164 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



May, 19 13 



wood as a building material. 

 To begin with there is a cer- 

 tain sentiment in its favor, for 

 it is closely identified with the 

 history of American home- 

 making, and in every one of the 

 early Colonial states there are 

 many old houses built of wood, 

 which are still standing and 

 often in excellent condition, 

 notwithstanding the continual 

 wear and tear which they have 

 seen. 



The use of wood by the 

 early American colonists was 

 only a matter of circumstances 

 or, it might be said, of con- 

 venience. The settlers had all 

 come from countries where 

 brick or stone were used in 

 building and their use of wood 

 in America was only because 

 it was easily to be had and 

 could be secured without the 

 costly and laborious making 

 of brick or quarrying and 

 cutting of stone. Their build- 

 excellent state of preserva- 

 tion to the size and strength of their timbers and to 

 the care with which they were put together. Examine 

 any very old house of wood, and you will find that the un- 

 derpinning and rafters are of timbers of hard oak, hewn 

 out by hand, and of a size which could be matched to-day 

 only at great trouble and expense. Then the heavy timbers 



R00F 



First floor plan of the house at 



Cedar Manor 

 ings of wood owe their 



were held together not by nails 

 but by wooden stakes or pegs, 

 and the structure will no doubt 

 be found to be mortised to- 

 gether in a way which would 

 try the patience and tax the 

 skill of any present day car- 

 penter. Shingles and clap- 

 boards were also cut by hand 

 and were of a durability which 

 could not be had to-day. The 

 forests which made building 

 material so easily had a cen- 

 tury or more ago have now dis- 

 appeared, and many years 

 must elapse before they are re- 

 stored. The disappearance of 

 the forests has caused the 

 prices of lumber to so advance 

 that before long, it will be al- 

 most as expensive as stone — 

 already the difference between 

 the cost of lumber and that of 

 brick is very slight and is be- 

 coming less each year. These 

 and many other causes have Second floor plan of the house 

 contributed largely to the pop- at Cedar Manor 



ularity of various other forms of building, such as concrete, 

 plaster and stucco, and their use is increasing in exact ratio 

 to the decrease in the use of wood. 



Concrete, of course, is a compound made up of sand, 

 water, crushed stone and Portland cement, and the general 

 forms of its use are either in molded blocks, used much 

 as brick, or by pouring the concrete while in a fluid state 



RUfiF 



A stucco house at Cedar Manor, Jamaica, Long Island, New York 



