This dwelling was erected on a street restricted for ten years to single houses. 

 At the end ot that time flat houses miraculously sprang up on all sides 



•Three flatters." with their bird-cage balconies. As may be imagined, such 

 buildings greatly depreciate surrounding property 



There are certain degrees of badness in 

 ''Three Flatters.", but the ones built 

 next to my house were of the superlative 

 degree. When such houses are erected in 

 sections devoted exclusively to them, 

 property holders are not injured, but when 

 they invade districts originally intended 

 for single houses, they cause a very serious 

 depreciation in these estates. They are 

 almost always built close to the line of the 

 sidewalk, the space between them being 

 as narrow as possible, three houses squeezed 

 on two lots, poorly constructed, studiously 

 inartistic, and tenanted by an ever-changing 

 class of occupants that are always on the 

 lookout for new houses into which to move. 

 While the fronts of the houses show little 

 that is attractive, it is in the rear that they 

 demonstrate the possibilities of archi- 

 tectural nightmares. Each floor has a 

 veranda that looks much like a huge cage, 

 in which might be kept wild animals or 

 birds of prey. From these points of van- 

 tage carpets and mats can be advantage- 



My backyard is screened from the street, and the 

 high shrubbery shuts out my neighbors 



ously beaten, junk stored, friends enter- 

 tained and things not wanted about the 

 house be disposed of in a jiffy. The 

 grassless areas beneath these verandas 

 do not add to the picture. Depreciation 

 in this class of three-flat houses is very 

 rapid, and in a few years the results of poor 

 construction are painfully evident. 



Added to all this is the serious question 

 of fire risk. This phase has been considered 

 during the past year by the authorities and 

 the Mayor of the city once appointed a 

 committee to study the situation and draw 

 up a bill that would demand fire-proof 

 construction and a greater distance be- 

 tween buildings. The committee reported 

 very sane recommendations which were un- 

 fortunately not accepted by the legislature. 



Privacy under such conditions is difficult 

 to effect but I have struggled to make my 

 very small land space as attractive as 

 possible under the conditions, and at the 

 same time lessen the terrors of that mile- 

 long string of houses. 



On one side of my house I have a small 

 bed of flowers, mostly hardy ones. At the 

 back of the house a thick hedge of Carolina 

 poplars, with flowering shrubs in front of 

 them, make an almost impenetrable wall 

 of green. There is shade here in the after- 

 noon and we can sit out without feeling as 

 though we were on parade. Owing to 

 lack of space I couldn't use poplars for the 

 remaining side of the house so I placed 

 there tall-growing shrubs. By keeping 

 these pruned for height I have a fairly 

 high and attractive green fence which, 

 while not as artistic as it might be, yet 

 effectively screens the windows of the 

 lower flat next door. No one can look in 

 from the street, as the curve of the planting 

 near the sidewalk prevents this. While 

 there are many objections to the use of 

 poplars in a limited area (I have only 

 4,400 square feet) I handle them in such a 

 way that they answer the purpose for 

 which they were intended. I keep them 

 cut close and from time to time put in 

 cuttings of young plants to insure foliage 

 at the bottom. Using a sharp spade pre- 

 vents the roots from spreading too thickly 



49 



into the lawn. Each spring I work in well 

 rotted manure about the shrubs to induce 

 as heavy a growth as possible. It is the 

 planting that saves the situation: without 

 it living there would be impossible to me. 



I have learned my lesson and when I 

 build or buy again it will not be on a street 

 that is not built up or where the restrictions 

 do not run a hundred years or more! 



A single house surrounded by such build- 

 ings as are next to mine is almost un- 

 marketable, and can only be disposed of at 

 a great sacrifice. Sections of the city that 

 have always been regarded as exclusive and 

 desirable seem to be the particular prey of 

 three-flat builders. It is an all too common 

 sight to find some of the worst types of 

 this particular style of house erected close 

 to really palatial homes. This most fre- 

 quently occurs in the outlying sections of 

 the city in parts that were, until recently, 

 considered away out in the country. 



There is always plenty of shade at the back of the 

 house and an air of privacy 



