The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1916-08-31

zenith In the ere alton of an immense
cooperation country home on the shores
of Long Island. The idea of this sup
er-apartment originated with two we'll
known American artists, Walter Rus
sell and PenIhyn Stanlaws. So far it
has its existence only in drawings and
plans, but inasmuch as a number of
New York's millionalres are back of
the project, and such artists as Frede-
rlc MacMonnies, Paul Bartlett, Jnles
Guerin al d Others, as well as Russell
and Stanlaws have perfected the plans
with the architects, 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 tenements,
and all the rich and we'll TODD lived in
houses Of their own. But the individual
dive ling 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
for five thousand dollars a few years
ago may be had now for fifteen hun
dred. Only the very wealthy can af.
ford separate houses in desirable parts
of the town, while the demand for
apartments by the moderately wealthy
has brought into being tenements of
the most luxurious and elaborate sort.
Twenty-Five thousand dollars year is
paid for the occupancy of more than
one New York apartment.
But this apartment house vogue is
not merely a space-saving expedient.
The significant thing is that the apart
ment house is an experiment in CO.
operative living The occupants com
bine, in effect, to build them a house
and heat it, and provide themselves
with other conveniences. This coop
erative idea has already been given
definition by the erection of a series of
apartment houses in which each ten
ant actually buys one-half of the space
he occupies, while paying rent on the
other half. This cooperative idea was
first put into practice by a group of
artists, In fact the rise of the apart
ment house and the artists have been
to a great extent co-temporaneous
When the apartment was in its infan-
cy, the artists were most confined to
Washington Square, McDougall Alley
and Greenwich Alley, where they eked
precarious existence out of the few
magazines and art patrons of that day.
But the rise of the magazine brought
wealth to the story writer and ilustra-
tor, while portrait painters, sculptors
and architects began to enjoy a new
vogue. Forthwith, they moved uptown.
But the artist wants few possessions.
He does not wish to worry about ser
wants. and garages and furnaces and
gardens. The apartment is his natural
habitat. He was first among the sue
cessful to make the apartment his
home, and first to devise and inhabit
the cooperative apartment. 1t was he
who designed the duplex studio apart
ment' which is now all the go in New
York, even among people who never
study anything. 1t is an apartment of
which almost the whole first floor is
one great room, with vaulted ceiling,
and gallery all the way around, upon
which the bed rooms open. Thus the
ancient wheeze about the small size of
apartment rooms has lost its force. A
famous dancing teacher holds classes
CT thirty pupils in her duplex apart
ment without crowdlng, and one artist,
Walter Russell, has a studio in his
apartment home that is sixty feet long,
and has number of windows ten feet
wide opening upon Central Park.
To avert to the Long Island wonder,
it is to take these ideas of plenty of
room and cooperation for convenience
and carry them to their logical limit, by
having every occupant the owner of his
own share of the building, and by erect
ing it out in the country. Incidentally,
this most ambitious of all partments Is
to be called New Versailles" not be-
cause it will be a copy of its French
counterpart, because no work of art
can be copied, but because the name
conveyes something Of the intention of
the builders. 1t 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
Guerln, show an immense palace of