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FOR GROWERS AND DEALERS IN NURSERY STOCK 
The National Nurseryman Publishing Co., Incorporated. 
Vol. XIX. ~ ROCHESTER, N. Y., FEBRUARY, 1911 No. 2 
A NURSERY OFFICE 
Importance of Cultivating Attractive Business Headquarters 
WILLIAM DRAPER BRINCKLE, Architect 
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Why should it be that nurserymen so very generally 
neglect the advertising value of a crisp, picturesque little 
office? The merchant, the banker, the real-estate man, 
they spend a good slice of prospective profits on the mere, 
sheer looks of the buildings, even the railroads build beauti¬ 
ful little country cross-road stations, when cheap, ugly ones 
would shelter the passengers quite 
as well. None of these hard-headed 
business folk spend money,_ [for 
fun, but —“Beauty Pays!’’ say 
they! 
So with the nursery. Very 
beautiful the grounds may be, very 
magnificent the stock, then why 
should several utterly bare, com¬ 
monplace board shacks be scat¬ 
tered about, like so many blotches 
on the landscape? Any traveling 
salesman knows the value of first 
impressions—he dresses as neatly 
as may be and sends in a beauti¬ 
fully printed card. But, when he 
has persuaded Mrs. Colonel Van 
Dollarbilt to “Inspect personally 
our unrivalled collection of dwarf 
conifers,’’ what sort of 
impression does that lady __ Section, Scale, Vs inch 
receive? “Oh, yes they had 
a fair assortment of evergreens, but that utterly impossible 
little office, painted such a hideous gray! Why, my dear, 
I would no more think of letting those people lay out 
my new Italian garden!—’’ 
So here’s a suggestion for a small building, suited to the 
needs of the average nursery. The construction is of the 
simplest, indeed, it shouldn’t cost any more than the most 
ordinary affair of boards and siding. 
A rather prominent site should be picked out, in full view 
of the road, that passing automobiles may see. Then, if 
there is no natural terrace, an artificial one should be raised, 
two or three feet! this, a thin slab of reinforced concrete 
is laid, covering the entire floor-area. This is cheaper and 
better than the usual foundations. On this concrete, a 
wood floor is laid, nailed to thin sleepers. 
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The walls are all framed up of ordinary 2x4 studding, 
sheathed and covered with heavy building-paper. On 
the outside, everything is covered with cement plaster, 
rough-cast on metal lath, paneled off with imitation tim¬ 
ber-work of inch stuff, stained some dark blackish-green 
tone. This plaster should be tinted ever so little, just 
a cream-color is best, and extremely 
harmonious it is, too, against a 
background of evergreens. 
Some builders are prejudiced 
against outside plaster work, but 
when properly done, it is absolutely 
permanent. The cost is a very 
little more than ordinary frame 
siding, but in five years’ time the 
saving in paint bills will wipe out 
this difference. 
The roof should be shingled; 
natural gray or dark green is best, 
here. 
Inside the building, comes a 
fair-sized main office, with a small¬ 
er private one. The walls are in 
buff sand finish, but the 
ceiling is of wood, with 
the heavy beams exposed. 
All wood work and finish 
should be of the simplest 
mission type, stained a dark brown. 
A huge fireplace of stone or rough brick is very desirable, 
though not absolutely necessary. Stoves, electric heaters, 
or “gas-steam’’ radiators may be used for winter, unless, 
indeed, a pipe may be laid across from some green-house 
boiler. 
Two toilet-rooms should be arranged, with outside doors; 
frost-proof closets may be set here. 
The loft is chiefly meant to serve as an air-space to shield 
the first story in hot weather, but it may also serve for 
storage of tools and supplies. A steep stairway leads up, 
and there are two second story doorways in the real gable, 
to take in bulky things. 
The surroundings should be carefully studied. A red¬ 
brick pavement is laid beneath the shelter of the overhang^ 
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