H ouse and Garden 
HOUSES OF THE CITY AND SUBURBAN HOMES CO. 
“An Important Result of the Housing Reform Movement” 
hut their promoters were able business men, and 
they clearly recognized the necessity of making 
the new enterprises pay their way. They had foreign 
examples to justify them. In London the best 
model tenement companies were successful hnan- 
cially, notably the Improved Industrial Dwellings 
Company founded by Sir Sydney Waterlow, not to 
speak of others organized in Liverpool, Manchester, 
Newcastle-upon-d yne, (Glasgow and Edinburgh. 
Mr. Alfred 1 . White’s study of London model tene¬ 
ments, combined with a careful consideration of 
New d'ork conditions, resulted in a high-class type 
of htiildmg, and since his hrst experiments in this 
direction improvements have been gradually made 
until the main reijuisites of higher sanitation, abun¬ 
dant light and air, and domestic privacy are now 
considered normal and necessar)' in any tenement 
house designed to attract a respectable class of ten¬ 
ants. 
Much difficulty was experienced in securing satis¬ 
factory architectural plans, especially as the 25 by 
loo foot lot bad too narrow a frontage to permit of 
the convenient construction of a sanitary and com¬ 
fortable tenement, d'here was much ingenuity 
shown in the competitive designs submitted, and 
certain rules bad to be rigorously complied with. 
1 be chief of these was that each room should have a 
free supply of fresh air from the outside, that all 
apartments must be self-contained, that no living- 
room should have less than 144 square feet of stiper- 
hcial floor area and no bedroom less than sevent)' 
scpiare feet, and that a greatly improved standard of 
housekeeping conveniences should be introduced. 
It was also retpiired that the mode of construction 
approved of should permit of at least a five per cent 
return, d'hereby the business side of the enterprise 
was emphasized, and, besides, it was hoped and 
believed that this feature would, on account of the 
safety of the Investment attract abundant capital 
usually devoted to high-class securities bearing a 
low rate of interest. 
It is no disparagement to other organizations to 
say that the City and Suburban Homes Company, 
whose chief architect is Mr. Ernest Flagg, has em¬ 
bodied in its tenement buildings the best improve¬ 
ments. Its president. Dr. Elgin R. L. Gould, made 
an important study of tenement conditions in the 
chief cities of Europe and America, and wrote the 
well-known report on “ The Housing of the Working 
People,’’ which appeared as a special report of the 
LTnited States Commission of Labor. I he influence 
and example of this company and of the men who 
organized it have been a potent factor in bringing 
about tbe better conditions which have resulted in the 
building of more than 19,000 improved tenement 
houses, capable of containing more than 1,000,000 
people, since the new law went into effect in January, 
1902. 
What kind of houses has it built and what are its 
distinctive principles and methods The accompany¬ 
ing illustrations and plans will help to answer the first 
question. It will be noticed that the plans provide 
that every apartment is a complete home in itself, 
with private sanitary accommodations within the 
dwelling. Every room has quiet, light, and an 
abundance of ventilation. Staircases and stair 
walls are entirely fireproof. Halls and stairways are 
lighted and steam heated. Each two-room, three- 
room, or four-room flat has steam radiators, private 
hall, private toilet accommodation, is well ventilated, 
has floors and partitions deafened between dwellings, 
hot water from boiler room, two porcelain tubs. 
THE “..TUSKEGEE ” 
A Model 'I'enement for Negroes in New York 
84 
