The Richmond palladium. (Richmond, Ind.) 1906-1907, 1906-10-24
MODEL Tenement PLAN
MANY WANTS TO BE CARED FOB

Common Kitchens, Laundries, Hospi-
tai, Kindergarten and Gymnasium
Features of the Project Proposed by
Mrs. Frances NJ. Observation-Disclosures to
Cover Whole City Block.
Mrs. Francis NJ Norton is the latest
to tackle the housing problem in Chi
cago with plans for model tenement
In the congested ghetto, says the Chi
cago Tribune.
In public statement issued over her
signature and fortified with a sketch
obligingly furnished by craftsman
Mrs. Norton slipped easily over the
financial difficulties in the way of her
philanthropic venture to revel in the
domestic details of a huge family bar
racks that is to usher in Utopia at the
corner of Jefferson and West Thir-
teenth streets.
A family hotel would best describe
the scheme in its present proportions.
Only these ghetto families will have
kindergarten and hospital facilities
thrown in and some of the gymnasium
advantages for which members of the
Chicago Athletic club pay S120 year
Mrs Norton's general proposal to
start a public subscription looking to-
ward the erection of a model tenement
won a pledge of support from Presi-
dent r. r. Mccormick of the sanitary
board He said he would place $780,
600 worth of stock among the wealthy
men of the city.
On the other hand, some of the de-
tails in which Mrs. Norton is reveling
at present have brought out considera-
BILE criticism from settlement workers
In that district, who suggest that she
is not allowing anything for strongly
rooted racial habits in her desire to
"uplft' the neighborhood all at once.
Mrs. Norton proposes a building four
stories high, covering an entire block,
with a large court in the center, enter
ed from the street by lane piercing
each side. She thinks it would be nice
to cut the courtway into four sections
for the children of different ages,
though this, it is pointed out, would go
hard with the little mothers who
have whole families to care for. Stores
will occupy the first floor.
1.-THE whole of the second and third
stories is to be divided into apartments
of suitable size for the accommodation
of good sized families" the report con-
tinues. Each family is to have only
large living room and as many bed
rooms as are needed No individual
kitchens or laundries will be provided.
because all the cooking, baking and
laundry work will be done by experts
on the top floor in the cookroom. Bak
ing and cooking will be done in a far
more economical and satisfactory way
than could be possible by each family
In separate kitchens.
I'm addition, there should be hospi-
tai, nursery, a kindergarten and an
amusement auditorium. all on the top
floor. Every evening there should be
an entertainment of some sort in the
auditorium. Resident talent could be
developed. assisted by Humanitarian
workers from the outside-something
to give recreation for the women and
keep the men from the saloons.
TT would be necessary to have rooms
for the managers family and for the
servants, these to be on the top floor
There should also be library.
ION the ground floor should be a
gymnasium adjoining the .playrooms
On each floor should be commodious
bathrooms and lavatories: also fire es-
capes and stairways easily accessible
I'VE must not allow disease breeding
centers or conditions under which de-
cent moral living is impossible longer
TO exist in our midst. For our own pro-
lection we who are prosperous must
spend our wealth In remedying evils
or the evils surely will overtake us. no
naatter how we hedge ourselves about
our fine homes and pleasant, health
full surroundings"
Mrs. Laura Dainty Pelham, for sew
eral years a resident of the Langdon
apartments, erected by the heirs of the
Langdon estate near the outskirts of
the ghetto, shook her head at Mrs.
Norfon's details.
she is making no allowances for the
cosmopolitanism of the people nor for
their fixed habits" said Mrs. Pelham.