House and Garden 
In the morning the awnings are rolled 
down over the gas pipe frame, the side cur¬ 
tains are drawn to protect us from the hori¬ 
zontal rays of the morning sun, where we 
have our coffee and morning siesta. This 
canvas-covered deck is painted green, the 
color of grass, with straw mats and wicker 
furniture, book tables and steamer chairs. A 
telescope is here to discern the names ot 
the many craft that we have become ac¬ 
quainted with during the summer, and it is 
an indispensable furnishing for any house¬ 
boat. Two old brass ship lanterns highly 
polished hang from the ridge of the awning 
frame and give plenty of light for the evening 
hours as we sit in this dimly lighted deck 
watching the rows and rows of brilliant lights 
twinkling and surrounding us like a necklace 
of diamonds, quite like Venice in its effect. 
The interesting life of a harbor houseboat, 
where the big ships sail close to our windows 
from far off Egypt, England and the Southern 
Seas, the mysterious movements in the black 
waters of the night and the early dawn over 
the bay, is quite like the life on the lagoons 
of the Italian city. 
My houseboat is painted entirely white 
outside, with a gray sail awning striped with 
crimson; the hull underneath the sill is 
painted dark green. In the stern near the 
galley I keep my canoe and tender, with a 
tiny sail which I can use to skip about with 
when there is a spanking breeze and one 
feels more like sailing than rowing. 
Before I secured my barge for this bunga¬ 
low, 1 prepared my plans for a carpenter in 
order to get an estimate of the entire cost, 
and was greatly surprised at the price of 
$ i ,500 which he gave me. After securing 
the hull of the gundelow which I have already 
described, I went ahead with the boat builder 
and carried out my entire scheme for $600. 
A SUGGESTION FOR UTILIZING BLACKWELL’S 
ISLAND, N. Y., AS A SITE FOR MUNICIPAL BUILDINGS 
An Architectural Scheme by T. J. George 
A MONG the many propositions to be 
submitted to the City Plan Commission, 
recently appointed by Mayor McClellan of 
New York, will be one to make Blackwell’s 
Island in the East River a site for a great 
municipal building. The author of the plan, 
T. J. George, admits frankly that to many 
persons the suggestion of erecting a City Hall 
at Seventieth Street will appear impracticable. 
I he prevailing opinion among those who 
have given careful thought to the future hous¬ 
ing of the offices of the municipal govern¬ 
ment has been that the proper location for 
public buildings must be in the vicinity of 
City Hall Park and the Brooklyn Bridge 
terminal. Mr. George boldly disregards pre¬ 
conceived notions. With undeniable reason 
he says that Blackwell’s Island is much nearer 
the center of the commercial city today than 
the present City Hall was at the time of its 
construction. It is a curious fact, by the 
way, that the City Hall, which was completed 
in 1812, was supposed to have been placed 
so far north as to be beyond the utmost 
probable limits of the settled sections of 
Manhattan Island. 
In fixing upon what seems to him a logical 
site for municipal buildings Mr. George gives 
due weight to considerations of geography 
and population. The natural direction for 
the future growth of the city, he argues, is to 
the east of the East River. The construc¬ 
tion of new bridges and tunnels is already 
having its effect. When the means of com¬ 
munication are multiplied and made easier, 
the eastern boroughs of the city will in¬ 
evitably undergo more rapid change and 
expansion. 
Mr. George finds ample justification for 
his audacious scheme in the undeveloped op¬ 
portunities for municipal beauty afforded by 
the island and river fronts on either side. As 
