beautiful surroundings; the generous grounds have been laid out and the various buildings designed with this particularly in view. Simplicity, cleanli- ness and high Ideals they will instinc- l lively encourage wherever they may go l.. stances, some of them take high po- sitions in their later lives, and have | opportunities to influence others direct ly or indirectly, the psychological ef- feet the asylum management seeks may appear in innumerable communities. One of the features adopted as basic to the general purposes of the scheme is the so-called cottage plan. Instead of the old-rashioMed barracks, divided into sections. wings or wards, such as most institutions still employ, the liv- ing accommodations of the Juvenile Asylum's new establishment will con- sist in small detached houses, each with rooms for 20 children and each in charge of a cottage father" or 'cot- tage mother" The cottages, which architecturally are a modification of the Queen Anne type, are divided into two classes: those with separate rooms where living will not be very different from what 1t is in any good American home, and those with the dormitory system, much alike the arrangement of a large hfgh-class boarding school. Each house of the former kind has on the lower floor a living room," kitch- l en, dining room, large hall and several closets, while the upper part is divided P1nto 20 private rooms, generous quar- | ters for the house superintendent and a | bath room. Residence here is to be re- garded as a special honor, the boy or girl who occupies and Individual room | being intrusted with It's care as a rec | ognition of good conduct and general | neatness. Nothing will suggest to | child the idea of restraint or of institu- | mosphere at Eho Hills 1t to be that of | home and not of a place of commit | ment.
 With what may be called the intimate 1
 home life of their young charge thus | carefully provided for, the asylum au- | thorities have been no less far sighted l In the outside surroundings of daily life. | Given a little valley and gently rolling | hillside, York and Sawyer placed the quasi 1 public features of the community in the | positions of command. Down the mid dle of the big rectangular grounds, which cover 80 acres, are long open stretches a common, parade-ground, a large ath- lttic field with a building containing a swimming pool and baths; even a tiny lake and an ornate fountain. At one end stands the church while clustered about the other are the cottages; an ad- ministration building, two very large school houses and quarters for the in- dustrial departments-for the young folks of the asylum make many of their own necessities-are ranged along the sides. The girls houses are by themselves on the eastern slope of the valley and the highest eminence, to the westward. is occupied by hospital of the most com
 plete modern equipment.
 Perhaps the most interesting member of the whole group is the central kitch- en building in which all the food for everybody at the institution Is to be prepared It is isolated at one side of the grounds and will be fitted up in way to make the most exacting hotel chef green with envy. To distribute the meals among the various cottages an au- tOmobile will be employed, the portion for each house being put in hot box" by itself and kept warm by the machines vantages of a central kitchen for catering or large scale are combined with those Of the cottage dining rooms for the indl- vidual ''boarders."
 The architects have given full impor- tance to the landscape features of their