NATURAL HISTORY BUILDING 19 



length is made to appear somewhat greater, owing to their fagades 

 overlapping the sides of the pavilion where it narrows toward the 

 front projection. This projection, which amounts to 27 feet 5^ inches 

 below and 16 feet 3 inches above the water table, is 80 feet 2 inches 

 wide in the basement and 79 feet 5 inches wide within the portico. 

 The north wing is shorter than the others, its length being 214 feet 

 7 inches. The arms of the ranges are all of equal length, and meas- 

 ure 188 feet from the wings. Their width over the outer and court 

 walls is 60 feet 10 inches. 



The two large uncovered courts enclosed by the wings and ranges 

 are 128 feet 2 inches square in the basement story. Their walls are 

 built of gray-white semi-vitreous brick with belt courses of gray 

 granite, and above the basement, which projects 4 inches, they extend 

 flush to the top of the upper story. 



The granite used for the outer walls of the building is of three 

 kinds, namely, the so-called pink or warm gray variety from Milford, 

 Mass., for the basement story, the water table, and the south and 

 north approaches; white granite from Bethel, Vt., for the first and 

 second stories, the main cornice, and all the walls of the south pa- 

 vilion and rotunda above the basement; and a nearly white granite 

 from Mount Airy, N. C, for the attic story. As a rule the stone is 

 laid in regular horizontal courses, among the few exceptions being 

 the low arches over the basement windows. Above the base course 

 and the course next following it to the water table it is cut with 

 rusticated horizontal and arch stone joints, the raised faces, except 

 the projecting key stone of the window arches, having a picked sur- 

 face. Otherwise, the surfaces are essentially smooth, being 4-cut in 

 the basement, including the water table ; 6-cut for the first and second 

 stories and the south approach ; and 4-cut everywhere above the main 

 cornice and the cornice of the south pavilion. 



Back of the granite the walls consist of hard-burned red brick, 

 followed by an inner facing of porous hollow brick to provide a 

 damp proof and dry non-heat conducting lining. This construction, 

 which is also followed in the court walls, includes vertical chases, 

 9 inches wide and 8 inches deep, extending from the foundations to 

 the attic and designed for the vertical distribution of pipes, wires, 

 etc. As a rule, there are two such chases in each of the wall piers 

 between windows. 



The roofs of the wings and ranges are relatively low, and such 

 slopes as are visible from the surrounding park and streets, as also 

 the roofs and dome of the main pavilion and rotunda, are covered 

 with a light green slate. The remaining parts of the roofs, aside 

 from the skylights, are copper covered. 



In the general absence of interior structural walls, it has been neces- 

 sary in providing for the support of the wide floors and the roofs to 



