HAVANA. 
21 
One feature which cannot fail to 
impress the visitor in Havana is the 
heavy style of the architecture. Most 
of the houses are of one story or of 
two; but the single story is often so 
lofty that it seems as high as many 
two-storied houses elsewhere; and 
the effect is enhanced by the immens< 
doors, the great windows, the heavy 
roofs, and frequently by the colon¬ 
nades which line the front. The 
houses are constructed of blocks of 
limestone, and of rough rubble work, 
called mamposteria. The walls are 
very thick, doors high and massive, 
and the windows, reaching nearly 
from floor to ceiling, are guarded by 
iron bars and ornamental grilles, 
In Havana every man’s house is his 
castle. The first permanent structure 
here was a fortress, and the city ap¬ 
pears to have taken its architectural 
pattern from the bastions and embra¬ 
sures of La Fuerza. Everywhere, in 
public building and private house, 
one gets the impression of massive, 
substantial construction. Havana 
was built to endure. There are no 
front yards; the houses are built flush 
with the street and close together; 
the entrances are on the street level; 
in some cases the ground floor is 
lower than the street. Havana doors 
a typical window. are a study; they are often double, 
io to 15 feet high, and may be of solid mahogany or some other richly 
colored native wood, heavily barred and studded, and furnished with pon¬ 
derous bolts and ornamental locks and knockers. A wicket door set in the 
larger one is common. 
Windows are closed by iron grilles, which often project a few inches into 
the street; inside the grilles are swinging slat blinds without any glass, 
or solid shutters with a single pane of glass. The window grille may 
be a plain iron bar grating, or, as in the better class of houses, an 
elaborate and highly artistic composition, in which the graceful curves 
form an intricate pattern. If we study such a window, we shall find 
