April, 1906 
viet osAN, HOMES AND GARDENS 
249 
Helps to Home Building 
The Responsibility of House Ownership 
NE of the most serious responsibilities that 
any one can incur is that of house ownership. 
Not mortgages, of course, nor rents, nor 
tenants, nor repairs, nor complaints; not any 
of the thousand and one material things that 
are bound, sooner or later, rarely or fre- 
quently to disturb the calm of the real estate proprietor. 
These matters are at once among the distinctions and the 
distractions of house ownership. They are so very general in 
their prevalence, so identical in their manifestations, that they 
appear to be among the inalienable qualities of real estate. 
These are the commonplaces of house ownership, which affect 
every one and which are looked for quite as a matter of 
course. 
But there is another series of responsibilities in ownership 
which stand on a higher plane and which have a personal 
and individual significance. It may not be the duty of every 
citizen to own a house or a bit of land, but ownership implies 
certain civic duties of a very notable sort. These include a 
responsibility to oneself and one’s family; to one’s neighbors, 
to one’s neighborhood; and, finally, to the public at large. 
The responsibility to oneself is perhaps of least importance. 
A man who does not appreciate a good house will not be in- 
fluenced by one. If one does not value agreeable surround- 
ings one will not be affected by them sufficiently to take any 
interest in them. If one does not realize there is a per- 
sonal responsibility in house ownership no amount of argu- 
ment will help to impress this fact. 
That the personal responsibility is a weighty one, however, 
is apparent from the indifference with which many persons 
regard their place of abode. That there is a personal re- 
sponsibility is a new idea to many owners. Otherwise why is 
there so much indifference towards the house as a house, 
especially in dwellings of low cost? The more expensive the 
house the greater the sense of responsibility, because in such 
cases the material elements are better understood. It is easier 
to reckon the damage caused by neglect of a costly house, 
while a cheap or inexpensive one is bound to decay and may 
be viewed with more or less indifference. 
But if the owner is not keenly alive to any sense of per- 
sonal responsibility he should not ignore what he owes his 
family. Every man who buys a house should see to it that 
it is, in every way, worthy of his family. This is the most 
important aspect of a house, far transcending every other 
point of view. If his means are limited the dwelling will 
necessarily be of a modest character. But it need not be bad, 
it need not be situated in the midst of squalid surroundings, it 
need not adjoin obnoxious sites, it need not, in fact, be open 
to any fair criticism. 
And if there are more ample means at command there is 
precisely the same necessity for exercising a rigid choice. 
Property, even of an expensive kind, does not long remain 
ina single family in America. A single lifetime is sometimes 
too short, and many a wealthy man has wearied of a great 
place on which he has spent vast sums, and taken up the 
burden of building anew on a wholly different scale. There 
Is a grave responsibility in such proceedings, even if the 
wealth be large. The house of the parents should be the 
family homestead, the dwelling in which the affections of 
the whole family center, the home which is common to all 
alike. The family of the future should be considered in ar- 
ranging for house ownership as well as the family of the 
present. Not for size, for space, for accommodation, but 
for what the house may be to the family after the original 
owner has passed away. 
The practical application of this idea is that one should 
not build a house that one is not likely to be able to sell read- 
ily. One should not put more money into a house than one’s 
estate will stand. One should not burden it with mortgages, 
put into it large sums that cannot be taken out, erect it on an 
unsuitable site or in an undesirable neighborhood. In a 
word, one’s own idiosyncrasies should not run away with one. 
The greatest of all responsibilities in house ownership are 
those due to the family. The home is made for the family, 
and the influence of the house on family life is very marked. 
A good house will not necessarily mean a good home, but it 
will help so much towards that end that it is apparent that a 
bad house will have a distinctly unfortunate effect. And 
everything that helps towards a good home should be eagerly 
welcomed and instantly availed of. Not every home, un- 
fortunately, can be ideal, but the house, can, at least, be the 
best possible. 
The responsibilities towards one’s neighbors and one’s 
neighborhood are less marked and less important. But they 
are real responsibilities. One owes it to one’s fellow house 
owners to maintain one’s dwelling in the best outward con- 
dition. Hence the decorative adjuncts of the garden have 
a public significance quite apart from any satisfaction they 
give the owner himself. The neatness with which the garden 
is kept up, the skill and taste shown in its furnishings, the 
effect it produces upon other eyes than those of the owner, 
are all part of the responsibilities due to the neighbors and 
the neighborhood. 
And the owner reaps a large share of the value of this 
external care. A good-looking house in the midst of good- 
looking grounds is worth more money than the same house 
indifferently placed. The money spent in such expenditures 
is not returned in ready cash, but it is brought back in added 
interest which may well yield a handsome profit in the end. 
From one’s near neighbors it is but a step to the larger 
public, that public that perhaps sees your house but once, that 
wanders into your street by chance, but which is sure to come 
again and again to view the pleasant spectacle your own taste 
and interest have produced. There may be no return to the 
owner in this; it may not help the sale of his property when 
the time comes to sell it; he may never, himself, know that 
this interest has been felt or hear any expression of opinion. 
But if the results of his labors are excellent, if he has, in 
fact, created a real home in agreeable surroundings, he may 
be very certain that neither his labor nor his expense has 
been in vain. 
The wise house owner will not shirk the responsibilities of 
ownership because he cannot count the returns. He will not 
care for returns so much as he will value results. He will 
sink his own personality and value his house first of all for 
his family. He will do what he can to make it worthy of his 
utmost interpretation of their wishes. He will be aware that 
he has incurred, in the purchase of his home, certain re- 
sponsibilities towards his neighbors, and he will, in the final 
review of the matter, be aware that there is also a responsi- 
bility towards the outside public whom he does not know 
and with whom he does not come in contact. Some one or 
other of these responsibilities he may avoid, but in the end 
he will find the more he yields the better the result. 
