House and Garden 
way, after dark— 
though this, it is 
worth while to note, 
will be made at first 
by the household¬ 
ers fr o m their 
houses ; and at last 
there will come a 
desire to designate 
the different houses 
by an arbitrary sign. 
'Thus will begin 
modestly to be cre¬ 
ated that group ot 
objects known as 
the utilities of the 
modern street. 
Finally, there 
will be a deliberate 
effort to bring into 
the thoroughfare 
not only the early 
convenience, the 
later attractiveness 
and order, the al¬ 
most unconscious¬ 
ly sought beauty or 
picturesqueness, but actual dignity and im¬ 
pressiveness. The first attempts toward this 
are likely to be made at the city gates and 
will consist in the architectural pretentious¬ 
ness of their treatment as portals to the 
street. When this step has been taken, the 
conception of the thoroughfare may be con¬ 
sidered as essentially modern. 
The street’s purpose at that stage is, as 
now, to serve the public in a convenient, 
attractive and dignified manner. If later we 
put gas pipes through it, lay rails upon it, 
construct a sewer below it, plant trees at its 
edges, adopt a frontage and cornice line for 
the buildings, police it, repave it-, and clean 
it, protect it with 
ordinances, trans¬ 
form it into a 
modern boulevard, 
avenue, or business 
street, we have 
injected no new 
thought into the 
street conception 
but simply have 
learned to satisfy 
original ambitions 
that have grown 
more exacting in 
their details. 
There are ampler 
facilities at our 
hand; by experi- 
ence we have 
grown cleverer; 
the specialization 
of modern life has 
increased the re- 
quire m e n t o f 
the street without 
changing its nature. 
Reduced to its 
simplest terms, this is the evolution of 
the street. In the differentiation of the 
cities and parts of cities under the influ¬ 
ence of climate, topography, and other 
natural conditions ; of racial and national 
peculiarities ; and of the distinctions of in¬ 
dustry, commerce or statecraft, as these 
prove the predominating activity of the town, 
the evolution appears to lead to more intri¬ 
cate results. Varieties, of various interesting 
departures, supplement the abstract street 
which may be called the “ species ” and 
whose development we have watched. But 
these varieties demand a subsequent and dis¬ 
tinct consideration. 
r\ 
A EUROPEAN STREET MADE DIGNIFIED 
22 I 
