Norwich bulletin., 1913-11-17
POINTS OF DANGER IN
 CHEAP BUILDING TRACTS State Health Board Warns to Look Out for Water and Sewage.

Cheap building lots in city suburbs may be menace to the public health of the community unless the occupant has 8 knowledge of hygiene in the opinion of the state board of health. It is this subject that Secretary Joseph H. Townsend of the board touches upon in his bulletin on the states health for October He says: Cheap building lots are attractive to the home seekers but the prospective pur- chaser ought always to first consider where he is to secure his water sup
 ply and what are the means of sew age disposal and if only the most primitive convenlences are available, what is likely to be the result to the health and comfort of his family and to the future value of his property.
 Tt has been said that the only ad- vantage of living in a tenement rather than in an individual house is that the sanitary conditions of the former are carefully and regularly supervised while those of the latter are not This Is particularly true in Connecticut where we have adequate laws govern ing the construction and sanitation of tenement houses, a tenement house being defined in the statute as build ing accommodating three or more fam files living independent of each other and having a common right to halls. stairways and yards. AS the result Of the lack of a statewide building law, certain real estate promoters by caus- ing the building of houses on made quate sized lots are laying the foun- dation for future trouble in many of our towns.
 Tt is the practice to purchase tract of land near a trolley line and adjacent to a city. but outside its linn it's where city ordinances will not in terfere with building operations. Streets are laid out and the land di vided into building lots. The purchaser after building his house often attempts the impossible feat of locating well, privy and cesspooI and sometimes also a hen house, cowyagd or pig pen on lot 25 by 100 feet.
 Our attention has recently been called to a real estate project near Hartford. A piece of land, some of which is little better than a swamp, has been cut up into building lots of 30 feet front and 80 feet to 100 feet deep. These are being sold on the in stalment plan to the poorest class of foreigners who work in Hartford and New Britain. One man with whom we talked had purchased four lots for $10 cash and a weekly payment of $1. If he makes his payments promptly he will become the owner of the land in about four years. By his own labor and with second hand material he had constructed a one room house F by 13 feet without cellar and neither wind nor water tight Nearly all the build ings are of this character. The land is too wet and clayey to successfully locate either wells or cesspools and the people mostly get their water from pond nearby which receives the sur face drainage of the locality. Such schemes are a menace to the health and good name of town and an in justice to the purchasers, who are ig- norant of the importance of hygienic living.
 Some of the more pretentious land sales are objectionable in that they do not provide for water supply and sewage disposal There is bound to be trouble some time. This is mat ter demanding immediate attention either by state law or town regula- tiOn ''