224 P L A X S O F K E S I T) K N C E S 



Plati-: XXVI. 



A Village Block of Stores and Residetices^ illustrating a mode of 

 bringing Grounds back of Alleys into connection, for Decorative 

 Purposes, with the Residences on the Village Street. 



We desire to call the reader's attention to this elaborate study 

 of an unusual mode of securing to liomes on contracted village lots 

 the delightful appendage of charming little pleasure grounds. 



The business of small villages usually clusters on one street, 

 and sometimes occupies but a few stores near "the corners ;" and 

 it is a common practice of thrifty and prudent village merchants to 

 have the residence on the same lot with the store, or on an 

 adjoining lot. As the village increases, the lots near the leading 

 merchant's are those earliest occupied by good imj^rovements, in 

 stores or residences. Our plate shows a village or suburban block 

 of two hundred feet front on the principal street, with lots one 

 hundred and fifty feet deep to an alley. 



Let us suppose that Mr. Smith, the wealthiest business man of 

 the vicinage, has purchased the one hundred feet front on the right, 

 and erected two fine stores on the corner (one of which he occupies), 

 and a dwelling-house on the balance of the lot. While beginning 

 to amass wealth he was doubtless occupying a much smaller store 

 and house, and has erected these large improvements when his 

 means enabled him to move with considerable strength. Let us 

 further suppose that on the completion of this fine residence, a 

 couple of well-to-do citizens buy two adjoining lots of twenty-five 

 feet front each and put up a pair of city houses ; and that the 

 corner fifty feet, on the left, is then improved as shown on the plate. 



Mr. Smith, and those who have built after him, have all been 

 intent on getting themselves good houses, and have not had either 

 the leisure or the taste to give much thought to grounds for embel- 

 lishment. With a business exacting all his time, and a young family 

 to provide for, the business man has looked forward to a new store 

 or a new house as the ultima thule of his ambition. But when these 

 are acquired, and larger means and more leisure and oliservation of 



