April, 1911 
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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
149 
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Fig. 1—Simplicity is the keynote of the exterior design of this house 
A Concrete City by the Sea 
A Group of White Stucco Houses with Red Tiled Roof 
By John F. Springer 
S53 ONCRETE is by no means a new material. 
It was used by the ancient Romans. And 
there are examples of concrete construc- 
tion scattered about Europe which are 
undoubtedly quite old. But there are con- 
cretes and concretes. A modern concrete 
consists of three solid ingredients: Port- 
land cement, sand, and broken rock or an equivalent. It 
is hoped that this material is as durable as the more ancient 
article. And there is some warrant for this. It will be seen 
at once that indestructibility is a wonderfully attractive 
quality in a building material. When we combine with this 
reasonableness of first cost, we do not have to go much 
further, perhaps, to understand the present popularity of 
concrete. But this material does have other good qualities. 
It is easily molded to the forms desired; it permits rapidity 
of construction; it is vermin proof; it can be made 
Waterproof. 
But not every- 
thing that goes by 
the name of con- 
crete is deserving of 
the name. Let me 
explain. There is 
only one ingredient 
in concrete which 
has the power of 
binding the whole 
into a single mass. 
This is the Port- 
land cement. Now 
it so happens that 
this is the most ex- 
pensive one as well. 
It can readily be 
understood, then, 
Fig. 2—A home of bungalow construction 
that contractors and builders are liable to be tempted to 
reduce the proportionate amount used or to use an inferior 
quality, or to do both. As with everything else, the only 
way to get a fine concrete is to use the best materials and 
in the proper proportions. Use the best Portland cement 
and in proper amount. You have then solved a large part 
of your problem. Further, when the best Portland cement 
is used generously, you have taken the right steps to get a 
waterproof material. 
You can make an efficient material without using broken 
rock at all. A large part of its offiice—perhaps approxi- 
mately the whole—is this: Wherever you have a piece of 
stone, you do not have to have cement, and so the cost can 
be kept down. There is sometimes this advantage in leav- 
ing out the stone: The material, on account of its uniform 
consistency, can be disposed in very thin sheets. Perhaps 
one ought not to call such material concrete, as it is more 
properly a cement 
mortar. But popu- 
lar imagination may 
be counted on to 
callitico mc me te, 
nevertheless. 
Down by the 
shore of the ocean, 
at Long Beach, 
Long Island, there 
is being constructed 
what we may per- 
haps be excused for 
calling a concrete 
city, although much 
of the material used 
contains no. stone. 
Different con- 
tractors who are 
