224 
PLANS OF RESIDENCES 
Plate XXVI. 
A Village Block of Stores and Residences^ illustrating a mode of 
brmgmg Grounds hack of Alleys into cojinection^ for Decorative 
Pic'poses^ with the Residejices on the Village Street. 
We desire to call the reader’s attention to this elaborate study 
of an unusual mode of securing to homes on contracted village lots 
the delightful appendage of charming little pleasure grounds. 
The business of small villages usually clusters on one street, 
and sometimes occupies but a few stores near “the corners;” and 
it is a common practice of thrifty and prudent village merchants to 
have the residence on the same lot with the store, or on an 
adjoining lot. As the village increases, the lots near the leading 
merchant’s are those earliest occupied by good improvements, in 
stores or residences. Our plate shows a village or suburban block 
of two hundred feet front on the principal street, with lots one 
hundred and fifty feet deep to an alley. 
Let us suppose that Mr. Smith, the wealthiest business man of 
the vicinage, has purchased the one hundred feet front on the right, 
and erected two fine stores on the corner (one of which he occupies), 
and a dwelling-house on the balance of the lot. While beginning 
to amass wealth he was doubtless occupying a much smaller store 
and house, and has erected these large improvements when his 
means enabled him to move with considerable strength. Let us 
further suppose that on the completion of this fine residence, a 
couple of well-to-do citizens buy two adjoining lots of twenty-five 
feet front each and put up a pair of city houses ; and that the 
corner fifty feet, on the left, is then improved as shown on the plate. 
Mr. Smith, and those who have built after him, have all been 
intent on getting themselves good houses, and have not had either 
the leisure or the taste to give much thought to grounds for embel- 
lishment. With a business exacting all his time, and a young family 
to provide for, the business man has looked forward to a new store 
or a new house as the ultima tlmle of his ambition. But when these 
are acquired, and larger means and more leisure and observation of 
