Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-08-29
The Haskin Letter
ROOF DWELLINGS

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Washington, Aug. 26.-The ideal
place to live in New York is on a roof,
it is said. On the roof of a tall build
ing, particularly, the air is marvelously
fresh and clear, the view is usually
q degree of quiet and privacy unob-
tainable anywhere else in the city. As
the site for a summer home it excels
the finest suburb, for it is cool and
mosquitoes and can be reached with
out the daily tedium of committing.
Yet roof-dwelling is still compare
lively rare there. Except for a few
prosperous business men who can af-
ford expensive novelties and some
lucky janitors who are provided with
living quarters attached to pent-houses
on the top of apartment houses and
| office buildings, New Workers for the
most part cling to the old-fashioned
idea that a roof, having been designed
as a protective lid, and that only
! should not suddenly be calleu upon to
fulfill the duties of a floor.
This view is held with particular
| firmness. for some mysterious reason
by the city's real estate owners, who
| stubbornly resist the idea, long since
urged upon them, of building .bunga-
lows Oh the roofs of apartment houses,
| office buildings and private houses. Be-
| cause of it's extreme narrowness, there
is a woeful lack Of residential space IN
the lower part of Manhattan, although
! there is any amount of it going to
waste up on the roofs. With millions
| of square feet ready to be developed ID
| this manner, there are probably not
more than so roof dwellings In the en-
tire city.
One of the most interesting of these
ia the home of Henry l.. Doherty. Wen
known New York banker. on top OF the
Battery Park bulldog, where the out
look is MAGNIFICENT. On the one hand,
lies the harbor. with its quiet islands
and strange. busting craft. And on the
/ other hand, there is the New YORK
skyline-that unparalleled stretch of
giant office buildings which, lighted up
in the night time, suggest weird, jewel
studded cliffs.
A Roof Tennis Court
Mr.. Doherty not only has a comfort
able, spacious apartment on this move
painted garden, as well. He prefers
painted gardens to real ones. because
they do not harbor flies and mosqui-
toes. Sitting on his back porch these
summer evenings. he looks out upon a
picturesque rural landscape with roll
ing hills and green. fertile valleys, a
mountain top or two in the distance and
in the foreground a lovely garden with
trellises of climbing roses and lily pools
set here and there on a green lawn
or between flower beds. Everything is
painted.
MY idea is to make this place a
real health resort" explains Mr.. Do
herty, zone that l can reach in a few
minutes walk from my office. The
principal thing is to get lots of good,
sweet air. / never could see why
people want to go to places in search
Of fresh air, and then screen them
selves away from it. | haven't a
screen in my place and I don't want
any. Neither do / want any mosquitoes
or flies, So I have the plants and
%evergreens which are ont on this place
in winter taken away in summer, and,
as | don't want it to look too plain
and bare. I have had the walls and
floor painted to give an effect of foil
age. pools and flowers.
IF New Workers would only realize
how fine it is up on the roofs. more
of them certainly would build root
gardens and Fairgrounds he contln-
ueu. IL stcMS dLidLiiS' lhouSh' hho'
when. by simply taking an elevator 10
the roof they could get glorious fresh
breezes and air as sweet as in the
country. they continue to ignore these
possibilities and spend their time dowr
at the ground level, or travelling tC
and from summer resorts.
1.-THE average New York suburbanite
travels a long distance from his office
to his country home and gets there
just about in time to go inside to gel
away from mosquitoes. Or perhaps he
has his veranda screened and sits out.
side, deluding himself that he's getting
just as much benefit as If he were
really out in the open. Think of tht
time he passes in the cars and the
struggling crowds he encounters every
day, If he only would realize wh.t
fine places could be built up on the
roofs he could have infinitely more
time out of doors and with infinitely
less trouble.
"A1l this life in the open air makes
! for efficiency. I'm not the kind o.
man to take long vacations, and as fol
COMMUNICATED, I wouldn't do it.
believe if more New Workers would
use their roofs for health resorts they'C
find they would gain in health, add t.
their efficiency and continue to be eff
flclent Ionger.
A Yacht like Dwelling
Another picturesque roof dwelling
belongs to q well known New Yorl
yachtsman, who years ago decided tina
he would like to live on top of tn,
Berkeley Arcade building in the mids
of his clubs and the theater district
A satisfactory long term lease for
certain portion of the roof was ar
ranged, with adequate provision for re
newal and also for elevator service anC
heat. Then an architect was called t.
the roof and requested to design al
appropriate bungalow. The result il
well worth seeing.
The exterior walls Of the place ar.
Of brick and hollow tile covered will
when every other form of property