House and Garden 
for some purposes, a self-contained wedge of popula¬ 
tion with hampered rapid transit accommodations, 
and Greater New York was, topographically consid¬ 
ered, a collection of communities each with a sort of 
independent life and local prejudices which were not 
very deeply interfered with by themunicipal consoli¬ 
dation. The city was never really one, as London, or 
Paris or Vienna is one, until the tunnels put the 
Hudson River and the East River out of the serious 
consideration of friends of adequate transportation. 
Of course additional tunnels will he built. From 
henceforth Greater New York can he spoken of, as 
it was spoken of dur¬ 
ing the recent Exhibit 
of Congested Popula¬ 
tion held there in 
March last, as a round 
city, and the tides of 
traffic can radiate from 
a center instead of 
being turned length- 
wise in Manhattan. 
In every aspect in 
which it may h e 
viewed, relief will he 
afforded by this great 
change to the wage¬ 
earning population of 
New ^hirk. Pressure 
upon space in Man¬ 
hattan will he lessened, 
and new life will he 
imparted to the whole 
movement for housing 
reform. Homewood, 
a semi-suhiirban es¬ 
tate owned by the City 
and Suhurhan Homes 
Company and situated 
in the borough of 
Brooklyn, illustrates a 
jilan which enables 
persons of moderate 
means to accpiire com¬ 
fortable and independent residences. A deed is 
given for the premises, and an instalment mortgage 
for ninety per cent is taken, twenty years being 
allowed in which to pay it off. A uniform sum is 
paid in monthly, sufficient to exactly pay out the 
principal in twenty years with legal interest on de¬ 
ferred payments. 
1 he companypermitsthepurchaser to paythe whole 
or any part of his indebtedness at any time. The 
reason for this very liberal provision is that the object 
of the company is home-making, not speculative 
profit-seeking. Flomewood and the provision for 
accpiiring comfortable houses in that and similar 
settlements are here referred to because they are 
partly an outgrowth of tenement house reform in 
New York and may in the near future assume an 
importance much greater than their present subor¬ 
dinate and limited function points to. 
Tenement house reform has recently received a 
new impetus by the construction of the Phipps 
houses. These owe their origin to the gift of $i,ooo,- 
000 by Mr. Henry Phipps to a board of trustees for 
the purpose of building tenements, preferably in 
the borough of Manhattan if it can he done advan¬ 
tageously, but if the land be found too high, or if 
building conditions are such as to threaten undue cost 
of construction or un¬ 
reasonable delay, then 
in other boroughs of 
the city or elsewhere. 
The tenements are 
planned so as to earn 
about four per cent on 
their cost, after allow¬ 
ing a proper amount 
for maintenance and 
repairs, and the earn¬ 
ings are to accumulate 
and to be used from 
time to time in erecting 
more tenements. \ bus, 
under the terms of the 
gift, the accumulated 
funds will maintain a 
perpetually enlarging 
area of model tenement 
house construction. 
The interesting fact 
a h out the P hip p s 
houses is that they are 
a new development in 
the application of 
taste, beauty and con¬ 
venience to the con¬ 
gested habitations of 
city wage-earners. The 
idea of model tene¬ 
ments is to make each 
apartment as like a separate dwelling as possible. 
The first development is in sanitation and other 
reejuisites of decent and healthy living, then follow 
the variations of taste and beauty in decoration so 
far as cost of construction and the recjuirements of 
utility will permit. The accompanying illustrations 
show that tenement house life may be made to 
have an esthetic side that was not previously realized 
except in the forecast of the few discerning optimists, 
and that it is difficult to limit the possibilities of 
its development. The use of the word “model” in 
connection with tenement house construction may 
he said to have promoted a competition of ideals 
whose object is the widest attainable public benefit. 
86 
