HOUSE AND GARDEN PAPERS ON HOME MAKING 
CHOOSING A SITE FOR THE HOME 
By The Editor. 
/ T A HE first step in the direction of making 
a home is usually the choice of a site. 
Usually because, unless we propose to buy 
a home ready made and attempt the always 
ungrateful task of adapting ourselves to it as 
we find it fashioned by other hands and for 
other purposes than our own, the place for 
the house must be decided upon before we 
can definitely consider the house itself. This 
is the basic principle in home building. The 
house and its site are one and inseparable, 
and tbe former cannot be judged or discussed 
in any terms of common sense apart from 
the latter. Were we disposed, from lack 
of previous consideration, to question this 
law, let us imagine the middle house of a 
city block transported to a country hilltop, 
or a residence of the suburban type placed 
endwise toward the sea, or a small country 
cottage set down upon a city lot fifty feet 
square, and the grosser incongruities will be 
instantly apparent. But there is a finer and 
more intimate relation between house and 
ground than this, in which each peculiarity 
and characteristic of the site is taken advan¬ 
tage of in the arrangement of the plan and 
the treatment of the exterior, and the whole 
becomes so welded together as to be incon¬ 
ceivable apart. This principle will be fully 
illustrated in later papers by photographs 
from actual practice. 
To avoid confusion, it will be well first 
to agree upon a definite meaning for some 
half dozen words which must constantly recur. 
A moment’s consideration leads to the con¬ 
clusion that houses, with respect to their site, 
fall of necessity into definitely separated 
classes. I he usual designation of such 
classes is city, suburban, rural. But in deal¬ 
ing with the subject in that quasi-scientific 
spirit of inquiry which is required for our 
purpose, we must be a little more exact, and 
will therefore assume the following classifi¬ 
cation : 
i. The Urban House. I he type which 
is most characteristic of city conditions, i. e. 
between two party walls, with free light and 
air only at front and rear, or at the narrower 
ends of the rectangle which may be supposed 
to represent tbe lot. I bis is the most sophis¬ 
ticated and least hygienic of all types of the 
home, and requires most careful study to 
minimize these adverse conditions, as will be 
later pointed out in detail. When we speak 
of city houses we will use the term in its usual 
sense, indicative of any house built within 
city limits, and as we shall presently see, 
many different types may be, and are, so 
built. 
2 . The Semi-detached House. Known in 
Philadelphia as the twin house. This is an 
intermediate type between the urban and 
the suburban. It has one party wall in 
common with its next door neighbor on one 
side, but is detached on the opposite side, 
having free light and air on front, rear and 
one of the longer sides. It is adapted to, 
and originated in the commercial develop¬ 
ment of city property units which are too 
large, economically, for one wholly detached 
house, and too small, physically, for two. 
When such units are generously divided, 
with ample room between the pairs of houses, 
this type is an excellent and economical one, 
if well planned; but it often appears, in the 
hands of speculative dealers, as a thoroughly 
decadent variant of the normal type, having 
but five or six feet between the windows of 
adjoining pairs. Under such conditions life 
becomes well-nigb intolerable, with the 
domestic economy of one’s adjoining neigh¬ 
bor freely displayed by sight and sound to 
our reluctant senses, as is ours to his. I his 
condition is capable of some mitigation by 
a careful study of tbe window spacing in 
the opposite walls, but hundreds of such 
houses display crass unconsciousness of 
the most elementary conditions of civilized 
existence; having the windows placed pre¬ 
cisely opposite each other and often not more 
than five or six feet apart. Such houses are 
designed and built by men whose previous 
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