October, 1912 
to “peel off... The tiling or wire lathing to which it is fixed 
expands or contracts, of course, with heat or cold, and this 
naturally causes cracks in the stucco which is necessarily 
rigid. The smallest crack will let in moisture which hastens 
the process of destruction. Walls thus built of stucco re- 
quire constant repairing, and much patching which leaves 
unsightly blotches and differences of color. Some of our 
friends will tell us that stucco is one of the most ancient and 
durable of building materials, and will point to various 
stucco structures in Europe or South America which have 
attained a great age. If stucco has endured for years in 
these cases, it is because it has been applied to stone or 
brick, and even then it is sometimes known to require con- 
siderable repairing. No one seems to claim durability as 
one of the advantages of our use of stucco. Its chief points 
seem to be that it is fresh, cool looking, inexpensive and 
easily applied. 
Stone is almost always the most beautiful and most deco- 
rative of building materials, but unfortunately it is nearly 
everywhere the most expensive both in its original cost and 
in its application. Only in certain places are there quarries 
of stone suitable for building purposes, and freight on a 
substance so weighty must be taken into consideration. Then 
the quarrying and the cutting which is almost always neces- 
sary is another exceedingly costly item and all this expense 
is incurred before the material has reached the scene of 
building operations or before the actual construction has 
been begun, and the cost of labor in building a house of 
stone is necessarily quite high. Wood is rapidly becoming 
less and less of a factor in home-building. The forests, 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
341 
which were once thought almost inexhaustible have disap- 
peared before the ruthless campaign of the sawmill and its 
‘lumber king,” and forestration, which might afford a rem- 
edy, is too recent a science to be of any practical help. Then 
there are vast districts where no lumber could be produced, 
and the cost of importing lumber or bringing it from a dis- 
tant part of the country would be excessive. So each year 
finds the proportion of frame houses smaller and smaller. 
We now come to the subject of brick as a building ma- 
terial. It seems to answer every demand. Being made of clay, 
it can be and is produced in almost every part of the coun- 
try. It has been subjected for days to a furious heat while 
being baked and is therefore fireproof, and its use keeps 
down the insurance rate. A brick house is not difficult to 
heat and the fuel bill will be one-third less than if the house 
be frame, and being cooler in Summer, it is more comfort- 
able during the heated periods of our trying American 
Summers. But our homes are now being built for beauty 
as well as for comfort, and economy now has a meaning 
other than mere cheapness, for what is merely cheap and 
ugly, and uncomfortable because cheap, is really after all 
the most costly in many ways—all this by way of preamble 
to saying that brick is the most beautifying and satisfying 
building material within the average man’s means. 
Let us suppose that the prospective builder fully realizes 
that brick possesses so many advantages, material as well as 
artistic, that he is prepared to pay the added cost, charging 
the difference against the credit item created by the reduction 
in the cost of heating, insurance, painting, repair and general 
upkeep. He finds a vast array of styles awaiting his selection 
IS Selb las et Saat id Ln oe es a ee he ae 
Brickwork will often give to stucco houses just that note of distinction which cement surfaces often require to relieve their flatness 
