38 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



July, 1906 



The Concrete Garage of Dr. N. B. Van Etten 



Tremont, New York 



ONCRETE construction 

 in its modern forms and 

 uses, and the successful 

 application of the prin 

 ciples of reinforced con- 

 crete to the building of 

 country houses, stables and garages, which 

 shall be architecturally beautiful in them- 

 selves, and harmonious with their sur- 

 roundings, is the most engaging topic 

 among the architects of the present day. 



The garage of Dr. N. B. Van Etten, at 

 Tremont, N. Y., of which Mr. Robert W. 

 Gardner, who is making a specialty of this 

 class of work, is the architect, is a very 

 excellent example of this form of construc- 

 tion. Mr. Gardner has shown an unusual 

 appreciation of the possibilities open to 

 concrete construction, and much that has 

 been accomplished may well be termed 

 novel and the results attained both from 

 the practical and artistic standpoint, justify 

 his confidence in the new material. 



The foundations, the walls, the floors, 

 stairs, steps, partitions, and even the roof, 

 are constructed of reinforced concrete; 

 the only wood used throughout the en- 

 tire building being that which is found 

 in the jambs of the doors and windows, and the doors. 

 The concrete for the garage was mixed in the proportion 

 of one part cement, two parts of sand, and four parts of 

 three-quarter inch trap rock. The 

 forms used for the walls were made 

 of rough lumber and were gener- 

 ally five and a half feet in height; 

 rods with key nuts and washers 

 passing through the walls in the 

 line of the uprights, served to hold 

 the boards in place and to prevent 



A Garage Constructed of Reinforced Concrete throughout Walls, Floors and Roof 



spreading as the concrete was deposited, rammed and spaded. 

 As the work advanced, the molds were raised, while the 

 finished wall served to keep them in line. As the walls 



progressed they were reinforced 

 by quarter-inch iron rods, placed 

 perpendicular and horizontal and 

 from eight to nine inches apart. The 

 walls were built eight inches thick. 

 The beams, twenty-five feet long, 

 which are placed nine and a half 

 feet apart, were built twelve inches 

 deep and nine inches wide, spanning 



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00/2 



The Angle of the Room Shows the Line of the 



Roof Which is only Three and a Half Inches 



from the Inside of the Room to the Open Air 



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