BULLETIN 825, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
tainments of various kinds, the proceeds of which go into the con- 
struction fund; and a part of the amount required to pay the cost of 
construction is often borrowed on the security of the building itself, 
to be repaid later with money derived from dues, assessments, or 
rentals. Contributions of labor or materials, as well as of cash, are 
often received. Where funds are secured through the sale of stock, 
the incorporated stock company of course owns or controls the build- 
ing; and where funds are secured through general contributions the 
ownership and control rest with a permanent community organization 
formed for the purpose. 
GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE BUILDING. 
The simplest of these buildings, often found in the open country, 
generally contain, first, an auditorium, the movable seats of which 
permit it to be transformed into a dining room, an athletic room, or 
a hall for dancing; second, a stage, with curtains and dressing rooms 
for theatricals; third, a kitchen, equipped with stove, utensils, dishes, 
and cutlery. Often the assembly room is on the first floor and the 
kitchen and a separate dining room in the basement. Farmers' 
buildings frequently contain special rooms for the use of cooperative 
economic enterprises. 
In the smaller towns, besides these rooms there are often a library 
and reading room, a game room, a women's rest room, and rooms 
which serve as meeting places for various organizations. 
In the county seats and larger towns the buildings are often 
quite complete, having besides the usual rooms an office room, 
special rooms for banquets, a cafe, a gymnasium, billiard and 
bowling rooms, an agricultural exhibit room, and rooms for the 
county agricultural agent, the county home demonstration agent, 
the visiting nurse, and the secretary of the commercial club. Com- 
munity buildings provided by town or county government also con- 
tain rooms for the different officials, the post office, and sometimes a 
social room for the fire department. 
Equipment in these buildings varies from the plain chairs and 
tables, stove, cooking utensils and dishes, and organ of the simpler 
structures, to the fine furniture, opera chairs, stage scenery, gym- 
nastic, bowling, billiard, athletic and game-room apparatus, books 
and magazines, piano, moving-picture machine, and first-aid facili- 
ties of the finer ones. Those in the open country are generally 
heated by stoves, lighted by oil or gas lamps, procure water from 
their own pumps, and have outside toilets, while those in the towns 
have furnace heat, electric lights, running water, inside toilets, and 
hot and cold baths. 
The sites in both town and country range from a size little larger 
than the building to one of several acres. Those with the larger 
