36 
HOUSE & GARDEN 
4. Raymond Ellis, architect 
An excellent type of Colonial house for the country or suburbs. It would cost from 
$15,000 to $18,000 in New England if built of frame and stucco 
indicate the difference of cost between widely separated sec¬ 
tions and between cities and their adjacent localities which 
may explain some of the mysteries of cost. 
Alterations and Cost 
The cost of alterations and additions to existing houses is 
another source of annoyance because the attendant difficulties 
are more expensive than a piece of new work without the 
attendant handicap. A certain portion of the cost of altera¬ 
tions bears no return such as the cost of demolishing, the cost 
of renewing perfectly good work that is damaged in the opera¬ 
tion such as loosening ceilings, marring floors and finish, the 
subsequent cost of refinishing and painting work that was 
perfectly good, the expense of redecorating damaged walls, in 
order to run new wires and pipes from the old work to the 
new. Frequently in making addi¬ 
tions to an old house it is discovered 
that many of the timbers have 
rotted and must be replaced so that 
alterations are rather an uncertain 
quantity, and once having started it 
is hard to avoid these items of ex¬ 
pense as they occur and finish the 
work properly. Some houses are 
better adapted to alterations than 
others and there are many in good 
condition that warrant alterations, 
but in the case of any alteration it 
is a question whether the owner 
could ever secure by selling their 
actual worth. 
The Value of Fireproofing 
The fireproof qualities and per¬ 
manence of materials are other 
items that increase the cost of build¬ 
ing, but when carefully considered 
are found to be economical in the 
end. There is a certain ratio be¬ 
tween the life of different materials. 
For instance, it would be folly to 
build a brick house on wooden posts 
buried in the ground, for the sav¬ 
ing on the cost of the foundations 
would hardly justify the erection of 
such a permanent structure on such 
a temporary foundation, which, if 
built on a foundation of equally 
permanent material, would last much longer than the wood 
foundation, consequently, the ratio of permanence in this 
structure would not be equal and the depreciation would have 
to be figured on the life of the foundations. 
To understand depreciation of building, let 100 per cent 
represent the life of your building, which we will put for a 
frame house at the minimum of fifty years. By dividing fifty 
years into one hundred per cent you obtain the result of two 
per cent, which represents the average yearly depreciation, al¬ 
though probably the percentage would be less for the first five 
years. 
If your house is of brick with concrete foundations and 
slate roof, you might say that its life would be 100 years at the 
minimum, and consequently its depreciation is about an aver¬ 
age of one per cent a year. We find houses built seventy-five 
and one hundred years ago with 
hewn oak frames that have been 
carefully kept up that show that a 
well constructed frame house can 
be built to last one hundred years, 
while a house with a brick shell or 
brick exterior walls and with in¬ 
terior bearing walls of brick, with 
slate roof and concrete or stone 
foundations should last twice as 
long. There are many houses of 
historical interest throughout the 
United States built of stone, brick 
and wood that show very long life. 
The Isaac Royall house at Med¬ 
ford, Mass., was built in 1732 and 
is in good condition to-day. This 
house is constructed of frame with 
a protective filling of brick and the 
end walls of brick. The Cushing 
house at Hingham, Mass., was built 
in the early part of the Eighteenth 
Century, probably about 1730. The 
old Bemis house at Watertown, 
Mass., was built about 1750. The 
Wadsworth house in Cambridge, 
Mass., was built in 1726 and is now 
in a good state of preservation. 
White pine was used extensively in 
these houses. Probably the oldest 
house in America is the Fairbanks 
house at Dedham, Mass., built about 
1636. It is now standing and in 
A. Raymond Ellis, architect 
The rambling, picturesque and comfortable type of Colonial farmhouse. It has a 
substantial frame construction, with the exterior clapboarded. This was an alteration 
to an old house in Patchogue, New York, where the quaint atmosphere has been retained 
