AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 609 



can be put upon a new or old building without disturbing the 

 plastering or internal arrangements of the house, and does not 

 interfere with its occupancy diu'iiig the progress of the work. It 

 can be put upon a wood or frame front, and will make it fire and 

 weather proof from without, and as handsome as any brown stone 

 building. A whole front can be packed in a very small compass, 

 and sent to any part of the country at a trifling expense. Any 

 ordinary mechanic can put it up without the aid of machinery. 

 It is superior to the customary method of refacing buildings with 

 brick, because the strength of the front is destroyed by the split- 

 ting of the wall, which cuts off all the ties that are indispensable 

 to bind the walls together, and cannot be replaced, consequently 

 there are but two-four-and-a-half inch walls standing, perhaps 

 three or more stories high, with no ties to bind them together, 

 whilst facing the walls with iron, adds greatly to its original 

 strength, besides admitting of an infinite variety of designs and 

 any style of architecture, and relieves the tedious and endless 

 monotony of bricks and mortar. 



I need not say it is superior to stucco or mastic, as that is but a 

 frail temporary make-shift, adopted because supposed to be the 

 cheapest method of imitating stone work; it proves not only to 

 be costly, but a frail and imperfect apology for an imitation of 

 stone, and is in the end, expensive, because it absorbs a large 

 quantity of paint, and requires constant repairs, and when painted 

 the color is almost immediately destroyed by the lime and other 

 components of stucco or mastic. 



The cost of painting the iron front is not one-half that of 

 mastic, as the paint is not absorbed by it, and should the building 

 at any time be torn down, the front can be put up again, or the 

 metal would be of more value than the difference between the 

 first cost of the iron and the mastic, so that in the end it is far 

 the cheapest. It presents great advantages in the adoption of 

 uniform design and pattern in the erection of rows of buildings, 

 enabling the architect or builder to carry out any style of archi- 

 tecture complete, at less expense than to diminish the amount of 

 ornamental work as the height of the building is increased, which 

 is uniformly done to diminish the cost of carved or ornamental 

 stone work. 



This system of facing fronts, not only presents unequalled ad- 

 vantages in point of economy, durability and beauty in the erec- 

 tion of new buildings, but when put upon old or dilapidated 

 stores or dwellings will enliance their value from fifty to one 



[Am. Inst. J * S9 



