2o6 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



May, 1 9 10 



freedom from plas- 

 ter cracks and 

 ruined decorations. 

 It means that wood- 

 work of trim and 

 doors once fitted 

 will always remain. 

 It means a house 

 without mice or rats 

 or vermin of any 

 kind, and a house 

 that can be venti- 

 lated and heated in 

 a scientific way, not 

 by haphazard. It 

 means sanitary 

 housing, durable 

 and in the end, eco- 

 nomical construction. 



The men of mod- 

 erate means will re- 

 ceivethe ben- 

 efit of this as 

 soon as they 

 insist that 

 a r c h i tects 

 and builders 

 furnish them 

 with some- 

 thing better 

 than the 

 modern 

 frame build- 

 ing, and as 

 soon as they 

 are ready to 

 sacrifice a 

 lot of use- 

 less lumber 

 space and 

 useless 

 rooms and 

 parti tions 

 that are 

 now c o m- 

 monly put in houses. 

 The architect will sac- 

 rifice a lot of useless 

 ornaments and the 

 old-established build- 

 er some nights' sleep 

 until he learns this 

 branch of his busi- 

 ness. It is the 

 established builders 

 who are needed to 

 make a success of 

 what is merely a de- 

 tail, but an import- 

 ant one, of their 

 general practice. 



Those who are 

 looking for a cheap 

 substitute for wood 

 will not find it in 

 concrete. But those 

 who want durabil- 

 ity, freedom from 

 repairs and deter- 

 ioration, who wish 

 to build and then 



Fig. 1 5 — A stucco garage of unique design 



Fig. 1 6 — A concrete garage with the chauffeur's room in the second story 



Fig. I 7 — A garage of good design with cement walls and a slate roof 



turn their minds to 

 something else, will 

 build their walls of 

 brick or terra-cotta 

 or concrete, and 

 their floors of rein- 

 forced concrete fin- 

 ished with oak or 

 pine or tile. They 

 will diminish the 

 size of their build- 

 ings and curtail the 

 number of rooms 

 rather than accept 

 a material whose 

 incessant repairs 

 will forever curtail 

 their activities in 

 other directions. 



The temptation to 

 both architect and 

 layman is to 

 cover as 

 much space 

 as possible 

 with the ap- 

 p r opriation 

 at hand. Un- 

 doubt edly 

 the greater 

 showing i n 

 size and dis- 

 play can be 

 made in 

 frame than 

 i n tile or 

 concrete con- 

 struction for 

 the same 

 amount o f 

 money, es- 

 pecially in the 

 class of dwell- 

 ings that av- 

 erage in cost 

 under fifteen thous- 

 and dollars. 



Where an expen- 

 diture o f twenty 

 thousand dollars is 

 intended, there are 

 advantages avail- 

 able in the fireproof 

 structure that make 

 it to-day a close 

 competitor to the 

 frame structure in 

 first cost, although 

 exhuberance in the 

 trim work, both in- 

 terior and exterior, 

 must be repressed 

 in the former more 

 than in the latter. 



This is hardly a 

 misfortune, as the 

 illustrations accom- 

 panying this article 

 abundantly show 

 the trend toward 

 simplicity in design. 



