342 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[March 1, 1917. 



Housing the Connecticut Mills Employes 



By John Barnard, Architect. 



ANYBODY who has seen a typical cotton mill town with 

 its unsightly rows of barn-like tenements will be pleas- 

 antly surprised by a visit to Danielson, Connecticut. 

 Opposite the growing plant of the Connecticut Mills Co., weaver 

 of tire fabrics, in a rolling tract of land 150 acres in extent and 

 containing a picturesque little pond, is springing up a model 

 village of comfortable, attractive cottages for the operatives. 

 Winding streets are being laid out, landscape features deter- 

 mined, and when the development is complete, extensive lawns, 

 shade trees, flower and vegetable gardens will complete the 

 picture and combine all the benefits of country living with such 

 conveniences of the city as electric lights and sanitary plumbing. 



The housing movement was slow to reach cotton operatives 

 because of the long established conviction that crowded tene- 

 ments sufficed. But R. J. Cald- 

 well, of New York City, thought 

 different!)', and the work now un- 

 der way around the mills at Dan- 

 ielson, and at Sherbrooke, Quebec, 

 as well as that contemplated at 

 Taunton, Massachusetts, has acted 

 as an incentive to others who are 

 falling in line. Mr. Caldwell be- 

 lieved that because cotton opera- 

 tives had always been obliged to 

 hive together was no reason to 

 suppose they did not long for 

 modern conveniences. Moreover, 

 the result of his experiment has 

 proved that they do desire and 

 appreciate better conditions, will 

 not intentionally abuse them, are 

 amenable to suggestions for a higher standard of living, and 

 that greater efficiency and permanency of employment are the 

 results. 



Mill officials and citizens of Danielson linanced the project by 

 organizing the Danielson Construction Co. and subscribing a 

 working capital of $40,000. The houses are erected by local 

 builders, rented by the mill for a period of three years at 10 

 per cent of their cost, and then sub-let to employes and the 

 rental of about $4 weekly deducted from the pay envelope of 

 the tenant. Ordinarily this rental is easily within the reach of 

 cotton mill operatives, who are now receiving the highest wages 

 in the history of the industry. Moreover, there are often sev- 

 eral wage earners ih a family. In special instances, however. 



A Ple.vsi.n'g Two-Family House for the Connecticut 

 Mills Co. 



when for some adequate reason the amount is more than a de- 

 serving employe can afford to pay, the mill will assume part of 

 the annual rental up to $25. 



Many operatives wish to own their own homes, and to en- 

 courage this tendency toward permanence and better citizenship, 

 N. D. Prince, vice-president of the Windham County National 

 Bank, rose to the occasion and arranged not only to have 

 his bank lend any reasonable sum to the construction company, 

 but to assist individual financing as well. Thus the bank takes 

 a 70 per cent first mortgage provided the operative can furnish 

 the other 30 per cent himself. When a deserving person cannot 

 do this, yet desires to buy a home, the mill advances it on a 

 second mortgage, deducting the amount proportionately from 

 the tenant's pay envelope until the second mortgage is disposed 



of, and continuing thereafter to 

 make such equitable deductions 

 as circumstances permit for the 

 payment of the first mortgage. 



Several four-family houses 

 were put up at the outset as re- 

 ceiving stations for new help as 

 recruited, but later operations 

 have been principally in single 

 houses with a few of the two- 

 family semi-detached type, most 

 of them intended for sale to oper- 

 atives. Each single house is 

 about 25 feet square with four 

 rooms of ample size on each floor, 

 a good porch, attic and cellar. 

 A bathroom with open plumbing, 

 hot and cold water in the kitchen 

 and bathroom, and electric lights throughout are the principal 

 features, however. Floors and wood trim ure of Georgian pine 

 with inside walls of rough plaster oil-painted in warm tints, 

 which is more sanitary than wall paper and more easily repaired. 

 William H. Cox, the architect, has provided several floor 

 plans, to which various exteriors can be applied. Only four or 

 five similar houses will be erected, and these are to be so scat- 

 tered over the entire development and so varied by the use of 

 shingles, clapboards, siding or stucco for the exterior walls, as 

 to avoid any appearance of duplication. Thus far all have been 

 of wood in the Colonial spirit, but several of the English cottage 

 type are soon to be erected. The cost is about $1,900 each, or 

 $3,()00 for the two-family houses. 



'jy .j-a-^ ■«' 



-r 





=. I First ri.oop. '^;t 



Sit ■ 



Picturesque Types of Single Houses at Danielson, Connecticut; a Gambrel-Roof Lean-to and a Cape Cod Farmhouse. 



