Vol. XLIV. No. 1833. NEW YORK, MARCH 14, 1885. 
_[Entered according to Act of 0oazrea3, in the year 1885, by the Rural New-Yorker ln’the odlee of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
PRICE FIVE CENTS. 
$2.00 PER YEAR. 
ftrctyileclurf. 
DESCRIPTION OF A RURAL COTTAGE 
D. I. KUHN, ARCHITECT. 
HE cottage sbown at Fig. 98 
r was planned with refereuce to 
; interior conveniencesaud com- 
fort, the outside being designed 
simply to clothe and give ex- 
►O-\ pression to the Inside arrange- 
meut ’ ver ^ effort being 
made at ornamentation. In 
the old-fashioned square or 
rectangular house, with hall through the 
center, there was comparatively no opportu¬ 
nity to work in the many little modern con¬ 
veniences, such as pantry, closets, bath-room, 
back-stairs, etc., that are required now-a-days, 
and which I think are liberally provided 
able, a communicating door could be made 
between rear bed chambers. The inclosed 
balcony in shape of a large dormer over the 
front porch, has commuuicatiou with the 
bed chamber through windows, the wide 
sill in front being a suitable place for dis¬ 
playing flowers. This balcony could be in¬ 
closed in Winter with a portable sash for 
the pur|w)se of keepiug out the storm, and 
would at the same time admit plenty of 
light. As shown in the perspective, at Fig. 
98, the first story is brick; the second frame, 
partly weather boarded, partly shingled. The 
exterior should be painted in about four dif¬ 
ferent tints with sash, chamfers, etc., picked 
out in strong colors. The parlor is 15x18 
feet; the hall, 19x11: the dining-room, 16x 
13; the kitchen, 15x13; the pantry, 13x4 feet 
3 inches; the chamber over the parlor, 15x13 
feet; those over the diningroom, 13x13; the 
two rear chambers, each 18x11; and the bath¬ 
room, 8x7. The rooms could be made 
moved over towards the ends of the building 
to allow more room for working while the 
house is being filled: when filled, the removed 
portion of the floor and saw-dust is placed 
back over the ice. 
“The house has open windows in the peak 
to admit of a free current of air over the saw¬ 
dust. The ice is cut and hoisted by horse 
power. The filling doors are closed up tightly 
after filling; there is oaly one door on the 
north side to admit to the cold room. Just 
inside of this door and under the ice Is an in¬ 
closed vestibule that will hold a wagon load of 
fruit. 
“In storing the fruit, the inside door of 
the vestibule is closed until the wagon load is 
placed inside, then the outside door is closed 
and the fruit placed where desired. The ves¬ 
tibule is roofed over to carry off the drip from 
over-head—in all other parts of the house the 
drip is allowed to go freely through or among 
the apples and pears. In the case of berries 
January 3d, on page 13. In this plan the 
fire-places in the dining-room and the kitchen 
are set in the outer walls. If they had been 
on the inside, in the partition wall between the 
two rooms, the house would have not only 
been much warmer, but there would have 
been better opportunities of lighting the 
rooms. There could then be a beautiful bay- 
window in the dining room, and the principal 
window would have been opposite the fire¬ 
place, which is also an appropriate and con¬ 
venient arrangement. The kitchen, too, 
would have had a large window clear of en¬ 
cumbrance for lighting the room, and for 
placing the ironing table in a good light, a3 it 
should be This would occupy the space 
where the chimney now stands in the plan, 
and would avoid the very inconvenient ar¬ 
rangement of having a narrow window in 
the corner of the room, as with the arrange¬ 
ment of the windows as in the plan; one being 
under the porch, the kitchen i3 very poorly 
A RURAL COTTAGE. Fig. 98. 
for in the present instance. The reception 
hall, shown in Fig, 99, with an open fire-place, 
is also introduced malting it one of the cheer- 
iul apartments of the house. The main 
stairway with the vestibule to the rear en¬ 
trance, is made to occupy the whole length of 
one side of the hall, ami should ho executed in 
hard wood. Between the front vestibule and 
hall the opening is made as large as possible 
and might be provided with a portiem or 
curtain, with rings to slide on a pole. The 
pantry is conveniently placed to on© side of the 
passage between the diuiug-room and kitchen; 
as there are two doors between the latter 
apartments, ull odors from the kitchen are 
excluded from the main portiou of the house. 
1 hekitcheu stairs to the second floor with cellar 
stairs underneath are seeluded from view, 
and are at the same time conveniently ac¬ 
cessible. 
In the second story, Fig. 100, we get an 
additional bed-room by extending the rear 
wing out over the kitchen porch. If desir- 
proportionally larger without interfering 
with the geueral arrangement. 
Pittsburgh, Pa. 
FRUIT HOUSE FOR COLD STORAGE. 
Mr. John S. Collins, of Moorestown, N. J., 
sends us plans of the fruit house for cold stor¬ 
age, illustrated at Figs. 97 and 98, page 104. 
lu describing the building he says:— 
“My fruit house was originally a barn 24 by 
30 feet; I moved it to the side of what in Win¬ 
ter is an ic© pond, lined it on the inside with 
inch boards and filled iu with 24 inches of 
sawdust. Six feet from the floor ou the in 
side, are six heavy whito-oak pieces running 
crosswise, supported by upright posts, over 
which and running leugthwis© of the building 
is a floor of chestnut rails. On these the ice 
is packed to a depth of ten feet, and above 
this is a floor on which 15 or 18 inches of saw¬ 
dust are placed. One-third of the upper saw¬ 
dust and floor, opposite the filling doors, is 
the lids of the crates keep off all water. Straw¬ 
berries, raspberries and blackberries can be 
kept for a few days, but apples and pears, if 
picked carefully before too ripe, can be kept 
as long as desired. I had iu the house at oue 
time duriag the past Summer over 3,500 bas¬ 
kets of apples and pears. Fig. 106 shows the 
fruit house complete; the arrangement of 
the interior is shown at Fig. 107.” 
-♦ * » 
HINTS ABOUT HOUSE-BUILDING. 
HENRY STEWART. 
There are a few geueral rules which should 
be observed in house-building, but which are 
frequently ignored or overlooked by persons 
who plan houses. One of the first of these 
rules is that the fire places and chimneys 
should be placed in the center of the house as 
nearly as may be, for the sake of economy and 
keeping all the heat in the house. I would re¬ 
fer, as an example, to the otherwise excellent 
plan of a small house giveu in the Rural of 
lighted, while a kitchen should be the best- 
lighted and most cheerful, as well as the best 
arranged of all the rooms in the house. 
In the parlor the fire-place should be put 
against the hall, thus utilizing the waste beat 
in warming what is usually the coldest part of 
the house. There might be a doorway from 
the hall into the parlor at the side of the fire¬ 
place next the vestibule, and this would save 
hundreds of steps every day to the housekeep¬ 
er in passing from the kitchen or dining-room 
to the parlor, which would be required with 
the door where it now is in the plan. The 
parlor might then have a neat bay-window, 
with plenty of room for flowers and plants. 
Going up stairs to the bed-rooms, the chim¬ 
neys would pass up the inner walls, and the 
closets could be placed on one side of the 
chimneys. 
A very serious omission in a house of this 
kind is the bath-room and water-closet, which 
every house should be provided with. In case 
of sickness, or of temporary necessity in the 
