THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZ 



of the hour, the Emergency Fleet Cor- 

 poration came to the financial aid of the 

 Shipbuilding Company and a complete 

 city of homes was erected. 



BUILDING A CITY OP HOMES TO ORDER 



On a tract of 155 acres adjoining the 

 plant, a model town was conceived with 

 the aid of experts in city planning. Broad 

 thoroughfares were laid out, spaces for 

 parks set aside, and locations for schools, 

 churches, bakeries, restaurants, and for a 

 theater, city hall, and department store 

 were designated. 



That was a few months ago. Today a 

 $5,000,000 city of dwellings is nearing 

 completion, not after the higgledy-pig- 

 gledy fashion in which the Topsy boom 

 towns of the past have "jest growed," 

 but after a well-ordered, scientific plan. 



The first impression which the visitor 

 gains of this shipworkers' town of Harri- 

 man, with its 5,000 dwellers, is that of 

 architectural comeliness. There are no 

 frail, spindle-shanked three and four- 

 story frame tenements with windows and 

 doors flush against the outer walls, re- 

 minding one of a person without eye- 

 brows ; there are no tortuous alleys ; no 

 rows of tatterdemalion shacks and lean- 

 tos surrounded by tumble-down, snaggle- 

 tooth picket fences ; no unkempt area- 

 ways ; no fire-escapes adorned with all 

 imaginable articles of intimate family 

 wash ; no vacant lots strewn with tomato 

 cans or other goat pasturage. In con- 

 trast, there are more than a score of at- 

 tractive stucco, slate-roof homes of six 

 rooms each, 232 group houses of four 

 and five rooms each, 200 three and four 

 room apartments, and 60 brick homes, 

 accommodating more than 500 families. 

 The bachelor quarters include lodging 

 houses, open dormitories, and a small 

 number of neat bungalows, providing for 

 the comfort of 2,300 men. 



Every home has electric lights, porce- 

 lain bath, and hot-air heat. The apart- 

 ments and bachelor quarters have porce- 

 lain tubs or showers, electric lights, hot 

 water, and steam heat. 



A VALUABLE EXPERIMENT IN HOUSING 



Rents are fairly moderate. The most 

 desirable homes in the community, those 

 which face a wide, curving boulevard and 



are surrounded by attractive lawns, may 

 be had at from $36 to $42 a month. 

 Bachelor accommodations range from 

 $1.75 to $3.00 a week, including attend- 

 ance, the housekeeping being conducted 

 by three-score orderlies under the direc- 

 tion of four foremen. 



The school-house, with its spacious 

 playground, is thoroughly modern in its 

 lighting, ventilation, and sanitary ar- 

 rangements, a ten-room structure fur- 

 nished and equipped after the most ap- 

 proved standards. 



At present the Y. M. C. A. building is 

 the club-house of the town, and a tem- 

 porary hall, with a seating capacity of 

 1,500, is serving as a community assembly 

 room until the theater is built. The com- 

 munity bake-shop is run in conjunction 

 with the cafeteria, where the equipment 

 is ample to supply not only the inhabit- 

 ants of Harriman, but all the other work- 

 ers in the shipyard. 



There is no municipal government in 

 Harriman, for it is not incorporated. 

 W. E. Smith, who has the title of city 

 manager, is the mayor, council, and board 

 of aldermen — the Pooh Bah of the com- 

 munity and vice-regent for the shipbuild- 

 ing company and for the financial sponsor 

 of the model city, the Emergency Fleet 

 Corporation. 



Harriman promises much, not merely 

 as the fulfillment of an urgent need in 

 time of war, but also as a valuable ex- 

 periment in community housing. It has 

 its defects, many of them, one being the 

 danger of depriving its dwellers of civic 

 responsibilities, but it is a long step in ad- 

 vance of the makeshift housing methods 

 which obtain in so many industrial cen- 

 ters. It is worthy of close study, and may 

 afford worth-while lessons for those who 

 are to rebuild the devastated villages of 

 Belgium and northern France. 



THE TASK OF MANNING OUR NEW SHIPS 



Finding men to build the ships and 

 providing places in which they can live 

 while so employed present larger difficul- 

 ties numerically, but in no degree less 

 serious or more immediate than finding 

 officers and crews to operate the ships as 

 they are completed. 



The American seafarer, one of the 

 hardiest, most resourceful, and pictur- 



