204 ROBERT W. DE FOREST 



length, making it three by twelve. We conceded that under 

 the law it was impossible to build this particular type of tene- 

 ment on a twenty five foot lot, with each apartment running 

 through from front to rear, but we demonstrated that it was 

 perfectly practicable to build what seemed to us a much better 

 two families on a floor tenement on such a lot, by putting one 

 apartment in the front and another in the rear; that it was per- 

 fectly practicable to build, under the law, apartments running 

 through from front to rear on a somewhat larger lot, and that 

 the law interfered with no other current type except the one in 

 question. The separate front and rear apartments, which were 

 practical under the new law, are usual in Manhattan, and the 

 rent obtainable from the front apartment differs but little from 

 that obtainable from the rear apartment. Brookljni insisted 

 that though Brooklyn was a borough of New York and only 

 separated from Manhattan by the East river, Brooklyn people 

 were so accustomed to apartments running through from front 

 to rear that they would not rent rear apartments, and indeed, 

 that the social distinction between families who could afford 

 to live in the front apartment, and those who would be forced 

 to live in the rear apartment, was so great that they would not 

 rent apartments in the same house. 



This proposition may seem strained, but we of the city 

 administration were finally satisfied that so much regard should 

 be paid to local habits and customs, that it was wise to modify 

 our minimum court areas in three story houses to such a point 

 as would permit the building of this particular type of Brook- 

 lyn house. Plans were then made which demonstrated beyond 

 peradventure that by reducing the minimum court area to 

 8x14, instead of 3x12, this particular type of house could be 

 built, with bedrooms infinitely better lighted and better ven- 

 tilated than those opening upon the narrow shaft. One would 

 have supposed that this improved plan, which permitted 

 Brooklyn builders to construct a front to rear apartment, for 

 which they claimed so many advantages, would have been re- 

 ceived with acclamation as a solution of the difficulty. Not 

 at all. Some insisted that Brookljoi must have what it was 

 accustomed to, narrow air shaft and all. Others more open- 

 minded, while frankly admitting that the new plans made 



