Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-09-02
"A Town in One House
BY Frederic J. Haskin

New York, Aug. 30.-The amazing
rise OF the New York apartment house
| Is about to reach it's zenith in the Gre
, alton OF an immense cooperative coun-
try home on the shores of Long island.
The idea for this super-apartment orig
mated with two we'll known American
artists, Walter Russell and Penryhn
Stanlaws. So far it has it's existence
only in drawings and plans, but mas
much as number of New York's mil
lionaires are back of the project, and
such artists as Frederic MacMonnies,
Paul Bartlett, Jules Guerin and others,
as well as Russell and Stanlaws have
perfected the plans with the archi.
tects. there Is no reason to doubt that
it will in due course arise to amaze
the world.
The development of the New York
apartment is the most striking phe-
nomenon of modern urban living. and
the one fraught with the greatest pos
sibilities. Not many years ago, the
only apartment houses were tene-
ments, and all of the rich and well-to-
do lived IN houses Of their own. But
the individual dwelling was forced
out by the sheer limitations Of space.
First the old brownstone fronts were
deserted and changed into lodging and
boarding houses; then more expensive
residences shared their fate. A house
that rented sor five thousand dollars
a few years ago may be had now for
fifteen hundred. Only the very wealthy
can afford separate houses in desir-
able parts of the town, while the de-
mand for apartments by the moderate
ly wealthy has brought into being ten
ements of the most luxurious and elab-
crate sort. twenty-five thousand dol
lars year is paid for the occupancy
of more than one New York apart
ment.
But this apartment house vogue is
not merely space saving expedient.
The significant thing is that the
apartment house is an experiment in
cooperative living. The occupants
com bine, in effect to build them a
house, and heat it, and provide them
selves with other conveniences. This
cooperative idea has already been CIV
en- definition by the erection Of Sc
ries Of apartment houses in which.
each tenant actually buys one-half of
rent on the other half This coopera-
tive idea was first put into practice
by a group of artists. In fact the rise
Of the apartment house and the artist
have been to a great extent co-tempO-
raneous. When the apartment was in
it's infancy, the artists we're mostly
confined to Washington square, Nc
Dougall alley and Greenwich alley,
where they eked precarious exist
ence out of the few magazines and art
patrons of that day. But the rise of
the magazine brought wealth to the
story writer and illustrator, while por-
trait painters, sculptors and architects
began ito enjoy a new vogue. Forth
with they moved uptown.
But the artist wants few posses
sions. He does not wish to worry
about servants. and garages and fur
naces and gardens. The apartment is
his natural habitat He was first
among the successful to make the
apartment his home and first to devise
and inhabit the cooperative apartment
It was he who designed the duplex
studio apartment which is now all
the go in New York, even among PEG.
pie who never study anything. 1t is
an apartment Of which almost the
whole first floor is one great room,
with vaulted ceiling, and a gallery
all the way around, upon which the
bed rooms open. Thus the ancient
wheeze about the small size of apart
ment rooms has lost it's force. A ia
nous dancing teacher holds classes
of thirty pupils in her duplex apart
ment without crowding, and one ar
fist, Walter Russell, has studio in
his apartment home that is sixty feet
long. and has number of windows
ten feet wide opening upon Central
park.
To revert to the Long island won
der, it is to take these ideas of plenty
of room and cooperation for convent
ence and carry them to their logical
limit, by having every occupant the
owner of his own share of the build
ing, and by erecting it out in the
country. Incidentally, this most am
bilious of all apartments is to be call
ed New Versailles" not because it
will be copy of it's French counter
part, because no work Of art can be
copied, but because the name conveys
something of the intention of the
builders It is to be an American
work of art with the spirit of Ameri-
can art back of it. The designs, which
have already been painted by Jules
Guerin, show an immense palace of