288 



XEW ENGLAND F.\RMER. 



June 



BUBAL ABCHITECTUKE. 

 A DISTRICT BCIIOOL-HOUSE, BY GEO. E. IIARXEY, LYNN, MASS. 



DESIGNED AND ENGRAVED EXPKESSLY TOR THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Any one at all familiar with New England vil- 

 lages, must have noticed what a cheerless, un- 

 sightly looking building the District School- 

 House usually is, standing, as it often does, at 

 the intersection of two or three country roads — 

 a mile perhaps from any habitation, so that it be 

 in the exact topographical centre of the District, 

 prominent, bare, and "all out of doors" — with its 

 four yellow ochre sides and its leaky hipped roof; 

 its battered door and its broken windows ; with- 

 out a tree to shelter it ; without a shrub or a 

 flower to beautify its grounds, or a vine to hide 

 the nakedness of its walls. In fact, it has be- 

 come a proverb among us, that the school-house 

 is always "the worst looking building in the whole 

 neighborhood." 



While our dwellings, our houses of worship, 

 our public town-buildings even, have, in a meas- 

 ure, yielded to the spirit of improvement, the Dis- 

 trict School-House — the most important of them 

 all — is still, in most instances, suffered to remain 

 the same ugly, uncomfortable, ill-contrived struc- 

 ture that it was years ago, when our fathers were 

 accustomed to try the effect of their jack-knives 

 upon the pine wood of the benches and seats. 

 And yet, by the exercise of a little taste, the same 

 building, with no more expense, may be rendered 

 an ornament rather than a blot upon the land- 

 scape. 



It is, moreover, highly important that a child's 

 first impressions of the school be of a pleasing 

 nature, for upon that will depend, in a great de- 

 gree, the success of all his after schooling. Hence 

 the building itself should be made attractive, of 

 correct architectural design and proportions — 

 sufficiently ornamented to indicate its character 

 and uses — well planned, and having all the mod- 

 ern appliances for the comfort and convenience 

 of the scholars — the grounds neatly laid out, with 

 gravelled walks, hedges and shrubs, trees and 

 flowers, grass plots and play grounds — and the 

 whole situated in some retired spot away from the 

 dust of the highway. 



In the accompanying design we have attempted 

 an improvement like the above in the appearance 

 and accommodations of such buildings. The per- 

 spective view shows the style and general char- 

 acter of its exterior ; separate entrances for boys 

 and girls ; a large window in front lighting the 

 school room ; and a ventilator on the ridge of 

 the roof. The view also indicates the position 

 and effect of the shrubbery and trees and paths ; 

 the vines trailing over its sides, and the vase in 

 front filled with myrtle. The plan shows the posi- 

 tion and relative size of the rooms. A is an open 

 vestibule or porch, seven feet square, shielding 

 the entrance to the girls' apartment. The interi- 

 or finish of this porch is carried up into the roof, 



