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THE GEAYEL WALL

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NEW. CHEAP, CONVENIENT, STJPl-MOR

ADAPTED TO RICKiAND POC%.
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¦HOWINO THB SUPERIORITY OF JtHla OBAVEL CONOBBTB OVEB BBIOE, STONE, AND FRAME HOUSES J MABNSB
OF MAKING AND DXPOB1TINO IT ; ITS COST ; OUTBIDS FOJISH ; CL AT HOUSES ; DEFECTS IH SMALL, LOW,
LONG-WINGED, AND COTTAGE HOUSES ; THE GBBATBB CAPACITY, BBAUTY, COMPACTNESS, AND
UTILITY OP OCTAGON HOUSES ; DIFBBBENT PLANS ; THB AUTHOB'S RESIDENCE ;
GREEN AND [OB HOUSES; FILTERS; GROUNDS; SHEURBEKY ; FRUITS, AND
THEIB CULTURE ; ROOFING ; SCHOOL-HOUSES AND CHURCHES ;
BABNS AND OUT-BUILDINGS ; BOABD AND PLANK WALLS;
THB WORKTPJG-M Arl's DWELLING, ETC., ETC.

BY O. S. FOWLER,
AUTHOR OF TABIOUS WORKS ON PHRENOLOGY. STEREOTYPED EDITION : REVISED AND ENLAHOH0.

' TffKHE'8 NO PI.AOM LIZS HOME.

NEW YORK:

FOWLERS AND WELLS, PUBLISHERS,
No. 308 BEOADWAY.

Loudon : 142 Strand.

Boston: 1 IRRi f Philadelphia:
No. 142 Washington St. f 1 O -I t . i No. 281 Anh Street.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by
O. S. FOWLER,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District
of New York.

KEW YOKE STEREOTYPE ASSOCIATION,
201 "William Street

PREFACE.

To cheapen and improve human homes, and especially to bring
comfortable dwellings within the reach of the poorer classes, is the object
of this volume — an object of the highest practical utility to man. It delin
eates a new mode of inclosing public edifices and private residences, far
better, every way, and several hundred per cent, cheaper, than any other ;
and will enable the poor but ingenious man to erect a comfortable dwelling
at a trifling cost, and almost without the aid or cost, as now, of mechanics.
Except in a single particular, and this he has greatly improved, this mode
is the invention of its author, and occurred thus. Till past forty, his pro
fession engrossed too much of his time and means to allow him to procure
a comfortable home ; yet for ten years he has been making observations, in
all his professional peregrinations, and cogitating by months, upon the best
mode of building the home of his future years. These have at length
brought him to results, now reduced to practice. Let no one suppose that
he has forsaken, or even turned aside from, Phrenology — that first and only
occupation of his enthusiastic youth, and the idol of his matured and de
clining years. He has turned aside only to build him a good home, and
in doing so, has made and learned improvements to adopt which will greatly
increase home comforts ; and this work is written to propagate them,
rather than as a complete architectural production. As its author is a
phrenologist, not a builder, it may lack occasional details and specifications,
yet will give every thing peculiar to this mode of building. Specifications
respecting doors, floors, windows, etc., common to this and other modes of
building, can be learned from scientific works on this subject.
The octagon form and the gravel wall are its two distinct charac
teristics. The form, as applied to domestic residences, is wholly orig-

2_^d>3"5"

IV PREFACE.

inal with the author, and the latter greatly improved upon, and at the
other principles and suggestions the author has arrived while planning and
studying out his own house. The work iB offered, not as beyond improve
ment, for " progress is a universal law," but toapply this law of progress
to house-building. Why so little progress in architecture, when there is
so much in all other matters ? Why continue to build in the same square
form of all past ages ? Is no radical improvement of both the external form
and internal arrangement of private residences, as well as building mate
rial, possible ? Let this work answer

CONTENTS.

SECTION I.
PRINCIPLES, FACTS, AND COMMON-SENSE SUGGESTIONS ABOUT
HOUSE-BUILDING.
1. Man's Beqnisition for a Home. 2. Men's Habitations correspond with their Character
istics. 8. The Pleasures of Building. 4. What constitutes a Perfect Home.  Page T

SECTION II.
THE GRAVEL-WALL PLAN.
6. Nature's BuUding Material. 6. Wood is objectionable. T. Brick. 8. The Lime, Gravel,
and Stone Walls. 9. Selection of the Material. 10. Lime, its Proportion and Mode of
Mixing. 11. Placing and Working the Mortar-bed. 12. Relative Cost of the Gravel-
wall. 18. Foundations. 14 Mode of placing the Boards for Boxes. 15. Scaffolding.
16. Width of Walls and their Solidity. IT. Door and Window Frames. 18. The Top of
this WaU. 19. Temporary Floors. 20. Anchorage. 21. Chimneys, Ventilation, Speak
ing-tubes, etc. 22. Outside and Inside Finish. 28. Clay aud Stone Wall. 24 Cost of
the Gravel-Trail. 26. Quality of (his Gravel-wall. 26. Vermin excluded from Gravel-
walls  16

SECTION III.
DEFECTS IN THE USUAL SHAPES OF HOUSES.
2T. High and low Houses. 28. Large and small Houses. 29. Number of Booms desirable.
80. Large and small Bams and Out-houaes. 81. Long and narrow Houses. 82. The
Winged Style is doubly objectionable. 88. The Cottage or Gothic Style. 84 Additions
stuck on  58

VI CONTENTS.

SECTION IV.
SUPERIORITY OF THE OCTAGON FORM.
86. Its contains one-fifth more room for its WaU. 86. Comparative Beauty of the Gothic,
Square, and Octagon Forms. 8T. Plan of an Octagon Basement— a Muk-room — Fur-
nace — Wood-house — Large Lumber-room. 88. Comparison of a Double Mansion House
with a Twenty-seven Feet Octagon. 89. Superb arrangement of its Rooms. 40. Third
Story of the Octagon. 41. Howland's Plan of an Octagon Cottage— Carpenter's Speci
fication — Mason's Specifications. 42. Description of the Author's Residence. 43. The
Main or Parlor Story. 44 Upper Stories. 46. FUtration. 46. Pia2zas. 4T. A Green
house and Flower-pit. 48. Shade Trees, Shrubbery, Fruit Trees, etc.— Strawberries —
Black Raspberries— Bed Raspberries— Blackberries— Blue and Whortle Berries — Cherries
—Apricots— Plums— Peaches— Pears and Apples. 49. Roof and Roofing— Roofing Ma
terial—Glass for Roofing. 60. The Octagon Form and Gravel-waU applied to School-
houses and Churches — Complete Ventilation — Churches. 51. General BuUding Direc
tions and Advice — Mature your Plan well — Get all Ready — Employ good Workmen —
Consecrate it by Affection  Page 82
SECTION V.
OTHER PLANS FOR PARTITIONING AN OCTAGON HOUSE, BARNS, BOARD
WALLS, ETC.
82. A Superior Plan. 68. Cellar Story. 64 Stairs. 55. Upper Story. 56. Bams. 5T.
Board Wall. 58. Cost. 69. Plank WaU. 60. Poor Man's Cottage. 61. Associative
Houses....:.'.  160

EXPLANATION.

Small raised figures, called Superiors, are employed for reference from one 'c another of
those numbered headings or paragraphs found throughout the vr-xk. -»

am (ax |^1L

SECTION I.

PRINCIPLES, FACTS, AND COMMON-SENSE SUGGESTIONS
ABOUT HOUSE-BUILDING.
1. MAN'S REQUISITION FOR A HOME.
Every living thing must have its habitation. " Foxes have
holes," and all burrowing animals and reptiles excavate domiciles
in which to shelter themselves from the merciless blast and pierc
ing cold, to which to flee from danger, and in which to rear their
young. Ants, bugs, beetles, crickets, and even worms, dig them
selves holes in which to live and breed, while the more ingenious
bee builds its hexagonal cells in which to multiply, and store its
winter " supplies." Bears and wolves have their homes in hol
low trees and deep caverns, and even fish weave domiciles out of
water grasses, or deposit their spawn in crevices among the
pebbles, which thereby become habitations for their young.
Fowls, having larger constructiveness, frame their domiciles with
twig-timbers, mason them with mud-mortar, and cushion them
with hair and feather mattresses, and there live together in bliss
ful love, while they produce and rear the offspring of their happy
union. Not merely all animals, but also every tree and shrub
appropriates to itself land for a home in some cleft of the mount
ain crag, or on the rich banks of some stream, there to send forth
their roots, and build up their cylindrical walls and leafy roof.

8 JfELNOLPLBS OF HOUSE-BUILDING.
Even every seed, every kernel of grain, has its own chamber
and bed in its paternal homestead, every ear of corn its stalk-
house and husk-walls, and each fruit and mit its stem-abode, till
it can go forth in search of a permanent resting place. The very
hills have their eternal residences, and waters their ever-occupied
abiding-places, while earth, and every sister planet, and celestial
sphere, each traverses his own pathway, unmolested by foreign
foot. Thus, every living thing, aye, every herb, stone, and thing
in nature, grain -of sand included, have their own homes, and in
turn become abodes for life, enjoyment, and development.
Nor is man an exception to this great home law. On the con
trary, is he not its most perfect exemplification 1 Endowed with
the primitive faculty called " inhabitiveness," created for the ex
press purpose of compelling him to provide an abiding-place,
which shall be the instrumentality and focus of most of life's
sweetest pleasures ; he can no more help craving home than food
or friends, and absolutely must have some abiding-place as much
as breath or sleep. Nor should any quench thjs home luxury,
and even necessity, but let all provide for themselves temporary
or permanent residences, as much as with food or clothes — only
cloth houses. As we appropriate considerable time to procuring
food or paying board, so should all set apart as much time to
preparing and improving our homes, and "furnishing" them with
instrumentalities of comfort and luxury.
Especially ought every married pair to secure a permanent
residence for themselves and children; for, without it, one pow
erful mental faculty must suffer perpetual abrasion, and many
more, diminished and interrupted action and pleasure. This
" moving" is ruinously costly, alike destructive of property and
pleasure, cripples husbandry, prevents planting trees and vines,
and obliges tenants to frequent the grocery, with money in hand,
for a thousand little things which, if land-owners, they would
raise. None can duly appreciate home, till, having once owned
and lost one, after being cast upon stone-hearted landlords, they
repossess themselves of a comfortable domicile, again to feast
upon the products of their own gardens and orchards. Father,
mother, whoever, wherever thou art, heed this important advice —
provide a home first — whatever else you do, or leave undone,

MANS REQUISITION FOR A HOME. 9

and however stringent your poverty, even as your best means of
escaping it.
Nor should any be content with a poor home only till they can
better it, but provide the best they can. Time and money are
wisely spent, which add to the real solid pleasures of home and
family. All of us shamefully neglect this essential point. We
carelessly tolerate evils and miseries by the' score for days and
years, which a few hours or dollars would remove. We fail to give
our domiciles their due proportion of our time and funds. Those
who are content to live in old rookeries, while possessing the
means to build mansions, or perhaps erecting " houses to let,"
have sordid souls, and rob themselves and families of most of
life's joys, while those who build better barns for their stock than
houses for their children, are both unwise and inhuman. Eeader,
look around your own residence. Find you no evil, inconve
nience, or nuisance — a smoky chimney, a poor oven or cellar,
perhaps even a rat-hole — which a few dollars, cents, or hours
would suffice to obviate, and thus remove a perpetual vexation,
which now sours naturally sweet tempers, and makes every thing
in the house and out of it go cross-grained 1 Or perceive you no
improvement, which would cost but little, yet be a source of
perpetual pleasure for life? A neighbor remarked, " I put up
a dumb waiter for $30 — it need not have cost $10, if built with
the house — which saves so many steps, and is so handy, that we
would not do without it for $100 per year." And it will con
tinue, for generations, many times a day, to save weary steps,
expedite work, and bless every member of that family. In what
other way could he have created as much pleasure, or avoided as
much unhappiness, with that money 1 Apply this principle, not
merely to a good house, contrasted with a poor one, but to every
little improvement you have added, or could add, to your home,
and then consider whether a given sum spent in endowing home
with little conveniences or instrumentalities of comfort or luxury,
could be invested so as to yield as great an income, perhaps per
ennial stream, of pleasure. Ask yourself, " Can I get more en
joyment out of time and money spent in providing a good house,
rather than a poor one, or making this or that improvement,
than by some other appropriation of them ?" and let the answer
1*

10 PBINCrPLES OF HOUSE-BtnLDING.
guage your home expenditures. Improving home facilitates, aids
every other end and pleasure of life, while scanting it scants all.
It matters less what a house costs, than how good it is. Better
disburse money in improving home, than on thousands of things
on which we too often well-nigh throw it away. Let others spend
theirs on balls, rides, fashions, etc., but let me expend mine on
home, in annually adorning and improving it, till in life's decline,
I shall have erected for myself and family a perfect home ; "sur
rounded by as many means of comfort and even luxury as pos
sible, my land rich, trees yearly loaded with -every variety ofthe
choicest fruits, and provided with every thing conducive to beauty,
utility, and comfort. , In short, let all provide just as good homes,
as they can, and better than most think, themselves able to do,
even at the sacrifice of many other things. Not that in building
you should endanger bankruptcy, or spend beyond your means ;
but that you had better curtail other expenses to spend on home
fixtures. To some, cheapness is an important matter. Let such
cut their garment according to their cloth, yet get the largest
garment possible out of what cloth can be had. Yet on few
things can and do men literally squander money as foolishly as
in building. To begin with a crude plan, and then alter this and
patch up that, is foolish extravagance. Get all ready before
laying the first stone. Especially, mature your plan. Know
just what you want, and how to do it, and keep all your wits
sharpened- up. Inform yourself on this subject, so as to trust
mpre to yourself and less to the mechanics, who may take more
interest in your money than house; and excuse this omission
or that error, by, " I did not know how you wanted it." Be
your own boss, and throw yourself more on your own judgment,
and less on that of mechanics, which is sometimes inferior to that
of common men, because not warped by wrong training.
2. men's habitations corresponp with their characteristics.
The domiciles of all animals bear a close resemblance to their
respective characters. Thus, inferior animals, moths, worms, rep
tiles, etc., make very poor homes, while the coarse-grained wood-
chuck, and other burrowing animals, are content with dark, damp,
ground-holes., Beavers, higher in the creative scale, build them-

HABITATION as CHARACTER. 11
selves nicer and better residences, while beasts of prey seek some
dark cavern, from which to sally forth in search of hapless prey,
and in which to deposit their booty. Walking fowls build on
the ground, swimming ones in marshes, and flying ones in trees ;
while eagles select the towering crag, hawks and owls some
deep wood, and innocent and tame birds, the tree by our door or
window. Beautiful birds build tasty nests, the coarse-grained
goose a coarse nest, and thus, throughout all nature, the abodes of
all animals correspond perfectly with their characteristics, so that
the latter can safely be predicated from the former.
This law applies equally to man. The Bosjowan builds a rude
hut, yet of the lowest type of human architecture, because at the
bottom of the ladder. The ruins of Pompeii contain only two
houses, and these of rulers, above one story high— humanity then
being little developed — while the Hottentot, Carib, Malay, Indian,
and Caucasian; build structures better, and better still, corre
sponding with the order of their mentality. In villages, too, fine,
fancy, old-fashioned, elegant, or odd houses, signify fine, fancy,
old-fashioned, or elegant people.
Individuals, too, little refined, will build some outlandish tene
ment, as unsightly in looks as inconvenient in arrangement, but
those endowed with good taste will erect a neat, well-proportion
ed, and beautiful edifice. The slack, low-minded, and " shiftless,"
aspire only to some hut or hovel, dug out of a bank, just to ward
off the major part of storm and cold, placed in a muddy hollow,
only a half story high, and supplying few of life's necessities even,
miich less luxuries ; while the spirited, ambitious, and enterpris
ing, whose aspirations are lofty, and minds high-toned, select em
inences, and build high houses. Especially will the quantity and
quality of man's intellect evince themselves in the houses they
build. Those who let the mechanic play with their purse, by
first playing on their fancy, and persuading them to build after
this or that gaudy or antiquated fashion, lack independence and
judgment, while those of immature tastes will attempt some try-
to-be-extra-exquisite monument of gewgaw crudeness, but those of
well-balanced minds and sound practical sense, will plan and exe
cute a comfortable, good-looking, well-arranged residence, which
they will finish ofF in a style corresponding with their own order

12 PRINCIPLES of HOUSE-BTJILDLNG.
of taste. Indeed, other things being equal, the better a man's
mentality, the better mansion will he construct, and the char
acteristics of the house will be as those of its builder or occupant.
Of course this general rule has many modifications and excep
tions, both ways. Men possessing mental superiority may occu
py inferior tenements, from necessity, habit, aversion to change
the abode of earlier years, or even sheer inattention, while infe
rior ones may owe their fine houses more to their architect or
fortuitous circumstances than themselves. So want of means, or
a thousand other causes, may prevent given persons from carry
ing out their building tastes or talents ; yet, as a general rule, a
fancy man will build a fancy cottage ; a practical man, a conve
nient home ; a substantial man, a solid edifice ; a weak man, an
illy-arranged house ; an aspiring man, a high house ; and a supe
rior man, a superb villa. Yet this diversity of taste is well, for
it variegates and beautifies both town and country, is compatible
with superb taste and the highest utility, and promotes both ; and
will indefinitely perfect the habitations of man throughout all
coming time. 3. the pleasures of building.
Nor is man constituted merely to require houses, but also
adapted to build them, by being endowed with a building fac
ulty. Not merely does nature double and quadruple most of
life's pleasures by means of houses ; but she has made their
erection absolutely certain, by rendering the very building
itself most pleasurable. Behold how happy yon birds, in gather
ing materials, and building up day by day, a sweet little home
for themselves and their prospective offspring ; and say, ye who
have ever built a residence for your own self and family, if its
planning, its preparation, and its erection, from its very comer-
stone, were not all pleasurable, so as literally to form an epoch
in your history, and to overbalance even its expensiveness. And
if it were conducted in the best manner, it might all be pleasur
able. Building too hastily, or at great disadvantage, or unwisely
is more or less irksome, as is the non-obedience of all nature'
other laws ; but to see this room finished to-day, and that to
morrow ; this excellent fixture begun, and that added, is exult-

PLEASURES OF BUILDING. 13
ingly pleasurable. No labor of my life has given me more
lively delight than the planning and building of my own house ;
and to all it can likewise be rendered almost intoxicating.
Notwithstanding its expensiveness, men have a literal mania
for building, which increases with civilization, and should con
tinue till all are supplied with comfortable homes. Houses
being so absolutely necessary,1 nature has made their erection
absolutely certain, by rendering it thus pleasurable. This pleas
ure is consequent on its gratifying those two primitive faculties,
Inhabitiveness and Constructiveness, along with several others ;
without the former of which he would never wish to build if he
could ; and without the latter, could not if he would. How per
fect this home-erecting arrangement of nature ! Then let it be
cultivated by all.
These two faculties make men prefer to build their own houses,
rather than to buy those equally good built by others. Hence,
houses can always be bought cheaper than built. But, as birds,
instead of living in some vacated nest, prefer to build a new one
to their own liking, so men, unless too poor, should rather build
than buy ; for, otherwise they will wish this different, and that
bettered, all their lives, and probably spend more in " alterations"
than the extra cost of a new house. One may well be content to
live in the old family mansion, consecrated by the joys and sor
rows of his parents and ancestors, and by the sacred reminiscences
of his childhood ; but give me a relatively poor house of my
own erection, in preference to one built by some stranger.
4. what constitutes a perfect home.
That which combines the most instrumentalities for comfort
and enjoyment, especially domestic — the only rational end of
any dwelling — only a few of the most important of whioh we
will now name, leaving others to be developed as we proceed.
To inclose space is the first and main object. This is effected
by making walls, floors, roof, etc.
Strength and' tightness are required; the former to resist
winds, and the latter to exclude rains and colds, and include
warmth. Light is needed, and secured by windows, as is also
warmth, which should be easily created, cheap, governable, and

14 PRINCIPLES OF house-building.
complete ; for what comfort can be taken in an open barn of a
house, the chilling blasts pouring in through a thousand insolent
apertures, freezing one side while you roast the other, and expos
ing you to every sudden change of temperature.
Complete ventilation, under control, is another ; for every
human being requires a copious and constant supply of this com
modity, so indispensable, not merely to human comfort, but even
existence. A suit of rooms is also requisite ; one for cooking, another for
family use, others for sleeping and other purposes, and all so
arranged as perfectly to subserve their respective ends, and, of
course, easily accessible from each to all, effected by doors, stairs,
entry, etc. And these rooms should be conveniently located, as
.regards each other, and especially adapted to facilitate family
ends, house-work in particular. Practical house-keepers know
that it takes twice the labor to do up a given amount of work in
some houses as in others. To have each room and its appurten
ances, and all the rooms, as regards each other, so placed and
arranged as to have every thing handy and convenient, and a
place for every thing, is indeed a great desideratum. How much
fretfulness and ill temper, as well as exhaustion and sickness, an
unhandy house occasions. Nor does the evil end here. It often,
generally, by perpetually irritating mothers, sours the tempers
of their children, even before bdith, thus rendering the whole
family bad-dispositioned by nature, whereas a convenient one
would have rendered them constitutionally amiable and good.
Beauty is also desirable, as gratifying an important human
faculty. A good building spot is also necessary, and one adapted to
the proposed kind of house. The same money will often build
a far better house on one site than on another. A superb build
ing spot was one of the three motives which induced me to build
where I did — the other two being good water, and an excellent
fruit locality.
As to what constitutes a good building spot, " many men have
many minds." Some prefer valleys, streams, and lawns ; others
water scenery, elevations, and sightly prospects; but I confess
partiality for the latter. Give me a beautiful landscape and an

WHAT CONSTITUTES A PERFECT HOME. 15
elevated site. This also guarantees a fresh, dry atmosphere, in
place of valley fogs and miasms, together with whatever summer
breeze may be afloat. And what if it is exposed to winter's bleak
winds 1 Are they not bracing and healthy 1 Yet a plan will
soon be proposed which will enable you to defy them, yet enjoy
summer's balmy breezes. At least, do not build in a mud-hole.
Yet good water, and handy, is most desirable, and springs exceed
wells. But, be your site where and what it may, let it and your house
be adapted to each other. Some sites are admirably adapted
to one kind of house, yet miserably unfitted to another, and the
reverse. Choose your site with reference to your general plan,
and then modify the latter till you effect a perfect correspondence
of each to the other, and adapt both to your own wants and taste.

SECTION II.
THE GRAVEL-WALL PLAN.
5, nature's building material.
Nature has made ample provision for supplying every legiti
mate want of all her creatures. Behold in this her tender fond
ness, her maternal care. Hence, since a comfortable home is
one of these natural wants, has she not made perfect provision
for this home-demand of all her creatures ? Nor for rich merely ;
for, does not her provisionary care extend to her needy creatures
quite as much as to her more favored children ] Is nature so
aristocratic as to provide homes only for the rich? Does not
her vast laboratory abound in some " coarse homespun," about
as promotive of human comfort as her more expensive materials ?
Ye homeless poor, be assured your mother has not forgotten you.
She has provided some cheap .and comfortable building material,
if you only knew what it is. And in various climes it is exactly
fitted to each clime — in cold latitudes, one every way fitted to
withstand and keep out cold ; another in warm climes adapted
thereto ; in damp places, something adapted to them ; and thus of
all the other conditions of all climates, for nature's provisions are
all perfect.
Before considering what this material is, let us see what it is
not. Nature's building material is abundant everywhere, cheap,
durable, and complete throughout. Of course what is objection
able is not hers. 6. wood is objectionable
Because the whole of the earth's surface is or will ultimately
be required for raising food for man. All nature's economic*

WOOD IS OBJECTIONABLE. 17
point to the greatest possible number of human beings she can
feed and clothe. For a time yet, or till she is well stocked
with human beings, that surface is of little account, and can just
as well be spared for raising timber for lumber as not. But let
earth's population increase for five hundred years to eome, as fast
as it has for one hundred past — and it is sure to far more than d
this — and her entire surface will be densely populated. But to
raise wood enough to erect and repair all the human habitations
then needed, will require immense tracts of land, which other
wise could be appropriated to raising food, which would allow a
far greater number of human beings to inhabit and enjoy earth
and her luxuries, if there were some other building material, than
if wood were mainly used. The strife will then be between tree
and man, and will be short. The great consumption of food then
will also render land so valuable for horticulture as to render
wood too dear to be bought for building, even by princes. It is
even now becoming enormously high in New York, namely,
good pine $35 to $45 per 1000 feet. Then what must it become
in fifty years ?
Wood decays, whereas economy requires that houses, once up,
endure like time, and improve by age. This being obliged every
few years to paint and repaint, to repair and re-repair, and even
then to have your house perpetually rotting down upon you, is a
defect too palpable to characterize a proper building material.
Wood houses burn down, often in half an hour ; whereas a
complete house must be incombustible. The ravages of fire in
cities and towns are horrible, beyond almost any other horror
to which man is subjected ; and even a country fire, if only a
stable, is awful. No ! nature's building material will not render
her occupants liable to be turned by thousands in an hour out of
comfortable rooms into houseless streets, perhaps in a night of
darkness and storm, of snow and blow, terrible of itself when
warded off by a comfortable house, but awfully horrid when
forced out of a comfortable house and warm bed, perhaps sick,
or aged, every article of comfort and luxury, the accumulated
toil of years, consumed in a moment, perhaps a beloved child
or companion scathed by flame and suffocated by smoke, burn
ed to a crisp. No, no ! wood is not nature's building material,

18 THE GRAVEL-WAXL PLAN.
although a wood house is indeed better than none, and will do for
man when he can afford nothing better.
7. BRICK.
Ah, now we have it. Slow to decay, incombustible, requiring
little of earth's surface for its production — yes, brick must be the
very thing, says one. Not so fast. It wastes by time, is marred
by frost, expensive, both in cost and laying — too much so to be
nature's staple building material — for nature cares for her poorest
sons and daughters, and will not put good homes beyond their
reach. Still, brick is by far preferable to wood, and will do in
many localities, especially where it can be made on the spot, yet
is too costly to transport far. An anecdote. A proud English
lord spent an immense sum in erecting a magnificent manorial
mansion, and invited another noble lord to examine, and say what
he thought of it — proud to exhibit his riches and his taste. As
his opinion was solicited, the visitor replied: "Well done for a
mud house." The muddy adjective so stung the owner, that he
removed every brick, and rebuilt of stone. " Then," it is replied,
" you recommend stone houses."
Not' exactly. Very laborious to hew them into shape, very
cold in winter, and damp in wet weather, either expensive or else
unsightly — there must be something else better than this, than
brick, or wood — some perfect building material. What is it ?
8. THE LIME, GRAVEL, AND STONE WALLS.
Simplicity and efficiency characterize every work of nature.
Her building material will therefore be simple, durable, easily
applied, everywhere abundant, easily rendered beautiful, comfort
able, and every way complete. All this is true of the gravel
wall. It is made wholly out of lime and stones, sand included,
which is, of course, fine stone. And pi-ay what is lime but stone 1
Made from stone, the burning, by expelling its carbonic acid gas,
separates its particles, which, slacked and mixed with sand and
stone, coats them, and adheres both to them and to itself, and,
reabsorbing its carbonic acid gas, again returns to stone, becoming
more and still more solid with age, till, in the lapse of years, it
becomes real stone. By this provision of nature, we are enabled

LIME, GRAVEL, AND STONE WALLS. 19
to mold mortar into whatever form we like, and it becomes verit
able stone, and ultimately as hard as stone, growing harder and
still harder from age to age, and century to century. Even frost
and wet do not destroy its adhesive quality, after it is once fairly
dry. The walls of my house stood one severe winter intirely un
protected, even by a coat of mortar, without a roof, yet neither
peeled, nor cracked, nor crumbled, one iota. Does frost crumble
or injure a brick wall 1 Yet what but lime forms its bond princi
ple ? Nothing 1 Then why should frost injure any wall having
lime for its bond principle 1
Reader, reflect a moment on the value of this lime principle.
What would man do without it ? How useful to be able to cast
or spread mortar into any shape, and have it harden into stone.
Without lime, of what use brick ? How could we make inside
walls, or hard finish them 1 Let us, while enjoying the luxuries
secured by this law, thankfully acknowledge their source.
Obviously, this hardening property of Mme adapts it admirably
to building purposes. Mixed with 'sand, formed with brick or
stone into any shape we please, it petrifies and remains forever.
How simple ! How effectual ! How infinitely useful ! Like air
or water, its very commonness and necessity make us forget its
value. And can not this hardening principle be applied to other things
as well as to mortar ? Especially, can it not be applied as effect
ually to coarse mortar as to fine 1 Aye, better ! If it will bind
fine sand particles together; why not coarse stones 1 Especially,
coarse stones imbedded in fine mortar ? Lime sticks to any thing
hard, and sticks together any two or more hard substances, coated
with it and laid side by side, whether large or small. It fastens
stones and brick together, as now usually laid up by the mason,
then why not if thrown together promiscuously ? Fact and phi
losophy both answer affirmatively.
In 1850, near Jaynesville, Wise, I saw houses built wholly of
lime, mixed with that coarse gravel and sand found in banks on
the western prairies, and underlying all prairie soil. I visited
Milton, to examine the house put up by Mr. Goodrich, the orig
inal discoverer of this mode of -building, and found his walls as
hard as stone itself, and harder than brick walls. I pounded

20 THE GRAVEL-WALL PLAN.
them with the hammer, and examined them thoroughly, till fully
satisfied as to their solidity and strength. Mr. Goodrich offered
to allow me to strike with a sledge, as hard as I pleased, upon the
inside of his parlor walls for six cents per blow, which he said
would repair all damages. He said, in making this discovery,
he reasoned thus : Has nature not provided some other building
material on these prairies but wood, which is scarce ? Can we
find nothing in our midst 1 het me see what we have. Lime
abounds on them everywhere. So does coarse gravel. Will
they not do 1 I will try. He first built an academy not larger
than a school-house. Part way up, a severe storm washed it, so
that a portion fell. His neighbors wrote on it with chalk by
night, " Goodrich's folly." But, after it was up, he wrote in
answer, " Goodrich's wisdom." It stood ; it hardened with age.
He erected a blacksmith's shop, and finally a block of stores and
dwellings ; and his plan was copied extensively. And he de
serves to be immortalized, for the superiority of this plan must
certainly revolutionize building, and especially enable poor men
to build their own homes.
All the credit I claim is that of appreciating its superiority,
applying it on a large scale, and greatly improving the mode of
putting up this kind of wall.
9. SELECTION OF THE MATERIAL.
In building on this principle, the first object is to select the
right material. And, fortunately, this abounds in some form on
nearly every square mile ofthe earth's surface.
All that is wanted is stone and lime. The stone requires to be
of various sizes, from tolerably fine sand, all the way along up to
stones as large as you can well deposit in your wall. A wall
made simply of lime and sand will answer, yet stones add con
siderably to its solidity, especially while the wall is yet soft, and
serve the purpose of holding a wall up while it becomes hard ;
but once hard, sand and lime make just as solid a wall without
stone as with. In fact, it makes little difference how coarse or
how fine the material, after it is once up. There must, however,
be enough of the fine to connect the coarser stones together.

SELECTION OF THE MATERIAL. 21
The materials of my own house are too coarse. More sand
and fine material would have been better, but I had to haul this
some two and a half miles, up heavy hills, and 1 used as little of
it as I well could, and in place of hauling sand, pounded my slate
stones the finer. Oyster shells, brickbats, furnace cinders, or any
thing hard, will answer just as good a purpose as stones. All
that is required, is something solid for the lime to adhere to. The
more fine sand you have, the more lime will be required, the more
coarse stones, the less, and the more solidly the materials are
compacted together, the thinner will that wall need to be. Prob
ably the very best materials will be found in those gravel knolls
which abound throughout our country, which are composed of all
sizes, from middling fine gravel, all the way along up to stones
the size of the fist or head ; and wherever such a bank can be had,
all required is to mix the lime with it, and throw it right into the
wall. These banks are found all around Boston. On every rail
road diverging from that city is found just the right material
every time the road cuts through a bank ; and the clearer it is
from soil the better,* yet that soil does not materially hurt it. In
fact, in the absence of finer particles of sand, it may aid compact
ness. That ridge at the east of Portland, Maine, on which the
light-house stands, furnishes just the material. All the Western
prairies abound in just the required material, either in occa
sional banks there found, or two or three feet below the surface.
All the wells I ever saw dug on the praries threw up just
the right kind of gravel, nor do I remember seeing a bank dug
through, which did not develop them. In Cincinnati, in several
places, I observed it in the digging of cellars, particularly just
below the Burnet House, where was an unoccupied lot, the
contents of which I examined with this view. I have nowhere in
New York city seen a cellar, or sewer, or ditch dug, which did
not throw it up ; and all that is necessary to build a house in that
city, on this plan, is to throw the stuff, namely, grayish, reddish
sand, and stones, right into your mortar beds, mix with lime, and
then shovel into the wall. This will save even the carting of the
materials, both the carting of the brick, and the sand dug out of
the cellar of the house to be built ; and I verily believe, in New
York city, tlie walls of a house can be put up on this plan, for

22 THE GRAVEL-WALL PLAN.
one tenth what they can be on any other, and better every way
than brick.
In Mohawk valley, and all around Albany, the right mate
rials abound. Those pebbles mixed with coarse and fine sand,
which line the banks of rivers and lakes, are also suitable. Any
chippings or stones, out of the marble yards or stone quarries,
where they commingle stones of all shapes, from small sandy par
ticles, to the size of a man's head, are suitable, yet will require
some sand to fill up the holes between these coarser partieles, in
order to give the requisite surface for contact and adhesion.
Around Cincinnati, in those ridges from which stones are quar
ried for cellars, those chippings left by working these stones for
walls, are just the thing, or such broken stones as are used for
macadamizing roads. Six miles west of Cleveland, I observed in
crossing a river, where men were at work improving the road, a
half clay, half stone formation, hard enough for this purpose, and
I doubt not, over that whole tract will be found layers of stone
just beneath the soil, suited to this kind of building ; and there
also is found in that vicinity abundance of sand, to mix with these
slate-stones. My own house is built entirely of slate-stones, mixed with this
gravel. I erected it on an oval knoll, the top of which I had to
take down some six feet, in order to obtain a level foundation.
After removing the top soil, I found various laj'ers of stone of
various thicknessess, some so solid as to require blasting, others
full of seams, and easily worked up by the bar ; others still, broke
up into thin slate pieces, so that I had all sorts and descriptions
of stones. Now here were thousands of loads to be carted off,
unless I employed this mode of building; but by employing it, all
I had to do was to quarry the stones, and shovel and wheel them
directly into the mortar-beds, and thence into the wall, so that I had
not even to haul the gravel, and this hauling item alone saved me
considerable expense, for we have no brick-yard short of five
miles. In digging my well, which passed directly through this
same slaty, rocky formation, and was all stone, the chips thrown
out were exactly what was wanted in the wall, and were all used
for that purpose ; and to save sand, I usually employed one to
pound up the slate, while another was shoveling it. This was

SELECTION OF THE MATERIAL. 23
done in order to reduce these broad thin slate-stones to a more
solid, consistent mass, that they might touch one another oftener,
so that the lime 03uld have a chance to combine them together ;
and it is worthy of remark, that everywhere on the earth's sur
face will be found, either sand and gravel, or this slate-stone
formation. Even clayey countries, a little below the surface,
.abound in a like formation; of .course broken lime-stone will
serve this purpose, and in many sections of our country are
stones easily broken up by a sledge, at least when first quarried,
thus furnishing both -the finer particles and the larger stones in
any proportion desired, and very easily procured. Even oyster-
shells alone will serve to put up this form of house, by burning
a part to furnish lime, pounding a part to serve the place of sand,
and leaving a part in their original state, so that those persons
who would economize, have only to order those very shells which
the oyster-man has to pay to have carted from his cellar, on to
your building spot. Most of the materials made in grading about
our cities, will serve this gravel-wall purpose, and can be carted
directly from the bank to your proposed house, just as well as
to the place in which they are usually deposited. Ballast from
ships will usually serve a like purpose. Brickbats can also be
used for this kind of wall, namely, breaking a part to subserve
the place of sand, the balance serving for stones. Clinkers, coal-
dross from furnaces, and blacksmiths' siftings, in fact, any
thing hard, whatever be its size, quality, or shape, will furnish
the main body ofthe required compost. All else needed is suffi
cient sand to fill up the intermediate holes or spaces, so that the
lime can stick the various particles together into a solid mass.
But even if the wall is full of little honey-comb holes, it will still
be sufficiently solid. Of my own wall, I presume one quarter is
composed of these honey-comb holes between the slate-stones not
filled with sand, but time has already proved its abundant solidity.
Not a single crack is to be seen, except some occasioned by the
springing of an arch made over my well ; and where the founda
tion givesi, of course this cracking must occur, be the material
what it may.
From what has just been said, every reader will judge for him
self how much sand and gravel he will mingle with his stones, or

24 THE GRAVEL-WALL PLAN.
stones with his sand and gravel. It hardly matters how coarse
or how fine after the wall is up, for once set, it will stand, and
grow more solid with age. Of course, the best proportion, where
they can be had, is a complete gradation, from stones as large as
you can well deposit in your walls, all the way down to fine sand,
so that all the particles shall completely consolidate together.
These remarks will enable readers to select their material.
10. LIME, ITS PROPORTION AND MODE OF MIXING.
These materials now require to be mixed with lime, and any
easy mode of perfectly commingling these stones, gravel, and sand
with the lime will serve the purpose. I have never tried mixing
them in the dry state, but am certain this will answer a good
purpose, but will probably take some more lime ; yet I think it
better to wet the lime first, because lime incorporates itself with
these stones better wet than dry: at least, I think the lime can
be wet more easily by itself, than after mixing with the stones.
The lime I used was the coarsest, commonest quality, such as
farmers put upon their lands, was slacked at the kill, and cost
44 cents per bushel. It was strong, but coarse — in fact, too coarse
to be used for ordinary plastering, unless well screened, and this
took out something like a quarter of its bulk. I used this lime
occasionally for mortar, threw these screenings right in with the
stones and sand, allowing them to go as far as they might. My
mode of procedure was this. I first made a mortar-bed, some
twelve by sixteen feet, with a wide board, perhaps eighteen inches,
all around the sides, yet a larger bed would have been better.
11. PLACING AND WORKING THE MORTAR-BED.
Very much depends on where the mortar-bed is located, in
doing which these three things require to be kept in view:
first, to have it easy of access for getting your materials to it ;
second, easy of access with your water, and third, easy of access
to your walls. Probably in no one thing, in this mode of build
ing, can a greater saving be effected, than in the best, place for
this bed. In building by this method, the first thing should be
to provide water, and if you have to dig a well for your house,

PLACING AND WORKING THE MORTAR-BED. 25
dig it to begin with, and use its water for your lime-bed, because
a great deal of it will be required. After placing my mortar-
bed, and arranging the water, a hogshead of which I always had
standing by the side of the bed, I deposited my lime, and found
about six or eight wheel-barrows of this coarse, slacked lime, would
make up as large an amount as my bed would hold. I theu
poured in water, not merely enough to wet the lime, but so that
the whole mass would be as thin as milk, and stirred it up com
pletely, so as to amalgamate the water and lime together ; I then
wheeled in sand, and had one hand at the bed to stir the sand
into this lime-water, as it was wheeled into the bed. One man
would thus stir for about four or five wheelers, he moving the
plank which crosses the bed, and telling them in what part of the
bed to deposit it. To eight barrows of lime, I usually wheeled in
from sixteen to eighteen barrows of sand. If the sand made it too
thick to completely incorporate sand, water, and lime as fast as
it was brought in, it was spread over the top about evenly, and
when the sand was all in, wheelers and all would begin at one
corner, hoe the contents back toward them, throw in two or three
pails of water, if required, or enough water to enable them com
pletely to mix the lime and sand together, and then throw it up
into this vacant corner, and so keep adding water, while they
shovel over this lime and sand, so as completely to mix them, and
then throw it back toward this corner. Some fifteen or twenty
minutes would suffice to completely mix the lime and sand to
gether, and when finished, it would be left so thin as to follow the
men about as fast as they worked back toward the opposite
corner. I speak of this thinness, because lime mixes so much
better, when a large amount of water is used, than when it is
rather dry.
This operation completed, there was now a vacancy at the op
posite corner from where we started. Into this corner I would
now set four or five men to wheeling the slate, chips, and materials
above described, while the hand in the bed would spread each
barrowful, as it came in, and threw over three or four shovelfuls
of this thin lime and sand. After a few barrows had come in,
they would be able to spread their coarse rubble stones, as they
dumped it by running the barrow up to the top of the pile, and

2f> THE GRAVEL-WALL PLAN.
dumping it along down its sides. I would now wheel in from
sixty to eighty barrows of these coarse rubble stones, making
something like a hundred or more barrows of coarse slate-stones
and sand to these eight barrows of lime, and these eight barrows
of slacked lime were equal to about two, or two and a naif, of
good stone lime, making from thirty to forty parts of gravel and
stone to one of stone lime.
I, however, admit that this is too little lime in proportion, and
yet I made many beds with even less lime, relatively, than here
specified. To one bed of eight barrows of lime, I put one hundred
and twenty of other materials. Still, I did this more to try how
little lime would answer, than from any motives of economy, and
should recommend that about one barrow or barrel of stone and
lime, to twenty, twenty-five, or thirty barrels or barrows of sand
and stone. Yet, as already observed, the less coarse stones and
more fine sand, the more lime will be required. And for this
reason : to give a stone as big as a man's head contact, it is re
quisite that it be coated with lime ; whereas, if broken up into
sandy particles, each particle has to be coated, in order to make
them stick to another, so that it requires much more lime for a
stone broken up than not broken. Hence, the coarser the mate
ria], the less lime will answer. In my first and second stories, I
used more lime than specified above, but became fully satisfied
that less would answer just about as well. In putting up my
third story I drew only 250 bushels, costing $11 25. I built out
of it two sides of a cistern, 2 feet thick at bottom, 18 inches
thick at top, 12 feet one way, and 10 the other, and 9 feet deep.
I erected two or three fourteen feet pillars, and used some of it
for some other purposes, and had a little left when the story was
done. That story was 12 feet and 8 inches high, 1 foot thick, and
256 feet in circumference. Of course I estimated that it took
somewhere between nine and ten dollars' worth of lime for the
story. On inquiring how much lime had been drawn, and esti
mating the amount used, I was perfectly astonished that I had
used so little, and the more so when the workmen and visitors
criticised the honey-comb appearance of the wall, and prophesied
that such a wall positively could not stand. StiU, there it stands,
subject to the inspect* n of any who please to examine it. In put

PLACING AND WORKING THE MORTAR-BED. 27
ting up my next story, which was 11 feet 2 inches high, and 10
inches thick, I thought I w ould be a little more liberal in the amount
of lime used, especially since even a liberal supply would Cost but
a comparative trifle, and on footing up the cost of this story, found
it to be only $10, that is, less than 250 bushels of slacked lime, yet
according to my best judgment, 60 or 70 bushels of good stone
lime would have done the work quite as well. Indeed, I could
hardly believe but that I had made some mistake in estimating
the lime in the story below, until my estimate of the lime used
in this story confirmed my previous reckoning. Let the reader
figure up the amount of square feet in the wall, and he will see
that here is sufficient material to build a house two stories and a
half high, of ordinary distance between joints, and 20 by 40 feet
sides. Of course, in many places, a higher price would have to be
paid for the lime than I paid for mine, perhaps 20, possibly even
50 per cent., yet this would only take from fifteen to twenty dol
lars' worth of lime, for a two and a half story house, 20 by 40.
Over the whole West, the usual price of lime is about 12 cents
per bushel for stone lime; and as one bushel unslacked will make
about two and a half to three when slacked, its cost will vary
scarcely a fraction from what I paid. I would suggest that those
who are any way timid or cautious in this matter, allow about
one part of good stone lime, to 20 parts of sand and stones.
One additional word about the mode of mixing. Let the super
intendent of the building simply use his own common sense. 1
have described the way I found most advisable. Others may find
other ways, devised by their own causality, just as good.
But let us now return to our bed as left, namely, formed of in
termediate layers of these coarse stones and gravel, and sand and
lime. Our next object is to prepare this for the wall, and de
posit it therein. Thus fiir, our materials are not fairly mixed,
cTnly deposited in layers, preparatory to this process. My mode
of mixing was this. Adding a little water so as to make it as
thin as it well could be and shovel without spilling ; to shovel it
over about twice in this bed, then shovel it into the tub, making
three shovelings or mixings. This tub was then hauled above by
horse and tackle, and emptied into another smaller mortar-bed,
which dumping was equal to a fourth shovel. This was shoveled

28 THE GRAVEL-WALL PLAN.
into the barrow to be wheeled to the walls, and from the barrow
shoveled into the wall, which made it equal to six shovelings, so
that while getting it to its place, we were also duly mixing it.
When we first began, we mixed it in the bed by working, it over
and over, something as we would work mortar-beds, but found it
so hard and difficult that we naturally adopted this process of
shoveling it over just described. If you have no such tub- fdr
hauling, of course you will shovel it over twice more before throw
ing into your barrow, but my own observation and experience have
prepossessed me in favor of the tub and tackle. Yet before rig
ging my tub and tackle, I adopted a method somewhat as follows :
Taking a 12 feet board, 16 or 18 inches wide, and sawing it in two
in the middle, I placed these pieces ^ide by side, and surrounded
them by scantling, 2 by 4, thus making a small mortar-bed. I
then set this bed up on four legs, perhaps 7 feet high, wheeled
from the mortar-bed and shoveled up on to this bed, and from
this bed up into the walls, moving it as occasion required. Some
times I would set a couple of horses, such as masons use, throw
some floor timbers across, put one of these small mortar-beds,
without legs, upon this scantling, and wheel from the mortar-bed,
and shovel up into this small bed, and from this into the wall.
To various contrivances of this sort I resorted, and on one oc
casion I erected four or five small beds, one right above another,
had one shoveler shovel over once and wet the material, and
shovel it>up to the second, he to the third, .and the last one shovel
ing it into a barrow, to be wheeled to its destination. These
small movable beds I found very greatly to facilitate work, but
this was before I rigged my tackle and tub.
The number of hands required to work to advantage is from
five to seven, yet three can do quite well. One is wanted to do
odd jobs and errands, provide water, bring and carry tools, or be
waiter generally. One, and that your best hand, is wanted in tfie
mortar-bed, and he should be told, " never mind your boots ; when
the lime eats them up I will get you more." He must go right
into the thin lime and mortar, must stir the water in with the
lime and sand, must shovel this lime and sand in with the coarse
materials as they are wheeled into the bed, and fiially must shovel
over these same materials, and fit and temper them for the wall.

COST OF THE GRAVEL-WALL. 29

I have often mentioned barrows. Of these, three are as few as
will work to advantage ; one being required to wheel materials
into the bed while it is being worked, thereby tempering it, some
times adding a little lime, then coarse stones, and at another time,
fine sand, according as the bed works, and two are required to
carry the material to the wall. The second hand also fills the
tub, or the barrows when the tub is not used. A third will be
required to empty the tub above, and fill the barrows, and a fourth
to wheel these barrows to, and shovel their contents into the wall,
while a fifth will be required to stand on the wall and stow away
the contents, pack down where packing is required, place the big
stones, and see that every thing is placea just as it should be.
This last place should be filled by the boss of the wall. Occu
pying this position, he can see whether the material comes as fast
as it should, and if not, should inquire into and rectify the cause
of delay ; can also see whether the material will bear more stones
or sand, or require more lime, see that the boards are properly
placed, which requires good judgment and an accurate eye.
Another hand is required to rig. scaffolding, properly place the
box boards (of which presently), setting up and plumbing the
window and door frames, and do up the general carpenter's work
required. Any important building requires its carpenter, and this
should be the duty of this carpenter while the walls are going up ;
still, a small house can be built without the constant employment of
a carpenter, provided the owner gets his window-frames made, and
has an accurate eye, skillful hand, and a good common-sense mind.
12. RELATIVE COST OF THE GRAVEL-WALL.
One important feature in this mode of building is now rendered
apparent, namely, that this material is handled mainly by the
shovel, and of course handled a great deal faster than by the
mason. He is obliged to spend considerable time in plumbing
his corners, and then in placing his lines, and also in working with
exactness to his lines, and after all is obliged to place one brick
at a time, and use a little mortar between, whereas, by the method
we are describing, the whole mass is handled just as rapidly as
the shovel can be plied back and forth, and one hand will turn

80 THE GRAVEL-WALL PLAN.

over an immense pile of these materials in a day. The difference
between shoveling a barrow load pell-mell into the wall, just as
fast as you can throw it, and between laying the same amount of
material, brick by brick, and one trowel full of mortar between
each, besides taking time to spread the latter all so nicely, is great.
And then, too, this shoveling can be done by the commonest
hands, whom you would pay from $10 to $15 per month, whereas,
brick must be laid by men who command $1 50 to $2 50 per
day ; a bricklayer costing some three times as much as the com
mon laborer, and yet, not depositing a quarter as fast. The
reader will please notice how very great the saving effected by
this mode of forming wall, over -and above the brick and mortar
mode. Nor can it with propriety be urged that the cost of get
ting the material ready for this gravel wall, is greater than for the
brick, for have not the brick and mortar to be carried to their
places, just as much as this gravel and lime? And pray, how
much more will it cost to get our materials to the spot, than to
get brick and mortar to the scaffold ready for the mason ? Will
it not cost considerably less ? And does not our mode of scaffold
ing cost much less than his? He must be tended, and in my
opinion, the materials for the gravel wall can be all deposited in
the wall cheaper than the mason can be merely tended.
It will not take as much lime to build a given amount of wall,
by this method, as to make the mortar for a brick wall. It will
take less labor to mix these materials, than to mix the mortar for
the mason, and these materials can be' carried to their places easier
than the brick and mortar can be carried to the mason, so that we
save mason's wages and cost of brick, which are the main items of
cost in a brick wall, for every stone in a gravel wall answers just
as good a purpose as the same amount of brick. A pile of these
coarse rubble stones will go just as far in our wall, as the same
amount of brick will in a brick wall, and in every respect is worth
just as much. The reader will now perceive why we claim so
much superiority in cheapness in our wall, over brick or wood.
Brick have to be carted, and in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred,
these rubble stones can be carted a good deal cheaper than brick,
and where they are dug right out ofthe cellar, even carting ofthe
brick, as well as their cost, together with the cost of laying, is

FOUNDATIONS. 31

saved. All about it which costs is the lime, which we have just
seen to be a mere trifle, and the labor of mixing and getting the
materials to their places, which can be done by the commonest
handsi 13. FOUNDATIONS.
Having now described the material, and its mode of mixing,
we proceed next to speak of the foundation, and manner of placing
the boards, for the reception of this material. This foundation
may be the same as for any other house. Of course it requires
to be solid, and should be set so deeply into the ground, that frost
will never heave it, and be so guarded and solid at the base, as
never to settle, for wherever the foundation gives, of course the
building must crack, whether brick, stone, or wood. My own
house is founded mainly on solid rock, but where this can not be
had, a trench should be dug, three, four, or five feet deep — flag
stones the width of the wall, or even wider, and as long as may
be, or other large solid stones laid in the bottom, and the ordi
nary mode of building foundations be adopted. From experience
I have nothing to say respecting the foundation peculiar to this
plan, as differing from the ordinary method, yet I have a sugges
tion to make, or rather to say what I would do if I were to build
again. I should employ water-lime, or cement, in place of com
mon lime, and after laying a few stones at the bottom, should
make the compost exactly as described above, excepting the addi
tion of as many large stones as possible, and a free use of water
lime, or cement, in place of lime. Of course this water-lime must
not be mixed till just as you are ready to throw it into the trench.
It should be thrown on to your pile of stones and sand, shoveled
over two or three times, so as to mix the two together com
pletely, while in a dry state, then wet, and carried to your wal<
and deposited, because it sets rapidly, and that set once broken,
its value is spoiled. If told that the frost will spoil it, I reply
that while frost spoils a thin coating of it, it will not injure a
solid wall. Besides, frost does not break its set, only occasion
ally makes cracks, yet even in this case, I do not see that these
cracks would materially injure the foundation. At all events, I
should try it and run the risk, or if afraid of frost, a single tier of

THE GRAVEL- WALL PLAN.

brick, laid from the ground up to the top of the foundation, all
around the outside of the wall, would prevent the frost from doing
any damage. Builders in New York use this cement largely for
foundations. Of course it is quite as suitable for foundations
when mixed with the materials just described as when used in
any other way.
If your ground is easy to dig, and soil sufficiently solid to
allow it, you can dig your trench exactly the size you would have
your wall, mix your cement with your gravel and coarse stones,
and dump the whole mass right in from your barrow, without
even waiting to shovel it in ; or if you prefer to dig your cellar
first, after the dirt has all been thrown out, erect boards on one
side, and let the ground form the other side of this foundation
wall. Still, not having had experience in this respect, I speak
only from conjecture. But about the depth of your cellars, and
the height of your foundation, I would remark that my own taste
favors raising the foundation some two or three feet above ground,
instead of digging down very deep. Your cellars should be light,
and well ventilated. Nothing can be more unhealthy than for
vegetables to decay in a deep cellar, where there is no chance for
ventilation. The effluvia and the poisonous gases, generated by
the decomposed masses, ascend through the floor and corrupt the
air which you and your children are to breathe, whereas, if your
houses are sufficiently high, and windows arranged so that the
open air can sweep through, you will save your doctor's bills.
Nor should the cellar be a little pit hole under one corner of your
house, but should embrace the entire room under that house, for
the entire cellar story can be made most useful for one purpose
or another, and is at least worth the small extra trouble of its con
struction. Your foundation you are obliged to build, and to place
it some three feet below the surface of the ground. Then, by
carrying it three or four feet above, your house is well set up,
protected against wet, out of the mud, and your basement stories
can now be lighted, and thus rendered available for many do
mestic purposes. If you choose to settle your foundation four
feet, and carry your wall two feet above the ground, you are
scarcely in danger from frost, have cool cellars, and very pleasant
ones, but of these things every builder must judge for himself.

MODE OF PLACING THE BOARDS FOR BOXES. 33
14. MODE OF PLACING THB BOARDS FOR BOXES.
This involves the most important point connected with this
mode of building. Mr. Goodrich's mode was to use one tier of
boards, and to nail them on to scantling or standards, and keep
them from spreading by braces, deposit his material between
these boards, wait for it to harden, which usually took some
twenty-four hours, and then raise the boards a tier higher. I have
adopted various modes. At first, I made tapering sticks, perhaps
a couple of inche? square, and a little longer than the wall is wide,
having a notch on one end, and keyhole at the other. I placed
these across the wall, set my boards on to these sticks, allowing
the board on one side to set into this notch, so as to keep it from
spreading at the bottom, and drive a key into the hole on the
opposite side, so as to keep the other side board from spreading,
and prevented the top from spreading by making a couple of notches
in a piece of board, perhaps an inch thick, and two inches wide,
and setting these two notches down on to the top of the boards.
These sticks thus left in the wall are easily knocked out and used
over again. This kept their top from spreading, but I found it
very difficult to keep the wall true, and very laborious to hoist
these boards, which I usually did after they had remained about
twenty-four hours, and so adopted for the upper walls the fol
lowing plan :
I took scantling, two by three, or two by four, sawed them off
so that their length would correspond with the proposed height
ofthe wall, and set one row of these scantlings on each side ofthe
wall, but within it, and placing them usually some ten, twelve,
or fourteen feet apart, bracing these scantling firmly, and nailing
the boards to them, so that they would remain in the wall.
Window and door frames, of course, served the same purpose
with these scantling. I usually placed one of these scantling at
each outside corner, so that when the wall was complete, it would
form that corner, and plastered the finishing coat right over them,
first driving lath nails in, to hold the plaster. I can occasionally
see a small check along the line of these scantling, and in build
ing again, should have this corner scantling just outside the wall,
so that the boards would come between this scantling and the
2*

34 THE GRAVEL-WALL PLAN.
gravel. It is difficult to have any except the corner ones outside
the wall, because your boards require to be hoisted, whereas, if
these boards were between the material and the scantling, such
hoisting would be difficult. And then this scantling in the wall
serves the purpose of steadying it until it becomes hardened. To
a wall of 32 feet, I had three scantling on each side, yet as the
corner connected two, it furnished me four places for nailing the
boards. My middle story had only two, one at each corner, and
one in the middle, and for aught I know, answered just as good a
purpose. Wherever I had a portico, I usually braced them from
the outside, that is, from the portico, because, when braced from
the inside, they interfered too much with my wheel-barrows,
but where there was no portico, I braced both the outside and
inside ones to the floor timbers. It is a material point to have
these standards, as I call them, firmly braced, for after your wall
becomes eight or ten feet high, if it should begin to sag a little,
tl° pressure would be considerable. In this respect, I was too
careless, so that my walls settled in from one to three inches at
the top, which of course I had to fill out with fine mortar. I
pushed and braced some of them back to their places before put
ting on the floor timbers, thus keeping the wall straight. Straight
ening it after it has sagged is easy, yet a very material point,
for the outside of a house must needs be straight, else it will look
badly ; and if these standards and boards are properly secured
it is easy to make your wall perfectly straight. In my middle
story, my haste prevented my looking duly to this point, yet
found it easily remedied, simply by a little attention at the proper
time. The mode of procedure, then, touching this point, is simply
this: after you have prepared your- foundation, laid your floor
timbers, placed your standards, and are ready for your walls, pro
cure common pine box boards, an inch in thickness, or more if
you like, and as near a given width as may be, and cut them off
to the length required for your wall. Thus, suppose your wall is
32 feet on the outside; you can easily procure 16 feet boards so
that two lengths will serve for the outside wall. Of course, the
inside boards must be shortened a trifle, according to the thick
ness of your wall, which should be estimated, and your boards

MODE OF PLACING THE BOARDS FOR BOXES. 35

made to correspond in the start. Of these boards it is well to
have at least two tiers, and perhaps three are better yet. Suppose
your house to be 32 feet square, or an octagon of 16 feet sides, it
will take about 250 feet in length to make a tier all around your
house, and if these boards are 18 inches wide, and you have two
tiers, it will require about 700 feet, or from ten to twelve dollars'
worth of these boards. But when they have served this purpose,
they can be used as waste boards, for many other valuable
purposes about the building, and perhaps used for roofing. They
should then be cleated, to prevent their warping, perhaps at each
end and in the middle will be sufficient. Then one tier should
be nailed on to these standards, yet the nails should not be driven
completely in, but a half inch or so should be left out, so that the
claw of your hammer will easily draw them, when required to be
raised. But these boards will be likely to spread in the middle,
which is easily obviated, by taking any small, thin, waste boards,
laying them across the top of the board, every four or six feet
apart, and driving a nail down through these cross pieces, into
each box board. These nails should be set slanting outwardly,
so that the bottom of the next board to be put on shall just strike
this nail. Thus, the bottom of each tier of boards will be kept
from spreading by these nails, driven into these cross pieces.
This mode of putting up these boxes is simple, and can be done
by any common man who has an accurate eye and tolerably good
ingenuity. Indeed, my common laboring men have often put up
these boards as well as the carpenter, yet he always placed the
standards, and still, any body can plumb them and brace them
when thus plumbed, so that a tolerably ingenious man can put
up all of his own house, from cellar to garret, and the more native
ingenuity and judgment he has, the better walls he will make.
These boards thus placed, the material for the wall before de
scribed may be wheeled and shoveled in between them, or intc
the boxes thus formed. Still, it should be shoveled in so care
fully as not to displace the boards, or break these cross pieces.
But, if perchance a board should become displaced, your true
policy will be to stop at once, take off your board, push off your
wall material till you come down to where it is true, replace
your boards, and go on. I mention this, because, in several in-

36 THE GEAVEL-WALL PLAN.

stances in my own house, where a board had sprung out, .instead
of stopping to fix it at the time, I let it pass, but found when the
wall come to be finished, that that bulge had to be hewed down,
and I might almost as well have undertaken to hew down solid
stone. After one tier of boards has been filled, nail on your
second, and fill them, then take off your first tier, and nail on for
your third, then the second, and nail on for the fourth, and so on.
15. SCAFFOLDING.
If your walls do not exceed nine or ten feet high, a good shov-
eler can manage to shovel the material into the wall without any
scaffolding. He can get accustomed to throw the stuff so that it
will fall over into the box, yet this involves a great deal of hard
work, so that even for a wall only ten feet high, scaffolding is
desirable. I effected mine as follows : Taking two by three, or
two by four scantling, I made horses about four or five feet high,
just such its the mason would make for plastering over head, and
after these horses have served this purpose, they can serve for
plastering, and threw floor timber across these horses, about
three or four abreast, on which I wheel the stuff all around the
building with ease. The true policy is to. carry the entire wall
up at once, and yet, if you must work on a small scale, you can
carry up your wall between two doors, or two windows, as high
as you go, then take another section, between two other doors or
windows, by which plan you can move your scaffolding from one
section to another, but all this will depend on how many hands
you have. With two or three tiers of boards, you can carry up
your wall a^s fast as you please. I built my upper wall, ready
for the floor timbers, in seven days. Still, when not hurried, it
is probably better to take the matter more leisurely, in which
ease there will be less danger of the walls falling while green.
But with two tier of boards, there is very little danger of their
falling. Yi-t in case a wall should fall, there your material is,
requiring only to be shoveled back to your bed, re-wet, and
wheeled again to your wall. One of my upper inside walls I
had carried right up in the course of a forenoon. After it had
stood some two or three days, the carpenter removed some of the

WLDTH OF WALLS AND THEEK SOLIDITY. 37

bottom boards, when the wall caved in and fell to the bottom,
because the surplus water ofthe wall had settled down, and the
boards had prevented the wall from drying or setting, whereas,
if the first tier had been allowed to dry, such an occurrence would
not have taken place. But there my stuff was, close to my
mortar-bed, easily shoveled back, re-wet, shoveled into the
tub, and another half day put it back again to its place. The
only time this kind of wall can fall, is before it gets fairly set.
Once hardened, it becomes more and still more solid from age to
ige, this being the nature of all lime and sand composts.
16. WIDTH OF WALLS AND THEIR SOLIDITY.
My outer walls are as follows : the ground story 9 feet high,
and 18 inches thick ; second story, 14 feet high, and 16 inches
chick ; third story, 12 feet high, and 12 iriches thick ; upper story,
10| feet high, and 10 inches thick. The 11 feet 2 inches, else
where mentioned includes the wall to the bottom of the floor
timbers, which are 8 inches wide. Yet, if I were to build again,
1 should deem it abundantly strong to make the first story 14
inches, the second 12, the third 10, and fourth 8. The coat
of plastering, outside and in, of course, somewhat increase's this
thickness, and greatly strengthens the wall : still, the additional
cost of a wide wall over a narrow one is comparatively trifling,
and I therefore recommend the extra timid to make it thick
enough. If I were to build a two-story house, I should make my
basement wall one foot, my main story wall 10 inches, and the
upper one 8 ; yet should not hesitate at all to risk the lower
story at 8 inches thick, and the upper at 6 ; and I base this infer
ence on the solidity of my own walls. The inside walls of my
first story are a foot thick, and of my second 8 inches. Now, my
second story inside wall is about 35 feet long, 14 feet high, and
only 8 inches thick, and yet it sustains the pressure of two stories
and the roof. Of course, if it were shorter, or lower, it would be
stronger. Here is a long, high wall, only 8 inches thick, yet it
supports the downward pressure of the floors and partitions of two
stories and a roof, and the distance between these walls is 22 feet.
And what is still more the pressure from above comes down

38 THE GRAVEL-WALL PLAN.

on posts, 8 feet apart, and these posts, placed right on the top
of this high narrow wall, are held perfectly solid, These walls,
with this tremendous pressure on these points, evince not the
slightest jar, not the slightest crack, and, of all the houses I have
ever been in, I have never found any as solid as my upper
stories. There those stories are. Let the incredulous inspect
them for themselves, and let that fact attest the solidity of this
mode of building. Of o )urse, the less honey-comb openings there
are in the wall, the more solid, but of this, the reader may rest
assured, that this kind of wall, of a given thickness, is much more
solid than a brick wall of the same thickness. And for these
three reasons : first, brick are smooth, so that the mortar rarely
fastens directly upon them, but merely serves as a bed for the
brick to lie in, and, in taking down brick houses, the mortar
often cleaves from the brick very easily. Not so with the stones
which compose our graveL-wall. Lime and mortar stick to
stones a great deal better than to brick, partly because these
stones are so irregular, full of edges, rough on the surface, and
every way better for mortar to fasten upon than brick. Secondly,
mortar is usually worked too dry to form an adhesion to brick,
for, when it is thin enough to stick to brick, it is too thin to be
worked well, whereas, our method allows the compost to be just
as thin as can be handled with the shovel, so that when deposited
between the boards, it beds all down together in one solid mass,
each part sticking to each, and any surplus water there may be,
settles along down into the wall below, thjis rebinding all the
parts together. Each tier of this material also fastens to the tier
below, just as firmly as if they all had been put up at once.
Thirdly, brick are usually laid in rows, so that when a crack has
occasion to occur it passes along between them, whereas, our
stone and gravel, being thrown in promiscuously, and turned and
twisted in e*very possible direction, offer much more obstruction
to cracking, than a regularly laid brick or stone wall. In fact,
the very pell-mell mode of depositing these materials contributes
to its strength.
I have mentioned putting up inside walls from this material,
but I think the better plan is to form them of studs, lath, and
plaster, partly because it is ratha difficult to join them with the

DOOR AND WINDOW FRAMES. 39
main walls as you go up, because they are in the way of your
building the outside walls, and for several like reasons.
If it should be asked, then why not build the outside walls of
studs and plaster ? I answer, because that will require a frame,
whereas, this does not ; because your outside coat would not
stick to lath, but will to this compost ; because studs are not
sufficiently solid for the outside wall, and several other like rea
sons, such as rats and mice, danger by fire, greater warmth, etc.
17. DOOR AND WINDOW FRAMES.
Window-frames should generally be constructed so that the
windows run with weights ; probably the best mode of managing
this part, as adapted to our mode of building, is this : Take a
thick plank, either pine or hemlock — say the ends which jome off
from, your floor timbers, or any thing from an inch to three
inches thick, and the width of your wall — saw its length to cor
respond with the width of your window-frame — yet if it projects
six or twelve inches into the wall, no matter: — make a notch on
each corner of two inches, into which nail two inch wall strips,
the length of your proposed window, or door, and nail the whole
— 6 pieces in all, viz., 2 plank and 4 wall strips — together. If
your wall is 8 inches, these two scantling, which take up two
inches on each side, will leave four inches between them, in which
your weights can play ; all this can be done by saw,"hammer,
and nails, and by any common hand with tools. All they require
is to be fitted tolerably closely, and nailed solidly. It may be
well to nail a board up and down on the outside of this frame, to
prevent the mortar from coming through between these scantlings,
yet, if you have many stones, this board is better off than on, for
'these stones can be so placed as to prevent the mortar from run
ning through, and to fasten the window-frames to the wall. In
making the door-frame, its bottom plank will serve as your door
cil], or stepping piece, and these scantlings will serve to nail your
casing to, and fasten your inside window-frame on. I am no
carpenter, but it seems to me that all this rigging about window-
frames is not necessary ; at least, that a more simple contrivance
can be adopted, yet what we have now described will serve fo*

40 THE GRAVEL- WALL PLAN.
putting up our wail, and this is all which concerns this mode of
building, properly speaking. These window and door frames
should now be braced inside, about midway up, else the wall
might spring them inward, which will prevent your windows
from playing freely, and occasion a good deal of trouble in the
finishing. These window-frames can be set on bricks if preferred.
Mine are thus set, and a brick arch is sprung over on their tops,
so as to prevent the wall from settling in their top. Yet it seems
to me, any piece of timber, or stick of wood, even, thrown* across
the top, will serve every practical purpose. Indeed, I very much
doubt the necessity of any thing, for it seems to me that our
material will form just as good an arch as if it were laid up regu
larly with brick, only keep it from springing until our material
has a chance to. set, and it will become just about as firm as a
solid steie. 18. THE TOP OF THIS WALL.
This, of course, requires to be perfectly leveled, so as to form
a level resting-place for your floor timbers. To secure this level,
of course some leveling instrument will have to be used, yet
carpenters know how to make these, and they are easily applied.
The top of the standards above described will furnish guides for
your boards. Your top tier of boards should be so nailed that
the top of the board shall be even with the top of your standards,
and then, your coarse mortar can be thrown in, so as to fill it
to within an inch, or even a half an inch of the top, and a thin
coat of fine mortar will complete it ; yet I should advise laying a
board on top of the wall the width of the wall, so that your floor
timbers may have a resting place more solid than the mortar
because this mortar is yet green, whereas, this board on top will
so equalize the pressure as to keep every thing in place. This
board can then be nailed on top ofthe scantling, and thus still farther
strengthen the walls. As soon as your wall is up, it is well to
place all your floor timbers, because they serve to steady that
wall, and then you are ready for proceeding with the next story.

TEMPORARY FLOORS.— ANCHORAGE. 41

19. TEMPORARY FLOORS.
This hiode of building requires a great deal of wheeling and
walking on these floor timbers, and this requires a temporary
floor, and, in my opinion, the better course is, after your floor
timbers are down, to put down your floors, of course first filling
up between your floor timbers with this coarse mortar, and laying
your flopr boards so that they shall actually penetrate into the
wall. These boards may get somewhat bruised in the course of
building, yet, by taking due pains, laying down rough, loose
boards, to be wheeled on, and to catch any stones that may fall
from the shovel, you will probably gain more than lose ; and if it
should rain after this floor is down, it will damage your floor very
little. An occasional nail may be drawn, but is easily driven
back. Or a temporary floor may be nailed down, made of hem
lock, three quarters thick, such as is used to line floors, and after
your roof is on, put.your floor proper on the top of this lining.
But I only suggest this plan as a matter of reason ; I have not
tried it as a matter of experiment, but have felt the need of some
thing of this sort. Supposing your house to be thirty feet square,
a thousand feet of boards, which might cost you ten, or twelve, or
fifteen dollars, would lay this temporary floor, and probably save
in the work of putting up the building. Still, let each builder
decide this point for himself. 20. ANCHORAGE.
All houses require more or less anchoring. By our mode of
building, this will be easily effected as follows : As you place
your floor timbers, nail them to these boards on top of the wall,
on which they rest. This anchors the floor timbers to the wall
below. Then, to anchor them to the wall above, bore holes with
an inch and a half or two inch auger, giving them a slight slant
outward ; bore holes near the end of these timbers, and right
where the wall above is to be placed, giving them a slight slant
toward the outside of your house, and drive pins, and when you
build your wall around these pins, your floor timbers are anchored

42 THE GRAVEL-WALL PLAN.
abundantly ; and where these floor timbers meet inside the house,
an occasional pin through a couple of them anchors them in the
middle. This anchors your house one way. It can be anchored
the other way as follows : Let your floor timber which lies along
nearest the wall be placed close to the wall, and bore slanting
holes in the side of these floor timbers, next to the wall, driving
these wooden pins, and of course these pins will stick out where
your wall is to be made. When the wall is made around these
pins, of course this first floor timber is anchored to the wall ; then
your floor boards are nailed to this timber, being nailed also to
the other timbers ; and' the other floor timbers on the opposite
side, fixed in like manner, of course, your whole house is bound
solidly together by only a few hours' work. It is also very well,
as you build up the corners, to anchor them by long, narrow
stones crossing in various ways or lapping across these corners.
These remarks will, at least, serve to put the builder's mind on
the track of adopting any such simple mode which marv come
handy. 21. CHIMNEYS, VENTILATION, SPEAKING-TUBES, ETC.
If your walls are wide enough, these can be easily made, by
just placing a round stick, the size of your proposed chimney, or
ventilator, into your wall, and drawing it along up after you, thus
leaving a hole behind it. Two of my chimney flues I carried up
by brick, and these are the only two poor ones I have in my
building, as far as they have been tried. I carried two inside
walls from bottom to top, for the sole purpose of building my
chimneys in this manner ; those round sticks employed were of
various sizes, according to the sized flue desired, but if I were to
build again, I should make them larger. They vary from 6 to 8
inches in diameter. My speaking-tubes were 2 to 3 inches, and
were also drawn up after me in the same manner.
I had occasion for two chimneys, which I could not locate in
this inside wall, devoted to chimneys, and resolved on building
them of my gravel material. Against this all my workmen pro
tested, some giving one reason, others another, yet I overruled
them all, directed my carpenter to place three boards, about IS

CHIMNEYS, VENTILATION, SPEAKING-TUBES, ETC. 43

inches wide, up and down, alongside of the outside wall, and to
place one of these sticks, about 8 inches through and 6 feet long,
inside this chimney box, having a rope fastened to its upper end,
and carried to the story above ; and making my material a little
finer than usual, I wheeled and shoveled it into these up and down
boxes, occasionally hoisting my inside stick, and in a few minutes
had carried it two-thirds of a story, when, fearing if I proceeded
too fast it might cave in, I suspended operations for a few hours,
drawing up my stick to the top of the story, as I filled up the
boxes, in a couple of days, and this formed a perfectly smooth
tunnel for smoke. Leaving my outer box boards on for two or
three weeks, on removing them, there my chimneys are, yet cost
ing scarcely three dollars apiece, from bottom to top.
I assure the reader that my best chimneys are those built in
the manner just prescribed. Where a turn is to be made, of
course brick must be used to effect that turn.
I attempted to make water-pipes in the same manner, by using
water-lime in place of common lime, but have not tested any of
them, and perhaps shall not, because they require to be made
with considerable care, yet with that care can be made perfectly
tight. My mode of procedure was, first, to make the same
hole that I would make for a chimney, then insert a small round
stick, say two or three inches in diameter, according to the size
of the desired pipe ; I would fill up the spaces caused by the dif
ferent sizes of these two sticks with water-lime, sand, and stone,
made thin, and occasionally turning this inner stick around, so as
to compact all the materials closely together.
Ventilators can easily be made by a like means, and as they
can be made so easily, it is a pity that any house should be with
out them. Each room should have its ventilator, and that ven
tilator should open at both the bottom and top of the room, so as
to carry off any bad air which may settle at the bottom, or rise
to the top. Of course, in finishing off, these ventilators should
have their registers, so that their action may be under control,
and when carried to t...? top ofthe house they can be opened just
under the. eaves, between the rafters, and thus the bad air cast
out of the building. Strictly speaking, no two rooms should open
into the same ventilator, because this will allow sounds to pass

44 " THE GRAVEL-WALL PLAN.
from one room .to the other, which should be avoided ; but they
are so easily made that we need hardly trouble ourselves to econ
omize their number. If too large, these holes will somewhat
weaken your wall, yet this point is too insignificant to be noticed,
because the walls will be abundantly strong, if the ventilators are
of proper size.
Speaking-tubes should generally open into closets.
- 22. OUTSIDE AND INSIDE FINISH.
These outside walls are completed when the outside and inside
finish is put on. My own consists simply of a coat of common
mortar, such as is used for plastering inside walls, and put on in
every respect just as you would put on the scratch-coat of an
inside wall, spread right on to this rough wall, made as already
described. The second coat, to make it resemble granite, is color
ed with indigo, lampblack, and some other articles, .according to
the fancy of the finisher, adding some iron filings and salt, for the
purpose of bringing out a rust on the surface, to make it resemble
granite. The philosophy of iron filings and salt is this. The
salt corrodes the ir*on, and causes this oxide to ooze out in drops,
which dry on the surface of the mortar, so as exactly to resemble,
which it in fact is, iron rust, such as is to be found in granite.
This outside can be finished to resemble granite, marble, plain or
clouded, according to the fancy of the owner and artist, and
blocked off, by making a compost of lime and white sand, and
put where you would have the blocks. My present opinkm is
that the very best mode of finishing is simply to put on one coat
of mortar, such as is used for the inside plastering, but take pains
and lay it on smoothly and evenly, perhaps using a straight edge,
letting it dry, and then hard finish it.
This hard finish should have a plentiful supply of white or black
sand, to give it body, else it is liable to peel or flake off. This
hard finish should be made by first running off lime and mixing
in sand, say from half to two-thirds more sand than lime, and
then, just as it is about to be put on, mix in stucco, or plaster of
Paris calcined, as in hard finishing, and while putting it on, work
it much and smoothly, with the trowel. But please observe this is
not wholly experimental, but is in part suggestive.

OUTSIDE AND INSrDE FINISH. 45
I recommend the hard finish, because it serves to turn Water, and
will thus keep much of the dampness out cf the walls ; it can also
be painted, and this wijl effectually prevent any moisture from
passing through the walls into the house. It will also look bet
ter, at least from a distance, than any darker color, and a coat of
raw oil will render it perfectly, white, because that oil will soon
be bleached by the weather, besides serving the purpose of. turn
ing rain. Also, any stain which may strike the outside of the
house is effectually turned and runs off.
The cost of this kind of finishing is equal only to that of com
mon plaster, after the lathing is done, provided, of course,, you
have put up your walls straight. Of this plastering, from 60 to 80
square yards can be put on in a day, and as many more of hard
finish in another day, so that your outside finish can be put on in
connection with this kind of building cheaper, probably, than with
any other. Suppose, then, your house is 30 feet square, or 20 by
40 — your first story 9 or 10 feet, your second 8, and your third
3 or 4 — you have 280 square yards to plaster, and that is all.
A good smart mason can do this in about four days, at a cost of
labor of some ten or twelve dollars, and the hard finish about as
much more in addition. Suppose the whole outside finish should
cost $50, painting' included, pray, is not this very cheap ; and
your house thus finished will look splendidly, and is easily kept
so, because any marks of soiling are easily washed off. Suppose
you were to finish it with clap-boards, it will require some 2,500
feet, at least, and at a cost of from $25 to $35 per thousand —
more by considerable than the entire cost of finish, by our method.
Then these clap boards have to be planed, and put up, and the
scaffolding for your mason will cost no more than for your clap-
boarder. Then, these clapboards must be painted, with two or
three coats of oil and white lead, and this painting renewed every
few years. Walls can be built and plastered, hard finished and
painted outside, cheaper than you can merely clap-board the same
surface. If your mason should want to take his finishing by the
job, he will make it cost you double or treble the rates here speci
fied, but every plasterer knows that 70 yards of plastering is only
an ordinary day's work, and about as much more for hard finish.
One other form oi" outside finish has been tried with success by

46 THE GRAVEL-WALL PLAN.
Mr. Thornton, lumber dealer, in Pawtucket, R. I., and is as fol
lows. He simply mixed some common coal dust with his mor
tar, just enough to turn it a grayish color, and the little specks
of coal which come to the surface shine and sparkle in the sun
like diamonds, giving to his outside finish a beautiful and rich
appearance. All he did, was simply to mingle this coal dust, or
screenings, with his mortar. But the common mode of plastering,
without coloring, a little way off looks very well, at least, better
for an ordinary house, than any other which a man of limited means
can afford. Still, touching this matter, let every man inquire and
judge for himself. Of course, it might seem, at first sight, that
this plastering would peel off; so it will, if spread upon lath. But
mark this difference. Plaster never adheres to wood ; the entire
adhesion, remember, of plastering, when put upon lath, is the
clinch upon the back side of the lath. Of course, frosts heave
this plaster, and break these clinches. Not so with ours, and for
this reason. The mortar is not separated from the main material
by wood. Hence, water can insinuate itself between the plaster
and Wood, not only loosening the plaster from the wood, but
swelling the wood so as to crack and heave off the plaster by ex
pansion ; and when the wood shrinks by drying, it leaves the
plaster loose, whereas ours, incorporating itself in the solid mate
rial of the wall, becomes one with that wall, just as much as if
it had been put on at the time the wall was going up, and those
little honey-comb holes mentioned8 serve the purpose of the
very best clinchers in the world. In Mr. Thornton's house, there
occurs a slight peeling, but, observe, it is not between the plaster
and the wall, but between the two coats of plaster, or, between the
scratch-coat.and outer coat, and hence, I recommend that but a
single coat be put on, that that coat be rendered as thin as it will
well work, and pressed thoroughly into all the little holes in the
wall, that is, worked well with the trowel when spread on, and
smooth the first time. It will check some in drying, but the hard
finish recommended will stop these checks in a single application.
It should be added, that my mason mingled a little water-lime
with his mortar, as he put it on, the utility of which I rather
doubt. Still, its cost was a mere trifle, and it possibly may be
of use in turning dampness.

OUTSIDE AND INSIDE FINISH. 4T
In our cities they are in the habit of finishing their best brick
houses with plaster or another compound, altogether forming what
they call mastic-cement, the price of which is $1 00 per square
yard. This is considered cheaper than an ordinary brick house
made of first-rate brick. That is, after they have bought their
ordinary brick, put up their wall, paid the mason for laying them,
and tender for making and carrying mortar, they then add this
dollar per square yard for their outside finish, and yet consider
their walls cheaper than if made of first-rate brick, laid in the
Flemish bond style. Then how much cheaper this gravel-wall,
for their mastic finish will adhere far better to this than that.
That nature has furnished better materials, if we will discover
and apply them, than hoards and paint, is apparent ; for, besides
their expensiveness, they must, ar the world fills up, become too
scarce to supply the demand. Oui plan is peculiarly adapted to
a plaster finish, and that such cheap and durable finishes can be
made, is a matter not of inference but of experiment. The
State House at New Haven, Conn., is plastered outside, and has
withstood the action of frost and rain over thirty years, and with
out the expense of frequent repainting. So well has this plaster
finish recommended itself practically in New Haven, that all their
first-class houses are now covered with it. The feasibility of an
outside plaster finish is thus placed, by experiment, beyond a
doubt. The following recipes, clipped from the papers, are given as
received, without endorsement, but not without considerable con
fidence in their durability and applicability to the gravel-wall,
" The Pittsburgh Chronicle says an individual has a mode of manufac-
. turing marble which is pronounced superior to any other artificial stone or
marble in use, and will supersede the use of lime mortar in the various
processes of plastering, and will be extensively used for stucco work,
mosaic, statuary, mantle-pieces, table slabs, atmospheric and hydraulic
cement, roofing of houses, and paving of streets, etc. It will set or harden
in six hours, when applied in plastering houses. It will resist the action
of atmospheric heat, damp, frost, etc., and is susceptible of a high polish,
and can be manufactured at a cost little exceeding ordinary lime mortar."*
" Much is said of the brilliant stucco whitewash on the east ofthe Pres-
* If any reader can give any information touching this invention, it will be thankfully
received.

48 THE GRAVEL-WALL PLAN.
ident's house at Washington. The following is a recipe for making it, with
some additional improvements learned by experiment :
" Take half a bushel of nice, unslacked lime, Black it with boiling water,
covering it during the process, to keep in the steam. Strain the liquor
through a fine sieve or strainer, and add to it a peck of clean salt, pre
viously dissolved in warm water ; three pounds of ground rice, ground to
a thin paste, and stirred and boiled, hot ; half a pound of powdered Spanish
whiting, and a pound of clean glue, which has been previously dissolved
by first soaking it well, and then hanging it over a slow fire, in a small
kettle, within a large one filled with water. Add five gallons of hot water
to the whole mixture, stir it well, and let it stand a few days, covered from
the dirt. It should be put on quite hot ; for this purpose it can be kept
in a kettle, on a portable furnace. It is said that about one pint of this
mixture will cover a square yard upon the outside of a house, if properly
applied. " Brushes more or less small may be used, according to the neatness of
the job required. It retains its brilliancy for many years. There is noth
ing of the kind that will compare with it, either for outside or inside walls.
Coloring matter may be put in and made of any shade you like. Spanish
brown stirred iu will make a red or pink, more or less deep, according to
the quantity. A delicate tinge of this is very pretty for inside walls
Finely pulverized common clay , well mixed up with Spanish brown before
it is stirred into the mixture, makes a lilac color Lampblack and Span
ish brown mixed together produce a reddish stone color Lampblack in
moderate quantities makes a slate color, very suitable for the outside of
buildings. Yellow ochre stirred in makes a yellow wash, but chrome goes
farmer, and makes a color generally esteemed prettier. In all these cases,
the darkness of the shade will of course be determined by the quantity of
the coloring matter used. It is difficult to make a rule, because the tastes
are very different ; it would be best to try experiments on a shingle, and
let it dry. I have been told that green must not be mixed with lime. The
lime destroys the color, and the color has an effect on the whitewash, which
makes it crack and peel. When walls have been badly smoked, and you
wish to have them a clean white, it is well to squeeze indigo plentifully
through a bag into the water you use, before it is 'stirred into the whole
mixture. If a larger quantity than five gallons should be wanted, the same
proportion should be observed."
Many readers will no doubt remember that splendid mansion
in Broad Street, Philadelphia, near Chestnut, which is plastered
and colored yellow, and has withstood the weather these ten
years, to my knowledge, probably longer.
Touching the inside finish, it can be spread directly upon this
wall, or furred and lathed. If the builder is able, the latter
method is undoubtedly the best, and well worthy of the extra

CLAY AND STONE WALL. 49
cost, wherever it can be afforded, because it renders the house
dryer, warmer, more even of temperature, and every way better,
on account of that dead air between the wall and the plaster. A
part of my own house I have thus furred and lathed, but the two
upper stories I have not, partly because a quarter of the surface
is occupied by closets, and another quarter by windows. And
yet, I should recommend, to those who have means, the latter
method, but I have, as yet, seen no marks or signs of dampness
in my closets, or on my walls, nor do I believe I shall ever be
troubled with either. Still, I can only say what has been, thus
far, and leave the future to the futufe. Unless your walls are
carried up middling straight, it will also cost you more to finish
on them, than on lath, because, in some places, the mortar will
have to go on thicker, and in others, thinner, but a poor man
could better live without its being lathed and plastered inside,
than to live in a rented house. In fact, by this mode of building,
a man may accommodate himself to present circumstances, and
finish afterward, as he becomes able.
23. CLAY AND STONE WALL.
Thus far, I have spoken experimentally. Eespecting the solid
ity of the gravel and lime walls, not one particle of doubt remains.
I, however, suggest another plan, which, if I were in a country
where clay was handy and sand not, I should adopt. I should
temper clay, just as I would to make brick, and then mingle ia
stones, large and small, with this clay, or else lay them in, as the
clay is shoveled into the wall, and put up a house of clay and
stones, instead of lime and stones ; any other hard substance, such
as described,8 will answer just as good a purpose. I have tried a
small piece of wall in this way, enough to satisfy myself that it
will answer every purpose of solidity. Houses have often been
made of unburned clay, but what is the use in separating this
clay into blocks, and then uniting them by mortar ? Why not
ihrow your clay into these boxes or cribs, as above described,10 and
make the whole in one solid clay mass ? And if clay alone will
stand, surely ;clay plentifully mixed with large and small stones
will stand better. The greatest objection here, appertains to the
8

50 THE GRAVEL-WALL PLAN.
handling of this clay, because it is so sticky. Yet, this very
property of tenacity is the binding property of the wall. To have
just clay enough to fill all in between these stones, and bind them
together, and to have stones enough coming out to the edge of
the wall for the outside mortar coat to adhere to, would, it seems
to me, make a cheap, and every way excellent wall pat least, suf
ficiently solid for all practical purposes of support. At all events,
I shall make an extended trial of this material, in building fences
and out-houses. By this method, even the cost of lime is saved,
so that, supposing a man has to build on a clay foundation, all he
has to do is duly to wet and temper his clay, and shovel it right
into his walls. But since a foot of stones can be handled much
more easily than a foot of clay, and serves a better purpose, from
one-half to two-thirds of his wall should be composed of large and
small stones. Nor should I be afraid to carry up a two, or even
three story house of this material.
Fences can also be built of both these materials, either clay
and stones, or sand, lime, and stones, yet, not having had experi
ence in this line, I do not speak positively, but think a very thin
fence, say eighteen inches at bottom, and tapering up to six or eight
inches on top, would answer every purpose, and believe a wall
can be built in this way about as cheap as a stone wall. At all
events, I shall soon put this suggestion into practice.
24. COST OF THE GRAVEL-WALL.
That this kind of wall costs far less than either brick or wood,
is perfectly obvious at one glance. The price of brick varies in
various places, but suppose it to be $5 per 1000 ; how great a
saving occurs in material. It takes only from half to a quarter
as much lime to build this wall as to lay up the same sized brick
wall. A cart load of stone will go just as far as a cart load of
brick, and answers just as good a purpose. The stones have to
be carted, but do not also your brick? And brick must be
carted from one to several miles, whereas, stones can generally
be picked up all around your dwelling, so that building your
house will very likely serve to clear your farm of these encum
brances. Supposing, then, a man has a stony field to clear con-

COST OF THE GRAVEL- WALL. 51
tiguous to his building spot; after throwing the stones into his
cart, which he would have to do in clearing his land, he can now
cart them to his building spot, about as well as to any other place
of deposit, so that his stones are brought to their places with lit
tle additional cost, and these stones form more than half the
material for the wall, and a sand or gravel bank will doubtless
be more contiguous than a brick-yard, and in a majority of cases,
the materials can be dug right from the cellar, or obtained within
a few rods of your building site. But as any expense of carting
will vary with the locality, but be much less by this than the
brick wall, we will leave this out of our estimate altogether. It
can, at least, be done in winter, on snow, and thus much more
advantage taken, than in building with brick. But, your mate
rials on the spot, clear off your top soil as far down as your
gravel, then sink your wall as far into your gravel as you design
it shall go ; now shovel gravel from your cellar right into your
mortar-beds, and thence to your wall, sc that in digging your cel
lar you actually make your wall. Nor is it much more trouble
to move your material into the wall, than cast it outside and
carting it away. We have already estimated about the amount
of lime requisite, say from $15 to $20, according to the size of
your building. In the case of my own house, $20 worth of lime
put up a building 256 feet in circumference, and 23 feet high ;
equal to a house 64 feet square, and three stories high, provided
these stories were only 10, 8, and 5 feet high; yet I should advise
the use of $30 instead of $20 worth, for the same sized walls,
and even more, where higher ; but under any circumstances, from
$20 to $25 worth of lime should put up a house 30 feet square
and two stories and a half high. And now, please observe, this
is all the material you want for your entire wall, saving some
three or four dollars' worth of scantling for guide standards, sills,
frames for doors and windows, boards for the top of the wall, etc.
What boards I used on my wall cost about $3 per story, and my
standards about two more. Your entire material will then cost
you, for this gravel-wall, from $20 to $30, whereas, brick alone
would cost $200 or $300. Now, reader, do you or do you not
see an immense difference in cost of material ; a difference which
of itself should entitle this mode of building to universal consid-

52 THE GRAVEL-WALL rLAN.
eration. Your pile of stones, requisite for the building, will cost
just the drawing, whereas a like pile of brick to build the same
with, will cost several hundred dollars ! To build one square
foot with brick wall takes about twenty. A house 23 feet
high and 32 feet square, will require about 3,000 square feet, or,
making allowance for breakage and wasteage, some 60,000 bricks,
which, at $5 per thousand, would cost $300. Now, these brick
have to be laid up, and this will cost, at $3 per thousand, $180
more ; add $30 or $40 for lime, or $520 in all. It cost me 44
days' work, of common $12 per month hands, to put up my wall
11 feet 2 inches high, and 256 feet in circumference. It took six
days and a half of my carpenter's labor, at $1 00 per day, which,
added to the other, makes $26 50, and two and a half days of the
mason to lay the window sills, and the arches over windows and
doors, and to level off the wall, and put on the boards, ready for
the floor timbers. My brick cost about $6 50, and the boards for
the top of the wall, and scantling for standards, about $6 00 more,
and the lime cost $10 ; this foots up not far from $60. The rub
ble stones used were quarried in digging the cellar, so as, properly
speaking, not to be reckoned into the cost of the wall. But sup
pose they were, I should think from three to five dollars would
have done the quarrying, and as much more would have hauled
the sand used two and a half miles. In footing up the bill for
my last story but one, I could reckon only about $70, and, sur
prised at this result, concluded I must have made some cardinal
omission, and hence, charged my carpenter, when I came to the
upper story, to reckon every item of expense in his department
and in mine. We began our work Friday before noon, and fin
ished it the next week Saturday, at nine o'clock. I then sum
moned all hands ; footed up labor and time, examined the mate
rials used, and found the following result :
Common labor, 44 days, at
$12permonth  $ 20 00
Carpenter work  700
Mason laying window sills,
arches, and leveling wall, 2 60
Lime, 250 bush. , slacked, at
4 cents per bushel  10 00
Lumber for standards and
top of wall  6 00

1,000 briok for window sills
and arches  6 50
Board for hands  12 00
Sand, quarrying stones,
nails, horse to haul up,
use of boards for troughs,
etc  15 00

Total  $79 00

COST OF THE GRAVEL-WALL. 53
And one-ninth of even this small sum was for brice and lay
ing. True, I had my mortar-beds all made, tackle rigged, and all
things ready for working ; but it need not take many days' work
to get ready. The outside finish can be put on very cheaply,
or made more expensive", as the owner chooses. Experience
had taught me to handle the stuff economically, but my candid
opinion is, that $100 will put up and finish off the outside
walls of a house 30 feet square, give it a good coat of plaster
and hard finish ; that is, would do all which belongs to the
wall itself, and leave that wall every way better than a brick
wall which would cost $600. Of course, this estimate does not
reckon windows and doors, which would have to be added to a
brick house as much as to this, and cost just the same in that as
this. Goodrich estimated his walls as four, times cheaper than
wood, and six times cheaper than brick, and his estimates and
mine come to about the same results.
One of my neighbors, H. J. Sherwood, of Fishkill Hook,
ventured to build a carriage-house on this plan. His house is 24
by 26, about 10 feet high, and cost about 7 days' work of Irishmen,
besides some little assistance he himself rendered, and about $6
worth of lime. He expressed himself as perfectly delighted with
this mode of building, in which the work and all the plan so far
exceeded what he anticipated, though he had seen mine and heard
me describe it, as to become as enchanting as a novel, and so
delighted him as to interfere with his sleep at night. Mr. Thorn
ton, before mentioned, residing in Pawtucket, R. I., thinks he
saved himself several hundred dollars by adopting this method,
and all who have tried it bear a like testimony. And now,
reader, having dofle my duty, by telling the truth, as nearly as I
know it, I leave you to either proceed in the old horse-jog mode
of building, or adopt this new railroad style, as you in your sov
ereign pleasure may choose to decide. Of course, the other por
tions of the house, such as doors, windows, floors, floor timbers,
etc., will cost as much by this plan as any other. Our estimates
and descriptions have reference simply to the outside walls.
Now foot up the cost of frame and walls in accordance with the
prices of materials and labor in your various sections, and com
pare it withthe cost of our wall for a house of the same shape and

54 THE GRAVEL-WALL PLAN.
dimensions — remembering that our estimate is for a house two
and a half stories high — and then choose the new, cheaper, and
better style, or the old, costly, and poorer way.
25. THE QUALITY OF THIS GRAVEL-WALL.
Is it as good as a frame-house ? Far better, every way, Let
us examine its advantages. Air rushes in freely through the open
crevices of the siding, and, of course, through every crack in the
plastering and flooring, and therefore troubles you to keep warm
in cold weather, even with considerable fire ; and especially your
feet, in consequence of the air coming up through the floors.
This our wall prevents. Plastered outside and in, it, of course,
excludes the air from getting access under the floor, or to the
inner coat of plastering, leaving only windows and doors for its
ingress. Now, a warm house is quite a desideratum, both as
saving fuel — quite an expensive thing — and as promotive of com
fort. A house built in this way not only retains the heat, but
preserves an even temperature, and thus escapes the one-minute-
warm-and-the-next-cold, incident to all wooden buildings.
The fact in regard to my own house is, that water standing all
winter in one of the rooms in which there was no fire, nor any
below it, has not frozen ; and I will prove practically, to all who
will give me an opportunity, that the house is thus easily made
and kept warm. I speak not of doors and windows, which are
the same in the new as old style, but of floors and walls. I
would not, on any account, exchange my walls even for brick or
filled-in walls ; because the former retain moisture, which these
never do ; and the latter allow more or less air to pass in around
the siding and next the plastering, whereas these shut np every
possible avenue against its entrance, from top to bottom, with
double doors. All cracks in lath and plastering the wind finds
and pours through ; but if a crack occurs in my inside wall — and
I have none, except such as are caused by that settling already
alluded to, and the mason should have known better than to have
begun a wall on so poor an arch — no wind can get to it, and
therefore none through it ; for it can not press against the inside
coat of plaster the whole length and breadth of wall, as by the old

VERMIN EXCLUDED FROM GRAVEL-WALLS. 55
method, nor come in around the wash-boards, for it can not get
to them, but must stay out. I consider my house worth much
more, just on this account, than if built in the old way.
You see, then, how and why it is that this kind of wall is not
half as costly as the present kinds, and yet is twice or thrice as
good, in every respect.
This plan also allows you to build, your floors of hemlock.
That timber is not used for this purpose, because it can not be
grooved and matched, which is necessary to keep the wind out.
But by the proposed method, no wind can get access under the
floor, and, of course, no grooves and joints are necessary to keep
it from coming up through it.
26. VERMIN EXCLUDED FROM GRAVEL-WALLS.
Moreover, the wood method allows rats and mice free range
throughout the house, and furnishes a complete harbor for them.
But our plan shuts them out effectually. They can not climb up
and harbor between siding and plastering, nor get up between
ceiling and floors ; for all is solid. They can be effectually pre?
vented from entering, while building, by just making one single
place around your chimney mouse-light. You effectually, by
this kind of wall, exclude these exceedingly annoying and destruc
tive customers- from all parts of the house, by filling up all access
and all harbors ; and is not this worth $1,000 ? Many would give
twice as much to be rid of these torments.
Special attention is invited to the very great superiority of this
plan, not in one or two trifling respects, but in every respect.
Any one of these advantages is amply suflicient to secure its uni
versal adoption, while all combined render it incomparably better
than any other — it having the advantages of all, no disadvantages,
and many excellences unknown to all others. In short, it is
nature's style of architecture. And its allowing the eight or
twelve-sided plan, soon to be shown to gain one-fifth by its form
alone, caps the climax of its value.

SECTION III.
DEFECTS IN THE USUAL SHAPES OF HOUSES.
Since some shaped houses contain twice and even thrice as
much room as others, compared with their amount of wall, and
that much better adapted to household purposes, the best form
for a house becomes a matter of prime importance — even a gov
erning condition — and requires judicious investigation. How can
I inclose the most space, so shaped that it ean be partitioned
off into rooms best adapted to my requisitions, should be your
• great inquiry. This brings up the defects of most houses.
27. HIGH AND LOW HOUSES.
Low houses cost much more, compared with their room, than
high ones. Foundation and roof cost the same for a one, as for
a four-story house, yet the latter contains four times as much
room, or four houses in one ; and all for less than double the
expense — a saving of about one-half.
" But I want all my roo'ms on one floor, for I don't like this
running up and down stairs — this living in the garret and cooking
down cellar !" exclaims some weakly fidget, as horrified at the
sight of stairs as a mad dog at that of water. Then build as you
please, but for one, I dislike to sleep on the first floor, because
more or less dampness will ascend, causing colds, fevers, and
premature death. Nor do I like to sleep directly under the roof,
because so insufferably hot evenings as to induce one to throw
off all the bed-clothes on retiring, yet rapidly cooling toward
morning, by dew or rain, so as to cause chills and colds, but

HIGH AND LOW HOUSES.

57

decidedly prefer an intermediate story, so as to escape both these
evils, and secure dryness, and as even a temperature as possible.
To human health and happiness, sound sleep is second in im
portance only to air and food, so that good sleeping apartments
are more important than even a good parlor ; and these can not
be had in a house less than two and a half or three stories. It is
especially bad to sleep right over an un ventilated cellar; for the
poisonous gases generated by stale or decaying vegetables are
both noxious and insidious.
Ventilation," tod, is as important in a house as breath tb
human life and strength. Yet no one-story house can be well
ventilated ; much less if located low, whereas a high house natu
rally causes the air to draw up from bottom to top, because the
atmosphere is lighter above than below, which naturally not only
facilitates and increases all breezes, but even creates a draft when
there is no breeze ; on the principle that a high chimney promotes
draft. And the higher the house the cooler and more com
plete this ventilation in summer, and the warmer in winter. Hot
air naturally ascends, which cools the house in summer, and warms
it in winter, whereas, in a low house, it escapes out of doors, in
stead of into upper rooms ; which renders heating it much more
expensive. And are not the rooms even more accessible itt a high than
low house ? Suppose you require the room of a three-story
house 30 by 40, is it not easier to ascend 10 feet than go
from 40 to 50 on a level, and to ascend 18 feet than walk 60
to 100 ? Fig. 1.

a
Entry.
b
Thus, how much more difficult is it to ascend two flights of
stairs than to walk from a to b, which is over 100 feet on a scale
of 16 feet to the inch. And then see how much more room is
8*
58 DEFECTS IN SHAPES OF HOUSES.

consumed by the entry than if you had. merely a stairway. To
accommodate a large family takes a good many rooms, which, if
all on one story, would require an immense roof and foundation,
and must be every way awkward and inconvenient, besides look
ing so low. And why is not a bed- room as handy on the second
story as first ? Is going up stairs twice a day-=-once, to prepare
the bed, and again to occupy it— or even more, so very irksome ?
Even to cook a story below where you eat is not so bad, if a
dumb waiter is provided to transport food and dishes back and
forth. Yet a light, airy basement is no inferior eating place.
Both to look well proportioned and to be convenient, houses re
quire to be about two-thirds as high as wide. Small houses
should be at least a story and a half, and large ones two or three
stories, according to size.
28. LARGE AND SMALL HOUSES.
A small house, compared with its room, costs much more than
a large one, and is much less comfortable, because, first, it
requires more wall to inclose it, as compared with its number of
square feet. Thus, a mile below St. Charles, 111., is a one-story
stone house, ten feet square, and its walls one foot thick. Of
course, it is 8 feet square inside, and contains 64 square feet
to 40 feet of outside wall, or about one and a third feet of wall
to every square foot of room. Now, a house 20 feet square in
side gives 400 square feet of room to 80 feet of wall, or 5 feet
of room to 1 foot of wall, which is more than 350 per cent, more
inside room, compared with its outside wall, than the 10 feet
house. But a 40 feet house gives 1,600 square feet to 160 feet
of wall, or 10 feet of inside room to every foot of outside wall.
Observe, reader, some nine times more room in the large house,
compared with its outside wall, than in the small one ! Verily,
are not these small houses more expensive, compared with what
room they yield, than one would suppose t One 80 feet square,
gives 6,400 square feet for 320 feet of wall, or 20 feet of inside
room to one foot of wall, which is fifteen times more room in the
large than small house, compared with its wall. It would, then,
take one hundred of these 10 feet houses to give as much room

LARGE AND SMALL- HOUSES. 59
as is given in one 80 feet house. To present this in a tabular
form, omitting thickness of walls :

Sized House.

.Outside Wall.

Square Feet

10 feet takes

40 feet,

gives 100 inside room.

20

80 "

400

40

160 "

" 1,600

80

320 '<

" 6,400

Now reduce these by division to their lowest denominations
equally by cutting off their ciphers, and we have the following
proportions : 12 4 8 sized house.
1 2 4 16 outside wall.
1 4 16 64 inside room.
Observe the law here involved. While the increase of wall is
1. 2. 4. 8. that of capacity is four times greater, or 1. 4. 16. 64.
By increasing the wall only from 1 to 8, you increase the room
from 1 to 64. That is, the wall of the 10 feet square house is
sixty-four times more expensive, for its room, than one of 80 feet ;
or deducting thickness of wall from all, above ninety times. In
other words, ninety dollars go no farther in making the outside
walls of a 10 feet square house, than one dollar goes in making
one 80 feet square. Of course, this does not reckon the partition
ing of the large house, yet inside partitions are far less expensive
than outside walls.
But see with what force this law applies to large and small
rooms. A bedroom, 7 by 9, takes 32 feet of wall, yet gives only
63 feet of room ; and if only 7 feet ceilings, 441 cubic feet of
air ; whereas, one 20 feet square takes 80 feet of wall, and gives
400 square feet of room, or over six times more room in propor
tion to its wall, or six rooms in one ; and if 13 feet high, gives
5,200 cubic feet of breathing-timber, or almost twelve to one.
Now, what will be the additional cost of this large room over the
small one. It costs no more for doors artd windows, for one of
each will serve the large just as well as the small one ; and only
two and a half times more studding, lathing, base-boards, and plas
tering, and not two and a half times as much labor ; for it takes
no more time to lay out, or mark off, the large than the small

60 DEFECTS IN SHAPES OF HOUSES.
room, or to strike 20 feet lines than 7 or 9, no more trouble to
erect the scaffoldings for placing them, or for lathing or plaster
ing, and not much more time, when once at it, to stud, or lath, or
plaster. Of course you have six times as much floor and ceiling,
yet it takes much less labor in proportion, and wastes much less
stuff to lay a large floor than a small one.
As to the height, pray how much more does it cost to make a
high than low room ? Studding comes never less than 12 and
usually 13 feet. Hence, if your walls are only 7 or 8 feet high,
you must cut off 5 or 6 feet of each stud, to be wasted, as to
splice costs more than new. It costs no more to place a long
stud than a short one ; and hence a high room costs no more for
doors, windows, floors, studdings, or base-boards than a low one,
and only more for lath, plastering, and mortar. Then, pray, how
much for that ? A room 7 by 9 is 11 yards round. Now since,
as just seen, it costs no more for studs or placing them, or for
doors, windows, floors, ceiling (by which is meant over-head ceil
ing), or base-boards, the only additional expense of a room 13
feet high over one 7, is the lath and plastering. Lath, at $1 75
per thousand, costs 2i cents per square yard, and putting on and
plastering about 5, 6, or 7 more, say outside at 10 cents in all.
Now a room 7 by 9, 13 feet high, has 22 yards more of plaster
ing on its sides than one 7 feet high, and therefore at 10 cents per
square yard, costs only $2 20 more. A room 20 feet square and
13 feet high has about 54 square yards more of lathing and plas
tering than one 7 feet, and of course costs, at 10 cents per yard,
$5 40, the interest on which for one year is only 38 cents, or
only about one mill per night, yet contains almost twelve times
as much of life's great staple, air. The studding of the large
room, at $10 00 per 1,000 feet, will cost about $8 00, and for
the small one about $3 25, difference, $4 75 ; base-boards for
large room, $1 50, small room, 65 cents, difference, 85 cents;
putting up studding, base-boards, etc., say difference $1 00; lath
ing and plastering large room, $5 40, small room, 32 cents, dif
ference, $5 08. The difference of cost in the floor is about pro
portionate to the size of room, except that one can lay a large
floor much faster and at less waste of stuff than a small one.
The large floor may possibly cosk. the most by $10 00. Tha

LARGE AND SMALL HOUSES. 61

doors and windows will be about the same, only a little larger —
the same number of pieces, only longer, for frames, casings, etc.,
and worth about the same. The difference would not probably
exceed a dollar, or two, at most. A room 20 by 20, and 13 feet
high, might possibly cost more than one 7 by 9, and 7 feet high,
from $30 00 to $35 00, which, at 7 per cent, interest, is only
about one-half of a penny per night ; yet the small one con
tains only 441 feet of air, while the large one contains 5,200 ! or
almost twelve times as much, and all for only half a penny per
night rent, or one-fourth the price of a cigar ! Now for which,
reader, prefer you to lay out your earnings, for one-fourth of a
cigarper day, and 440 feet of breathing-timber at night, or for
5,200 feet of this precious life-giving element without the cigar %
How can you spend a penny per day so as to obtain any thing
like as much real good, and even sumptuous luxury, as- for this
large sleeping-room. In your small room you are obliged either
to breathe your air over and over again for the twentieth time
every night, or sleep with the wind blowing directly on you.
And if two occupy the same bed, how doubly bad in the small,
and good in the large one. Contrast your feelings in the morn
ing. Waking up in the small room, you feel dull, stupid, gloomy,
oppressed, yawny, lax, and all unstrung in body and mind, be
cause almost stifled for want of breath ; in the large one, fresh,
lively, strong, bright, happy, and healthy. And how much more
can you enjoy and accomplish during the day ! Especially during
a lifetime ! In the spent air of your small room you discharge
the poisonous carbonic acid gas, generated by the life process,
but slowly, or, rather, re-inhale, about as fast as you discharge it,
and this will soon leave your system loaded down with disease,
and cause a fit of sickness, which will cost more for doctor's bills
and loss of time than several such rooms. If poor, this is the
very reason why you should sleep in large rooms, lest you get
sick, especially since it need cost only half a penny per night.
The poorer you are, the better you can afford to pay this large-
room life and health insurance of some two dollars per year.
The same general principles apply to large and small sitting-
rooms, and particularly to warming them. A small room heats
up quickly and cools off rapidly, and this perpetual change of

62 DEFECTS IN SHAPES OF HOUSES.

temperature is as detrimental as uncomfortable. Who has not
noticed, on first entering a small room, containing several persons,
how terribly repulsive and suffocating its atmosphere, rendered so
by so many breaths in so small a room. To retain a comfbrt-
able,.even temperature in a small room is not possible. To occupy
them is wicked, because destructive of health and life, and there
fore suicidal. And how much more so in sickness?
Another advantage of a large over a small house is, that out
side wall costs far more in proportion than inside, and still an
other, that having less surface, it receives and evacuates less heat
and receives less cold. Thus, as a house 15 by 25 has only about
four square feet per one of surface, whereas one 40 feet square has
10. Of course the former in a very hot day becomes twice and a
half times as hot, and in very cold weather evacuates fire-heat,
and receives out-of-door cold, twice and a half times faster than
the large one. In a large house the sun shines on only a small
part of any one room at a time, the other walls of the room being
screened from the sun's rays by adjoining rooms. A like prin
ciple applies to cold, and to one and five-story houses.
29. number of rooms desirable.
The poor man, who is obliged to cut his garment according to
his cloth, must often content himself with small rooms and few
of them, but those who have the means of building a mansion to
their liking, will do well to inquire whether money may not be
well spent in making a much larger number of rooms than is now
considered desirable. Most men, even of wealth, who lavish
thousands on ornament, and would spend other thousands if they
saw any place for profitable investment, nevertheless content
themselves with kitchen, parlors, and bed-rooms. Yet are there
no other family ends almost equally requisite ? Thus, sewing is
an important family end. Would it not be well to fit up one
room expressly for this class of work, containing all necessary
fixtures, wilh closets for dry-goods, etc. This would save the
litter and clutter of this work in other rooms, and materially facil
itate its accomplishment.
Especially is it important that every child, and, indeed, perma-

NUMBER OF ROOMS DESIRABLE. 63

nent members of every family, should have a separate room,
exclusively to himself or herself. Where two or three children
occupy the same room, neither feel their personal responsibility
to keep it in order, and hence grow up habituated to slatternly
disorder, whereas, if each had a room " all alone to themselves,"
they would be emulous to keep it in perfect order, would feel
personally responsible for its appearance, would feel ashamed of
its disarrangement, would often find themselves alone for writing
or meditation, but especially will feel a perfect satisfaction of the
home element;3 whereas, otherwise, this powerful faculty is of
necessity left in a craving, home-sick state, and this throws the
entire mind also into this same home-sick, dissatisfied, cross-grain
ed state, which irritates temper and ruffles amiableness. Prob
ably few readers, never having experienced the luxury, while
young, of this *' own room" feeling, are at all prepared to duly
estimate this point ; nor would the writer, but for some obser
vations which would probably have escaped those not habituated
to the analysis of character — such as tracing discontent to its real
cause. Think a moment. Suppose you, an adult, to occupy a
house in common with another, with no part of it exclusively your
own. How infinitely rather occupy inferior rooms all your own.
Now this " own" feeling appertains as much to children and their
home as to adults, though less in degree. This indispensable
human need this plan supplies.
Again, children, especially from twelve to twenty, lose much
time for study, writing, musing, and self-improvement, because
obliged to be with others, or, at least, liable to interruptions, and
hence yield their entire time to mental dissipation. And how
much better every body can study, think, do business, any thing,
in their own place, than in a place not theirs. Reader, please
measure the value of this principle. Especially, try it by giving
a child his own room, and then taking it away.
Satisfying this home-feeling will also contribute immeasurably
to their love of the old homestead. Without it,. it is only their
father's home, not theirs. Then how can they become personally
interested in, or attached to, it 1 But, by giving them their own
apartment, they themselves become personally identified with it,
and hence love to adorn and perfect all parts.

64 DEFECTS IN SHAPES OF HOUSES.
To daughters this is doubly important, as teaching them how to
keep house. Besides being taught practically to have a place for
their own things, and to keep things in their place, having their
own bureau and closets arranged after their own fashion, which
no one dares to molest, they are taught practically how to receive
and entertain company. Visitors in the parlor are not their
company, so that to treat them becomingly is not their special
duty. Otherwise, when their visitors cross their threshold, they
then put on the lady and take the lead, and become clothed with
the dignities of mistress of ceremonies. And how much more
gracefully, lady-like, and queenly do they conduct them at home
than in mother's parlor !
Perhaps this company will stay to tea. Here is now a most
inspiring incentive to her to cultivate the housekeeping arts and
' accomplishments. Perhaps father and mother will be invited out
to tea up into her room to taste her cakes and dainties, and this
stimulates housekeeping ambition to its highest pitch. In ways
innumerable like these will this " own room" plan promote the
development of children.
Sleeping by themselves is also a first-rate plan, both for health,
and to prevent their imbibing any thing wrong from other chil
dren ; nor are their slumbers disturbed by a restless bed-fellow.
Nor do they keep each other awake nights, or in bed mornings,
by talking. In fact, many most desirable ends does this plan
subserve — at least enough to require its adoption by every parent
who can afford it.
A greater number of spare rooms for company than is gener
ally found, is desirable. Hospitality is a heavenly virtue. It pro
motes interchange of thoughts, a pleasurable flow of feeling, and
thousands of like ends ; and though often made, by false approba-
tiveness, somewhat more costly than necessary, yet it in reality
need cost little. To make a great parade and show does indeed
cost, yet this is not hospitality, is not even polite, for this show
makes the visitor feel that he is putting his host to extra trouble,
and this mars the visit; whereas mere ordinary fare, only one
extra plate, makes all parties free to enjoy the visit, without ren
dering it so soon tiresome. I never want to stay where they
make a fuss for me. Make me " our folks," or I'm off.

NUMBER OF ROOMS DESIRABLE. 65
Another end secured by a goodly number of rooms, is order.
With few places to put things, one thing must be displaced to
make room for another, and this for still another, which renders
order absolutely impossible. But all, even the poor, have more
things than places to put them, which necessarily produces dis
order. Merchants find the classification of their goods indispensable,
or separate rooms for different classes of things. And why not
this principle equally requisite in a complete house ? Different
cellars for specific articles, specific rooms for fruits, and so through
out each important end its owner may. seek to obtain. But with
this statement of the thought, we leave each reader to apply the
details as required by his own individual tastes and wants. My
own house has sixty rooms, but not one too many.
To large houses women often object that it takes such a world
of toil to keep a large house well. I say the reverse. It takes
twice the work to keep a small house well as is required for a
large one. A small house and few rooms must be all clutter,
confusion, and helter-skelter ; but in a large house things once
located can remain. A room not used requires no cleaning,
except an occasional cobweb brushed down ; nor much of that,
for flies, and of course spiders, are scarce in dark, untenanted
rooms. And often the use of a room for a single week in a
year will well repay the annual interest on its cost.
Most desirable, in every really good house, is a play-room for
children, a gymnastic room for females, and a dancing-room.
Physiology urges the importance of private dancing parties,
especially for sedentary fashionables and confined operatives.
How many a debilitated constitution would they resuscitate !
How many hopeless invalids, now dying by inches, would such
rooms in our buildings restore to life, health, and happiness !
How many a child save from a premature grave ! Mankind are
dying off like diseased sheep, in consequence of pure ennui. They
want action. How extravagantly fond of play are all children '
Why ? Because their growth demands, with resistless imperious
ness, muscular exercise and free inspiration. But no ; if in a
village or city, they must not go abroad for fear of accidents and
bad associates, nor make any noise within doors, because it dis-

66 DEFECTS IN SHAPES OF HOUSES.

turbs ma's, or aunt's, or granny's tea-intoxicated nerves, lashed up
almost to the point of derangement by the want of just such an
exercise-room. No one thing would confer as great a blessing
onsedentary men, women, and children, physically, intellectually,
or morally, by developing their physical, and thereby their mental
faculties, as an exercise and amusement room. Here they might
use their lungs and race about without restraint.
30. LARGE AND SMALL BARNS AND OUT-HOUSES.
A single application of this law to barns and out-buildings.
One farmer builds a large 60 feet barn, putting corn-crib, wagon-
house, grainery, and all out-buildings under one roof. Another
builds a barn 20 by 30, a wagoniouse 10 by 15, acorn-crib 5 by
15, a grainery and store-rooms 10 by 15, etc. The former builds
240 feet of wall, and gets 3,600 feet of room, or 15 for 1 ; while
the latter builds 240 feet of wall, yet has only 975 feet of room,
or only 4 to 1. That is, the wall money of the former goes
almost four times further than that of the latter. The relative
amount of roofing is the same ; yet in making the two there is
this vast difference : the former has one set of plates, rafters, etc.,
while the latter has a set for each building. The latter uses short
stuff, and thus cuts lumber to great disadvantage, and has to get
ready to build four times to the former one, and this getting ready
is half the battle. About the same amount of flooring is required
for both, but observe, the large barn has longer timbers, yet not
half as many. And then how much more handy to do his work.
For instance, the former drives his carriage to that part of his
barn appropriated to the carriage, unharnesses, and leads his
horses directly into the stall, while the latter has to take his out
of doors, opening and shutting doors, perhaps getting wet or
muddy, etc. How vastly more handy to have all this work done
together under one roof, than to have to go from one to another,
and from that to a third, and then back to the first, and so on from
day to day and year to year ! If objected that one fire will burn
out the former completely, the latter only in part, then be
careful. Yet if near together, the difference is trifling.
A like advantage is gained by building one house large enough

LONG AND NARROW HOUSES. 67
to contain wood-house, wash-room, and other like offices, now
usually carried on in separate out-buildings. But by this time
the reader must perceive the great principle involved, and can
apply it for himself; and in determining how large you will build,
remember that you are building for life, and can therefore afford
to make other things bend to this.

31. LONG AND NARROW HOUSES,
Besides being out of all proportion, are very inconvenient,
obliging you to perform quite a journey in going from one extreme
to another. Compactness of room is most desirable, because it
facilitates the grouping of rooms around or contiguous to one
another, thereby rendering the passage fi-om room to room both
short and easy, which, in a long and narrow house, is absolutely
impossible. It also takes more wall to inclose the same number of square
feet in a long and narrow than square or round shape.23 To illus
trate by diagrams.
Suppose Fig. 2 is four inches long by a quarter of an inch wide,
it will contain one square inch. Fig. 2.

THE LONG AND NARBOW FORM.

Fig. 3 is two inches long by half an inch wide, and contains
one square inch. Fig. 8.

IHE LONG AND NABEOW FOEM.
Fig. 4 is one inch square, and contains one square inch.

68

DEFECTS IN SHAPES OF HOUSES.

Fig. 4

THE SQUARE FORM.
Fig. 5.

THE OIEOUXAE FOEM.

Now let Fig. 2 represent a box four feet long and a quarter of a
foot wide : it contains only one square foot ; yet its outside wallis
eight and a half feet. Let Fig. 3 represent one two feet long and
half a foot wide; it also contains one square foot, yet it is only
five feet in circumference ; while a box one foot square contains
just as much room, yet is only four feet round — less by one half
than Fig. 2, yet of the same capacity.
Surprised at this result, you, perhaps, inquire how is this pos
sible 1 Observe : A house 100 feet long and 1 foot wide con
tains only 100 square feet, but takes 202 feet of outside wall, or
just 2 feet of outside wall to 1 foot of inside room. If two feet
wide, it would be only two feet farther round, yet contain double
the roousr, or about one foot of room to each foot of wall. If 5
feet wide, it is 210 feet round, yet contains 500 square feet, or

LONG AND NARROW HOUSES. 69
some two and a half feet of room to one of wall, whereas the
first was less than half a foot — an increase of five hundred per cent.
Carry up the supposition to 100 feet wide — it gives 10,000 square
feet to 400 feet of wall, or over 22 feet of room to one of wall,
instead of half a foot, as in the one foot wide house, which is
forty-five times more room in proportion to wall. Please
ponder over and re-read this point till you have mastered it, und
till you both see that it is so, and why ?
This same law, which governs all measurements, renders the
circumference of the circle, in proportion to its capacity, less than
that of any other figure ; and, of course,, the nearer any figure
approaches to the spherical, the greater will be its capacity, com-
parecfwith its surface.28
Since, then, the circle gains even on the square, of course a
square house holds more, for its wall, than a long and narrow
one, and a round one than a square one. Consequently, long and
narrow houses cost more for wall, foundations, etc., than square
ones, compared with their room.
To inclose a house 100 by 10, you have to build 220 feet of
wall, yet have only 1,000 square feet. One 30 by 80 takes the
same 220 feet of wall, yet gives 2,400 square feet, or almost twice
and a half &s much room for the same wall. Put this wall into a
square form, we have a house 55 feet square and 3,328 square
feet, yet only the same 220 feet of wall. That is, the latter con
tains as much room as both the former, lacking only 72 square feet,
yet has not one inch more wall.
This result, stated in a former edition, was stoutly denied by
a neighboring mechanic, because he could not see how it should
be. I inquired, " Erect a building 50 by 10, how many feet of wall
does it take V He replied, " 120." " Now, how many square
feet does it contain'?" "Ten into fifty, or 500," he answered.
" And how many feet of wall does it require to inclose one 30
feet square?" "Four times 30 are 120, the same as the other,"
he rejoined. " And how many square feet does it contain ?"
" Thirty times thirty of course, or 900." " Lacking only 100
square feet of being double," I replied. " Then build both walls
close together — you have 100 feet of wall, and no space Inclosed."
" I see it is so, but can't see why" said he.

70 DEFECTS IN SHAPES OF HOUSES.

The reader is requested to master fully, and to remember, the
principle here demonstrated,28 as we shall have frequent occasion
to refer to it hereafter. Indeed, the knowledge of this law led to
those architectural studies and improvements which this work was
written to expound,
32. THE WINGED STYLE IS DOUBLY OBJECTIONABLE,
Because it involves the loss just shown to appertain to long
and narrow houses,31 in addition to that of four long strips in each
corner. Suppose the walls, a, had been made at b, and c at d,
Fig. 6, they would not have .been an inch longer, but would have
inclosed all the space marked " Lost" in Fig. 6, and thus of -each
of the other three corners.
This is a ground plan of a winged house, drawn on a scale of
sixteen feet to the inch, and represents the upright, 32 by 28, and
the wings, 24 by 24 each. The arrangement of the ground rooms
are usually much as here represented : P for parlor, 24 by 16 ; E,
entry, 10 by 32 ; S, sitting-room ; B, B, bed-rooms ; K, kitchen ;
c, closets, etc. It is, therefore, 24+24+28 = 76 feet long* its
circumference, 28><2+32x2=120 feet for the upright and
gable ends ofthe wings, and 24 x 4 for the rest =96 + 120 =216,
the total circumference of the outside wall. Yet it contains only
2,048 square feet on the first floor ; whereas, a square house of the
same circumference =216-^-4 = 54 x 54=2,916, or a clear gain
of one-third just by the mere form of the square house over the
winged one. That is, if the square one costs $4,000, the winged
one, though not a foot larger on the ground, would cost $6,000 —
an item worth saving — besides the additional expensiveness of
building three small houses, as in the winged style, instead of
one, as in the square.
Another loss accrues in the height of these wings, which are
generally only one story high, while the upright is usually two
* For the sake of simplifying and abreviating, mathematical signs, as
generally used, will be employed in our calculations, namely : + as a sign
for addition, — the sign for subtraction, — that for division, and x that
for multiplication, while = signifies equal to. Our sum, then, reads thus :
24 added tc 24 and 28 equals 76 feet.

THE WINGED STYLE OBJECTIONABLE.

Fig 6.

P

B

B

E
S
c
B
B
K
c
THE WINGED STYLE.
d
stories. Not to reckon the attics in either house, because they
are comparatively unused, observe that all this expense of founda
tions and roofs of these wings is incurred for a single story.*1
Now, the additional expense of carrying them up another story
would scarcely exceed, if it equaled, the extra cost of making
72

DEFECTS IN SHAPES OF HOUSES.

*hree frames, three sets of rafters, plates, eave-troughs, etc., for
the winged house, in place of one in the square ; and yet you
have one story on each wing more room. Or thus : the winged
aouse contains 24X24X2+32X28X2=2,944 square feet;
while the square house contains 54 x 54 x 2 = 5,832 square feet.
Reduce these by fractions, thus :
5,832 _729 =91^_ = I8^Q=?
2^44^8~368 ! 8~46 " 5"~ 9 ' 9 1
That is, the square house contains just twice as much as the
winged one — another loss by the winged structure, of no small
moment, in addition to all the others.
If you should carry this square house up three stories, it would
contain 8,748 square feet to the winged one's 2,944 ; or,
8,748 _ 1,0931 _ _136j_ =?J_ _,_-$.
2^44^8~"36r : 8~ 46 5 9'9_l'
or over three times as much rooin in the square house of three
stories, as in the winged one two stories in the upright and one
story wings. Yet the square one would cost the least. Just
the frame of the winged one would cost considerable more than
that of the three-story square one.
Another great loss consists in making so many extra angles.
Instead of four, as in the square house, you have twelve, and every
board, lath, and timber employed in making it, not only has to be
cut, to the shameful waste of stuff; but also of mechanics' time to
unite every angle, and fit every joint. Corners are very expen
sive, yet the room they inclose is almost useless — a third loss by
the winged style. See Fig. 11, and explanation.
Another proportionate loss is sustained by the entries, which,
in houses of this kind, should be at least ten feet wide. Thus the
room lost in the winged house is 10 * 32 = 320, and double this,
or 640, in the two stories ; whereas that in the double house is
54X10 = 540X2=1,080. Subtract the 640 square feet entry
of the winged house from its 2,944 square feet, leaves only 2,304
square feet within the rooms ; whereas subtract the 1,080 square
feet entry of the square house from its 5,832 square feet, we have
4,752 square feet within the rooms, which reduce :

THE WINGED STYLE OBJECTIONABLE. 73
4,752 . _?96_l_ _?5^ ft_?.
2,304 ' 12-192 12_16 ' 16_i'
which is more than double the number of square feet within the
rooms of the square house than within those of the winged one !*
To present these gains and losses in a tabular form, the circum
ference of each being 216 feet : Winged house. Square liouse.
No. square feet in first floor  2,048 .... 2,916
No. square feet in second floor, . . . 896 .... 2,916
Total in both floors  2,944 . . . . 5,832
Subtract the 2,944 square feet in the winged house from the
5,832 square feet in the square house, and there is lacking only
88 square feet of being double in the square house over and above
the winged one. Or, if the square house be three stories, it will
contain three times as much as the winged one, lacking only 84
square feet. Better sink two-thirds of your building money in
the sea, and build a three-story square house with the balance,
than to build a winged house with the whole. So much for this
fancy style.
And then, how it looks ! Wings on houses are not in quite as
good taste as on birds. How would a little apple or peach look
stuck on each side of a large one? Yet winged houses are just
as disjointed and out of taste. Such a house — three times as long
as wide ; so low and yet so long ; great outside and little inside ;
the parlor less than a mile from the kitchen, and separated from
all the rest of the house by a wide, cold, cheerless entry ; the
heat radiating from every room out of doors, instead of into
adjoining rooms, as in a square house ; every room in the house,
except the second story of the upright, absorbing dampness from
the three foundations, and all but the lower story of the upright
heated in summer to suffocation by the scorching sun on the roofs ;
the freezing winds of winter pouring in direct from without through
so much outside surface, instead of the different rooms sheltering
each other's sides ;M the light shining from several points of com-
* In this, as in many like reductions of fractions and other calculations,
the remaining fractions are dropped, because too insignificant to effect the
general result. 4

74 DEFECTS IN SHAPES OF HOUSES.
pass, whereas it should shine into each room from but one direc
tion, because a cross light is so bad for the eyes ; one-third of both
stories of the whole upright, or 600 of the 2,900 feet, or one-fifth
of the whole house, consumed by an entry which is a perfect
nuisance in winter, and almost useless in summer ; and every
thing about it so perfectly extravagant and inconvenient — let
purse-proud, empty-headed nabobs throw away themselves, their
comfort, and their money on winged houses, but give me some
other form. Surely none will build winged houses but those
who, from sheer thoughtlessness or inability, fail to perceive their
disadvantages. " This difference can not be possible," many will exclaim ; but,
if such doubt my figuring, they will find their own to agree sub
stantially with these results, for arithmetic can not lie.
The principle here involved is also still further demonstrated
by a calculation of the number of cubic feet contained in the two
houses. Suppose each story of each house to be 10 feet high.
The square house contains 54 x 54 x 10 cubic feet in each story,
equaling 29,160 x 2=58,320 in both, or, deducting 10,800 for the
entries, 47,520 within the rooms ; while the winged house has
only 29,440 cubic feet in both stories, less 6,400 in the entries
= 23,040. Now the difference in a lifetime between living in a
house which contains 47,000 cubic feet of breathing-timber, com
pared with one which contains only 23,000, or less than one-half
as much, is no trifle. Give me air, and since we all spend one
half of our lives within doors, a roomy house is a very great de
sideratum. But the square house can be carried up three stories cheaper
than the winged one can be built only two in the center, and the
wings one, and will then contain 87,480 minus 16,200 — a differ-
.71,000 5 , . , . L
ence ot nnn~ & or TWICB AND 0NK half more cubic feet in the
three-storied square house than in the winged, which rarely is, and
can not well be, carried up higher than just estimated, whereas
the square of that size looks better three stories than less. All
this, besides the greater heat in summer in the winged house,
while the square one has a middle story neither damp nor hot,
Dut admirable for sleeping-rooms. And in this winged house you

THE COTTAGE OR DORIC STYLE. 75

have no wood-house, nor any place for any, without its darkening
some of your rooms and enhancing its unsightliness. Not so-
with a square one.
Some will censure me for dwelling thus. I do so partly to show
what foolish antics moneyed simpletons will play, for no other
earthly reason than to be fashionable, but mainly to demonstrate
some mathematical laws — as enduring as Nature — to be applied
hereafter, as well as that the reader may fully comprehend the
basis of these calculations, which will render him certain that
they are correct. «

33. the cottage or Doric style.
" Ah, this is the plan for a most beautiful and most, perfect
house. How cunning, how pretty, it does look !" is the general
talk. Being all the rage, it must indeed be " a good many touches
above common." Let us see.
Every room joins foundation or roof. This is a decided objec
tion, as already seen.21 And why this extra steepness of roof?
Its admirers must certainly love to lay and swelter in an attic
room August nights better than I do, or else they would not take
so much pains to make so much more roof than is necessary, and
this so steep as to catch the full power of the sun. And then,
see how much more expensive such roofs are. for the room shelter
ed, consequent on their steepness, which greatly increases their
cost, at the same time that it actually injures, the house.
And then, why so many roofs, and corners in these roofs, which
are doubly expensive, and far poorer, in every respect, than if in
two whole sheets ? The raftering, boarding, shingling, uniting the
eight sheets pf roof at their catercornered junctions, so as to pre
vent their leaking, the room thrown away in the peaks, and the
Unified fixings around the roofs, put on for ornament, yet violating
every principle of correct taste, all condemn this style.
And here let me develop the law which governs this whole sub
ject of taste and beauty. Nature furnishes our only patterns of true
ornament. All she makes is beautiful, but, mark, she never puts
on any thing exclusively for ornament as such. Shaj|ppends only
what is us^iu,, and even absolutely necessary, yet so appends it

.-76 DEFECTS IN SHAPES OF HOUSES.
as that all necessary appendages add to beauty. Take mouth,
nose*, ears, hand's, feet, etc., as examples, or the various parts of
flowers, etc. Every thing in Nature is the perfection of beauty,
yet is any single useless ornament found throughout all her
works ? Suppose the body lumbered up with a parcel of useless
appendages, however beautiful they might be where they were
useful, yet should we be any more handsome ? Should not we
be deformed thereby ? How would a gold ring, however exquis
itely carved, look in the nose or lips? How ugly would those
dangling ear-rings look, if custom did not reconcile us to their use.
Other fashionable toilet appendages might be cited as still more
ridiculous, simply because put on for ornament, where they are
worse than useless. But the law of things, that whatever append
age, however beautiful where it is useful, therefore deforms,
instead of adorns, where it is useless, is too plain to require addi
tional illustration, and its application to these Unified carvings and
cornicings of the cottage style, too palpable to excite any thing
but disgust in those of correct tastes. For a child whose tastes
are yet immature to be tickled by them, would not be surprising,
but for the elite to be enamored with them only shows how
green they are, at least in/architecture.
For the same reason that the form of a winged house is objec
tionable, is the cottage snape proportionally so ; for it consists in
reality of an upright and two wings, excepting that there are four
sets of rafters, etc., with roofs bunglingly joined, instead of
three, as in the wipged, and one in the square house. The ac
companying diagram will best illustrate this point. (See Fig. 7,
p. 77.)
The entry, E, must of course be in the middle of the upright
part,, and this leaves four little rooms scarcely better than none —
A, B, C, and D — and the balance of the rooms miserably par
titioned. Suppose the house were built out square with the up
rights, namely, with those dotted lines in the figure, besides the
net gain of the four figures, a, b, c, d, the other four, A, B, C, D,
joined with them, would make so much larger rooms of A a, B b,
C c, D d, without building an inch more of outside wall, and with
a saving of &k those corners, so wasteful of stuff, and so hinder-

some to the carpenter

i«|i

THE COTTAGE OF DORIC STYLE.

¦7T.

Fig. T.

1

B

I

1 1

„  .  ,
_— ^_^_
THE 00TTAGB 6TTUE.
The same calculations which showed the loss consequent on the
winged structure, will apply both to the cottage and the cross
structure. Both are combinations of folly and extravagance, and
destructive alike of beauty and utility.
Another phase of this principle will still more forcibly illustrate
the superiority of the square form over the winged and cottage
styles. An enterprising neighbor consulted me about building an
addition to his barn. The old one was some 15 by 30, marked
A, in the accompanying figure (Fig. 8), and he proposed to build
two more of the same size on each corner, marked E and F, and
asked what I thought of this plan. I replied : " Suppose the wall
o had been built at b, c at d, e atf, g at h, and i a\j, you would
have had all these spaces, B, C, and D, added to your inclosed
78

DEFECTS IN SHAPES OF HOUSES.

Fig. 8.

d
h
»
B
a
A
e
C
A
c
I
9
E
I
D J
k
F
AN AmnrAED BARN.
room, without adding one inch to your foundations or walls, and
with an actual saving of the walls I and k. By your proposed plan
you have only 1,350 feet of room, but by mine 2,700, oi exactly
twice as much room, yet 60 feet, or almost one-fourth less of
wall and foundation, which will almost make up the extra cost of
roof. Double the room and one-fourth less wall makes a differ.
ence of some sixty-two per cent, more of room in proportion fo
wall by my plan than yours." " I declare," he exclaimed, "I do
wish I had seen you before." " Besides,'' I added, " you can not
get from one barn to another without going out of doors.
34. additions stuck on.
Invited to deliver the address before the literary societies of.
Pultney Academic Institute, Vt., I observed a house in that vil
lage, with some pretensions, to style, built as in Fig. 9. H, house
proper ; K, kitchen ; W, wood-house. Now, pray, how much more
wall foundation would it have taken to have built his walls where
the dotted lines are 1 Not an inch, and yet he would have in
closed those two large spaces, 1 1, now lost. This same length
of wall could have been made to inclose more than double the
UNSIGHTLY ADDITIONS.

79

Fig. 9.

1

W

K

I

H

AN EXTRAVAGANT HOUSE.

room it now does, without costing one cent more, except for floor
and roof. And yet, observe in traveling, almost every house
commits a like error, or, rather, extravagance ; for it is a thought-

Fig. 10.
W
u
K
L
i
•
 i
UNSIGHTLY ADDITIONS.
U, upright; K, kitchen ; W, wash-room and wood-house ; L, lost
less but wicked waste of building money. Nearly all have an
upright, a kitehen part, in the form of a T or h,m and then some
80 DEFECTS IN SHAPES OF HOUSES.
outbuildings, as wash or wood-house, built upon the back of all
these. Look at such houses with a critic's eye. Do they not strike
you as out of all proportion, besides the loss of all the room em
braced in the dotted lines. Observe the double loss, first these
buildings being long and narrow, whereas a square one would
have inclosed much more,85 and secondly, that marked by dotted
lines. Another loss, not yet estimated, but consequent on the winged,
cottage, and cross structure, is in their corners. Reference is
now had, not to the loss of time and materials consequent on
constructing a wall of a given length all full of corners, compared
with making a strait one of the same length — that is, the saving
occasioned by building a square house with only four right-angles,
compared with the loss of materials and labor consequent on
making twelve corners, as iu the cottage, cross, and winged
styles. — itself a very great loss — and all without gaining any thing
but a loss ; but I refer to the loss inside the rooms — not to the
loss of time and material of making twelve inside as well as out
side corners, but to the room lost in the corners themselves. The
corners of rooms are of little use any way, because dark, far from
the fire, disparaging to furniture, and rarely occupied. This is
true of all corners, and of course the loss is three times as great
in the cottage, cross, and winged styles as in the square one, be
cause they contain four times as many corners, and these nearer
together. And this loss appertains to both stories. Let the
following diagram (Fig. 11) illustrate the principle here in
volved. A house with these corners left out, as in those dotted lices,
would contain just about as much available or useful room as
with them. Now suppose, instead of losing four corners in each
story, you lose twelve, this loss amounts to considerable, in ad
dition to all those other losses already pointed out. Away, then,
with all three of these fancy styles. Those who fancy or adopt
them must be either weak or thoughtless — weak if they can not
perceive their inferiority in every respect, and thoughtless if they
can, but do not.
To sum up these results. Low houses are far more expensive,
less comfortable, and every way inferior to high ones. Large

UNSIGHTLY ADDITIONS.

81

Fig. 11.

/

\

-t
s
s
/

\ \

\

,/
/

\ \

/

LOSS OCCASIONED BY CORNERS.

houses are much cheaper, relatively, than small ones. The wing
ed, cottage, and all irregular forms of houses cost far more than
the square, yet are far inferior to it, besides making far less show
in proportion to cost. 4*

SECTION IV.
SUPERIORITY OF THE OCTAGON FORM.
35. IT contains one-fifth more room for its wall,
But is the square form the best of all ? Is the right-angle the
best angle ? Can not some radical improvement be made, both
in the outside form and the internal arrangement of our houses ?
Nature's forms are mostly spherical. She makes ten thousand
curvilineal to one square figure. Then why not apply her forms
to houses ? Fruits, eggs, tubers, nuts, grains, seeds, trees, etc.,
are made spherical, in order to inclose the most material in the
least compass. Since, as already shown, a circle incloses more
space for its surface, than any other form,25 of course the nearer
spherical our houses, the more inside room for the outside wall,
besides being more comfortable. See figures 2, 3, 4, 5. Of
course the octagon,' by approximating to the circle, incloses more
space for its wall than the square, besides being more compact
and available. Why not employ some other mathematical figures
as well as the square ? These reasonings developed the architec
tural principle claimed as a real improvement, and to expound
which this work was written. Hitherto men have employed the
right-angle, because it costs so much to frame other angles ; yet
our gravel-wall plan obviates this difficulty, it being as easy to
corner at an octagon as rectangle. And since the principle here
involved is the grand basis of that architectural superstructure
attempted to be reared in this volume, the author may do well to
elucidate it fully, and the reader to comprehend it perfectly. To
compare the square with- the octagon, see Figs. 12, 13.
Fig. 12 is four inches square. Let it represent a house thirty-

IT ENCLOSES MORE ROOM FOR ITS WALL 83
two feet square, one inch representing eight feet. It is 128 feet
in circumference, and incloses 1,024 square feet.
Fig. 12.

THE SQUARE FORM.
Fig. 13 is an octagon, with sixteen-feet sides, on the same
scale, and having of course the same circumference, namely, 128
feet. But it contains 1,218 square feet, as seen by the following
demonstration : Square feet.
A, D, E, H, is 16 by 39, and contains  624
B, C, K, N, is 11 by 16, and contains  176
I, G, M, L, is also 11 by 16, and contains  176
The four half-squares, A N B, C D K, E I L, and G H M,
make two squares, each 11 feet  ¦ 242
Total number of square feet in the octagon . . . 1,218

84

SUPERIORITY OF THE OCTAGON FORM.

Fig. 13.

THE OCTAGON POEM.

But the square of the same circumference contains only 1,024
square feet. So that the octagon exceeds the square by 194
square feet — a gain of one-fifth.
To show this difference by reducing their respective numbers
of square feet to fractions. Dropping eighteen square feet from
the octagon, and twenty-four from the square, the sum stands :
12 6
— ¦+¦ 2 = - = one-fifth gain
iu o
in favor of the octagon. That is, an octagon of a given circum
ference contains more than a square of the same circumference by
100 square feet in every 500 square feet. Now, since a given
length of octagon wall will inclose one-fifth more space than the
same length of wall in a square shape, of course you can have the

IT ENCLOSES MORE ROOM FOR ITS WALL. 85
same sized wall for one-fifth less money, or the wall of a house
one-fifth larger for the same sum ; for this gain is just as great in
the foundation, siding, plastering, painting, whitewashing, etc., as
in the wall proper. It appertains alike to materials, labor, and
every thing about the wall. The doors and windows might be
considered an exception, yet they are not. Given sized windows
will light a room more than those a fifth larger in the octagon
than in the square — first, because the latter has deep, dark cor
ners, which will be dark in a cloudy day however large your win-
• dows, which is not the case with the octagon ; and also because
the octagon form makes the same gain in the depth of the rooms
that it does in the length of the walls, that is, the room is more
compact. To put together two important results at which we have thus
arrived. We have seen that a square house of a given circum
ference contains more than an oblong one of the same circumfer
ence, and an octagon more than a square. Let us compare them.
Take a house 24 feet front by 40 deep. Its circumference is, of
course, 128 feet, the same as a 16 feet octagon, and a 32 feet
square. But it contains only 960 square feet. The difference
between it and the octagon is one-third, as reducing the square
feet of both to fractions will show. Thus :
1218 ^8 =15?- 8 =— -^5=i-f-8 = — h-1 = \

960 120 ' 15 ' 3 ' 1 3'
equal to one-third more room in the octagon than in the 24-by-
40 feet house, though the circumferences of both are exactly the
same. The form of our houses, then, is not so trifling a matter after
all. The practical difference between building the outside of a
house for $3,000, or just as large and good a one for $2,000, or
in that proportion, is considerable, especially to those laborers
who earn their money by bone and muscle.
But the difference between the octagon and the winged is still
greater. Suppose the upright of a winged house to be 20 by 15
feet, and the wings 10 by 15 feet each. Its circumference will
then be one hundred and thirty — two feet more than the circum
ference of the sixteen-feet octagon. The winged house will con-

86 SUPERIORITY OF THE OCTAGON FORM.
tain only 20X15 + 15X10 + 15X10 = 600, which compare
with the octagon as follows :
1218^-8=— +6=-+2=— +6=?

600 75 ' 12 ' 6 1'
or not one half, though having more outside wall.
But suppose the upright to be two stories, while the wings are
only one, which is usually the case, while the octagon is two
stories, which it should be to look well, the winged will contain
only 900 square feet, while the octagon will contain 2,436.
Thus : 2436 . 203 _ 29 24

900 75 11 1
two and a half times more room in the octagon than in the
winged shape, though the latter is two feet more in circumference.
Now the difference between building a winged house wall' for
$2,500, or just as large an octagonal one for $1,000, is something
worth considering. Yet even all this saving, great as it is, is but
a small part of the advantages of the style of building which this
book was written to propound over others now in use, which we
shall see as we proceed.
- One other advantage of the octagonal style over the square,
and especially over the cottage and winged styles, deserves to be
reckoned in this comparison, namely, their corners. We have
already seen, in Fig. 11, that the corners of a square room are of
little account, because dark, useless for furniture, and rarely occu
pied for any purpose. In fact, an octagon, drawn within the
square, furnishes about as much available room as the square,
yet contains only eighty feet to the square's ninety-eight :
08.o_49.ln 5., li
8ir2-4(r10=4^4-7'
a loss of twenty-five per cent, in the amount of wall in the
square over and above the same amount of available room in
the octagon. But suppose, as in the winged and cottage styles,
there are twelve right angles, instead of four, the loss is in the
same proportion :
r-7-J-6=— = almost 40 per cent.
54 9

IT IS MORE BEAUTIFUL. 87
Fig. 11 also enables us to show— -what has doubtless puzzled
some readers — why this gain by the octagon over the square. It
consists in the fact that it requires more wall to inclose the cor
ners, in proportion to the number of square feet which they con
tain, than the house as a whole. Thus, those eight lines which
form the four right angles of the four half squares in the corners
ofthe square, which are omitted by the dotted lines of the octa
gon, are seven feet per side, making together fifty-six feet. Yet
they inclose only two seven-feet squares, or ninety-eight square
feet, or four feet wall to seven square feet inclosed. That is, a
foot of corner wall incloses less than two square feet, whereas the
octagon has only 80 feet wall to its 478 square feet, which is :
478^10_48..8_6
80 • 10~¥ ¦ 8~T'
or six square feet for every foot of wall ; whereas the four cor
ners omitted by the dotted lines contain only two square feet for
every foot of wall. That is, the octagon incloses six square feet
to every foot of wall, while the triangles, or corners of square
rooms, inclose only two square feet to every foot of wall — a dif
ference of three to one, which is lost in the corners of the square
over the octagon as a whole.
The gain in twelve, sixteen, and twenty-sided figures over even
the octagon, is greater, and still greater in proportion as the figure
approaches the circle. Yet so many corners cost more extra than
they save.
36. THE COMPARATIVE BEAUTY OF THE DORIC, SQUARE, AND
OCTAGON FORMS.
The beauty of a house is scarcely less important than its room.
True, a homely but convenient house is better than a beautiful
but incommodious one, yet beauty and utility, so far from being
incompatible with each other, are as closely united in art as in
nature ; that is, are inseparable. It is hardly possible to have
a truly handsome house without its being capable of being made
as handy inside as it is beautiful outside; nor can a homely-
looking house well be made convenient. I repeat, beauty and
utility are as closely united in architecture as they are through

SUPERIORITY OF THE OCTAGON FORM.

out all Nature. If, therefore, the square or winged form of house
is the best, it will look best, and if it is the most beautiful, it can
be made the most comfortable.
Form imbodies an important element of beauty. Yet some
forms are constitutionally more beautiful than others. Of these
the spherical is more beautiful than the angular, and the smooth
and undulating than the rough and projecting. Why is it that a
poor anima], or a lean person, is more homely than the same
animal or person when fleshy ? Because the latter are less angu
lar and more spherical than the former. Why do we behold flat,
smooth stones with more pleasure than those which are rough
and irregular, but because there are less angles in the former
than the latter ? Why is the shape of apples, peaches, etc., more
beautiful than of chestnut burs ? This principle answers, except
ing what beauty is imparted by color. And the more acute the
angle, the less beautiful ; but the more the angle approaches the
circle, the more beautiful. Hence a square house is more beau
tiful than a triangular one, and an octagon or duodecagon than
either. Of course, then, the far greater number of right angles in
the winged and cross styles than in the octagonal, and the high
peaks of the roofs of the doric, prove them to be less handsome
than a square house, and doubly less than the octagon. For one,
I can not consider cottages or wings handsome. They always
strike me as unsightly, and well-nigh deformed. And the basis
of this sentence is an immutable law of Nature. Look at a dome,
and then at a cottage roof, full of sharp peaks, sticking out in
various directions, and say if the undulating regularity ofthe for
mer does not strike the eye far more agreeably than the sharp
projections of the latter. This is not one of those fancy matters
which allow of diversity of opinion, but is a fixed ordinance of
Nature, and passes no enviable sentence on the tastes of those who
claim to possess as great a preponderance of good taste as of
property, besides their other prerogatives. And facts sustain this
theory, as all will say who compare figures 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10,
and 13 with each other.
Since, then, the octagon form is more beautiful as well as capa
cious, and more consonant with the predominant or governing
form of Nature — the spherical — it deserves consideration.

PLAN OF AN OCTAGON BASEMENT. 89
"But," some will ask, "how happens it that our author is so
very much smarter than all the world besides? Why has not
this plan, if really so superior, been seen and put in practice long
ago, especially since men are racking their inventions in search of
building improvements ?" Because ofthe greater ease of framing
the right angle than any other ; and unless this difficulty can be
overcome, it will be cheaper, after all, to build on the square than.
on the octagonal plan. This difficulty is wholly obviated by our
gravel-wall plan, which enables us with little extra expense, and
a great increase of strength, to secure our octagon form.
But can this octagonal form be partitioned off into rooms as
advantageously as the square ? Far more so. Let us see.
37. plan of an octagon.
This plan enables us to dispense with an upper entry almost
altogether, and thus to save one-fifth of our room, and thereby
escape this great thoroughfare for winter air, as well as this sep
arator of the main rooms of a house. Entries above are of very
little use, waste about a sixth of the entire house, are right in the
way, and, in many respects, perfect nuisances.
" But must we enter directly into our best rooms ? How can
we do without them ?" I will show you. Your house requires
a thoroughfare, that is, an entry, so that you can pass through it.
But where shall this thoroughfare be ? Not through your main
story, for this will bring in the most dirt where it is most trouble
some, namely, near your nicest rooms, but through that light,
airy basement already described. You require this entry quite
as much for going to and from your cellar story with barrels,
garden sauce, wood, etc., as for the special accommodation of
your parlors. At all events this great thoroughfare should be
through the cellar story, a plan for which is seen in Fig. 14.
One great advantage of this plan is, that it allows us to have
the basement story mostly above ground, which enables us to
convert the whole of the room inclosed by the foundation to somo
good use, instead of, as by the old plan, wasting all but a twenty-
feet square hole, which is less than a third of the 1,218 square
fe<»t, inclosed by a sixteen-feet octagon. See to what an excel-

90

SUPERIORITY OF THE OCTAGON FORM.

lent use the accompanying ground-plan converts the entire octa
gon basement ! A wash-kitchen for the rough work of the family
Fig. it

THE OCTAGON BASEMENT.
is much needed in every house. This great convenience our plan
furnishes. It is also even with the ground, and, of course, handy
for wood and water, and away from your nice rooms ; it is, in
short, just where it should be.
a milk room
is another great desideratum. This should be below stairs, yet
be light and airy ; and our plan gives just the one wanted, and
just where it is most convenient, namely, near your basement
kitchen. The milk can also be taken in and out through the cel
lar entry, and thus save steps, and be wholly by itself.

PLAN OF AN OCTAGON BASEMENT. 91
A FURNACE
is by far a better plan for warming a house than separate fire
places, or grates, or stoves, for each room. It is much more
effectual, and every way more convenient, less expensive, and
easily tended. Then, the making of one fire per day serves for
the whole house, and saves time, kindlings, and much expense
and trouble, besides the great saving of fuel. For this conven
ience our plan provides, and its location is central, so that it can
easily heat any or all the upper rooms.
a wood-House
is an appendage indispensable to a comfortable house. Nor
should it be away off at the extreme end of a long row of out
buildings, but central. Now one quarter of this cellar story is
just the place for it, and saves the entire expense of wood-house
foundation, roof, timber, siding, and all, yet provides an admira
ble one, and in a central location, close to the furnace, and to
that central staircase which connects it with the whole house.
When you want wood, therefore, you are not obliged to go through
hall and kitchen, away out of doors, perhaps through snow and
rain, but go from any part of the house directly to it, as if you
were going from one room in the house to another. This room
is also large enough to hold even more than a full storage of
wood, and will furnish an admirable place for tools, etc. The
wood can be cut outside, and thrown in through the window, W.
Mark, you have this superb wood-house without any expense, for
you build it while laying the foundation of your house; whereas
the mere expense of foundation and roof for one is considerable.
A LARGE LUMBER-ROOM
is also provided for by this plan. Every house should have such
a room, to take the place of garrets, only more accessible and
convenient, for waste lumber and seasoned timber — for, perhaps,
a work-bench — a very handy affair about a house. Our plan
provides just the place required.
Two large, lighted, and easily ventilated sauce-cellars, in addi
tion to all these other conveniences, are provided for by this plan,
which are, of course, indispensable, and one of which is connected

92

SUPERIORITY OF THE OCTAGON FORM.

with the basement kitchen. But see how easy cf access all these
rooms are, and how light and pleasant, instead of damp and dark !
And the arrangement of the stairs is such as to render every room
in this basement perfectly accessible. You do not have to go
through several to get to pne, but go from the center to any one
of them, and from this center up to any required room above.
The aggregate number of square feet already shown to be con
tained in a sixteen-feet octagon, is 1,218,- or 136 square yards.
Of this, the entry, 6 or 8 by 39, occupies 234 to 312;* the sub-
kitchen contains about 184 square feet, or 20 square yards, equal
Fig. 15.

MAIN STORY OP AN OOTAGON.

* In these and subsequent as well as preceding estimates, no allowance
is made for the room occupied by wall, which being trifling, we come near
enough for all practical purposes.

PLAN OF AN OCTAGON MAIN STORY. 93
to a room 12 by 15, but can easily be made larger, and can
have two windows, by having the partition on the other side of
the window — though this would render one sauce-cellar dark
and small, yet, perhaps, all the better — while the milk-room can
be made of any size you like. Or, the milk and wood rooms
can be made to change places. There is space enough to render
these rooms sufficiently large for all practical purposes, and you
can vary their relative size and location at pleasure — no small
recommendation of this plan. How incomparably superior, in
every respect, this basement to our present pit-hole cellars, with
all the rest of the foundation-room thrown away, besides the ex
pense of wood-house, which is no trifle !
But let us ascend by these stairs — the foot of which should bo
toward the sub-kitchen — to the princ pal story of the house, and
see how we can arrange its rooms. \ fe enter into that triangle
in its center, which should have been drawn larger, large enough
to receive the cellar stairs, and also to admit of stairs by which
to ascend to the story above ; the details of which you and your
carpenter can plan to your liking.
This diagram, drawn on the same scale, gives four fine large
rooms, of the following dimensions :
A parlor, P, 18 x 19 = . . 342 sq. ft. = 38 sq. yds.
Sitting-room, 18 x 19 = . . 342 " =38 "

Back parlor, 12 x 16 =
Dining-room, 12 x20 =
Closets included in rooms.
Total net room on first floor,
" " second floor,
" " third "
Basement, 1,218 — 420 for entry and
fire-place, = .
Attic, 1,218 — 24 stairway, =
Total net room,

192 " =21
240 " = 26

1,116* •' =123
1,146 "
1,146 "
798 "
1,194 "
5,406 "

To compare this sixteen-feet octagon with a large house having
a kitchen in the rear, and a wood-house still farther back, which
is the usual style of large double houses. We sometimes see
* Add 112 for the entry and stairs = 1,228, which shows our estimates
to be correct, excepting ten square feci

94 SUPERIORITY OF THE OCTAGON FORM.
slight deviations from this partitioning off of rooms, but this is
the generic type of nearly all such houses. Their sizes vary, yet
this will not materially affect our general results.
Let this large and splendid mansion be three stories, 40 by 42,
with a rear kitchen, 18 by 26, as represented in Fig. 16.
Its total circumference is 216, exactly the same with the wing
ed house drawn in Fig. 6 (see p. 71). Its entire contents is
42x40+26X18 = 2,148 on the first floor, kitchen included.
From this deduct its entries, 10 x42+ R, e, 10 x 4= 460, and
120 for five stacks of chimneys, 3><8=23x5 = 120, and you
have only 1 ,568 square feet within the rooms.
On the first floor, of net room,  1,568
" second " "  1,568
" third " " 1,680— entry, 400, and
chimney, 120, = ....... 1,160
Cellar, 20x20=  400
4,696
Garret story  1,568
6,264
This magnificent mansion, then, exceeds the small sixteen-feet
octagon, in net available room, only 858 square feet, or one-
ninth. Or, to show this result by reducing the fractions —
62W 5j^ 52 =10
5406 450 45 9 '
equal to one-ninth difference. That is, the large mansion and
the small octagon are to each other as ten to nine. Yet the man
sion will cost more than four octagons ; nor will the former bear
any comparison with the latter in point of convenience ; of which
anon.
38. COMPARISON OF A DOUBLE MANSION HOUSE WITH A TWENTY-
SEVEN-FEET OCTAGON.
Let us next compare the net room in this massive double
house with that in an octagon of the same circumference, namely
216^-8=27 feet; the dimensions of which are given in the dia
gram on page 95, drawn on a scale of 16 feet to the inch.
This octagon is 64 feet through. Square this, 64 * 64= 4,096 ;

COMPARISON OF HOUSES.

95

Fig. 16.

LA»GE DOUBLE MANSIOH.

96 SUPERIORITY OF THE OCTAGON FORM.
from which take the four half squares at the four corners (one of
which is illustrated by dotted lines), which equal two squares 20
feet each =20 x 20 x 2=800 ; and you have 4,096—800=3,296
square feet within the octagon. From this deduct 200 square
feet for entries and stairway, and you have 3,096 net room.
Net room on the first floor,  3,096
" " second "  3,096
" third "  3,096
in the garret, 8,296-4x8 = 32= . . .3,264
" " basement, deducting entry and furnace, 2,600
Total net room in the three stories, garret, and basement, = 15,152
Reducing the net room in both houses by fractions, they stand
thus: 15152. + i2= i^U8 = 158H-2=— ^32=^

6264 522 65 32 1
That is, the octagon contains twice and almost a half as
much net room as the splendid mansion of the same outside wall,
saving that the kitchen is only two stories. True, we reckon
more of the basement of the octagon, relatively, than ofthe man
sion, because the whole of the former will be turned to an excel-
¦ lent practical account ; yet we have reckoned as much of the cel
lar story of our first houses as is generally used. Nor have we
deducted any thing on account of those useless corners between
the chimneys and walls.
Besides, see what a magnificent upper story we have in our
octagon, compared with the garrets of the mansion. But the oc
tagon exceeds the mansion no less in its size, than in
39. THE SUPERB ARRANGEMENT OF ITS ROOMS.
But the size and convenience of its rooms are a still greater
advantage. F, front; D, door; W, window; c, closet; B, bedroom ; Par.,
parlor ; Pan., pantry ; D P, dark pantry ; Sit., sitting-room, etc.
I do not say that this inside arrangement of rooms is the best that
can be devised, but I do say that it incomparably exceeds any
arrangement of rooms of which the square house admits. Besides
the charm of novelty — of differing from all kinds of rooms now

SUPERB ARRANGEMENT OF ROOMS.

97

Fig. IT.

TWENTY-SEVEN FEET OCTAGON.

in use — it will combine in amount of advantages found in no
house extant. Tp examine them more particularly :
The parlor is 19 X 27 - 1 X) sq. ft. = 513 sq. ft. = 67 sq. yds.

Library, L, 12x13 = 156 '

= 21*

tt

Bedroom, B, off library, 1,, x 13 = 169 '

= 19

ti

Sitting-room, same as parlor, 513 '

= 57

«

Bedroom, 12 X 15 = 186 '

= 21

tt

Winter* sitting-room, 18x24=432 '
jKrangular-bath-room, 72 '

' =48

tt

= 8

tt

Kitchen, K, and closets, 13 X 36 = 468 '

= 52

tt

Dining-room and closets, 19 X 86 — 100 = 584 '

= 65

tt

Pantry and dark pantry, 188 '

= 12
360

it

3,231

* Fractions of yards, and of fractions, are sometimes omitted; and some
times, if over half a yard, the whole yard is reckoned.

98 SUPERIORITY OF THE OCTAGON FORM.
Now it is submitted to any practical housekeeper whether the
arrangement of the rooms in this house is not two and a half
times better, as well as larger, than that of the splendid man
sion, 40 by 42, as regards every story, from basement to attic.
Instead of being separated, all the rooms are united, so that you
can go from one to another without being obliged to pass through
a cold and cheerless entry. And you go to and from the same
point to go up as down ; and that point is the center, which
makes the distance much shorter. Nor, from whatever part of
whichever room you may start, have you to make any angle in
going to and from this stairway ; whereas, in the square house,
you must go a long and circuitous route, as seen in those dotted
lines. Now the difference, especially to a weakly woman, between
going from room to room by a few direct steps, and by those
¦ long and crooked roads, as illustrated by those tracks or dotted
lines in the two houses, is very great — more than double — in
the square, compared with the octagon house. I submit this point
to the special consideration of every housekeeper, and leave them
to say whether they could not do twice the work with the same
ease in the octagon. To draw a specific illustration from getting
an armful of wood for your square house parlor. You mlist first
go several steps out of your way — west when your wood is east,
to get to your entry, and then traverse its whole length, then go
through your kitchen, and finally out of doors to get it, and re
trace your steps by the same long-winded and door-hedged route,
and through three doors ; whereas, in the octagon, you go direct
from every room, by a few steps, to your stairway, at the bottom
of which is your wood-house, completely inclosed. The same
difference in favor of the octagon is equally great in going from
any part of either house to any part of the other. What a vast
number of steps will the octagon save a large and stirringfamily
annually over the square ! This single feature of this plan renders
it invaluable, even though three times more costly, whereas it is
much less expensive, as w.e shall soon see. It will at least enlist
all housewives — I do not mean parlor toys — in its favor ; and
whatever saves their steps and vexations is truly invaluable.
The accommodation of a large party of friends furnishes another
illustration of the decided superiority of this plan over the square

SUPERB ARRANGEMENT OF ROOMS. 99
and doubly so over the winged or doric style. Here your sitting-
room, parlor, and a large bedroom are thrown open into one
room, and they all join the dining-room, so that your entertain
ment is handy, and that your guests may go from room to room
without going through a cold, wide entry. You can accommo
date a much larger company in the same sized house, and this
juxtaposition of rooms greatly promotes sociability, whereas the
dividing entry partially breaks the spell.
See, too, how much farther the same heat will go in the octa
gon than in the square. Its escape is by radiation through walls
and crevices, and by open doors. In the octagon, it radiates from
the sitting-room into the parlor, and the reverse, or into adjoin
ing rooms, and is therefore saved ; whereas in the square house,
it radiates from both sitting-room and parlor into the entry, and
so escapes. And if an inside door is opened in cold weather, the
wind does not rush in like a hurricane, as if an outside door was
opened, but only the confined air of an adjoining room gently
enters. All five of the inside or entry doors of the square house
are virtual outside doors, unless you have a fire in the hall, at a
great cost of fuel and trouble, and without even then doing much
good. The kitchen of the octagon deserves especial remark. The
kitchen is the stomach of the house. Shall it then be thrust away
back out of doors, into another building ? This would be like
putting the human stomach away down in the feet. In the octa
gon kitchen, the wife, when she leaves the sitting-room to attend
to kitchen duties — pleasures — instead of feeling that she is going
away off alone out of doors, feels that she is only a step removed
from the rest ofthe family. What say you, wives, to this1?
The sight of a tidy kitchen is not so very disgusting, even to
men of refined tastes. None who are not too extra nice, fastid
ious, and fashionable to eat, but like the sight of the kitchen —
excepting those double-exquisite ladies who are as cordially dis
gusted with household duties as with good sense. Sensible men
love to see the kitchen, and they even take pleasure in going into
it. In fact, the kitchen is as much the home of the house as the
house j of the farm — is the " holy of holies" of fire-side comforts.
Then put it, as m this plan, alongside of the sitting-room and

100 SUPERIORITY OF THE OCTAGON FORM.
dining-room, and in the very heart of the house, instead of out
doors, as in the square form.
It is, then, very important that it be tight and comfortable.
Yet the square-house kitchen has an outside door, an entry door,
a woodhouse door, and a back-kitchen door, which are tantamount
to four outside doors, besides two other doors and all its win
dows ; so that the wind draws through and rapidly dissipates its
heat, besides being in a separate building, having its kitchen
stairway — virtually five outside and three inside doors. Now I
like my one outside and two inside doored kitchen the best. I
say two inside doors — the stairway and sitting-room — because
that marked in our plan between the kitchen and bedroom can be
omitted, and probably should be. And then no cold could come
in from my sitting-room door, for, by supposition, that room is
warm, nor much from the stair door, because there should be a
door at the head of the basement stairs, so as to open or shut the
draft from the basement at pleasure. This may be my conceit ;
but, really, I had rather have one of my kitchens than ten of your
old-style, wind-riven, out-of-doors, stomach-in-the-foot shanties.
Moreover, see what a handy little basement kitchen — close by
well and cooking-range — this plan furnishes, which the old virtu
ally denies, all but a little back room, unless you add another L
on beyond your kitchen. And my wash-room is just where it
should be — down stairs, yet light and dry — out of parlor sight
and smell, where all the heavy and unpleasant work of the family
can be done. Or, if preferred, this basement kitchen can be made
larger, and have two windows, and a dumb waiter to carry food
and dishes up and down, and serve as the kitchen proper — one of
the other basement rooms being appropriated to a sub-kitchen —
and this up-stairs kitchen be made a dining-room and the omnium
gatherum, or common rendezvous of the whole family, and con
nected with the bedroom — probably the best arrangement, and
incomparably superior, in every possible respect, to the general
arrangement of our kitchen and adjoining rooms. I may overrate
this plan, yet will it not render a family much more comfortable
than any yet devised, besides enabling women to do their work
with double dispatch and comfort ? It also joins the sauce cellar
and well with the work kitchen — a very handy arrangement.

THE THIRD STORY OF THE OCTAGON.

101

But see what we have saved by the octagon plan. We build
our kitchen as well as woodhouse while laying our house
FOUNDATION, and thus SAVE ALL OUR KITCHEN AND WOODHOUSE
materials, labor, foundation, and roof ! or somewhere near
one-fourth the net total cost of the whole house ; not, be it ob
served, by our gravel-wall plan, but by our octagon shape. All
this in addition to all the items already shown to be saved by
the length and superiority of wall, cheapness, permanence, etc.
40. the third story of the octagon.
To return to our sixteen-feet octagon, Fig. 13. Stepping on to
our stairs, which start close by the door which connects the sit
Fig. 18.

11 X 17=61
126

THIRD STOfiY OF THE SIXTEEN-FEET OCTAGON.
ting-room with the stairway, we will go up two or three stairs,

102 SUPERIORITY OF THE OCTAGON FORM.
toward the acate angle B, in Fig. 14, and after rising two or
three steps, as our space will allow, we will turn on a broad stair,
and go up that central partition, rising high enough to clear the
cellar door, and, perhaps, turning again before reaching the top,
let us see how this suite of rooms can be divided.
We will start our stairs so as to land at B on a broad stair, and
turn to the right into a delightful room rendered octagonal by
making a closet in each corner, thus corresponding with the shape
of the house, sixteen feet square, with one window and two light
bedrooms with closets. Now this square parlor, opening into
two bedrooms, is a very rare convenience, such as our best houses
rarely furnish, and for which, at our boarding and public houses,
whoever has them must pay dear. This is a real and rare
luxury. A friend, wife, and children, or a small family of boarders,
wish to have a fcmmon parlor with an adjoining bedroom for
themselves, and another for .their children, or some near friend :
this plan gives just the thing required. In your square house
they can find no such accommodation, but only two connecting
rooms — nor are these plenty, and hence they must either have a
bed in their sitting-room, or their children must lodge across a
cold entry and out of hearing. Or the heads of the family may
wish this for their private room, they sleeping in one room, and
their children in another.
Yet for them, probably, the other side of the partition would
be best, as it is largest ; and, besides having one large and two
small bedrooms — enough room to lodge a good many — in addi
tion to a spacious parlor, see what a snug library, L, or cabinet
of shells, opens into it, lighted and triangular, so that, for its size,
it furnishes much more shelf-room than if square. Or some other
use can be made of it, as utility or fancy may dictate. At all
events, it is a " cunning little room," admirably suited and situ
ated to a variety of appropriations. It would also make a fine
bathing-room. Now is not this a delightful and most superb suite
of rooms, unequaled in any of our best houses ?
Mark, here, the appropriation of the whole of the 1,218 square
feet, except the fifty square feet occupied by your ten-feet half
square ; and in place of wasting 8 x 36 = 288 square feet in a room-

THE THIRD STORY OP THE OCTAGON. 103

separating entry, observe, also, that the access from each room
to and from the stairway, both above and below, characterizes this
plan, the great utility of which was shown in the lower story.19
The same principle of saving the heat, by its radiating into adjoin
ing rooms, instead of being carried off by a bellows entry, also
characterizes this suite of rooms. Nor can the wind get in, except
atthe windows. From the entry it is excluded by the door at
the top of the cellar stairs ; and the escaping heat from the story
below, furnace, etc., will render the entry quite warm enough, in
the coldest of weather, so that heat, instead of cold, will come in
at the entry doors.
The fire will be at F, opposite the window, so that, as you sit
with your feet to the fire, your back will be to the window, which
is just the thing for reading. And one large window lights a room
far better than two or three cross lights, which confuse and injure
the eye, shine through a newspaper and blur it from one window,
as you hold it up to read by another, and are every way objec
tionable, as all opticians assert, and the Jaws of optics prove.
This beautiful feature of this plan is so vitally important as to
deserve illustration. We generally wish to sit with our feet to
the fire, and comfort, in a cold day, requires that the wind come
upon our backs, instead of sides, else we are in danger of freezing
one side while we scorch the other. Wind at our backs is warded
off. Not so when it strikes at our sides. Now sit down with
your feet to the fire of either of those square rooms of the old-
fashioned house. You have an entry door at your back, two
windows on one side, and one in front, pouring a stream of cold
air on all sides. You may ward it off by turning half around,
but then you are half from the fire, which is a position as un
natural as uncomfortable.
Sitting before the fire, you wish to read a paper. You have
no light at your back, and must either twist yourself into a double
bow knot, or else forego a front posture to the fire. You turn
some and raise your paper, when the light from the window
between the chimney and the corner shines through and blurs
your paper, so that you can not distinguish a single word. This
compels you to turn from the fire, and try again, and again you
are disconcerted by three cross lights — one at one side, one at the

104 SUPERIORITY OF THE OCTAGON FORM.
other, and the third behind ; and these causes of discomfort are
perpetual, because incorporated into the very structure of your
house. Both these evils this plan obviates. It receives light and
wind at -your back, just where you require them, relatively to
your fire, prevents all cross lights, and is just the very thing for
a comfortable read or chat. Your smoke ascends through brick
or earthen pipes in those triangles formed by the stairway par
titions, of which hereafter. This plan also enables you to have
fewer windows ; yet these can be large enough to light all your
rooms effectually — which is the cheaper for the same surface of
glass — as well as write at a desk without cross lights, or Jie sun
shining in from several places, and is exactly- what should be.
The dimensions of the rooms in the sixteen-feet octagon, on this
story, are as follows :
A square room, 16 X 16 = 256 sq. ft. = 28 sq. yds.
Two adjacent bedrooms, each 11 X 11 = 242 " = 13 " each.
A large parlor, 13X22 = 286 " =31 "
A connecting spare rooi n, 10x16=160 " =19 "
" bedroom, 12x10=120 " =14J "
10|x8= 85 " =9 "
L, a half square, 4x8= 32 " = 3J "
Stairway, half of a square, 10x10= 50 " = 64 "

Total, 1,231
This is 13 square feet more than our 1,218 square feet, but the
excess is made up by fractions of feet not counted, and comes so
near as to prove the general correctness of both estimates.
To ascend by those winding stairs drawn in the staircase so as
to land, as before, on a broad stair opening into the attic suite of
rooms, partitioned in the same manner, or in any other desired.
But instead of going only four feet before we put on the roof,
let us go six or seven, since it will not cost many dollars extra to
do so, and will give us as fine a suite of rooms on the fourth story
as need be desired.
Than such a house, what earthly habitation could be more beau
tiful, more imposing, more convenient, or more comfortable?*
# Those who preach that we should hate this life and its blessings in
order to prepare for another, would, of course, object to so enchanting a
mansion, it making us love the world so well as to be loth to leave it.

THE ROOM IN A SIXTEEN-FEET OCTAGON.

105

Let us next estimate the room in this sixteen-feet-sided octagon,
both absolute, and as compared with that of a thirty-two feet
square house (Fig. 16, 40 x 42), with a rear kitchen and wood-
house to boot.

SIXTEEN-FEET OCTAGON BASEMENT.
Sub-kitchen . . . . 270 sq. ft.
Store-room and cistern  250 "
Cellar .  120 "
Milkroom .  100 "
Woodhouse  120 "

860

Entry Total in basement

350
1,210

UNDER THE PORTICO.
Icehouse .  128 sq. ft.
Wood rank ... ... 128 "
Lumber  128 "
Green-house  256 "
Tubs, tools, etc.,  160 "

800

Total of basement and portico
MAIN IR SECOND STOHY
Parlor ...
Sitting-room . . . .
Kitchen and pantry . ...
Back parlor and closets

1,660
. 300 sq. ft.
300 "
. 294 "
196 "
 1,090
. 121 " "

1,211

Square room
Triangular bedroom and closets

THIRD STORY.
 256
. 127
. 127
Long " "... 187
Triangular bedroom  126
Large parlor, L, etc.

340

1,163

Add stairway

. 60
1,223

5*

106 SUPERIORITY OF THE OCTAGON FORM.
Total brought forward  3,913
FOURTH STORY.
The same . .... ... 1,163
ATTIC STORY.
Outside bens  552 "
Playroom  650 "
 1,202
Stairway 5X3 . . . . . . 15 "
1,217
Grand total . . . . 6,278
Let U3 next estimate the room in a thirty-two feet square
house. Total room  32x32 = 1,024
Deduct entry . . . 7x20 — and two chimneys 176
Net room left  848
Its three stories and attic=848 x 4, and a 20 x 20 feet cel-
lar=grand total net room 3,392.
The octagon and square, then, compare thus :
6278 *>23 52 gG ^
3392 282 ' 28 14 1 '
which equals six-sevenths, or almost double the room in the
octagon over the square — a part by its shape, a part by its entries,
and the balance by the use of the whole basement, instead of a
part, as is usual. Yet we reckon the whole of the garret room
in the square house, whereas only a small part of it is usually con
verted to any valuable use. We reckon both garret and cellar
in our octagon, to show how unwise to throw away room which
can be converted to ends thus valuable.
Estimate o'f the net room in a house 36 by 44, and kitchen.
Each room 18 x 18 = 324, less 24 square feet for chimney, and
fourteen lost between the chimney and corners, as already ex
piated, = 286.
The four rooms on each story, and four stories, 16x286 = 4,476
Kitchen, 20x16  320
Cellar, 20X20, . . .... 400
Woodhouse, 16x8,  128
5,324'*^

COMPARISON OF HOUSES.

107

Fig. 19.

9x12BED

9x12 BED

SPARE R,
Mx/8

ENTRY fO x J,/,
PARLOR -
%/fX 2,2,
24
x22
M
/
rX
ixf6 I
ENTRY
WASH R.
2.0 * 12.
WOOD
WINGED HOUSE, 82 BT 42.
Less, by 954 square feet, than our sixteen-feet octagon con-
108 SUPERIORITY OF THE OCTAGON FORM.
tains. Yet there remains a ten by twelve garret room over
the kitchen, but this will require a deduction for stairs off of the
kitchen. But suppose the builder to be a man of means, and to want a'
large and superb double house, with a great abundance of room,
and every convenience. He builds an upright with wings.
Upright, 32 X 2 -f 42 x 2 = 148 cir. , and three stories, 148 X 3 = 444
Wings, each 27 feet long, X 2 = 54 x 2 = 108 X 2 stories, = . 216
Woodhouse, 27 x 2 = 54 x 2 stories, = . 108

768

41. howland's plan of an octagon cottage.

The following drawings and specimens rendered by our en
graver, Mr. Howland, both furnish an additional arrangement of
rooms, and may suggest others still to the readers.
The accompanying engravings represent the plan of an octagon
cottage, designed by Messrs. Morgan and Brothers, architects,
Williamsburg, New York, for Mr. William Howland (our en
graver), and which has been much admired by builders for its
neatness, simplicity, convenient arrangement, and cheapness.
Gentlemen in the vicinity of this city are about building after the
plan here specified, and, for the information of such others as may
wish it, we give below the specifications of the materials — the
wood-work and the masonry, together with the estimated cost of
completing the same. The thing most likely to stumble the
reader, in inspecting this beautiful design, is, that so neat and
well-finished a cottage can, out of good materials, be constructed
so cheap. But by attending particularly to the economical
method of inclosing, as well as the form of the building, he will
readily see how it may be done.*
* The octagon house of this size gives 137 more square feet on each floor
than a square house of the same outside measurement ; or, in other words,
a square house to give as much room on a, floor must measure 110£ feet
more around than the octagon.
Octagon, 12 feet 6 inches eaoh side, measures around 100 feet, and gives
on each floor  square feet 762
Square, 25'X 25, measures 100 feet, and gives . " 625
Gain in favor of ootagon of ... . 137

109

CARPENTER S SPECIFICATION

Ofthe materials and workmanship required to erect and finish a
two-story dwelling for Mr'. John J. Brown, at East Williams
burg, Long Island.
Dimensions. — Thirty feet from the outside liue of the buildir.g
to the opposite outside line of each side.
Cellar .  7 ft. 0 in.
First story  . 9 " 6 "
Second story . . . 8 " 0 "
Breast . . . . . 2 " 0 "
All in the clear when finished.
Size of timber-sills, 4 by 6 inches ; four inter-ties, 4 by 6 inches,
30 feet long ; those to first story to have three locust posts each
under them. First tier of beams 3 by 9 inches ; second tier, 3
by 8 inches ; all placed two feet from centers, with one row of
herring bone bridging to each tier. Hip-rafters, 4 by 7 inches ;
jack-rafters, 3 by 7 inches, two feet from centers ; purlin-plates,
4 by 10 inches ; studs, for the two parti tion- walls running through
the building, 3 by 4 inches; joist, 16 inches from centers; the
other studding of wall-strip 16 inches from centers ; the doors
double studded. Do all necessary furring for mason's work, and
dove-tail every fifth beam on each floor into the outside wall, and
anchor them together in the center. All the timber to be of white
pine or spruce. The ceiling of second story to be furred level.
Inclosing. — All the outside walls or inclosing to be of pickets
or strips of common or refuse stuff, about four inches wide, to be
constructed as follows : After the sills are placed in their proper
places and leveled, a course of pickets to be nailed on to the sills,
about half an inch back from the outside line of the sill, then
another course on top of that; breaking joints with the first course
and on a line with the outside face of the sill (that is, projecting
On each floor, or 411 in cellar, first, and second stories, being more than
one-fifth. As the whole height of the wall, from bottom of the foundation,
is 30 feet, the amount of outside wall in the square, that gives 763 feet a
floor, is  feet 3,315
While the octagon, that gives 762 feet a floor, ia " 3,000
Gain in favor of ootagon 315

110

SUPERIORITY OF THE OCTAGON FORM,

v.,

Fig. 20.

HS9P,, 'fa

/

HOWLAND' S OCTAGONAL PLAN.

Ill

half an inch over the first course) ; the third course the same as
the first, and so on to the top, each course projecting over or re
ceding from the one next below.
Roof to project, and supported by brackets, as shown on ele
vation, covered with box boards laid close, joints broken ; covered
with single-cross tin, soldered and painted, two coats. A small
Fig. SI.

PLAN OF FIEST STORY.

strip of plank is to be fixed near the outer edge of the roof, to
form a hollow, lined with tin for a gutter, with all necessary three-
inch tin leaders to convey the water to the cisterns.
Scuttle. — Fit and hang scuttle two and a half by four feet,
secured with chain and hook.
Window Frames, Sashes, etc. — For number of frames sec
plan ; and size of glass left optional with the owner. All box

112

SUPERIORITY OF THE OCTAGON FORM.

frames, sashes, one and a half inches thick, double-hung with
weights, cords, and pulleys. The first story to have patent brass
fastenings; windows glazed with a good quality of American
glass. Four windows in the cellar, three lights in each, 10 by
14 inch glass ; sashes hung with butts and secured with buttons.
Outside hall door glazed the same as windows.
Fig. 22.

'' "ITOITfTl HALL

PLAN OF SECOND BTOET.

Fig. 28.

XX I

SCALE OF FEET.

Piazza in front as per elevation. Back stoop as per plan.
Cornice all around the house, with brackets as per elevation,
with an observatory on top. That portion of the roof required
for the floor of the observatory made nearly level.
Floors of first and second stories laid with merchantable mill
worked white pine plank, free from large or loose knots, sap, or
splits, tongued and grooved ; laid in courses, well nailed, and
heading joints neatly smoothed off.
Trimming. — All the doors and windows trimmed with single
faoed architrave, with back mould, in all five and a half inches wide

howland's octagonal plan. 113
The windows trimmed on neat sills; and on the outside with
four-inch plane architrave;' with block under the sills as per
elevation. Sink in living-room of suitable size, made • perfectly tight, and
doors and shelves underneath, and waste to cesspool. The pan
tries shelved with four tiers of shelves each. Four dozen clothes-
hooks put up 'in the bedrooms and closets, as the owner may
direct. Put hard wood saddles to all doors, and base block or
turned pins where necessary behind the doors.
Doors. — Outside doors two inches thick, four panels each ;
double faced, with glass in the upper panels ; the lower panels
with mouldings. All the other doors, except those of the pantries,
one and a quarter inches thick, double-faced, four-paneled with
mouldings.- The pantry doors single-faced, to correspond with
the room doors, the other side bead and butt. The front door
hung with three three-and-a-half-inch butts, and secured with two
barrel-bolts and a suitable sized front-door lock, with night-latch
and two keys ; the back door hung with three-and-a-half-inch
butts, and secured by a seven-inch rim-lock and two barrel-bolts.
The first story inside doors hung with three-and-a-half-inch butts,
and secured with five-inch mortice-locks, except the pantry and
closet doors, which are to have reversed beveled-locks. Second
story doors hung with three-inch butts, and secured by suitable
sized rim-locks. White mineral-knobs on first story, and dark
colored on second story. Outside and inside cellar doors made
in the usual manner, hung with large-sized strap-hinges, and se
cured with bar-hooks, etc., complete.
Mantles. — Neat marble- pattern mantles to all the fireplaces,
painted such color as directed.
Base in all of first story nine inches high, with ovilo moulding
on top. Beveled base in second story seven inches high, all
scribed down and well fitted to the floor.
Stairs leading from first story to second, as per plan, put up
on strong carriages, moulded and returned nosings ; three-inch
moulded rail ; one-and-three-quarter-inch fancy turned balusters ;
six-inch newel-level rail and balusters at the top ; the newel-rail
and balusters of St. Domingo mahogany, rubbed smooth and var
nished three coats. Geometrical panel under stairs ; strong stairs

114 SUPERIORITY OF THE OCTAGON FORM.
to cellar and scuttle in the usual way. Cellar stairs ceiled up
tight with paneled doors underneath.
Privy, 4 by 6 feet of mill-worked white pine, tongued and
grooved boards ; the inside prepared for plastering ; four-paneled
door made, hung, and secured in the usual way, one window, 6
by 10 inch glass, six lights, hung with butts and secured with
button. Painting. — Paint all the wood-work, both inside and outside,
with two coats of linseed oil and pure white-lead paint of such
color as the owner may direct.
mason's specifications.
Excavating. — Excavate and cart away all the earth for areas,
cesspool, sink, cistern, etc., and level around the house as direct
ed. Cart away all the rubbish that may be made during the
progress and at the completion of the job.
Stone-wall. — Start cellar wall two feet below the bottom of
cellar, and carry the same to the under side of the first tier of
beams, with blue building-stone -eighteen inches thick, laid in
courses in good lime-and-sand mortar. The inside faced the whole
height, and faced outside above the ground, and neatly pointed.
Blue stone steps to cellar in the usual way.
Brick-work. — Build chimneys as per plan, with fire-places ;
marble facing. and hearths, complete. Large crane in kitchen fire
place. Chimneys topped out five feet six inches above the roof
with hard brick and brown stone cap, as per elevation.
Plastering. — Lath the partitions, and plaster the whole of the
first and second stories with scratch-coat and brown-coat down to
the floor ; the first story hard finished; the second skimmed for
whitewashing. The outside walls will not need lathing. Privy
lathed and plastered same as second story.
Cistern. — Build cistern in yard six feet in diameter and eight
feet deep, of hard brick, eight inches thick, laid in cement and
cemented tight; arched on top with blue stone neck, and covered
with waste to cesspool.
Cesspool in yard, eight feet deep, three feet diameter at the
bottom, and one foot six inches at top, stoned up with broken
stone, and covered with perforated flagging.

howland's octagonal plan. 115
Sink. — Build sink four feet diameter, stoned up with broken
stone, and squared up with three courses of brick at the top.
The outside of building to be stuccoed in the best manner —
blocked into courses and colored in imitation of stone work.
Now the whole cost of such a house, as is here specified, will
not exceed eleven hundred dollars. Much more than this sum may
be expended, it is true, if the owner is so disposed, and some
builders have estimated that it migh't be done for less.
[Another plan of constructing walls of wood, and which we
think cheaper and better, is to get three-inch hemlock plank, and
set them edge-wise one upon another, and putting the edges to
gether by dowel-pins, made of white ash or oak, an inch in diam
eter and about eight inches long. The corners are framed togeth
er and pinned with draw-bore. Tear in pieces a tea-chest and
you have the plan of this mode of building. These planks may
be of any width from six to eighteen or twenty-four inches. It
certainly takes good logs to saw picket or narrow stuff from, and
have it hold together to get it to market. The use of refuse stuff
is poor economy. If this Were sawed into plank, three-fourths of
the sawing would be saved, and one-fifth of the stuff would also
be saved, which is cut into sawdust by the process of cutting the
planks into inch boards. Besides three inches of solid timber, in
the form of a plank, is stiffer than a wall of slats four inches wide
nailed together.
Again, what is the use of sawing solid planks "into strips, and
then using nails and labor to fasten them together again, with a
loss of one-fifth of the timber in sawdust? A plank house can
be lathed, and plastered, and finished for less than it costs to finish
the slat-work wall, as it takes a greater quantity of mortar to level
up and fill the crevices in the slat-work. The writer has tried
both methods of building, and knows that the plank- wall takes
less lumber, can be put up faster, and does not cost a single nail,
except to lath. The outside can be covered with clapboards or
stucco on lath, to suit the taste.]

116 superiority of the octagon form.
42. description of the author's RESIDENCE.
Allusion has already been made to the residence of the author.
For two reasons it seems proper to give jts description a place
in these pages— -first, because those studies which have eventu
ated in this work were instituted primarily to erect this very
house ; and, secondly, because an account of it will call up many
points about building, uses of rooms, etc., which can be presented
in this form better than in any other. It is, moreover, intrinsic
ally worthy such a place.
To begin with the lower, or cellar story. My house is located
on an oval knoll, digging off the top of which furnished me with
nearly all the stones, large and small, used in putting up its walls.
All my cellar, therefore, is above ground, except two holes, C L
and M, alongside of my ice-house.
My ice-house consists of two stories — the upper one for ice,
the lower, a room kept cool by the ice and its drippings, a pre-
servatory for keeping fruit, butter, eggs, fresh meat, fish, bacon,
pies, etc. I took a perfectly sound and hard apple from it in
August, stored the fall before, and kept it till December in a
warm, bad place, yet it retained its flavor perfectly. They have
been kept two years, and grapes one. The melting ice keeps this
room at a temperature just above the freezing point, and sur
rounded by stifled and cold air, so that its preserving powers are
remarkable. Its structure is simple, and as follows :
Erect studs as for a wall. Lath and plaster both sides, and
finish the outside as you do your house. This furnishes a place
for dead air — the best non-conductor in the world — superior, says
Professor Silliman, to tan-bark, or even charcoal. In the plaster- -
ing use a little cement. Then erect another set of studs, first
having nailed on your lath before they are raised ; then raise and
fasten them, and plaster from the inside, or between the studs ; this
gives two confined air-chambers. Then lath on the inside of these
studs, and plaster, and you have three air-chambers all around
your ice-house and preservatory for both stories. Next lay your
floor for the bottom of your ice-house and top of your preserva
tory, and make it water-tight, by caulking, or plastering with ce
ment, or in some other way ; and having this floor descend a few

description of the author s residence.

117

inches from the middle each way, so as to carry off the water, and
Fig. 24

BASEMENT STORY OF THE OOTAOON HOUSE.

resting this floor on rows of studs below, which serve both to
support the ice and fasten shelves to, and to the outside row of

118 superiority of the octagon form.
studs lath and plaster with cement, so that the ice drippings may
run off behind this inner wall of the preservatory, or between it
and the two rows of studs above described. Your preservatory
is now perfectly dry, and of one temperature the year round. Its
bottom should also be double, so as to be dry, yet let water pass
under it. In mine the ice water is gathered at the door, under
which it runs through a lead pipe, bent upward like a new moon,
which allows water to pass out, but prevents air from passing in.
It passes into this cellar C L, and my milk closet M, which also
has two stories, the lower for preserves and what else we want to
keep, yet do not think worth the trouble of going into the pre
servatory, and the top for milk, having two floors, which admits
the cold air up into the milk-room, yet prevents dirt from de
scending, by the lower one catching it.
All required to make this floor is, having laid your floor tim
bers, nail a floor to their under side, leaving a space an inch or two
wide at one side, and a shelf over this crack will prevent much
dirt from getting down, and then nailing another floor to the top
of these timbers, having another opening on the other side of the
floor. M for milk ; the cold air passing up from the bottom story,
into which the water runs from under the preservatory, both hav
ing shelves. A like arrangement at C L gives two large cellars,
one above the other, on a like principle.
The entrance to my preservatory is with two stairways leading
to it, one from the side toward the kitchen, for the cook, and the
other larger, for the gardener to take down barrels of beef, fruits,
and the larger articles. Thus all the cold of my ice is saved, and
cools five rooms, the preservatory and the other two double-storied
rooms contiguous. Even the cold which escapes in opening the
preservatory door passes into these rooms, besides cooling the
room marked A P, for apples, po'tatoes, etc., and that marked K
S, for kitchen stores, both of which are fitted up with shelves.
Now I submit whether here is not a plan worthy of imitation
(unless it can be improved on) in any house whose owner can
afford an extra $100, the utmost it need cost. And how soon
will it quit cost by buying butter, eggs, fruit, etc., when abundant
and .cheap, and keeping them as good as new till scarce and 1 '.gh,

description of the author's , RESIDENCE. 119
and then selling, to say nothing of the luxury of having fruit,
grapes, and perfectly sweet May butter the year round, for they
experience no sensible deterioration in flavor. I 'also keep in it
the juice of my fruits, which does not ferment, or at least scarcely
perceptibly, and is therefore new wine, all but the intoxicating
part, caused by fermentation. My dietetic doctrine is that man
should live mainly on unbolted wheat bread and fruit, or its juice,
eaten as we eat bread and milk, and that this fruit juice should
take the place of water. At all events, it is the daintiest of lux
uries. Thus; the newly-compressed juice of the black raspberry
is most delicious, and in this preservatory retains its delicious
flavor, which fermentation would destroy. It is kept here for
months, as is also that of other fruits — the strawberry, cherry,
peach, etc. On no account would I do without the luxury of this
preservatory. In the closet C one angle S carries up a stove-pipe hole, made
out of that very material described for making the wall, and draw
ing up, as you filled up, a round stick the size of the flue desired —
a cheap way of making chimneys, and as good as the very best.
A wash-boiler is stationed in the adjoining room, W R, having a
cistern, CI, 10 by 10 — it can easily be made larger or smaller —
which receives the surplus water from the cisterns above, and the
roof having at one corner three straight walls, one of which ex
tends from bottom to top of the cistern,- made of this same wall
material, or of brick, and cemented both sides, having holes at the
bottom. The other two are a foot or eighteen inches high, and say
a foot on each side of the other, also cemented, and the spaces
between them and the high wall filled in with charcoal and coarse
gravel, so that the water rising to this low wall runs down through
this filtering charcoal through those holes at the bottom of the high
wall, then up through charcoal and coarse gravel on the other side,
and thus doubly filtered, makes the very best drinking water in
the world. Observe, too, that it joins on the cool milk closet M,
and hence imbibes considerable coolness from the ice- water. If I
had ever so good well or spring of water, I should want these cis
terns, because double-filtered rain-water is preferable to all other
water for drinking and culinary purposes. Observe, also, that
this water gets a double filtration in the cisterns above, before

120 SUPERIORITY OF THE OCTAGON FORM.
entering this, or four filters in all. And how much more handy
to turn a faucet and draw water direct into a pail, than to raise it
from the well, or from a cistern under-grounA, or below where you
require it for use. These remarks apply doubly to the cistern at
the other side of the house, near the kitchen, K.
At the left of this cistern is a dark cellar, C, for sauce, or what
ever you wish to keep from freezing ; cool in summer, because
excluded on all sides from the sun, and on the side joining the
two-story cellar, C L, and the cistern on another, and free from
frost in winter, besides being easily aired by its two doors. And
this airing of cellars is all important, for, otherwise, decaying veg
etables infect and poison the rooms above, by finding its way up
through the floor. Still the main body of the farmer's vegetables
should be stored under his bam floor, so that he can drive his cart
to the hatchway and dump right into his potato, cabbage, carrot,
rutabaga, beet, parsnip, and other cellars or bins.
By the side of this is another room, L, which may be used for
storing bedsteads, lumber, barrels, and such rubbish as garrets
usually contain, tools included, with this advantage, that it is handy,
and just where you want it, whereas the garret is very bad to get
to and from. Or any other use can be made of it the proprietor
chooses. Perhaps the one who locks up, answers the night-bell,
etc., might sleep in it.
Between it and the wash-room, and at the end of the cistern, is
a store-room, S T, some 7 by 10, just the place to put family
stores, sugar, molasses, flour, pork, etc., also furnished with shelves
and some drawers. A small closet off the apple-room, from
which also starts another stack of chimneys, completes this, the
north half of my house. How it would suit the reader I care little,
since it suits its planner and owner to a charm.
Next comes the entry. It is in this very cellar story, where
every entry ought to be, and, hence, does not separate the main
rooms above, yet gives every end any entry secures ; of which
more hereafter.
It consists of two parts. That line running nearly through it,
and terminating in two octagonal pillars, is the central wall of the
house, running from bottom to top, while the two walls on each
side of it are for this story only, and are eight inches thick, while

DESCRIPTION OF THE AUTHOR'S RESIDENCE. 121
the middle one is a foot, and built like the outside walls. Tre
mendous pressure comes on parts of it, yet it stands. F E is the
front entrance, where strangers will naturally apply for ingress to
the house; and the room R R is for a common receiving-room,
hat-stand, reading-room, etc., and that pillar in the entry has an
elk's head and horns, and some deer-horns masoned into it, on
which to hang hats and cloaks. From this entry callers are then
conducted up into the center of the story above, and taken into
dining-room, drawing-room, the bedrooms still above, or wherever
it is desirable for them to go, in accordance with their station and
business. From the other end of this half of the entry another flight of
stairs conducts from the kitchen and back entry up to the same
landing-place in the stairway above ; of which when we come to
that story. Under these two flights of stairs, and accessible by a
door in this center wall, is just the place for coal — and coal is the
only proper materia] for heating houses — of which, however, in its
place. Adjoining is a place for the furnace, marked F, and man
ufacturing gas out of cheap oil, soap-fat, etc., which is far cheaper
than common gas, easily made, even by a boy, and probably the
cheapest and best way to light a house.* Or the place marked
G, as designed for gas fixtures, can be used for bathing, it being
next the cistern.
The other side of the center wall is a through entry ; serves
every purpose of one, and is just where you want it.
Passing through this entry we enter the kitchen, K, the great
stomach of the house ; having a well, from which water is drawn
outside, and also into the kitchen itself, and the other side of this
kitchen is watered from the cistern by turning a faucet, and a lead
pipe from this cistern connects with the range, R. Two pantries,
C L and P, connect with this kitchen and one another, and one
with the adjoining room, W D, a workman's dining-room. At
the back end of the closet, C L, which is 5 by 14, wide enough
for two rows of shelves, and of barrel under them if desired, and
a passage-way besides, is a dumb-waiter, which goes from the bot-

• Recent papers state the fact that wood furnishes lighting gas several
times cheaper than coal, and easily made. 6

122 SUPERIORITY OF THE OCTAGON FORM.
torn to the top of the house, serving every story in its passage —
a contrivance worth $100 to any $1,000 house, proportionally to
a more costly one. The general objection to them is that they
carry up all the bad odors from the kitchen, which in this instance
is prevented by the intervening closet. How many steps must
this save in going up and down stairs in the course of a year.
Through a speaking-tube near the dumb-waiter a communication
is opened from the kitchen to the upper rooms, so that what is
wanted from the kitchen may be called for and sent up, and what
is wanted from above may be sent down, and thus nearly all the
running up and down stairs saved by the dumb-waiter. Nor is it
at all in- the way, from bottom to top of the house.
The kitchen connects with the workmen's dining-room, 15 by
22, and this, with their sitting-room, W S— no unenviable place
to spend evenings, and where they can amuse themselves without
straying to the grogshop or other objectionable places.
On the south side of the house, under the portico, and corre
sponding with the ice-house, is the green-house, the advantages of
which I will not now discuss. Suffice it to say, that $100 to $200
is a fair allowance for it, and no $1,000 house should be with
out it. That sum can scarcely be spent upon a house elsewhere
to as great an increase of comfort. Here the mistress can have
her flowers and the master his grape-vines, and the waste water
can be conducted from the rooms immediately above, as well as
from the kitchen, to the grape border. Without a glass-house,
larger or smaller, I consider any house very imperfect. Its ad
vantages have only to be known to be generally adopted.
A back stairway in the angle between the kitchen and men's
dining-room, having an oven under it, leads up into a like stair
way above, and up into stories still above. This completes the
lower, or ground, or cellar story, which is eight and a half feet
high in the clear. Those angular stairways, erected on the angles
of the ice and green houses, lead, from the ground to the top of the
ice and green houses, and an offset, both for receiving in — there
being an outside entrance to the ice-house here — and for landing
from and entering the carriage, completes the main features of
this story ; which is submitted not to builders and men merely,
but especially to women and practical housekeepers, for such

DESCRIPTION OF THE jlUTHOr's RESIDENCE. 123
approval or criticism as they may award it. That it can not be
bettered is not asserted, but that it is. far superior to any basement
arrangement before invented is maintained. And mark to what
extent the octagon form contributes to this end. Building reader,
is not this plan worthy general adoption ?
43. THE MAIN OR PARLOR STORY.
Having now described the structure and divisions -of the lower
or work story, we proceed to examine the parlor, or main living
story, and will ascend either by those outside stairs by the ice or
green house, by the inside back stairs over the oven, or through
the entry from the lower front or back doors into that great cen
tral stairway, marked S, which is 12 feet square, and yet is ren
dered octagonal by cutting off its corners, which are used, one for
a dumb waiter, marked W, the other two for ventilation, the foul
air passing between the floor timbers to the walls, which cross
them in the story above, up to the upper story, and out just under
the eaves. Several like angles of closets about the house are also
used for ventilation, so that every room in the house is ventilated
perfectly. While the ground story is exactly adapted hy its position for
work, storage, etc., this story is peculiarly fitted to become the
main pleasure story of the house, first, because just far enough
from the ground to prevent all dampness, and high enough to
catch any summer breeze afloat, and yet not too high to render
ascent to it laborious — the lower story being eight and a half feet
high. Being surrounded by a portico, promenaders, at any hour
of the day, can walk in either the shade or sun as suits them, or
walk round a covered circle of some 300 feet — the house itself
being 256.
Members of the family, and familiar acquaintances, will pass
up those stairs figured in cut No. 24, alongside of the green or ice
houses, and, passing along the portico, enter into that triangular
entry, in the angle of which is a place just large enough for a hat-
starid-,-and lighted from around and over the door, and pass thence
into the sitting, or more properly, drawing-room, marked D r, or
into the parlor, as occasion requires ; while strangers will ring
the bell at the story below, and pass up the stairs into the great

124

SUPERIORITY OF THE OCTAGON FORM.

central stairway, S, and thence into parlor, drawing, dining^ or
amusement rooms. This arrangement gives us every valuable
end attained by an entry, without either taking up much room, or
Fig. 25.

PARLOR 6TOET OF AN OCTAGON HOUSE.

separating those four large rooms, each 22 by 39, less those cor
ners, C, taken off for entry, stairway, and closets. Each of these
rooms is larger than one story of an entire house 25 by 28, and

125
contains over 700 square feet, or some 75 yards pf carpet. Now
unfold two such magnificent rooms into one — and they join each
other lengthwise, so that, thus thrown together, they are almost
square, or 39 by 44 — and what a place for a large assembly, a
minister's donation party, or any social gathering on a large scale !
Now it is submitted whether such free and cosy meetings of
neighbors and congenial spirits can not be turned to great practical
purposes of mental profit as well as pleasure. Should they not
be universally adopted in this country 1 And what a place for
such gatherings !
If two rooms are not large enough, throw open the dining and
amusement rooms, and you have four spacious, magnificent rooms,
embracing an area of over 300 square yards, and— please observe
this beautiful feature— having four side rooms adjoining for dress
ing or retiring rooms.
Reader, even though you have made the tour of Europe, at
tended levees in the mansions of the lords of the Old World, did
you ever see the equal of this suite of rooms for entertaining large
parties 1
Large suppers, having, however, much less reference to physical
than mental repasts — to good eating than speaking — at which
many toasts, sparkling suggestions, witty effusions, short, pithy,
racy, eloquent, convivial speeches will constitute the chief attrac
tion, and at which woman shall contribute as much as man, or
improved editions of our public suppers, will yet be abundant;
and how infinitely pleasurable and profitable such mental, and
moral, and social feasts might be rendered ! And what rooms
these for such purposes ! Three rows of tables, nearly forty feet
long, or four rows thirty-five feet, would seat one hundred guests,
in the dining and amusement rooms, and as many more in the
parlor and drawing rooms, with abundance of side room for ward
robes, conversation, and a thousand uses requisite on such oc
casions. The late Gardner Howland, of the firm of Howland and Aspin
wall, large shipping merchants, and owning the California Isthmus
route, came with his daughters to see this house, and on entering
these rooms, a daughter exclaimed, " Oh, pa, what splendid
rooms ! I wish we had some as good !" And well she might,

126 SUPERIORITY OF THE OCTAGON FORM.
though he was worth many millions, and had just expended, in
additions, alterations, and repairs, upon an already costly man
sion, about as much as this entire house cost.
Please observe that doors at the inner ends of these rooms con
nect these four rooms — ell by folding doors, if desired. Access
is also rendered easy from each to each and all, through the stair
way. Observe, also, that here are eight large rooms, all adjoin
ing each other, and all perfectly accessible, and securing all the
advantages of an entry, without any of its disadvantages, which
are great. If an entry divided them, only half as large a com
pany could be entertained as now, for an intervening entry always
breaks the spell of a party ; yet different rooms, opening directly
into each other, preserve this spell, or the unity of the assembly,
whereas an intervening entry would make two companies. Those
who have not thought or observed on this point, will not duly
appreciate it, or realize the evils of entries. Yet these rooms
need no entries — first, because the entry in the story below serves
every requisition of a through entry or hall ; and, second, because
the location of the stairs renders the entry only an up-and-down
entry, whereas, in most large houses, the hall runs through the
house, both from side to side, and from bottom to top.
The appearance of this stairway is really magnificent — lighted
from a glass dome, 70 feet straight up, cupola included, octa
gonal in form — a far more beautiful figure than a square or
hexagon. Look again at how completely it ventilates every large room
in every story. However hot, however little air may be stirring
of a hot, sultry day, open a window and the door in any room of
any story into this central ventilator, and up rises a strong cur
rent of air — a current rendered necessary and certain by the great
er density of the air below than at the height of the cupola. Be
sides this glass dome at the top of the cupola, each of its eight
sides has a window, out of which this air passes.
To practical housekeepers we submit one other point — the
greater ease with which work can be done in rooms thus ar
ranged, than in rooms usually arranged. For example : if you
wish to go from either of these eight rooms to either story,
above or below, a few steps takes ypu to this central stair-

DESCRIPTION OF THE AUTHOR'S RESIDENCE. 127

way, by which you ascend or descend ; whereas, if its entries
and stories were as is usual, if you wish to go from the dining
or amusement room up stairs, you must first go, say from the
center of the room toward the back-entry door to a door into the
entry, then turn a sharp angle to the left, and go clear to the
foot of the stairway near the front door, and then turn square and
come back again, while ascending the stairs, only, perhaps, to
turn square round to the left to go right back toward the front of
the house to one of the front upper rooms. But by this arrange
ment, three or four steps bring you from either of these rooms to
the foot of the stairs, ascending which, a few more steps take you
to whatever door above you may wish to enter. . So, also, if you
wish to go from either of these rooms on this story to any other,
you pass straight from where you start, through this stairway, ' o
your place of destination.
It is now submitted whether you can not go from room to r om,
and story to story, about this house, with less than half the steps
requisite to get from room to room, and story to story, v. other
houses as usually arranged. Observe, here are a greut many
rooms, and all handy to each other. In short, is not this central-
ity of the stairway incomparably superior to ordinary entries 1
But, when these four side rooms are not wanted for entertain
ing very large parties — yet quite large parties can be entertained
comfortably in the amusement-room, appropriated expressly to
ordinary free and cosy social gatherings, with or without amuse
ments, thus entertaining company well without throwing open
the parlor, or exposing its carpet in muddy weather — they can be
occupied profitably thus : L for a library and room for minerals,
shells, etc., including some portraits ; B for " a prophet's cham
ber," or spare bedroom, which, adjoining the library and also
amusement-room, is well located for this purpose, and in summer
is on the cool side of the house.
On the south, or lower side, are two other rooms, W S and F,
the former beautifully located and perfectly adapted to a winter
sitting-room, and F to a winter sleeping-room. Observe, it has
no outside door, so that cold can enter only through the windows,
there being two doors between it and the outside doors. This
will render its temperature much more uniform than if it had an

128 SUPERIORITY OF THE OCTAGON FORM. ?
outside door, and situated almost over the fireroom, it can be ren
dered as warm as you please. Is not this a luxurious arrange
ment for cold days in winter, when an outside, or even an entry
door, will admit so much chilling blast ?
Both these rooms are also over two like rooms below, so that
heat ascending through the floor will help to keep the feet warm.
I never like to occupy the first floor, either in summer, for it is
more or lees damp, or in winter, for cold will creep in, and pass
up to the floor timbers and along them to crevices in the floor,
whereas, by this mode of building, no cold air can come to these
floor timbers, and the heat ascends from the workmen's sitting
and dining rooms below, so as to keep the feet comfortable.
Please, reader, reflect on the importance, as a means of health
and luxury, especially to cold-blooded persons, oi warm floors and
feet in winter, and the great discomfort and injury to health con
sequent on cold, floors and feet.
Observe, again, that often, in fall and spring, when the weather
changes rapidly from warm to cold, an outside door, often open
ed, soon renders a room uncomfortable, so that you have to start
a fire, whereas, in this case, no outside door admits cold or emits
heat, so that it retains a uniform temperature. For a like reason
it does not become so hot on a hot day in summer, especially as
only about one-third of its wall is at one time exposed to the sun's
rays, and this only half the day.
This uniformity in the temperature of a room is a most import
ant point. None who have not experienced it can realize how
important, or how comfortable. It is again submitted whether
here is not an admirable winter luxury, to which every family
might treat themselves.
The above allusion to " treating ourselves to luxuries," requires
a little further elucidation. I once hired a shrewd Irishman, who
had no change of linen, and that all rags and dirt, and without
coat or vest. Set to work with other Irishmen, they soon began
to tease him about his clothes, to which he replied, "If I were.
able, I would treat myself to clean linen every day in the year,
for nothing I can give myself is too good for myself."
Apply this to houses. Should they not be furnished with just
as many means of comfort, and even luxury, as their builder is

DESCRIPTION OF THE AUTHOR'S RESIDENCE. 129

well able to pay for ? , Yet how often are thousands spent on out
side appearances and inside ornaments, which afford no solid com
fort, only foster pride ! whereas, a moiety of this extra expense
would add to the real enjoyments and luxuries of its occupants
every day, as long as it stands. And it is further submitted
whether this octagonal form, these porticoes, these sumptuous
center-rooms, and these convenient side rooms, together with this
array of contrivances, do not throw far into the shade even the
best and most costly styles of modern domestic architecture 1
This general plan was set forth in the author's " Home for All,"
in 1847, and is here carried out with some modifications.
It remains to add that the chimneys are carried up both in the
middle wall — made fourteen inches wide at one end for this ex
press purpose, as represented in the drawing, and also in an angle
in each of the four closets, cut off from each of the four side
rooms — made as described in a former article, by drawing a stick,
the size of the flue along up while building the wall, thus leaving
a hole after it.
As eight feet was too narrow for an ice-house, it was made six
teen feet ; and as the portico is seven and a half feet, the other
eight and a half feet outside the portico, and over the ice and green
houses, are occupied by stairs, for passage up and down ov,tside
of the house. In case of fire, it is desirable that occupants can
reach the ground by an outside descent, in case the inside stories
should be enveloped in flame. Visitors, and others, too, will often
pass up and down, to the roof even, without going inside. These
stairways, then, serve to cover this irregularity, and to give a
stairway outside of, and without any way interfering with, the por
tico itself.
As to my own house, I am quite sure it will never burn ; be
cause many of its inside walls are made of lime and stones.
44. UPPER STORIES.
To this story there are four ascents from the story below,
namely, one, the principal, in that central opening figured in the
previous drawing, and marked S in Figure 26, the landing-place
being at R ; the second, by that back sta'rway, also figured in the
6*

130 SUPERIORLY OF THE OCTAGON FORM.
preceding drawing, and right under the back stairway figured in
this engraving, having an entry two and a half feet wide connect
ing it with the central, and a door-window for passing out upon
the portico, and two outside stairways over the ice and green
houses, though, except for looks, there is need of only one ; yet
they help to give proportion to those projections caused by the
ice and green houses.
The ascent to the story still above is also figured in the accom
panying engraving, at S, yet. only one of the two starting places
is really needed. The open space S transmits abundance of light
from the cupola above, the top of which is glass, to both the stair
way and those dark bedrooms, O, O, O, O, which have a good-
sized window over the door, and also a skylight, made by insert- ,
ing Crystal Palace glass, which is half an inch thick, and will bear
to be walked on as well as boards — into the roof, at K, L, M, N,
and a board across the corner of the upper story, and a pane of
common glass between the two stories allows light to pass down
behind this board into the middle story, or that above the parlor.
Of these eight interior rooms I think the world ; first as dormi
tories, cool in summer and warm in winter, inaccessible to mus-
quitoes, yet easily ventilated by an opening into the ceiling above,
the air passing along between floor timbers, and so out into the
stairway. As a place for a quiet, retired study, being lighted from above,
they will be far more pleasant than any side light can be, and
several times more powerful. They will also serve the very best
of purposes for flowers in winter, or for apples or what stores may
be required to be kept from freezing, yet ir a cool temperature.
But it is for these two uses I think the most of them — or for
sleeping, because of so uniform a temperature — not hot on going
to bed from the day's sun, for it can not reach them, and cool
toward morning from dew or rain, but the som«, morning, noon,
and night, and in winter as in summer.
The other special use is for an author's studio. Writers will
bear witness that in that all-powerful exercise of the whole mind
requisite for writing what is fit to be read, the bloodkforsakes the
extremities) and slrin, and mounts rushing to the he$d, leaving all
the outer walls a prey to cold, which, a addition to severe men-

DESCRIPTION OF THE AUTHOR S RESIDENCE.

131

' tal exertion, is too much for any constitution sufficiently suscep'
tible to write well. Most awful havoc have my own night wri
tings made on my constitution — having almost destroyed it.
Fig. 26.

UPPER STOETES OF AN OCTAGON HOUSE.

Most horribly, almost as if actually dying, have 1 felt by the
hundred times, on rising in the morning, after having written
most of the night, and retired cold in feet and skin, but hot at

132 SUPERIORITY OF THE OCTAGON FORM.
the head, having lain for hours before the equalizing circulation
rendered me warm enough to sleep.
Then why not write by a fire ? it may be asked. I will not
stop to show why, only to say that my own experience has most
imperiously required just such a place for writing.
"But why write nights?" I believe there is some cause iu
nature why from sunset to midnight facilitates good writing. At
all events, lecturing has rendered my mind specially active at
that part of the twenty-four hours ; and I am most glad of ex
actly such a place as this in which to write and read ; for the
principles just stated apply measurably to reading.
The size of these rooms is between eleven and twelve feet
square, saving the corners cut off by the stairway, and used for a
door-window. Observe, also, that five rooms corner at K, and the same at L,
M, and N. Hence, by placing the wash-stands in the inner cor
ners of those small bedroom closets, one lead pipe will carry off
all the wash-water from these five rooms in both stories, one pipe
serving ten rooms, and one pipe also bringing fresh water to this
same ten — a point of economy I respectfully submit to criticism.
"Bring it from where?" you ask. From cisterns built in the
upper part' of those small closets, and filled from the roof, having
that filtering apparatus already described. Cisterns in the tops
of houses are most desirable ; first, because they save carrying
wash- water up to chambers, which renders it scarce, and thus re
tards cleanliness. Abundance of water in the sleeping-rooms is
most desirable ; and this plan furnishes it.
One of these cisterns also connects with the copper boiler at
tached to the kitchen range, and this descending cold water forces
up the hot water to the stories above, so as to give hot and cold
water to each story. And the large size of the roof will give, prob
ably, all the water ever wanted, especially as the cisterns are so
connected that when either is filled its surplus runs over into the
next, and so on till all are -filled above, and these run over into
those large lower ones below, already described.
Observe, again, that these cisterns are over closets, or built in
the upper part of closets — room not needed, nor likely to be used
for any purpose whatever. Most masons, indeed, lath over clos.

DESCRIPTION OF THE AUTHOR'S RESIDENCE.

133

ets about seven feet high, and thus that vacant space is shut up
entirely, rather than finish it. But in this upper story, I make
the closets only six feet high, which leaves the cisterns four
and a half feet deep ; and about equal in size to half of an eight-
feet square, or about equal to six feet square, or holding about
one hundred and fifty cubic feet of water. Yet it is easy to make
them larger or smaller, at pleasure. I prefer smaller ones scat
tered in the four quarters to a single large one, and those more
shallow than deep, because the pressure is less.
The two upper stories are alike, excepting the cisterns in the
upper, and the bath-room, B R, by the back stairs in the one
below it ; so that one description and drawing serves for both.
45. FILTRATION.
Filtered rain water is the very best drinking water in the world.
Lime or hard water is by no means as healthy as soft. It accel
erates the action of the alimentary canal, and is prolific of sum
mer complaints in children, diarrhea, cholera morbus, and cholera.
It was correctly observed in the cholera times, that only hard-
water districts suffered with this dreadful malady. In the hard-
water portions of Fishkill this disease made awful havoc, where
as not one case occurred in the soft-water portion, in which I reside,
nor in any other soft-water district, as far as I know. I consider
soft water a sure preventive of most forms of bowel complaiut,
and filtered rain water gives it.
These filters are easily constructed within these cisterns, thus :

Let c represent the cistern, and the little square marked in it
stand for the filter, to make which, lay up a box of brick, made

134 SUPERIORITY OF THB OCTAGON FORM.
tight at the sides and on £op, and cemented inside and out ; but
the two ends, e e, must be laid up open, so that the water can pass
through the filter into that smallest place marked /, which is a
deposit for the water after it is filtered. This should be but small,
so that it may pass through the filter while being drawn ; for if
this place holds a gallon or two, it will have to stand in this
depdt from the previous drawing, and therefore not be fresh.
The walls, w w, of the filter should be made water-tight by brick
laid in cement, and plastered outside and in with cement, and
the top also made water-tight by a large stone, the size of the
filter, or brick laid in cement, so that all the water must pass
through this filter in order to reach the faucet.
The filtering apparatus itself should be constructed thus : Set
charcoal on fire till fairly burning, then pound fine, aud lay alter
nate layers of fine, white, clean sand, and charcoal, laid not hori
zontally, but diagonally, beginning at the lower corner, under
the faucet, and laying them at an angle of 45 degrees, more or
less, so that the water must cross these layers as much as possible.
Charcoal pounded fine will answer without the burning, but is
better burned in an iron kettle.
Those who have no such filter in their cistern, yet would like
to obtain this filtered rain water, or to filter otlier water, can
obtain of John Kedzie, of Rochester, N. Y., the very best filters
there are. He invented the method above described, and fur
nishes filters ready for use at $5, $7 50, $10. They will last an
age, if repacked about every five years. The above sums, sent
him by mail, will procure by return express one of these health-
promoting luxuries, worth in every family a hundred times its
cost, and saving it, in most families, many times over, in doctors'
bills alone.
Having thus, as it were, gone around with the details of these
stories, let us look at them more in the aggregate.
Each story gives eight large, square-cornered rooms, each 15
by 21, lighted by one large window — far better than two smaller
ones, for then there are no confusing cross lights — always bad for
eyes, and preventing clear sight, besides adding greatly to the
cost of the room, and to uncontrolled air-holes. One large win
dow costs one-third less than two of half its size, gives jiist as

DESCRIPTION OF .THE AUTHOR'S RESIDENCE. 135

much light, and that all in a body, and is every way better and
cheaper. We have already given a few common-sense principles
about building, some of which will apply to large and small
windows. To these two point* in these stories special attention is invited.
First, every square room, itself large, has an adjoining room for
a bed, or for retiring to change dresses, or what you please ; and
I have been in hotels enough to know that these ante-rooms are
very great conveniences, and useful beyond what any one could
imagine, who had not experienced their value. Each is also light
ed ; and the small rooms have good places for beds, windows,
and corners, and all clearing the closet doors. The size of these
rooms comes well for carpets, namely, five yards wide and seven
long, so that no waste would occur to yard-wide carpets, where
the figures also occupy one yard in length, which is common.
The bedrooms are ten feet square — not quite so good, but
drugget two yards wide will cut and stretch so as to waste little,
if any. The other point is closets. On their value I will not enlarge,
but only say, live even in a poor house with them, and then in a
good one without them, if a good one without them were possible,
and you will want to move back again. Let practical housekeep
ers attest their value. No room is really tenantable without one,
because you must have very few things at hand, or else they must
be under foot, or tossed from chair to chair, and mantlepiece to
chair, in one Babel of confusion. " But can they not be put into
a bureau V it is asked. And what is a bureau but a closet in the
room, instead of adjoining it. Yet how insignificant is a bureau
compared with a closet! In the latter, fine dresses can hang un
ruffled, and several times more of them. Yet both closet and
bureau are desirable, if they can be afforded. And one closet,
while several times larger than a bureau, costs less by half, be
sides being every way better. Now please observe how beauti
fully our plan provides for these closets. Every room, except
those dark bedrooms, have one, and every suit of rooms has two.
Observe again, the advantages of this triangular form of closet.
What is wanted in a closet but wall room for shelves and pins.
Now suppose you take six feet square out of your house for a

136 SUPERIORITY CF THE OCTAGON FORM.
closet. Besides spoiling some room, your closet room is far less
available, for the room it occupies, than my triangular closets.
Your six-feet square closet occupies thirty-six square feet of your
house-room, yet gives you only twenty-four feet of shelf-
room, or one-and-a-half square feet of house-room to one foot
of shelf-room ; whereas my triangular closets, about four-feet
sides, give twelve feet of shelf-room for only eight square feet of
house-room, or only two-thirds of a foot of house-room to every
foot of shelf-room — a difference of fifty per cent, more shelf-
room by my plan than by yours, as compared with the real room
occupied by the two closets.
And then how much more accessible is a triangular than a
square closet ! By your plan, the door must be on one end, so
that you have to go clear into it, thereby darkening it, to get
to the back shelves ; whereas, by my plan, standing in the door,
you reach any part of any shelf, without going inside.
The upper part of most closets is shut up, by making the ceil
ing two or three feet liwer than that of the adjoining room. My
mason, as usual, thus cut off the upper part of the first closet he
finished, on seeing which, I said, "Finish the rest close up."
" Why," he exclaimed, " it is fourteen feet high. Pray how can
you ever reach or climb up to its upper part." Thinking a min
ute, I said, " Carpenter, make me a box the shape of thatdoset,
but one foot smaller each way, put in plenty of those iron hooks,
on which to hang things, and nail it, bottom side up, on to the
top of the closet, right over-head;'''' and taking a thin, long strip of
wood, like a lath, only longer and stronger, I put my clothes on
it, and hang them up, not only on all around the upper part of
the closet, but all around this box over-head, inside and outside
of it, so that every square foot of this closet is occupied. And it
is about as easy to hang up and take down a coat from right
over- head, and all around the upper part of the closet, as on the
lower hooks.
One other requisition about a good house I take the liberty of
alluding to, because so "necessary" to a real human want. Al
lusion is made to an in-door " water-closet." You have an infirm
guest, whom you would treat with all possible hospitality. Obli
ged, during a cold, rainy night, to respond to one of nature's im-

DESCRIPTION OF THE AUTHOR'S RESIDENCE. 137
perious calls, to go out to the usual place exposes him to take
cold, besides being so disagreeable. To employ any vessel in
his room, besides being repulsive to many, obliges him to breathe
noxious and offensive air the balance of the night. Then is not
an inside " water-closet" a real necessity in a prime liouse 1 And
under the stairs is just the place for one, its contents passing down
one of those chimney-places, marked in the preceding engraving,
into a receiving box in the cellar, made tight and easily cleaned,
so as to confine all its odor within itself, and both this receptacle
and the closet itself ventilated into an adjoining chimney. A re
cent invention in Boston renders these closets perfectly odorless,
by ventilating it from the seat downward into the chimney. This
prevents odor from passing up into the closet or house, for, in
ascending, it is swept by this air current, passing from the seat,
downward, and then off into the chimney, and is cleansed by water
from that cistern near by, so that every story can have one, with
out in the least scenting either closet or house. To squeamish
maidens and fastidious beaux this point is npt submitted, but
matrons, the aged and feeble, are asked, is not such a closet a real
household necessity and luxury 1 Yet it need be used only in
cases of special need, the one generally used being outside, as
usual. On one other point suffer this passing remark. Since God has
made human excrement promotive of vegetable growth, to waste
it, as is now usually done, is as wicked as to waste food itself,
for it is nature's means of creating food ; and to economize it, and
apply it to producing and enhancing vegetation, is a moral duty.
Then, if possible, so place this out-building that the wash-water
from the kitchen shall rinse it down into a covered vat, to be baled
out and applied in a liquid form to grape-vines, garden vegetables,
etc. The Chinese have abundance of such closets and vats, which
their economical farmers are perpetually exhausting to enrich
their lands. That law of progress, and ultimate need of food, de
veloped in the great law of Progression, aigues that all of earth's
enriching materials should be husbanded and applied to increas
ing human food — this of course inaluded. Since I adopted the
practice of having all my chamber and kitchen slops emptied
daily around my trees, their growth is indeed surprising, and

138 SUPERIORITY OF THE OCTAGON FORM.
becomes more and still more astonishing daily, from week to
week. Let every family plant out some choice vines and trees,
and serve them in like manner, and the amount of gustatory
luxury secured by this course will be most surprising. To waste
Heaven's best enriching materials is wicked ; to save them, wise
and self-serving. This species of manure, saved from all our
cities, villages, and families, would wonderfully enhance the abund
ance and cheapness of food, and some day it will all be saved.
46. PIAZZAS.
In completing the description of the author's residence, it re
mains to add, the piazzas are erected all around at each story.
In the two upper ones, the floor timbers of these piazzas are
halved into the floor inside timbers, so that the flooring binds the
whole together, and greatly promotes the stability of the whole
house. These verandas are delightful places on which to spend twi
light and moonlight summer evenings, in either promenading or
conversation. And the advantages of having them all around
the house is considerable, allowing you to choose sun or shade,
breeze or shelter from it, as comfort dictates.
The scenery from my own, especially at sunset, is most de
lightful. Commanding a full prospect of both the far-famed " High
lands," and also of the Cattskill Mountains, mountain-house
included, together with the opposite banks of the noble Hudson,
the sails on which are often in sight, besides " College-hill," ar><l
looking down on a vast stretch of level land up the Hudson val
ley, it is one of the most magnificent inland prospects I have
ever seen. The prospect is vast, like a great panorama, having
every variety of scenery, except water, which can rarely be con
nected with so fine a mountain and plain landscape.
On the evening of July 4th, rockets from nineteen towns and
villages were counted from my roof, and doubtless more might
have been seen if looked for.
From the top of the cupola, which is 20 feet high, and 21 in
diameter- — an octagon of eight-and-a-half feet sides — the view is
truly splendid. Of course the house can be seen " from all the
country round about."

SHADE-TREES, SHRUBBERY, ETC. 139

47. A GREEN-HOUSE AND FLOWER-PIT.
Every house should have its green-house. Even only a
to $400 house should have its hot-bed, or small green-house ;
while every $2,000 to $5,000 house should have a good one. If
the proprietor has not the means to make both as good as he
would, let him curtail his house to spend upon a green-house.
One of the first quality, say 100 feet long, will cost from $600
to $1,000, yet a good one, with cistern and other conveniences,
can be made for from $100 to $300. The most expensive part is
the glass and sash ; but glass costs, say $5 per 100 feet, and sash
about $2 or $2 50 each, say 3 by 12, while the wall part can be
built of the material described for building the house. If it has
but one roof, it requires one wall, about 12 feet high, but if it
has two sides glass, it requires but little wall.
Its advantages are, the luxury of grapes finer than can be had
in out-of-door culture, a place to start early cabbages, tomatoes,
potatoes, etc., and especially flowers in early spring, before nature
puts on her out-of-door floral colors. Indeed, it can be made to
subserve several very useful ends.
Another handy appendage to any house is a pit, in which to
bury winter flowers, made thus : Dig a pit, say ten feet square,
more or less, and four, five, or six feet deep ; then make a box
inside, say 6, 8, or 10 inches from the dirt, and fill in with tan
bark ; cover over all but a door, nailing boards on the lower side
of the floor timbers, which should be set slanting to shed rain ;
fill in with tan bark or saw dust ; then nail on your roof boards,
which should be matched, and have a double sash and lights at
the place you enter, one swinging up, the other down, and your
plants will keep without freezing all winter, and require only
wetting say once a month — for this is the season of rest, so that
they require little water till March will enable you to transfer
them to green-house or sitting-room.
48. SHADE TREES, SHRUBBERY, FRUIT TREES, ETC.
The prevailing fashion is to plant forest trees near the house.
Is this best? Shade draws musquitoes ; and this alone is very
objectionable. They do not gather in the shades of small single

140 STRAWBERRIES.

trees, but only where foliage is dense. Hence fruit trees can
surround the house without inviting them. And do not fruit
trees look as well as forest ? Their foliage is as green and beauti
ful. They lack only the size and massive majesty of large trees,
but excel them in the beauty of their blossoms and fruit. Cherry
trees often grow large, and, to my taste, far eclipse forest trees
in beauty of looks, especially while blossoming, and loaded with
ripening fruit ; for what looks better, more luscious, more inviting,
than a tree full of fruit, and in all its stages from blossom till its
fruit is picked 1 At least the difference in beauty is not great,
whereas the profitableness, and the real gustatory luxury derived
from fruit trees, renders them very far superior to forest trees.
And fruit trees, especially cherry, by the roadside, how beautiful,
how luxurious, how refreshing the fruit ! I have lined the road
where it passes through my own lands on both sides with them.
Forest trees are also absolutely incompatible with a fine pros
pect. Be your landscape ever so fine, they hide, or at least spoil
it. A grove somewhere below, or on a side of the house where
the prospect is poor, may do, but why not a grove of fruit
instead of forest trees 1 Still, " every one to his liking," while
we consider the kinds of fruits most desirable, and their culti
vation. STRAWBERRIES.
Of the value of this fruit it is not our purpose to speak —
their deliciousness attests that — but of their cultivation. Almost
every house has a little land or lot attached, at least a tithe of
which should be appropriated to this luxurious fruit. Probably
the best single variety is Hovey's seedling ; yet it is less prolific
than some others, and needs to be intermixed with some other
variety, in order to fructify it, all its blossoms being female.
The Virginia seedling is an early variety, and good to intermingle
with the Hovey. The Boston Pine is another excellent kind —
large, rich, and prolific. The Pine-apple comes on later than
either, and on this account is valuable ; and Newland's Pine still
later, besides hulling itself while picking, and ripening gradually.
Frequent watering will greatly promote their fruitfulness and
prolong their season of ripening Wher. not in bearing, slops

BLACK AND RED RASPBERRIES. 141
 ,  { 
from the kitchen and chambers will wonderfully increase their
fertility. BLACK RASPBERRIES
Begin to ripen before strawberries disappear, and are quite as
delicious — by most considered even more so. To my own taste
no flavor exceeds that of their juice expressed and sweetened.
On puddings, or eaten with bread, it is unsurpassed. And in our
ice house it can be kept for months, without the least fermenta
tion. Working spoils this flavor ; for what is the fermenting
but the souring and decaying process ; besides engendering alco
hol, which is inimical to life and virtue. This berry, as also leaf,
is astringent, and thus good to counteract bowel and summer
complaints, nor quite as bad to take as pikery. Select from the
fields bushes which bear large, luscious berries, transplant to some
corner of your garden, there to remain undisturbed, but wet often
with soap suds and chamber wash, and they will bear most aston
ishingly. RED RASPBERRIES
Ripen at .he same time, and for preserves stand unrivaled, if
not unequaled. Of these there are various kinds, of which the
Falstaff is perhaps the best for general culture, because the red
and white Antwerp require to be covered in winter ; yet are well
worth even this trouble. They bear most abundantly if kept
well manured. The ground can not be too rich.
Their standing price in the New York market is 25 to 35 cents
per quart, and their culture furnishes women who have to earn
their own living, or even spending money, a much more easy
way than the needle, and quite as genteel. Why is not berry
culture an appropriate female occupation'? Certainly for wife
and daughters to have their berry beds, and often adorn and
luxuriate the supper table, after husband or father return from
daily toil, is both appropriate and endearing. How he must
relish them when provided by those he loves, and that love him,
and provided as a token of the love they bear him ! Does not
this provision of small fruits furnish orr women with a most
excellent means of awakening and perpetuating affection 1 " Her

142 BLACKBERRIES  WHORTLE BERRIES — CHERRIES.
son's mandrakes" were Leah's means of wooing Jacob's com
pany and love over his other wives.
BLACKBERRIES
Follow in the wake of raspberries — first, the running, then the
standing. I have appropriated a portion of my own ground to
both kinds, and transplanted three choice kinds found growing
wild. I also imported choice bushes from Maine, New Hamp
shire, Vermont, Connecticut, and central New York, some of
which prove to be very large and luscious, and many times repay-
both expense and trouble. Once planted in rich ground, they
require little attention, except to pick the fruit. They, too, like
the black raspberry are astringent, and excellent for children.
The same remarks made of the juice of the raspberry, applies
equally to that of the blackberry. Diluted, sweetened, and
eaten with bread, and in place of milk, it is far more palatable,
nourishing, and healthy. Would that men would substitute ber
ries and their juice in place of milk and butter !
BLUE AND WHORTLE BERRIES
Are cotemporaneous with and follow blackberries, and are
about equal to them, and should be cultivated. These and black
berries fill an important gap between strawberries and cherries,
on the one hand, and peaches and apples on the other, and which
reincreases their value. CHERRIES.
Another excellent and delicious fruit. The best kinds for a
small garden are Coe's Transparent, Mayduke, Black Tartarian,
Yellow Spanish, and Coronation. Coe's Transparent is yet little
known ; was produced by Mr. Coe, a nurseryman, of Middle-
town, Conn., and is the very earliest really good cherry known
to the writer. The Mayduke and Tartarian all know too well
to require description. The common Morello is good for pre
serves and pies, yet too acid for the table, and a poor bearer.
Ramsey's Morello — a seedling raised in Fishkill, and to be had
of Brinkerhoff, nurseryman, Five Corners, Fishkill, Dutchess Co.,
N. Y. — is very early, is excellent for both cooking and table, very

APRICOTS  PLUMS. 143

rich and prolific, and one of four of the very best. Where
garden room will allow, the Waterloo and Knight's Early Black
should be added. They resemble each other closely, and also
the Black Tartarian, yet are a week earlier ; and Knight's Early
Black even precedes the Mayduke in ripening, besides fully
equaling the Black Tartarian in size and flavor. A single tree
of the common Black Mazzard may be well, because being late
to ripen, and good to eat and cook.
APRICOTS
Appear as cherries vanish. A tree or two are advisable,
yet should be budded on plum stock, and be on the south or
east side of some wall or house, or else#on the north side. The
Golden and Moorpark are the two best varieties — the former,
later in blossoming, oftener escapes spring frosts than the latter,
yet is not as fine a variety. PLUMS.
Of this fruit the very earliest really good kind is Rivers'
Early, a tree of which should enrich every garden. The Egg
Plum, popular because large, is worthless. Few kinds equal the
Green Gage in quality, yet the French Prune suits my taste as
well as any. Plant Coe's Golden Drop and Late Red, the Frost
Gage, Damson, Blue Gage, a common native variety, and other
kinds. But the curculio, a small bug like the pea-bug, large behind
and small before, and having a hard shell, is most destructive to
apricots and plums, and can be destroyed by hanging several
large-mouthed vials partly filled with sweetened water on the
limbs in which they will drown themselves by attempting to
drink ; by spreading sheets under the trees, and shaking hard,
which will cause them to fall; by scattering a double handful
of salt around under each tree, which will annoy and destroy the
worm before it hatches ; by collecting what plums fall off, and
steeping, thereby destroying the worm— and shaking off the stung
fruit  and by putting two or more wrings of cotton batting
around the tree to prevent their crawling up the tree, while yet
too weak to fly. Sprinkling or throwing dry lime on the to™

144 PEACHES — PEARS.

of the trees while wet with dew or rain, helps to keep both this
and other insects, especially ants, from the tree, besides benefiting
it. r It is equally good on all kinds of fruit trees.

This fruit is too well known and too delicious to need descrip
tion. Every house, in every locality where one will grow,
should have its peach trees.
The kinds most desirable for a small garden are, Early
York, Early Rareripe, George the Fourth, Washington, Morris
White, Crawford's Early, Crawford's Late, the Tartary, Scott's
Nonpareil, Nonesuch, Stump of the World, etc. But the kinds
are so numerous, and the.qualities of many so nearly alike, that
we can not detail them.
The two enemies of the peach are a worm at the root, and win
ter. The former are easily forestalled by annually examining
the crown of the roots, and if gum filled with some sawdust ap
pears, the worm is eating away, and must be dug out. Boiling
water poured about the roots will also kill them, and benefit the
tree, and any bad-smelling substance will also keep the parent
wasp-like insect from depositing its egg.
Against the winter they are easily protected by tying straw
around the body and main limbs — only a few minutes' work.
PEARS AND APPLES.
For deliciousness of flavor, melting texture, and juicy pulp,
pears stand unsurpassed, even by peaches.
The flavor of no peach surpasses that of a first quality of pear.
They are also in eating from July till April, while peaches are
obtainable only some three months. They likewise contain iron
in larger proportion than other kinds of food, and by furnishing
this indispensable life-instrumentality to the blood are especially
healthy for pale, consumptive, and blue-veined persons. Poor
pears are very unhealthy, but good ones as beneficial as any
other fruit. Their variety is also very great, sweet, acid, melt
ing, breaking, early and late, which adapts them to all palates
and persons. They are also extra good for stewing and preserv
ing — no fruit better.

PEARS. 145
The kinds most desirable for family use are, taking them in
the order of ripening, first the Early Sugar, or Sweet Harvest,
which is first to ripen, yet rather insipid ; next the Madeline,
three or four days later, yet far. better, and a truly excellent pear
both for eating and cooking, a tree of which every family shoul
have ; the Bloodgood, a rich, russety pear, following the Made
line ; the Passans du Portugal, or Portuguese Passion, a small
apple-shaped, melting, and most delicious variety, a wonderful
bearer every year ; the Rostiezer, very sweet and rich, yet small ;
the Bartlet, a fine, noble, buttery, prolific fruit, among the best ;
the Vergalue, or St. Michael, most melting and delicious, but
generally known ; the Seckle, a small, but the most highly
flavored of all ; the Louisa Bonne de Jersey, a large, beautiful,
and most delicious variety ; the Buere de Amaulis, good to eat
or cook ; the Duchess de Angouleme, first-rate on quince stock, yet
not so good on pear ; the Buffum, very prolific, and almost equal
to Vergalue ; the Buere Diel, an extra large and fine kind when
well cultivated ; Queen of the Low Countries, extra good for
preserves ; Catalac, and Rushmore's Bon Chretin, both first best
for cooking ; the Winter Neillis, Vicar of Wakefield, and Law
rence, for winter use ; and Buere Spence, Esther Buere, and
Buere Rans, the latest keeping of .all.
Stevens' Genesee, Chaumontel, Count de Lamy, Henry IV.,
St. Ghislain, Tyson, one ofthe sweetest and richest of pears, and
many other kinds are well worthy of cultivation, yet those who
have our first list will have at least a good, though possibly not
the very best, selection.
Their successful cultivation requires a rich soil, well supplied
with lime and bones. In many localities the winter kills them,
yet I think this occasioned by too deep setting. Thus the deep
roots continue warm, and therefore to send up sap after the
weather has changed from warm to cold, whereas shallow set
roots, becoming cold as soon as the top, do not force up sap
when cold enough to freeze it. Most trees are set too deep.
The crown of the roots should be above the earth. If your trees
are deep set, dig off all the earth down to where the roots
branch out, and you will lose few, if any, and none after fairly
established. 7

146 PEARS AND APPLES.

Most pears require to be picked before fully ripe, and are bet
ter if ripened off in the house.
Of apples we have little to say, because so common ; yet,
much as they are prized, how many neglect to set them, because
so long before they bear ! But time passes faster than we think
for. Once well set, and this is a most important point, they grow
while we sleep, and in a few years become large, fine trees, an
nually loaded with the means- of -health and gustatory luxury.
Peaches bear earliest, and pears are longest in becoming pro
ductive, yet live longest, and when one limb dies, send up others,
and live on in spite of decay and every thing else. As I was
bringing home a load of pear trees, a neighbor said: "A very
good thing for the neighborhood, this bringing into it these fine
fruits, for somebody will be benefited ; but, Mr. Fowler, you
and I will never live to see them bear, for it takes fifteen years
for that. This was in 1849 ; and I this year picked half a
bushel of delicious pears from some of the trees in that very
load ; and in four years more shall expect to pick four bushels
a-piece off from several of them. All who see my trees are
astonished that they fruit so early and abundantly. I attribute
it to two causes — throwing several horns, obtained of tanners and
comb-factors, or animals' skulls, obtained from butchers, or other
bones, into the holes, under the trees, before setting, and carting
the lees or residuum left after making soap, from a chandler's
factory. I cart it eight miles, and pay ten dollars a year for it,
and think it pays abundantly. Of all the trees I ever saw grow
out the ground, mine, served in this way, take the lead. These
lees contain alkali and salt, and are like soap suds, only far
better. Ashes are first best, especially for young trees, contain
ing the very elements required for the formation of wood.
But to recommend that assortment which will furnish a suc
cession of apples from July to May is all we will now attempt,
namely, the sweet and the sour Bough, ripe in July, the Jersey
Sweet, Maiden's Blush, Fall Pippin, Seek-no-farther, Tallman
Sweeting, Greening, Baldwin, Northern Spy, and Roxbury Rus-
set. Others may be added according to your ground, but
so much is already known of this fruit as to require little ex
planation.

ROOF AND ROOFING.

147

49. ROOF AND ROOFINO.
A roof nearly flat, so as merely to turn water, is, on several
accounts, greatly preferable to a steep one ; especially as a prom
enade, for drying clothes, etc. It is also more easily framed and
supported ; because a directly downward pressure is more easily
sustained than a slanting one. The water from every house
should be carried into cisterns, constructed in its top, to be used
in chambers, thus saving carrying it up. If the builder is not
able to do better, let him furnish a barrel, or hogshead, or a large
trough, lined with tin, to retain at least enough for washing pur
poses. And to have plenty of hot and cold water all through
the house is a luxury too great to be wanting in any complete
house. This is easily effected by constructing a cistern in the
top of the house, having a lead pipe connecting with a copper
boiler attached to furnace or stove, so that the water will be
forced down through this copper boiler, heated, and driven up
another pipe into the chambers, or a bath-room, and also drawn
out of the boiler direct. Probably the best way to construct
these cisterns is to make a strong box of joists and boards, and
line with, tin or zinc. These joists can be made to inclose and
hold the boards, and they the zinc — probably better than tin, for
it never rusts. A box can not easily be made .water-tight, and
hence the need of some inside lining.
Filters can be made inside these cisterns, according to direc
tions already given. The water from the roof can be made to
run off at eaves, as is usual, and taken inside by leaders, or the
roof so constructed as to have it run down in the center. In this
case spme sort of a balustrade will be required, which, while it
will increase the expense, will greatly improve the looks pf the
house. My own has this balustrade, serving the same purpose as
the banister of a portico. Mine is built partly of brick, and iu
part of the same material used in the house. It is three feet high,
and panelled ; and the middle of the panel-work is laid up with
open spaces in it, thus : a row of brick, laid one above the other,
then an open space alongside, then another row of brick, and
another open space. Above this is another tier laid solid, and
another smaller tier of open-work still above, and a layer of brick

148 ROOFING MATERIAL.

still above that. Cn four sides, the first foot of my balustrade
was laid up with brick, owing to the supposed difficulty of cast
ing the piers and panel-work out of our gravel material. But
after seeing just what was wanted, I cast the other four sides out
of this gravel- wall material, just as well as to have used brick,
and at a great saving of time and material. And there it stands,
unprotected, and some even unplastered, but endures all expo
sures to the weather, besides being full of corners, as solid as those
made of brick — proving that our concrete will stand the weather,
wholly unprotected, even by a coat of mortar.
At first, this balustrade was constructed solid, but looked so
heavy for the top of a house, that I suggested to the mason
whether brick could not be laid up open, so as to look lighter,
when he devised its present form. Still, it cost me considerable
time and money. Yet a wooden one on a stone house is hardly
appropriate. My roof proper is built just as you would build a floor, of
floor-timbers and boards, using matched flooring, every way as
for a floor, except pitching the water into six centers, one under
each of the four cisterns already mentioned, and two connected
by pipes with those two cisterns below, before described. Thus
much of roof; next of ROOFING MATERIAL.
Above a year ago, I supposed I had discovered a material
exactly and admirably adapted to roofing purposes, and published
it, but it cracks, and this spoils it. Put on in November, it was
perfectly tight till April, during which time I wrote my descrip
tion of it ; but the changes of temperature from hot days to frosty
nights caused it to swell and shrink so as to crack it. But even
yet I tried and hoped to patch it with the same material, but was
obliged finally to give it up, and resort to tin — the best metal
material yet generally known for roofing. My material was
composed of one part Blake's black Ohio paint, to six parts fine
beach sand, mixed together when dry, and wet with raw linseed
oil till thin enough to work with a trowel, and spread on to a
covering of cotton cloth, wrung out of linseed oil and spirits of
turpentine, and tacked down. Or thus : sew together three

GLASS FOR ROOFING. 149

breadths of cotton cloth, wet it in spirits of turpentine and linseed
oil, wring as dry as you well can, these breadths stretched and
tacked down, the whole covered with a compost made of six parts,
by measure, of white, clean, dry beach sand, such as is used for
scouring, to one of Blake's Ohio paint, mixed together while dry
and wet with linseed oil, and worked over as you temper mortar
till thin enough to spread with the trowel; spread as thin as you
well can, say one sixth to one fourth of an inch, and, after stand
ing a few days to harden, paint with Blake's Ohio paint and lin
seed oil. It hardens as hard as stone, will grind iron Or steel like
a grindstone or mower's rifle, and is impervious to water. Yet
it cracks when exposed to sudden changes of heat and cold.
Still, if inside of those, cisterns just described, or even in their
corners and joints, I think it will work well ; still have not tried
it there. I regret that I should have raised public expectation only to
disappoint it, but was misled by its not cracking in cold weather,
but cracking by sudden changes from heat to cold. The proper
ties of this compost are certainly most remarkable, and I doubt
n <t its only fault can be obviated ; still, to improve on it is out of
my line.
Mr. Joseph Hawley, of Detroit?, Mich., says he has discovered
a composition of which water-lime is the bond ingredient, which
he warrants. Its cost is about five cents per square foot, and I
know Mr. H. to be an honest and honorable man. His material
may be worth the trial. I recommend it with much confidence,
for I know the man himself altogether favorably, yet refer you to
him for particulars.
Some roofing material which can be spread on, yet will with
stand heat and frost, is indeed most desirable, and will some day
be discovered — for Nature provides for all the wants of all her
children — and water-lime, and sand are pbviously the mate
rial, if they could be kept from cracking, which is doubtless
possible. GLASS FOR ROOFING.
But I can not resist the growing conviction that glass is Nature's
roofing and flooring material. Impervious to water, unaffected

150 GLASS FOR ROOFING.
by extremes of weather, indestructible by time, and exactly
adapted to light the house from the roof, why is it not as well
adapted .to roofing as to windows? All requisite is to cast it so
thick as to prevent hail from breaking it, and, if you wish to
walk on the roof, to sustain a person's weight. Crystal-Palace
glass effects this end. Common green-house glass costs only
some four cents per foot, and can be made abundantly Jhick for
from six to eight cents. For roofing purposes the green-bottle
glass, f.r any other of poor or coarse quality, will answer just as
well, and a junk bottle, furnished at six dollars per hundred, would
contain material enough, I should think, for half a foot square.
The stock for green glass costs little, being composed mainly of
sand, everywhere cheap and abundant, and saltpeter and ashes,
two other cheap ingredients, so that the material for glass roofing
need cost but little, and its casting or working into forms adapted
to roofing need not be expensive, for, unlike window-glass, wrinkles
and spots do not hurt it. I doubt whether to make Crystal-
Palace glass costs over eight or ten cents per square foot. A
tin roof costs eight to ten cents for tin and laying, and two cents
for the boards under it — say twelve cents ; while glass, if manu-
ufactured on a large scale, would probably not cost more.
As to putting it together, I would suggest casting it in plates
as wide and long as is convenient, and the longer the better, and
put together by putty, or India rubber, or some other elastic sub
stance, pressure on which, by crowding the glass hard, will keep
out water. At all events, they can be easily put together so as
to shed water with putty, which is cheap and water-proof, and
well adapted to this end.
But again ; can not this glass be cast on the roof by having
small portable furnaces, so that they can be stationed on the roof,
and melt and run your sand, saltpeter, and potash on the spot,
and all in one solid sheet 1 I only suggest. To this end, could
not, after the floor-timbers are placed, a board as wide as they
are far apart be nailed along between them, a coating of sand —
that used for molding — be spread over, and the melted glass run
on this sand, and the boards and sand then taken away from
below ] Glass can be melted at ordinary red-heat, by a recent
invention. Can not some ingenious man work out this suggestion

OCTAGONAL SCHOOL-HOUSES. 151
into some practical results worth a fortune to him and the world %
But, at least, observe these two facts, that glass is admirably
adapted to roofing purposes, and that glass material is almost as
cheap as dirt, and abundant everywhere.
The inventor just mentioned proposes to use it for the walls
of houses, so cheap does he hope to make it. If glass can be
used for roofing, it could be run in all sorts of forms and molds
of beauty, interweaving, as in carpets, any varieties and combi
nations of beautiful figures. In this case iron should be used in
place of floor-timbers as rafters, the sun and light kept out, or
softened by paint, and all kinds of colors could be added ; thus
rendering floors and roofs most beautiful, and dispensing with
lath and plastering overhead.
THE OCTAGON FORM AND GRAVEL-WALL APPLIED TO SCHOOL-
HOUSES AND CHURCHES.
The school-house is the first corner-stone of our nation's great
ness, the next being the ballot-box ; but the former underlying
and guarding the latter. All my neighbors refused to locate our
district school-house on their lands, while I coveted its location
on mine. It teaches reading and arithmetic, and these start
human intellect on its ascending pathway, to be carried onward
and upward inimitably.
Then, since whatever appertains to schooling is correspondingly
important, the best form for a school-room becomes a matter of
no small consequence. And here, the nearer we can approach
the circular form the better. To gather around a spherical or
elliptical table, occasions more harmony and agreeable sensations
than around a square one. To have a truly agreeable chit-chat,
we require to form into a circle. Why our universal use of " the
family circle," "circle around the fireside," and the like, but
that this circular arrangement of the parties facilitates that mag
netic flux and reflux of emotion which creates these delights'?
As in magnetic and electrical experiments we must complete a
circle, so, that several minds may act in concert, it is requisite
that they form around and face a common center. The more so
where, as in school, all eyes are often required to be directed
simultaneously toward the same object — the teacher. This pur-

152

OCTAGONAL SCHOOL-HOUSES.

pose the octagon form serves better than the square, and is prefer
able every way — mpre than enough so to build the extra angles.
This form will also give the teacher a far more sightly and ad
vantageous stand-point. Of course, to be heard and seen well,
he requires to front the whole school. A desk at one end spoils
that end, by placing all its scholars actually behind the teacher,
while those at his right and left on the sides near this end must
look at his sides, not front, while those at the opposite end are
farther off than if the house were octagonal.
Fig. 28.

OOTAGONAL SCHOOL-HOUSE.

Besides, these square angles break the sound, and cause echoes
far more than octagonal ones. Many other like advantages ap-

COMPLETE VENTILATION. 153
pertain to the octagonal form over the square, but these should
suffice to secure its universal adoptionjhwherever a good school-
house is attempted. Yet we leave it mainly on its naked merits,
or on the way it strikes the reader's obvious common-sense view
of this important matter. Let the foregoing engraving speak
to the eye, and through it be allowed to lay its appeal to the
sound judgment of those who would put their children into a good
school-house. Of course, since the cost of school-houses consists mainly in
walls, roofs, seats, and floors, and since our gravel-wall greatly
cheapens walls, it must cheapen the school-house more, relatively,
than other houses — roof, floor, and seats being the same by this
method as by that. But its light is far more advantageous.
The square house must, of course, have two windows on a side,
else its corners will be dark — will any how be much darker than
our octagonal corners — whereas a window to each octagon side
will look better and more proportionate outside, and be far better
inside than a square house with two windows per side. The light
will then come in at the back and over the shoulders of the
scholars, hurt their eyes less, shine on the book far better, be
more equally distributed through the corners, and be exactly
what is wanted in every respect. The same is true of the heat.
The room, too, will be more compact, the scholars more equi
distant from the teacher, not some too far off, while others are
too close by, so that every feature of this octagonal plan recom
mends its universal adoption.
Of course one side should be appropriated to entrance and the
teacher's desk, which should be contiguous. This form will also
enable teacher to see scholar as much better than the square, as
scholar teacher, and allow him to take in the whole school at one
furtive glance better than he could do in a square room.
The seats should all face inwardly, and rise from the center
toward the sides ; but this has no special reference to our octagon
form. complete ventilation.
No school-house should ever be erected without ample pro
vision for fresh air — this most essential human requisition. An

154 COMPLETE VENTILATION.
opening to let it in from below, and another for its escape at the
top, are indispensable alike to the child's health of body and vigor
of mind ; for foul air thickens the blood, and thereby renders in
tellect obtuse, memory confused, and the feelings blunt. Better
cut short their supply of food or clothes than of fresh air. Yet
how easy its supply — a few dollars at most securing it while the
house stands — but how almost universally neglected ! And how
many scores of thousands, every day, and all over our country,
are breaking down their constitutions and enfeebling themselves
for life, in mind as well as body, just for lack of this simple con
trivance. To warming the feet special attention should also be paid.
Cold feet occasion colds, headache, and mental dullness, besides
deranging the circulation permanently, and breeding disease most
effectually. If they can be kept warm, the body will take care
of itself. Provide for this, and you need not heat the room any
thing like as hot as you otherwise must, to insure comfort. To
do this, the room should be heated by a furnace plaeed below,
into which admit fresh air, and from which have a brick flue ex
tend around the house, under the floor — not very expensive, but
very comfortable.
Parents, on your love of your dear children I ground this ap
peal. Perfect your school-houses. No longer suffer them
completely to ruin so many fine children — some by breaking down
the life-power, and leaving them sickly and inane for life, and so
many others by burying them in the very dawnings of humanity.
Inattention here is child-murder; for in almost every school-
house these death-inducing causes are silently, insidiously, but
most venomously at work, dealing out disease and death to chil
dren, and heart-breaking agony and desolation to bereaved parents.
Yet the school-room might be made perfectly healthy to both
teacher and scholar. Parents, make it so. Teachers, urge this
point. School-teaching, in and of itself is pre-eminently healthy.
Only bad school-houses render it otherwise. This want of ven
tilation, and unequal temperature, and other like causes, render
it unhealthy to both you and the scholar. See that houses are
built and kept right, and teaching will promote your own and
their health, whereas now it makes such havoc of both. To

OCTAGONAL CHURCHES. 155

CHURCHES
The octagonal form is as advantageous as to school-houses, and
for like reasons. To impress an audience, a speaker requires
that they be gathered all around him, except at his back, where
the choir should be located. The octagon form secures this end
perfectly. The square form, with the pulpit at one end, and the
house much longer than wide, is most awkward for both speaker
and hearer. Some are too far off, others too near. Compactness
and equi-distance facilitate impressibility. These the octagon
form promotes, while the square and oblong shapes prevent, the
same as in school-houses. Let the principle here involved, name
ly, that an audience is much more readily impressed or affected
if seated in the spherical than square form, and square than ob
long, be duly appreciated, for its bearing is cardinal and funda
mental. This alone should secure the universal adoption of the
octagonal form for churches.
And our gravel- wall is just the material out of which to build
them ; for the wall is one of the chief items of expense, and we
have seen how much can be saved on that score by using our
material instead of brick, especially at present prices.
One window on a side should suffice, and made the larger the
more light is wanted, but is in better taste than two. The en
trance should always be in front of the speaker, so that the whole
congregation need not have their attention diverted to witness
every ingress and egress. That is, the entrance should be at the
back of the audience.
The octagonal form also facilitates the congregation's seeing
one another, and thereby the interchange of friendly and benig
nant feelings toward one another: mark this point. Seat a congre
gation Ir. a long, narrow house, with the pulpit at one end. Of
course the faces of all are to the backs of all. None can see the
faces of any, except when beholder or beheld turn around.
Hence, but little interchange of good feeling through the counte
nance can well occur. But seat them in the octagonal form, the
seats all partly facing all, thus allowing all to see each, and each
all, and the benign smile of recognition and good feeling enkin
dled by this freedom of seeing each other, and expressed in the

156 OCTAGONAL CHURCHES.
countenance, will spread from " face to face," and soul to soul.
In short, what a world of meaning is embodied in this " face to
face" — exactly what our form secures.
Fig. 29. — OCTAGONAL CHUBOH.

PULPIT .1  1 ...

/

/
\
\
ENCLOSED. PORCH
This form will also accommodate those who attend church
"for looks," or to " see and be seen." I once asked a lady what
were her reasons for attending Grace Church ; " Sympathy of doc
trines 1" " No," she frankly answered ; " to tell the whole truth,
I chose it because of its extra gentility. The fashionables all go
there, and of course I must go too."
Now, ought not our churches to be built so as to serve the wants
of this class of attendants ? If a genteel woman wants to exhibit
GENERAL BUILDING DIRECTIONS. 157
her dress, or tinsels, or paddings, why do let her. She may
thereby be brought within the reach of good.
Seriously, is not our form of house and arrangement of seats
admirably adapted to promote the ends of religious meetings?
Let a congregation worship in the octagon, and then in the square,
and they will feel the difference most delightfully in favor of the
octagon. The mere arrangements of the seats we have not studied par
ticularly, because the architect can do that better than we, because
various arrangements of seats and aisles could be made to suit
various societies, because different plots of ground will require
different entrances and arrangements of slips, and because our
form allows even a greater diversity in this respect than the rect
angle form.
True, in a square or oblong form the seats can be so arranged
as to secure this facing of the minister and one another, yet not
as naturally, whereas it can not be made as effectually to secure
compactness. 51. GENERAL BUILDING DIRECTIONS AND ADVICE.
It would seem proper to conclude this work with a few general
common-sense directions to novitiates in building, partly by way
of saving them from learning by bitter experience, and partly to
facilitate economy and expedition.
MATURE YOUR PLAN WELL.
Think up, beforehand, just what you want, in order to provide
for it at the right stagt of the building. Study where you can
crowd in this little convenience, or that means of comfort, and
lay out your shell accordingly. If you want a dumb waiter, or
cistern, or any article whatever, consider which, what, where, and
how, in season. Few houses have a dumb waiter, yet every two-
story house should have one ; and an entry is a good place for
one. They are easily rigged, thus : A good-sized wheel, one,
two or three feet over, according to the width or length of the
waiter, so that one side of this wheel shall take the rope from the
center of the dumb waiter, and the other side drop the weight
attached right into its pocket — this wheel, rigged to run on four

158 GENERAL BUILDING DIRECTIONS.
little wheels, such as are often used for grindstones, and the waiter
itself made by erecting four corner posts, a slat across each end
at every shelf, for the shelf-boards to rest upon, no boards at
back or ends, and only half-inch shelving, all well braced, and
rope and weight finishes it. I planned my own traveling closet
long after I planned my house ; and at more cost and less com
pleteness than if I had thought of it seasonably. Yet far better
such improvements added on afterward than not at all. Having
matured your plan, and embraced all you intend or can afford —
GET ALL READY.
Work done at a disadvantage is done at great extra cost. All
delays are very expensive. Anticipate what is wanted, and have
it at command. To wait for one thing will often stop all or
most of the work, and occasion much loss of time and temper.
EMPLOY GOOD WORKMEN.
One really good hand is worth several poor ones. A poor one
or two, thrown in to do odds and ends, may do, but must be
trusted with nothing on which any thing else is depending, unless
watched at every stroke. The boss — for every thing must have
its head — should at least possess both mind and knowledge of his
business, as well as industry and integrity.
Then seek to promote good feeling toward yourself and each
other, and especially interest them in your work, as if it were
their own. But send away the disaffected at once. Best of all —
Keep your own common sense ever about you, and sharp
ened up for any emergency. In nothing do men fail in building
as much as in this commodity.
May this book aid every reader in either creating or improv
ing A GOOD HOME.
Finally, your house once built, consecrate it by love;
never desecrate it by discord. Let it be made holy and sacred
by conjugal, parental, and filial affection. And in this, its united
head — the father and mother — must lead off. They disaffected,
all will dislike all. They fond, all will be fond. Show me diso
bedient, bad-tempered children, and I will show you discordant
feelings, if not heart-burnings between their parents. Husbands

GENERAL BUILDING DIRECTIONS. 159
and wives, do live in love — at least agree to .disagree — or live
apart. Your house is holy ; do not defile it. Let every night's
rest, every gustatory repast, every intellectual and moral enter
tainment, and every other pleasure participated in by the family
within that hallowed home, but enhance your love for it and for
EACH other. Scattering Observations.
These, omitted in their proper places, had better be inserted
here than omitted. The Author's Front Stairs.
1. In the drawings in the book his front stairs are drawn at the
ice and green houses, so as to leave the lower as the main entrance,
whereas in the upright drawing in the frontispiece the stairs are
drawn at the front door. He has thought best to change them
in front, because none will naturally come up these stairs except
those who may properly enter parlor or sitting-room. Others will
naturally pass in behind, and enter under these stairs into the
lower or through entry.
This octagon form can be adopted for brick or frame buildings
about as well as in the gravel wall. An octagon angle is not
quite as easily framed as a square, yet is not difficult ; and when
brick are used, they can be either clipped, or laid up with their
corners projecting, thus furnishing an ornamental cornice.
Exclude Vermin.
2. Be sure to stop out all rats and mice in the start; first, by
making a projection of some inches, even with or just below the
level of the cellar-floor. They absolutely must have holes for
nests.1 They rarely dig into the middle, but always at the
sides of rooms, or down by the wall. Now, if they dig an inch
or two and find a piece of stone or brick they give up, and find
ing no home go elsewhere. To stop them out of the house, fill
in all your walls clear up to the top of the floor-timbers, or to the
floor above, and also, after mop or base-boards are nailed on, and
before lathing, fill in between these boards, or at the bottom of
all walls, with stone or mortar, or our concrete — only a few
minutes' work, yet it forecloses all thoroughfares ; so that if one
gets in, he can not get round the house to breed or feed.

160

SECTION V.
OTHER PLANS FOR PARTITIONING AN OCTAGON HOUSE
BARNS, ETC.
52. A superior plan for a GOOD-SIZED HOUSE.
After our last sheet of proof, as we thought, had been read
and returned, our engraver, Mr. Howland, who has quite an archi
tectural taste and talent, and to whom we refer our readers for any
additional drawings, plans, etc., suggested another mode of parti
tioning off an octagon house ; and feeling that we have not given
a sufficient number of plans, we append another section. The
following diagram represents a house so concordant with both the
author's taste and the octagonal mode of building, that he not only
appends it, but, for an ordinary sized house, recommends it as
superior to any other he has seen, for simplicity, convenience, and
practical utility.
It gives four square rooms to each story, a front and back
entry, central stairway, two bed-rooms, eight closets, and a dumb
waiter, as well as chimneys. The four rooms can be used as fol
lows, or in any other way thought best. F, E, front, and B, E,
back entrance, P, parlor, D, dining-room, K, kitchen, B, bed-room,
S, stairway, ascending and descending; A, dumb waiter ; b, small
bed-room, c, closets, and p, pantries.
Now we submit to every judge of a first best suite of family
rooms, whether this is not complete and perfect. It retains all
the peculiarities and advantages of our octagon style, namely,
compactness and contiguity of rooms, central stairway, closets.
and small bed-rooms. Let us examine them.
Suppose the front door to be on the southwest side, and back
entrance northeast — or the reverse will d: abou-. squally well, as

A SUPERIOR PLAN FOR A GOOD-SIZED HOUSE.

361

will also a southeast front and northwest back entry, or a south
east front and southwest back entrance, if this is handiest to the
back buildings, or a northwest front and southeast back entrance,
or a southeast front and northwest back entrance, or ar/ other
arrangement of front and back entrances which will best serve
your front road or street and back buildings. Yet it is prefer
able that they be between the four cardinal points of compass, so as
to bring the four main rooms due east, west, north, and south. Ou r
parlor will now front toward sunset, which is peculiarly appro
priate, since we use this room mostly afternoons and evenings;
and our kitchen toward sunrise, also peculiarly appropriate; our
dining-room on the south side, to enjoy all there is of spring, win
ter, and fall mid-day sun, while the bed-room faces north, and its
aspect is of little account. Fig. 80.

4.

B.E

>

r—

i
TH 1 '

iii'i

-f

r

PANTRY

THB BEST PLAN YBT.

162 A SUPERIOR PLAN FOR A GOOD-SIZED HOUSE.
Another point worthy of remark is, that the dining-room is the
great central living and congregating room of the whole family,
and therefore should be the most pleasant room as to sun and air
in the house. And I think a south aspect to be the most pleasant,
because during fall, winter, and spring, sun is a far greater luxury
than shade, and a southern aspect more inviting than any other.
Even in midsummer it is preferable, for in sultry weather the
wind is usually in the south, so that at those times when the in
tense heat renders a breeze to cool your room most desirable, you
can have it ; whereas, on the north side, you can get only a
northerly breeze, which you rarely need, because when the wind
is northwardly it is cool enough without any. Most northerly
winds are so cool as to require their exclusion instead of invita
tion. Of a very hot day it is but little hotter on the south than
north side, while the south breeze, if breeze there is at all, which
always accompanies extreme heat, more than counterbalances
this excess of heat. Moonlight evenings a southern or south
western aspect is better than any other, and hence a southern or
south-western bed-room is better than any other aspect. At all
events, the aspect of all these rooms is peculiarly appropriate to
the use of each. Yet, since each is alike, different builders can
make different uses of each according to their respective wants,
fancies, grounds, etc., as may best suit themselves. Obviously,
however, the parlor should be on one side of the front entry and
the dining-room on the other, while the kitchen should join the
back entry.
But the back entry could be on the lower right-hand side, or
between the dining-room and kitchen, quite as well as between
kitchen and bed-room — would probably be even more convenient,
for we rarely need to go from entry into bed-room, yet often from
entry into both kitchen and dining-room. And, doubtless, in most
cases, the out-buildings can be so arranged as to have the front
entrance bet1- een parlor and dining-room, and back entrance be
tween dining-room and kitchen, or, relatively, where the pantry is
now placed.
Still, while this would be a better location for the entry, it
would not be as good for pantry, which should, of right, be between
kitchen and dining-room, so that you can pass from either into

THE MAIN STORT. 163

this pantry with and for things, and then through into the other.
This location of pantry between kitchen and dining-room is really
admirable — the very handiest place possible.
Two small closets could and should be partitioned off from its
two acute angles, the one opening into the dining-room for dishes,
castors, and other table utensils, and perhaps table-cloths, pies,
etc., and the other into the kitchen, in which to set away kitchen
things, " cold victuals," and the like, for which its being dark
will make it all the better, by excluding flies. At all events
they will be exceedingly convenient.
A triangular dumb-waiter, A, might well be located in its right
or inner angle, having three openings, one into kitchen, the other
into dining-room, and the other into the pantrv, so as to serve
each room — a complete place for this essential requisite to every
oomplete house. It would bring things up and down into both
chamber and cellar, and save a world of weary steps. If this
traveling closet is not put here, the doors from kitchen and dining-
room should be put close into the inner corner ; but if placed here
they should be put close to it.
Six other closets are also provided for by our plan : two in the
angles of each entry, and two more in those of the small bed
room. They can be made larger or smaller at pleasure, to open
into whichever room is deemed best, and to run at right
angles to either wall, but I should prefer to have them square
with the putside wall, excepting thpse of the bed-room, which may
square with the cross-walls, so as to give the more room for the
bed. As we hardly need a closet to the parlor, we will have the
one at the left of the front entrance open into the entry, and ap
propriated to overcoats, hats, umbrellas, etc., while a hat-stand
placed at the inner angle of this entrance would receive those
in every-day use.
The other one should open into the dining-room, where it
would do admirable service. Another naturally opens from the
left-hand angle of the back entry into the kitchen, and would
serve for tins, kitchen utensils, etc., while the one at the right
hand can be made to open into either the large bed-room or
entry. But this large bed-room has another on its other side, so
that this might be used for a wash-closet, having a pump con-

164 A SUPERIOR PLAN FOR AN OCTAGON HOUSE.
nected with a cistern below ; and still another angle in the left-
hand corner of this small bed-room gives another closet to either
parlor or bed-room ; yet, as closets to parlors are considered out
of taste — though not by me — it can connect with the bed-room,
where it would probably be needed even more than in the parlor.
This abundant supply of closets and small rooms furnished by
the octagon plan will perfectly enamor every one who experi
ences its luxurious convenience.43, w People do without them
only because they have so few of them as not to know their
value. Description, however vivi8, can not do justice to their
utility. Only experience, both without anc with, can adequately
impress their usefulness. This feature alone of the octagonal
plan should and will secure its general adoption.
Small rooms, too, are a very great convenience. They serve
some purposes even better than large ones. Every house, to
be any way complete, should have a gradation of rooms from
large down to small. This will render a given amount of room
far more available and serviceable than if all the rooms, as is
usual in double houses, are about equal in size.38
Observe, also, how much shorter the passage from room to
room than in the usual double house, having a through entry.38
Thus you pass from parlor to kitchen by only passing through
one ten-foot stairway, or across the narrow end of the dining-
room, and from parlor to bed-room, and dining-room to kitch
en, even easier than if side by side. You go around or across
the stairway, and from room to room, or to and from each room
above or below with at least one quarter the steps required for
like passages in ordinary double houses, as shown in fig. 16.38
See, too, how little room, comparatively, is consumed by entries,
yet how completely every end of an entry is subserved !
Let us next inquire, how much room this plan will give us,
both absolutely and comparatively. If your sides are fifteen feet,
each large room is 15 x 12 =176 -H 9 = 18| yards, minus those
small corner clips, which do not lessen the real working size of
the room at all, as seen in fig. 11 and its explanation.35 The
stairway should be ten feet square, yet one door, probably that
out of the bed-room into the stairway, may have' to be sacrificed,
unless the stairs pass from one corner through the center across

THE MAIN STORY. 165

diagonally, or the longest way, and then turn an acute angle.
But of this a ion. This square can be made larger or smaller at
pleasure, but should not be so large but that the doors will come
in between the corners of the stairway and those triangles. Ten
feet square is the least we can' well have it, and eleven or twelve
will be better ; but twelve will be ample for as large a house as
may be needed.
It might be well to connect the small bed-room with both the
parlor and large bed-room, so that it can be used with either.
This small bed-room off the parlor will be very genteel
and handy into which to introduce visitors for the night. Yet
as the large bed-room will be the dormitory of the master and
mistress of the family, it will also be convenient for a children's
sleeping-room. It is at least one of the handiest little rooms
imaginable. Its size will depend on that of the house and closets.
In a 15 feet sided octagon it would be 7 by 7, besides those cor
ners cut off by the closets. In this case the bed must stand
against the window, and the closet-door open into the closet, un
less it is connected with the parlor. Yet if the closets are small,
and the wall is made as drawn, it can stand against the parlor-
door when used with the large bed-room, but removed against
the bed-room door when used in connection with the parlor. But
if the sides are 18 feet, equal to a 36 feet square house, or one
30 by 42, it will give us a nine feet square room, besides those
angles at the closets, together with good-sized closets, in which
case a bed can be placed several ways. In this case, the four
large rooms will measure 18 by 16, less width of wall, which
will come right for carpet, of which each room will hold 30 yards,
and be of full size for comfort and use. At the doors a great
deal of wear will occur, which those corners of the carpet turned
over or under, or cut off and used as a rug, will just serve as a
resupply. Box-boards, as described for making the outside wall,14 come
16 feet, and therefore this will be a convenient size for the
house. This will make the rooms, walls, and boards deducted,
about five yards wide, another convenient size for carpets.
But a house 20 feet sides will cost no more for doors and win
dows, and 'but the merest trifle more fer floors, partitions, base-

166 A SUPERIOR PLAN FOR A GOOD-SIZED HOUSE.
boards, lath, and plastering, etc.,28 and will a hundred-fold
more than repay in usefulness this trifling extra cost in money.
The outside box-boards could then be spliced easily by cutting
one board into four pieces, and splicing by simply nailing on a
batting across the place of junction, extending a foot or more
on each side, and consisting of any piece or pieces of board, of
any shape and length at hand. This will take twenty boards to
form one tier of boxes. Or the walls could be made 21 feet just
as well, by cutting two five and two three-feet pieces from a 16
feet board, the five feet to splice on the outside, and the three
feet on the inside box-board. This splicing a board by nailing a
piece on to both, is the work of only a minute. This will render
your rooms 21x18 = 378 square feet -^9 = 42 yards — large
fine rooms, and make a fine-looking house. Yet I do not see
how it could cost over $50 to $75 more than one of 15 feet
sides.38 And since the room occupied by entry and stairway is
the same in all three, all this increase of room will be in the rooms.
Let us see how much room it will give compared with a square
house of like size. A house 30 feet square, with a through entry
of eight feet, gives us 900 square feet in the house, less 240 in
the entry, or only 660 in the rooms, and only two rooms on a
floor, unless the entry is in the middle, which gives us only 11
feet wide rooms, or 11 by 15, or 165 in each, -H 9 =18 square
yards. But by the octagon form we have only 10 X 10 = 100
sq. ft. stairway, and 8 x 6 X 2 = 96 in the entries, = 196 -H 9=21
square yards, and 15 x 12| = 187 x 4 = 748 + 4 half squares, or 2
squares of 10 feet in the triangles = 200 + 748 + 196 = 1,144, or
about a quarter gain in the whole house, and one third more room
within the rooms, and that three times better adapted to family
purposes — this complete, that awkward ;38 this compact, that
scattered;38 this cut up into four good-sized rooms, all adjoin
ing each other — a parlor, dining-room, kitchen, two bed-rooms,
and eight closets, besides front and back entry, and stairway, and
a dumb waiter — that only illy-contrived, long, and narrow parlor,
bed-room, kitchen, and dining-room, separated by a through entry,
the stairs unhandy to at least two of the rooms, and not one
place for a closet (see fig. 16), nor any place for ohimney, unless
it is taken right out »f whole cloth ; whereas ours takes up no

COMPARISON OF THE TWO PLANS. 167
room at all which could or would be appropriated to any other
earthly use, but only taking a small unused corner off from our
broad stairs, and a capital place for a dumb-waiter besides. See
how many ends ours subserves, and how few yours.
But if your square-angled house is oblong, say 22 x 38, the
matter is much worse, by taking more room into the entry, and
giving only two rooms, 14 x 19, or only a parlor and back par
lor, and obliging you to build another house out back for kitchen,
pantry, and other such uses. Is not our plan incomparably the
superior, in every possible aspect? That gives you only 532
square feet within the rooms to our 944, or
948.n_86.12_7i.532^11_48^12~T^4"-
as large again, all but I of one.
But if our sides are 21 feet, our room inside is 21 x 18=378 x
4 + 14 x 14 X 2 + 12 X 12=2,048* and our net room within
the rooms, 12 * 12 stairway +8X8X2 entries 272=1,776,
while the net room of a square house of the same size would
be only 42 x 42=1,764—8 x 42=1,426, which reduced by
division 1,766 148 23
1^28 ¦ 12~TT9 • 6-f9 ¦ 6
almost one fourth the most available room in our octagon house,
and that more than one fourth the more available, or a difference
of more than half in favor of the octagon. If the right- angle
house is oblong, say 34 x 50, the difference will be still greater,
or 1,700 square feet — 50 x 8=400 in the entry, if it runs the
long way of the house, or 1,300, but if the short way, 256 or 1,444
net room to our 1,776 ; and yours only 5 rooms, all told, but ours
18! besides providing for chimneys, which the other plan does
not. By that plan you must separate kitchen from dining-room,
or else dining-room from parlor, by your through entry ; whereas
by our ^plan, both kitchen and parlor join dining-room — an ar
rangement the superb convenience of which we respectfully yet
triumphantly submit to every practical housekeeper and common-
sense observer.
* As our figure is a little more than 14 feet to the inch, while we meas
ure it as just 14, we shall get a little more room than is here estimated.

168 A SUPERIOR PLAN FOR A GOOD-SIZED HOUSE.
Now here are two good-sized country houses, one on the old,
the other on the new plan. To say that the new is as good
again as the old is far within bounds. It might cost a hundred
dollars the most, because of the greater number of inside walls, au
increase, however, utterly insignificant, compared with its increased
utility and beauty. The number of windows would be the same,
twelve in each, of doors the most in ours, the entry doors the same
in both, but ours gives two the most rooms, and four extra doors
into the stairway, besides a door to each closet.
53. THE CELLAR STORV.
But let us descend into the ground story to see what chances
for conveniences we find there. We will have the main story
two or three feet above the ground, and enter the cellar story
under the stairs which go up to the main story, or at any other
place deemed best ; will build eight square pillars in this cellar,
one under each corner ofthe stairway, and one under each inner
angle of those four triangles, out of our concrete, making the box
in which to cast them by nailing together at their edges four
boards as long as the story is high, and as wide as we wish the
pillars large, say a foot or 16 inches. This gives eight solid rest-
ing-points, and if preferred you "can now make walls, as drawn
in the accompanying figure, or any others liked better, or none
at all. (See engraving on next page.)
Yet there should be a furnace at/, to heat dining-room and par
lor — the kitchen being heated by its own cooking fire — while the
bed-rooms will need none, yet can also be heated.
A kitchen below, located as marked in our engraving, in which
to do up the rough and bad smelling work of the family, will be
desirable, and can be ventilated through the corner of the stair
way between dining-room and kitchen.
By the side of this work-kitchen or wash-room and ice-room
near the pantry is an excellent place for a milk-room, which is
all the more convenient on account ofthe dumb-waiter coming into
it, to transport milk and other things up and down.
Adjoining this wash-room should be a cistern to -receive the
rain-water from the roof.46 This can be located at the right
of the back entry, and will then, by means of a pump, furnish

A SUPERIOR PLAN FOR ANT-SIZED HOUSE. 169

Fig. 81.

CELLAR, OB BASEMENT STOBY.
water to tlie bed-rooms above — the closet located in the angle
cut off from the back entry above — a better use of it perhaps
than that for boots, shoes, and tools above noticed, for these wash-
closets, adjoining bed-rooms, are most comfortable and luxurious
indeed ; or it can be placed at the left, which will be under the
kitchen, and adjoining the work- kitchen — also very handy — or in
any other place chosen, yet I think the latter the best, especially
since lead pipe can conduct the water from this cistern, wherever
located, into the bed-room closet just mentioned.
A tool-closet for spades, shovels, hoes, etc., will be handy
either in this cellar, near the back entrance, or in the barn; and
if in this cellar, on the right as you enter is a good place.
The adjoining space, W, will make an excellent place for wood,

170 CELLAR STORY.

which would naturally come in at the back-door, and will then
be near both the furnace below and the work-kitchen as well as
the foot of the stairs leading above, which, obviously, should
start near F, because you will need in descending to land near
your work-kitchen ten times as often as anywhere else, and in
ascending to land at the kitchen above. And then, too, if we
must sacrifice or discommode any room above let it be the bed
room, because we need to go from it up and down less than from
any other room, but most from kitchen. The foot of these stairs
will also be near the dumb-waiter — another fine arrangement.
They will also be in the large square below, and therefore handy
to all the cellar rooms. The balance of the rooms can be par
titioned off or not, and used as preferred. There yet remain five
unappropriated rooms, viz.: two south, two west, and one north
west. Dispose of them to your liking. One of them would
furnish a good place for an ice-house. One of those to the north,
already appropriated to wood, will make a good one, the wood
being shifted to some other, because farthest from furnace, yet
would be under sleeping-room, which is bad, while that to the
south, adjoining milk- room, would be handiest, as cooling milk-
room below and pantry above ; and if rightly made,42 neither
furnace nor southern aspect will seriously affect it. It should
be at least 15x13, though the larger the better, and might
occupy the whole space between milk-room and entry, and be
filled at window or entry. Its being under an upper room will
not hurt but rather benefit the room above, unless it be a bed
room.33 We mentioned a place for wood, not because best for heating
houses, but because generally used in the country, yet decidedly
prefer coal as handier, for a fire once kindled lasts all day, is
several times cheaper, costing less than even the mere cutting
and hauling of wood, gives a better because more uniform heat,
and is as healthy, probably more so, because it keeps a steady
heat, whereas that of wood is fitful; and the gas of wood is
quite as deleterious and likely to escape as of coal. Yet when
that invention, already barely mentioned, which converts wood-
gas into lighting-gas, so that we can light our houses with the
same wood used to heat them wood may be cheapest. Indeed,

A SUPERIOR PLAN FOR ANT-SIZED HOUSE. 171
since a cord of wood is said to furnish ten times more light than
a ton of coal, we could burn our surplus gas early in the daytime
for heat. 54. Stairs.
Starting our flight of stairs so as to land at the door which
passes from stairway to dining-room, varying our starting-point
as our height of cellar may require, we turn on a broad stair
to the left, leaving room for the parlor door, and turn at every
corner on a broad stair, as often as necessary. If our stairway
is ten feet square, and our stairs are three feet wide, we shall have
a run of four feet at each „turn, which will carry us fairly above
the bed-room door by the time we reach it; — it being placed in
the corner next to 'he kitchen, and the kitchen door in the corner
next to the bed-room.
In a 15 feet octagon this story should be about 10 feet high,
and the stairway 10 feet square, which, if our stairs are three feet
— large enough for this sized house — will give ns a four feet run,
and require us to turn three times. If our rise and run are equal.
and we crowd our parlor passage-way into two feet, we shall
have a two feet landing-place at the top of the stairs. This is
rather narrow, and our stairs are too steep, yet it is a small house,
Still, either a narrower stairs, or a 11 feet stairway, or lower
ceiling, will give us an ample broad stair above, and an easy rise
compared with our run. But in an 18 or 21 feet sides, our stair
way may be 12, and stairs 3J feet, which will give a run of five
feet and rise of four between each broad stair, which is an easy
rise for our run. If our walls are 12 feet high, which they should
be to look and be well,27'''* we shall have to turn on only two broad
stairs, and will land over the bed-room door. Circular stairs
will get us up sooner, yet are much more costly, and not as
andy, yet look well. This gives us a good stairway, and per
fect access to and from every room above and below. Our fur
nace-chimney will, however, interfere a little with our parlor door,
unless— which is possible, yet have it clear the stairs— we place
it a foot from the corner. We then and soon enough turn to
the left into the east chamber room above, on the north side,
marked 1, will continue this same platform right on around the

172 A SUPERIOR PLAN FOR ANY- SIZED HOUSE.
width of the stairs, enter from it into every room as we pass,
clear round to room marked 2, and, leaving barely room enough
to pass into 2, start our stairs for the cupola in a 15 or 16 feet
octagon — for it will not bear a third story-^-which can be made
both narrow and steep enough to give suflicient head room to
clear the main flight. But in an 18, 20, 21, or larger sided octa
gon, and a 12 feet stairway, we shall need a third story to make
the house look well, and, having a five-feet run. can get rise
enough to clear our required head room. Like remarks will
apply to the stairs from the third story to the cupola.
It may be best, however, even in an 18, 20, or 21 feet octagon
to have one or two of these upper rooms the full size of one side
of the house ; that is, to have one or two good-sized rooms above,
rather than so many small ones. In this cas , the north room at
the head of the stairs now marked 1 air''. 2, need not be parti
tioned off, which will enable us to start our next flight of stairs
back at the door into 3, and so to completely clear the door into
1. Or, if you see fit to start your stairs at any other point, or
to arrange them differently, the room will be true relatively of
rise and even, and starting and landing, in that case as in this.
The dumb-waiter can, and should be, continued up into this
story, as marked, which will render the adjoining rooms very
handy as nurseries, and in cases of sickness.
55. UPPER STORIES.
A 15 or 16 feet octagon, to look well, should be only two stories
above the cellar, the first 10 or 11 feet between joints, the other
about 9, with a small cupola ; but in one of 18, 20, or 21 feet
sides, or larger, the main story should be 11 or 12. the next 9 or
10, and the upper 8, This will render one of 18 feet sided rather
high for its breadth— yet, I think, none too high. Most houses
are quite too low for looks, while I go in for height in houses and
rooms. As to the partitioning off of our rooms, I see no plan better than
to follow the pattern of the story below. In a 15 feet octagon it
would be best to have but one window per side, but iu one larger,
two windows on the sides of the four large rooms are admissible^
perhaps best, as breaking the monotony of one per side, and ena-

UPPER STORIES.

173

bling us to partition off our upper stories so as to get 12 rooms
per story, eight square and four irregular, besides a closet to each
square room. This arrangement, in a three-story house, gives us
29 rooms above the cellar !
But if four large rooms are preferred to eight smaller ones,
omit those separating partitions. You can then enter this north
room either at the top of your main stairs, or pass around to the
foot of the stairs above, as may be preferred.
One other feature of this plan is, that it admits of great varia
tions in partitioning off your house — an advantage well worth
considering. Fia. 82.

^

y t *.

m

FTPEB 8TOBT.

174 OCTAGONAL BARNS, CARRIAGE-HOUSES, ETC.
Moldings.
We do not propose to take up the general subject of mold
ings, but only to describe our own, which we think an improve
ment on any we have seen. Plainness is better than fancified
ornament, and in Boston it is quite the custom to put on only
casings without moldings. But to our own. It consists, first,
of a rather narrow casing of ordinary thickness ; secondly, of a
strip of inch board, about three inches wide, on which is worked
an og, leaving about an inch margin before the og commences,
and working it down to an edge. Nail this on the casing about
two or three inches back from its inner edge. Now, if it shrinks,
it leaves no crack between it and the casing. It simply shrinks
on the casing, not from it, so as to show no open joint. Then
take another strip, say inch-and-half or two inches wide, bevel
off its two corners on one edge, so that these bevels shall be
just equal in width to the space on the edge between them, and
nail this on edgewise to the og just described, and plaster up to
this. This gives us, first, three or four inches of casing, accord
ing to how far back the og is nailed, then the og and an inch of
plain surface, and then this edgewise piece, its inner bevel being
just even with this og, which gives an octagon inner angle and
two outer angles. This looks well ; but its chief beauty is, that
if it shrinks it shows no open joints, for this back octagon bev
eled piece shrinks within, and hence shows no joint between it
self and the og, while, if the og shrinks, it shows no open joint
between itself and the casing.
56. octagonal barns, carriage-houses, etc.
That an octagonal house can be partitioned off into rooms and
closets to far better advantage than a square one, this work has
demonstrated, and any occupant ot one testifies. But can it be
applied to barns with equal advantage ? It can, perhaps, compar
atively, with even greater. In them especially we need some com
mon center in and around which to work. This form will turn the
heads of all the horses and cattle, and openings to all the bays and
bins toward this center, so that one can pass from bay to stall,
and from every part to every other, with half the steps required

OCTAGONAL BARNS, CARRIAGE-HOUSES, ItTC.

175

in a square one. This is rendered obvious by a law already
proved and applied to houses.38
This form subserves several other purposes, one of which is,
that it gives more sides, and hence, different bays for different
things, than a square barn furnishes — one or two each for cattle.
horses, hay, wheat, oats, straw, stalks, etc, — and will furnish many
more handy places for different things. For reasons already
shown, it is both more compact31 and more capacious for its out
side wall, than a square or oblong.35
If of average size, this form will enable you to turn around in
this center, or drive wagon and cart around in a circle, and close
to the inner end of each bay, thereby reaching all, and turning
round so as to pass out where you entered. This consumes less
wall-room for entrances, and saves backing out, besides furnish
ing just the shaped floor required- for threshing with horses, viz.,
circular — the best also for threshing with the flail. Considered
in anyand every aspect, the octagonal form .of barn facilitates
all the ends of a barn far better than the square.
These same principles and remarks apply equally to wagon-
houses and other outbuildings. Still, it is best to unite just as
many objects as possible with the barn, so as to need few if any
outhouses. Thus, to appropriate one octagpn side of a barn to
carriage and harness, is far better than to have- the carriage-house
separate. For the same reasons that we recommended one house
and no L or T additions stuck on,34 v ; recommend one barn and
no outbuildings around it. And this is by far the most econom
ical. To illustrate by appealing to the eye.

!' 1 1 1

c

r 

d

1 e

Let the larger figure represent the barn, and the two smaller
the wagon-house and corn-crib, or any other outbuildings ; now
the walls a, b, c, d, and e, represented by dotted lines, or five out
176 OCTAGONAL BARNS, CARRIAGE-HOUSES, ETC.
of twelve, are saved by our plan, but lost by the usual 'one.
And this loss appertains to foundations as well as sides. And
then how much handier.30
A few general observations dn barns must suffice. If a farmer
can find a knoll or bank, so that he can drive" in on to his main
floor, several feet above- the foundation — and the higher the bet
ter, for it is easier to pitch down than up — so as to have a cellar
or basement story, say 8 feet high, and arrange bins under his
floor for carrots, beets, potatoes, turnips, etc., so that he can drive
in on to the floor and dump them right from the cart down a
hatchway into each bin, he will save half his labor in handling
them. And by arranging the floor on which the stock stand a
foot or two below the barn floor, the cattle can feed off of the
barn floor. This plan has several advantages over mangers, one
of which is, that, in turning their heads, as in feeding, they do
not drop their hay or grain under their feet, but only on to the
barn floor, and within their reach. In this case, since the heads
of the cattle are over the barn floor, their breath is not confined,
but ascends readily, not into the mow, to vitiate the smell of their
fodder, but into this center, so that they get far better air — a point
as important, relatively, to beast as to man. This plan gives
several feet under them to receive their manure and keep it under
cover and in a body, so that it retains all its original virtues ;
whereas, if thrown out, a^i especially under the eaves, or if the
water from the barn-yard i 'ns off, it loses a large proportion of
its fertilizing elements. Manure should always be kept under
cover till drawn out, and then should be spread and plowed under
the very day, and, if possible, the very hour it is drawn. The
bad smell from manure is caused by the escape of its nutritious
elements. Especially should the liquid or urinary portion of manure, its
very best part, be saved ; whereas it is now mostly lost. A
good plan is to put dry muck or loam behind cattle, to soak up
this element, and retain its virtue till applied to the land.
And why, pray, did nature render human and animal excre
ment sot offensive to eye, smell, and tasto, but to induce us to
bury it, that it may again be transformed into vegetation 1 Is it
not a saeed duty to save all there is of both human and animal

OCTAGONAL BARNS, CARRIAGE-HOUSES, ETC. 177
excrement, that it may enhance food ? It is an instrumentality
of life, and therefore to be counted both valuable and sacred.
Yet how often do we see it running perpetually from the farm
yard into the road, or some rill, to be lost to him, but not to the
earth ; for, passing into gas, it permeates the air, and is from
it taken up again by vegetables. Nor should human excre
ment, -as now, be wasted, but provision should be made in every
village and family for restoring it to the earth from whence it
has been abstracted. Incalculably would this course, if generally
adopted, multiply, and thereby cheapen, human and animal
food.44'48 Indeed, so almost infinitely important is this matter,
and so profitable withal, that men must see its force and adopt
it. Life itself is not more important ; -for whatever enhances
food increases life. I repeat, then, plan your barns to keep all
the manure housed till applied.
That the gravel wall is exactly adapted to barns, is obvious.
They consist mainly of wall, and the gravel wall is far better for
a barn than boards or stone. It can be plastered on the outside
with, common mortar, or an addition of coal screenings,82 or left
rough, as the builder can afford.
As to the cost of a frame, as compared with a concrete barn,
I can not state, but as our upper story costs only $80, or less
than four cents per running foot, the walls of a barn 40 by 40,
and 20 feet high, at this rate will cost $68, and could be at least
built for $100, with any sort of economy and management.
A large barn is far preferable to a small one. Does not every
farmer lack barn-room ? How many things ha ,e you got, reader,
which ought to be housed, and are rapidly decaying for want of
it ? Would not more barn-room pay .many times over the inter
est on its cost 1 Then let farmers build larger barns ; especially
since large barns are relatively so much cheaper than small ones.
To see stacks of hay and stalks standing out of doors, and cattle
" run out" winters to eat them in the lots, is poor policy ; for
hay wastes by summer rains, wastes when fed on the bare ground,
wastes by storms o ring its use, while the top of the stack is off,
and wastes by tak % a much larger quantity to keep cattle
equally well out of a )rs than in. Nor should corn be allowed,
as now, to stand out '11 its stalks are nearly spoiled. They
8*

178 OCTAGONAL BARNS, CARRIAGE-HOUSES, ETC.
lose a large proportion of their virtue by being exposed to rain
and sun. One load cured under cover is worth four cured out.
Now make your barn and its floor large enough to take in your
stalks, and they can be stacked on poles thrown across girths five
or six feet high, so as to be well aired, yet got into a small com
pass, and the extra virtue of your stalks as fodder will more
than double the interest of the money spent in enlarging the
barn. Corn-stalks soon perish if out in the weather, yet make
the very best of fodder if cured under cover.
To facilitate this and other like ends, ana give cattle sun, it
will quit cost to have a part of the roof made of glass. Its cost
is not much more than shingles,49 and allows you to have sun in
your barn, with which to dry potatoes, corn, hay, etc., in doors,
and will be found very useful for a great many ends of which we
do not now dream.
Nor can I see why two or three stories on barns are not as ad
vantageous as on houses. A neighbor of the author drives his
grain in upon his second story, where he threshes it — the horse
power being below — which allows the straw to be tumbled down
into the yard below, instead of having to be pitched up on to a
stack, and lets the grain sift down through on to the main floor,
where it is cleaned, and passes from the tail of the fanning-mill
right down into the grain-bin, still below, in the basement, from
which it is loaded into the wagon.
In a great variety of ways, money spent in erecting barn con
veniences will save time, money, produce, every thing. We
give no diagrams for barns or carriage-houses, because we have
neither studied nor written on details, but would leave them to
be planned by each builder in accordance with his grounds, wants,
and taste ; but feel assured that the octagon form and gravel
wall are peculiarly applicable to barns and outbuildings as well
as to dwellings.

THE BOARD WALL IN PLACE OF FRAMES. 179
57 THE BOARD WALL IN PLACE OP FRAMES.
At first we considered the board-wall plan, brought forward
conspicuously in the preceding edition, so inferior to our con
crete material as not to deserve mention ; yet have finally
concluded to describe it, especially since it may benefit some
builders, yet can injure none. The author built, and lived seve
ral years in, a house of this kind, and found it much cheaper, and
he thinks better every way, than a frame house. A master
builder in Bennington, Vt., has erected several houses ki this
style ; and, in one of his contracts, was left to choose for himself
between the board wall or frame, at the same price, and chose
the former as cheaper ; and its owner expresses himself as far
better satisfied with it than with a frame house.
A frame house, unless "filled in" with brick, is very cold in
winter and warm in summer, whereas our board wall is better
than any filling in can be, besides being far cheaper than the frame
house, without the filling.
The simplicity and ease of its construction also strongly rec
ommend the plan — for any tolerably ingenious man may put it
up. Having erected and plumbed his inside corner boards as
guides, all he has to do is to lay on boards straight, and nail them
down. The plan of construction is this : Have boards sawed half four
and half six inches wide, and 1, li, li, or 2 inches thick ; erect and
plumb a board at each inside corner, and perhaps one in the middle ;
lay down a wide, and then a narrow, course of boards all round
the house, at the corners letting one board pass clear out to the
corner from one side one time, and the next time letting the board
from the other way run clear out ; and thus proceed, tier by tier,
till high enough for window frames ; then insert them, and pro
ceed till high enough for the floor timbers, which are to be laid
right upon this board wall. Prepare the place and first rough
frames for the doors and windows, as already described for the
gravel wall,16 or by simply setting up two boards as wide apart
as window or door is to be, making allowance for weights, if
your windows are to be run with them — and the window casings
will just form the required box for them to run in — and nail

180 THE BOARD WALL LN PLACE OF FRAMES.

through this board into the ends of your wall boards. _ The
widest of your wall boards single will do, yet two nailed together
will make it the stronger, or less liable to shake when walking on
the floor above — and the second board should be nailed on after
the first has been nailed to the wall boards.
Arrived at the tops of windows and doors, let your wall boards
extend over them. Carry up inside partitions along with the out
side walls, and let a board every few rounds project from the
inside walls through the outside wall, and be nailed to it, so as to
bind inside and outside walls firmly together.
By using alternately a wide and then a narrow board you save
lathing, for as every alternate board projects an inch over the one
next above and below, the plaster clenches into these openings.
This method, by saving bot^h the lath themselves, and nails, which
cost some two cents per yard, and then putting on, which costs
some four cents more, makes a large saving — namely, twelve cents
per square yard, both sides being counted.
Another method is to take, boards of equal widths, and lay one
out, one half, three quarters, or one inch, and the other in, thereby
forming the same openings for the plaster to clench. In this
case the boards may be four, five, or six inches wide, at pleasure.
Still another plan is to lay the outside of the wall up even, by
taking boards half four and the other half five, or half five and
half six inches wide, and laying them even on the outside, which
will bring the inside uneven, so as to hold the plastering.
One other method is to take boards of equal width, say five
or six inches, and, after nailing one down, put on sticks crosswise,
as in sticking up boards to dry. nailing through sticks into boards,
thus leaving half the space open, which plastering will fill up, and
render both warm and strong. I have seen them built thus, yet
not tried this method.
The manner of fastening them together is by driving tenpeuny
nails down through each board, some three, four, or five feet
apart, into the board below. This renders the corners, and all
the points where walls intersect, perfectly solid, and the whole
immovable by winds.
Another method of fastening is to drive a nail or two at some
given point, into eight or ten boards, then bore down through

THICKNESS OF BOARDS. 181
all with a half, three quarter, orinch auger, and pin them all together
solid. This makes the structure all the more solid. A dowel
pin in the end will increase the solidity, yet the wall will be
strong enough without. THICKNESS OF BOARDS.
If plastering will adhere to two-inch spaces as well as to one —
and I do not see why it will not— why not saw our boards two
inches thick ? Why saw boards up thin only to nail them
together again ? I have not tried it, but I should think two by
four and two by three would be as well as one by four and one
by three — better, if the plaster will only stick till it hardens.
This will save something in the sawing, and half in the laying —
for a thick board can be laid as quickly as a thin one.
Another suggestion : Can not scantling and wany-edged pieces
be used for half the wall in place of the narrow boards 1 Suppose,
instead of first squaring the log, it be slit into two by four pieces.
This will leave the inside pieces square two by four, and all around
the log the slab part will be in wany-edged pieces, with three
sides square and the other irregular. But the plastering will fill
up the irregularity. This will take more mortar but less timber.
Where mortar is dearest, this suggestion is useless.
Any kind of timber will do — hemlock, poplar, willow, oak,
coarse pine, maple, beech, elm, buttonball — any and every thing,
however knotty, or shaky, or wany — all fill up and count equally
with clear stuff. And the lime will prevent its decay.
Sixteen feet is one of the most common lengths for box boards,
and will be just the length for a sixteen feet octagon house. Yet
to join them is perfectly easy. If you would make your walls
twenty feet, cut sixteen feet boards into four pieces, and use one
sixteen and one four feet; and thus of other lengths.. Short
pieces can be laid on and nailed down, so that all the odds and
ends can be worked up. In laying up it is not necessary to cut
eac-h board separately as it is laid up, but getting your lengths,
say between windows, or from windows to corners, saw off
all at once, enough to carry up that section nail them down,
measure, saw, and nail another section, and so on. Yet once
above all openings, go all around one board at a time. Two can

182 COST OF THE BOARD WALL.
work to admirable advantage : one on the ground, to saw and fit,
and the other on the scaffold, to place and fasten.
58. COST, ABSOLUTE AND RELATIVE, OF THE BOARD WALL.
" But what a raft of timber, and what quantities of nails, -this
plan will consume !" it is cbjected. Let us see. If your house
is sixteen feet octagon, and your boards half three and half five
inches wide, averaging four, a sixteen feet board makes three
boards, and carries up one side three inches, and four boards one
foot, which takes sixty-four feet per foot per side. If your stories
are ten and eight feet, it will require 18 x 64 = 1,152 per side
x 8 = 9,216 x $12 per 1,000 = $111 for the outside wall— 16
windows or doors, say 216 feet. But at $8 per 1,000 it will cost
only $72, at $5 only $45, and at $15, $134. But since the most
common lumber, the tops of trees, pine and hemlock, and any
other coarse kind will answer, it can probably be got in most
localities at from $5 to $8.
The inside walls will cost in the same proportion. If-lumber
is $8, and the inside wall half as long as the outside, it will cost
$108 — less by considerable than a frame house.
Then the putting up. If a fair carpenter could not put up one
foot, all around, per day, he must be slow. This would require
him to lay less than 150 boards per day, or one board in about
five minutes. But he can do more. An ingenious laborer can
build a foot per day all round, and put up the house in eighteen
days, except the floor timbers. From $20 to $25 should put it
up, which includes the raising, whereas this for a frame house
would require fifteen or twenty men half a day, or eight to ten of
the twenty days' work required to put up the board wall.
In building my old house, we were all astonished that so little
work put up so much, though it was new work to all. My car
penter said he would not have put up as large a frame merely, for
any less than $120, whereas this cost, in timber and labor, less
than $80. It took about twenty days' work, ten of carpenter and
ten of common labor, to put up my board house, twenty-seven by
twenty-seven, and twenty-two feet high, including placing the floor
timbers and rafters. And this leaves your house the same as lathed,
except over head, and all ready for mortar. Yet some abatement

PLANK WALLS. 183

must be made, because it will take more mortar and work to put
the first coat on this wall than on lath, and unless pains are taken
to lay it straight, more trouble to get the walls perfectly true.
The outside can now be clapboarded, yet the house will be
warmer if plastered outside first. My own was thus plastered.
It took a mason and tender four days, besides mortar, probably
costing $12 or $15, but is much more than enough better to quit
cost. No pains need be taken to smooth it off, but only to stop up
the open spaces ; and coarse mortar or clay is as good as any thing.
Nor do I see why common mud, or any soil, wet up, will not
do. This will make the house very warm in winter, and shut
off all wind, both from the floors and walls ; because it can not
get in to the house as it can in a frame house, through the clap
boards, and, therefore, can not get to, oi pass through, whatever
cracks exist in floor, ceiling, and wall.25 It also excludes vermin.20
But a single objection has ever been urged against it — namely.
that in damp weather it swells, and in dry shrinks, thus leaving
doors and windows disjointed. I experience this difficulty only
slightly in my own house ; yet in damp localities it may be
greater. Yet by plastering mine outside I probably excluded
dampness and air from getting access to my boards, and therefore
forestalled the evil. 59. PLANE WALLS.
Another form of building board walls consists in placing plants
edgewise, one above another, and dowelpinning them together
along the walls, and halving or dovetailing them at the corners.
and building the inside walls in with the outside, as you go along
up. This takes less timber, by one quarter, if three inch plank
is used, and two and a half, and, I think, even two, will do
equally well, which will cost only half as much, or $36, or $54,
at $8 per 1,000. That is, an octagon house, 16 feet sides, em
braces 128 x 18 = 2,304 surface feet, less 24, outside doors or
windows as per our last plan — rsay, 7 x 4 = 28 x 24=672 =
1,732 x 2, for 2 inch plank = 3,464 or x 3, for 3 inch = 5,196 x
$8 only, equal to $36 86, or $56 29. This kind of wall can be
put up for about the same as the other, yet will require a car
penter, and can be clapboarded on the outside, and lathed and

184 THE POOR MAN'S COTTAGE.
plastered inside — lathing on cross laths set sixteen inches apart,
up and down in place of studs. The floor timbers rest on this
wall. This also makes a warm and very strong house. The
Williamsburg octagon41 is made this way. I intended to have
built my new house on this plan, and ordered the plank, but
meanwhile coming across the gravel-wall method I substituted it
instead, and am glad I did.
60. THE POOR MAN'S COTTAGE.
Suflicient consideration has hardly yet been given to the poor
man's cottage — to a very cheap tenement — such as the poorest
laborer or Western squatter can afford to put up with his own
.hands merely, "just for now," till he can procure something
better — something which can be rendered comfortable for from
$30 to $50 or $100. The poorest laboring man can earn at
least twelve and a half dollars per month, or $150 per year, and
save $4 per month for a prospective home. But how save it, if
he has a family to feed and clothe, and rent to pay ? From his
food alone, if in no other way. Nature's wants are few — arti
ficial wants consume by far the largest part of human time and
earnings. To feed a human being well, so as to keep all the
bodily and mental powers up to their fullest action, costs very
little. One pound of wheat and a few sweet apples per day will
do it. To the fullest possession of human power, meat is not
necessary — is probably more prejudicial than otherwise, for both
the strongest and the fleetest animals eat no meat ; and Liebig
proves that what we get from meat comes first from the vegetable
kingdom ; and men abound in every community who have never
tasted it, yet are as strong and healthy as meat-eaters. Wheat is
the very best single article of human diet, and contains every in
gredient requisite to feed man perfectly. Now suppose yourself
the poorest man possible — not worth a dollar in money or credit
— yet an honest man always will have credit wherever known —
but able and willing to work — and poor men can be healthy if
they obey the health laws, which poor persons should do first, for
on this all depends. Buy a bushel of wheat with your first labor.
Boil a pound per day — not overboil, but leave something for the
teeth to do ; and, if married, it will last yourself and wife a

THE POOR MAN'S COTTAGE. 185
month — less, if you have children. Add two bushels of sweet
apples, which, besides flavoring your wheat, are highly nutritious.
Food need thus cost only three or four days' work per month,
and clothes two more, with incidentals, half a month in all, leav
ing half your earnings to go toward a house. Forego tea, coffee,
tobacco, all fancies, all luxuries, every thing not absolutely neces
sary, for a home of your own will be the greatest possible luxury.
Dress plainly, even coarsely, till you provide a house. By these
means you can easily lay up at least $50 per year, now spent on
extras, for looks, taste, pride, or passion.
Next, buy or lease- a few rods square in the corner of some field
or wood, say for $5, $10, or $20. Yet here is a difficulty.
Farmers hate to sell to poor neighbors. But observe the reason.
They too generally make themselves obnoxious by various means
— by mischievous children, tattling, sometimes petty pilfering
of fruit, nuts, possibly eggs or chickens — but by a life of honesty
and goodness from boyhood you can establish a name, and make
any neighboring farmer glad to sell you a small corner. Choose
your location, if possible, close by your material, a gravel
bank,9 or stratum of clay ;23 dig your foundation 16 x 14, if you
can afford to build no larger — better thus small than to have to
pay rent ; excavate four feet deep, or if not able to afford a floor,
dig a trench four feet deep and one foot wide, and build a nice
solid stone wall in it, and extend if two feet above the ground.
Or, if stone is not handy, buy a barrel of water lime or cement,
at $1 50, to mix with gravel and stone for the foundation,13 and
add two barrels, or from five to eight bushels of lime for the
wall ;10 or if a lime-kiln is near, buy or beg some of the old, dirty,
cast-off lime lying all around its mouth, costing not ever $2 or
$2 50 ; add four boxboards, sixteen feet long, for the side of the
boxes,14 four for inside boards, the ends cut off serving for cleats ;14
or, if you can afford it, double this number for two tiers of boxes,14
and as wide as possible, and as near one width as may be ; get 100
laths fo nail across these boards to keep them from spreading,14
five pine boards inch and quarter thick, sixteen feet long and
eight inches wide for window and door frames,16 four boards six
teen feet long and eight inches wide for top boards,18 five floor
timbers, sixteen feet long,' and two or three by eight for rafters,

186 THE POOR MAN'S COTTAGE.
and any other poor stuff you can get cheap for incidental purposes ;
add a few nails ; provide saw, hammer, square, jack-plane, com
passes, shovel, hoe, and wheelbarrow ; make a plumbob ; and you
are ready to begin the wall proper. All this will cost you from
$10 to $15, according to prices, and how many of your tools
you can borrow. You will now have some $20, $25, or $30 ot
your $50 left.
Your cellar wall is one foot thick, but eight inches will do
for your house.16 This leaves a two-inch projection outside as a
water table, and to rest your boxboards on, and inside on which to
rest your floor-timbers, which, if you are able to have a floor ir.
the start, you can get and put down now, but if not, live awhile
on the bare ground, and put in floor afterward. Next make and
place your door frames, of which perhaps you will want two,
thus. Plane three of your 8 x U inch pine boards, fourteen
feet long ; saw two of them in two for the uprights, and the other
for the four bottom and top pieces, and nail them together."
Next fasten four strips of board, as long as your wall is to be
high, and three or four inches wide, firmly at the bottom, close to
the corner, and even with the inside of the wall, so as to be within
it, and nail your inside boxboards thereto, having first sawed
them to the exact length, and cleated them to prevent warping.14
Put up two sixteen feet boards on the long side, and then nail
the other two outside boards upon their ends, which will leave
your boards on the short sides to project past the corners, on whicn
to secure the ends ofthe sixteen feet boards, thereby saving outside
standards ; see that these boards are true and right, and nail on
lath or strips across their tops and brace their bottoms to prevent,
all spreading11 and moving; and mix, temper, and fill in your
lime, gravel, and stone concrete,9 or your clay and stone.23'22 If
you have two sets of boxboards, repeat this process, and you are
now high enough for the window-frames, which make and place
as for doors ;16 and then proceed till as high as you design your
house to be, say eight or nine feet above the floor timbers.
You now want a roof- — make it thus : Continue one of the long
sides up two courses higher than the other side, and make the
gable' ends to slant evenly from the lower up to the higher side.
Bevel off the top with good mortar, and lay on your eight-inch

THE POOR MAN'S COTTAGE. 187
Doards all around,18 observing, after your walls become six feet
high and upward, to brace them well, for they are soft yet, and
liable to fall. If you have other work to do, let this wall now
stand and season a few days, but if not, put on your four rafters,
first beveling one upper edge on each end, so that they will set
level, and the whole of their lower edges, to correspond with the
pitch of your roof-boards, and nail on these boards, first, if possible,
plowing a groove some three-fourth inch from each edge on their
upper side, and to joint and match them will make it still better ;
and saw up boards enough to make battens, say three or four
inches wide, and nail on over each joint. These grooves will now
prevent all water from passing into the joints, and send it along
down and out.
Probably a better way, where it can be done, is to mix five
parts of fine sand with one of Blake's Ohio paint ; white lead
will also do, and wet with linseed oil till thin enough to work
well ; spread it over the joints, say a strip an inch wide, and bed
these batten boards down into it.
It is best to nail on weather boards all around the top of
your house, and make an eaves-trough, so as to keep as much,,
water off from the wall as possible.22
You now need a fire-place and chimney,42'43'44 two batten doors,
nung on leather hinges, with wooden latches, latch-string out, for
you will now begin to feel rich enough to shelter a poor neighbor^
and two windows, costing say $5 or $6. But since a goodly
number of your $50 still remain, spend them in adding any im
provement deemed next most desirable, among which is a floor,
if only over a part ; to make which, lay down seven or eight floor
timbers thirteen feet long, and 2 or 3 X 8, and nail down the best
flooring you are able to procure. Plaster it yourself outside
and in, whenever convenient.
To only one evil are you now exposed — dampness. My own
walls do not show the least of it, yet this may be owing to my
material leaving so many honey-comb openings for dead air all
through my wall. I also have porticoes at each story, except the
upper, yet see no dampness there even. My foundation, too, is
protected against the access of wet to it. Unless your wall dif
fers from mine, no dampness will trouble you, provided — and this

188

SUBSEQUENT ADDITIONS.

is indispensable — you have the eaves project duly, say a foot at
top and bottom over the walls, which can be effected by nailing a
board on the upper side of the roof boards at top, letting it pro
ject as far as its width will allow, and another on the under side
at the eaves, thus shooting the water still farther off.
For emigrants to new countries or Western prairies, this plan is
far better than log-houses, because so much cheaper and warmer.
In prairie lands wood is dear, but gravel abounds everywhere,
some two feet beneath the soil.9 This saves all carting, except
of boards and lime, and the latter abounds all through the West.

SUBSEQUENT ADDITIONS.
This plan has another great advantage over log-house's — that
of making additions and improvements without tearing down or
loosening the part already up. When a log-house rots down, or
its occupant can afford to build something better, it becomes a
dead loss. Not so with our plan. As soon as able, build three
walls on the highest side of your first one, or that opposite the
pitch of roof — and you should, in choosing which way your roof
shall pitch, have reference to subsequent additions, and pitch the
roof of the addition the opposite way — knock out a door-way or
two between them ; yet you can also^>Z<m your prospective addition
before you begin, and place one outside door, in view of this ad
dition. Yet to make doors any where through this kind of wall is
perfectly easy. After laboring another year, and laying up another
$50 — yet $25 will now do — you are ready to build your addition.
Your first house, A., is 14 x 16, one side being 14 to allow 16
feet roof boards to extend clear across it, yet have ample length
for pitch and eaves, having its eaves at e, and ridge at a ; f, front
door, and another door or a window at g. Now all you have to
Fig. 80.

/
e .. a
A' g

B e

c-

D

SUBSEQUENT ADDITIONS. 189
do to make an addition, is to build the three walls on the right
hand of A, and the new and old will join at the corners easily
and completely, if your mortar is made thin there, especially if
you knock off and rough up these corners — I joined several walls
in this manner — and the addition is ready for roofing, sliding the
roof boards of the addition up under the projecting ends of the
old roof, and the weather board will make the upper rafter.
But suppose you want to make your addition one story higher,
now, or at any subsequent time, do so, forming the roof as before ;
and when ready to raise your old part, saw down through your first
rafters in about two places, to enable you to remove it in three sec
tions ; knock off your gable ends and lay On floor timbers, build
up the outside walls to the height of your addition, make other ga
ble ends to correspond with those of the additions, replace the
three sections of the old roof, nail on strips of board each side
of each rafter where sawed in two ; this will fasten the whole roof
together just as it was before sawing it apart, and you now have
a house A B 16X28, and two stories high, and at a cost not reach
ing $200, with a like opportunity of putting on two other addi
tions at each gable end, making a house 32x28, and can make
a new roof whenever the old one fails to answer its purpose ; or
to make any other improvements afterward which time or means
will allow, and without throwing away any thing previously built.
New country settlers, is not here something worthy of consid
eration ? In fact, does not every poor man need some such plar.
capable of being added to afterward, without throwing away any
thing previously built?
Poor man, does not this chapter give you suggestions worth
many times more than the whole book costs 2
If objected that it contemplates only a poor, rough house, I
answer, better this than pay rent. My father moved into a twelve-
mile woods, threw up a small log cabin, open on one side, covered
with hemlock bark, with hemlock boughs only for bed and bedding,
and two logs at the right height pr yecting out several feet for chairs.
He had a partner, carried his ax nnhelved and wrapped in a linen
cloth on his back, drove in a cow, and yoke of oxen, to begin a
clearing. The cow was tied to a rather heavy bush, pulled up
by the oxen to prevent her straying; yet allow grazing. At night

190 ASSOCIATIVE HOUSES.

his co-worker says," I'll milk, if you'll get something to strain it in."
Father, with a trowel, cut large smooth basins in one of these pro
jecting logs, took his linen ax-cloth for a strainer, dug little holes
for bowls, and thus lived from May till October to put in a Wheat.
crop, and build a log-house. My plan is far less rustic, and bettei
every way than many a backwood's settler has been obliged to
adopt ; those who have more means can make it all the better.
61. ASSOCIATIVE HOUSES.
Though far from advocating agrarianism, but believing in
separate families, yet a large house, capable of accommodating
several families, can be built several hundred per cent, cheaper
than separate houses for each. Thus, foundation aud roof for a
six-story house cost no more than for a one story,27 and the
outside wall of a twenty feet square house is sixteen times greater,
as compared with its inside room, than one of eighty feet.28 In
addition to this, inside walls bound or inclose two rooms, where
as outside walls inclose but one room — another loss of a hundred
per cent. — while outside walls cost twice or three times more
than inside ones, which involves another loss of from 100 to 200
per cent. Add only these four items together, and they make
some four or five hundred per cent, in favor of large houses over
small ones. That is, sixteen families, combining to build one
house to accommodate each family with a given amount of room,
can obtain five or more times the room for the same money,
or as much room for one fifth the money, it would cost each
to build a separate house. We may err slightly, but wish rather
to show the reader how to canvass this point than to arrive at
accurate results ourselves.
Foundation and roof are reputed to cost forty or fifty per cent.
of the entire expense of a house ; hence for a six-story house, as
compared with one of two stories, they cost only twelve to fif
teen per cent, for the same amount of room — a- saviug of $25 to
$30 in every $100 the house costs, or a quarter or third of the
total expense — no small item.27 The outside wall of a large
house over a small one will save you, comparatively, from 400 to
800 per cent., according to how large and small they are.28-30'34
In both cases the inside wall is, relatively, about equal — Jpast iu

ASSOCIATIVE HOUSES. 191
the small one — but an inside wall incloses two rooms, that is
both sides count, whereas only one side of outside walls counts, or
incloses room. Then suppose outside wall costs twenty-four cents
per square foot, and inside wall twelve cents, as compared with
the room it incloses, it costs only six cents, or only one fourth as
much for the room given — a saving of 300 per cent. ; so that
$100 goes as far in a large one as $400 in a small one. Other
advantages of a large house, for several families, over a separate
house for each are, that the floor of each story becomes the roof
of the next below, the heat from each room escapes into adjoining
rooms and upper stories, instead of out of doors, so that upper
stories are warm enough almost without fire ; each room shelters
adjoining rooms against heat and cold, which secures uniformity
of temperature ; the members of each family can associate with
whichever or none of the others on a friendly basis as they
please, much more frequently and easily than if they lived apart,
yet can enjoy just as much seclusion as different families in the
same block ; can serve each family with one well as completely
as to dig sixteen wells ; can warm the whole house with one
furnace instead of supporting say fifty or more fires ; could
attach a steam boiler to this furnace for churning, washing, and
other like purposes, whereas single families could not support
one ; and in a great many such ways could effect a wonderful
economy of the labors and expense of living, including, also,
purchasing groceries, vegetables, wearing materials, etc., at
wholesale, instead of by dribbles, and dividing at cost, as each
wants, thus saving twenty to fifty per cent, on most family ex
penses, besides all the saving in the cost and rent of house itself.
Yet, not having given special attention to the planning of such
a house, we append no drawings, leaving readers disposed to as
sociate together in building such a house to devise the internal
arrangement of rooms for themselves, simply adding, that in the
center should be an open court, twenty to forty feet square, having
an inside piazza at each story, and stairs connecting; and an outside
piazza either at each stavy, if all the rooms of each family are on
the same story, or at every other story, if they occupy two stories,
which would, doubtless, be preferable ; and each family occupying
one quarter of a story. This would give eight families to a four-

192 ASSOCIATIVE HOUSES.
story house, provided each occupied a quarter of two stories, or
sixteen if they occupied only one story. The inside rooms would
then be lighted from the open court, and the main rooms be square,
as in the second-story rooms of the author's residence,44 while the
triangular room there cut up into small bedrooms and closets,
might be appropriated to entry, closets, stairway, and perhaps"
kitchen, unless thought best to put this in the corner next the
court. Or, to illustrate from the same figure, let those large
rooms be divided the short way, one lighted from the court, and
the other from the outside, one appropriated to kitchen and din
ing-room, the other to parlor and sitting-room, and the triangle
cut at pleasure. Yet we leave this matter to be studied out and
applied, or not, by the reader.
Finally, reader, the great outline ideas of this work — " the gravel
wall and octagon form," we leave at the door of your common
sense, to be adopted or rejected, and modified or improved, as each
reader pleases. That its details are complete is not claimed.
That it is susceptible of important improvements is admitted —
and this is one of its beauties, that it admits of so much diversity
in its internal arrangements of rooms, thus suiting itself to the
tastes and wants of-all. That it is in part suggestive, or throws
out general facts and suggestions not worked out perfectly into
detailed specifications — like a loaf of bread put upon the table,
requiring to be cut up into slices, but the bread — the main thing
— there for all, is also admitted. But that no reader who intends
to build can read this work with a scrutinizing mind without
gleaning therefrom a great variety of most valuable hints, plans,
suggestions, and ideas, capable of being applied so as very greatly
to improve his prospective house, even if he adopts neither the
gravel wall nor octagon form, so as thereby to enhance his home
comforts for the balance of his life, and that it will enable him
to save himself scores and even hundreds of dollars in building a
house, is maintained by the author, and submitted to the sound
sense and practical experience of the builder. And if criticised,
let it be with generosity, for it has been written, not to make
money to the author, but save it to the builder, even while adding
to his " home joys."

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PHRENOLOGICAL BUST; .DESIGNED ESPECIALLY FOR LEARNERS.
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PHRENOLOGICAL GUIDE. DESIGNED FOR STUDENTS OF THEIR
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PHRENOLOGICAL SPECIMENS FOR PHRENOLOGICAL SOCIETIES AND
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RELIGION, NATURAL AND REVEALED; OR, THE NATURAL THEO-
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SYMBOLICAL HEAD AND PHRENOLOGICAL CHART, IN MAP FORM.
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WORKS OF WATER-CURE,
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M By no other way can men approach nearer to the gods, than by conferring health on men."
Cicero.
"If the people can be thoroughly indoctrinated in the general principles of Hydropathy, and
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ACCIDENTS AND EMERGENCIES : A GUIDE, CONTAINING DIREC-
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COOK BOOK, NEW HYDROPATHIC. BY E. T. TRALL, M.D. A SYS-
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CONSUMPTION; ITS PREVENTION AND CURE BYTHE WATER-
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COMBE ON INFANCY; OR, THE PHYSIOLOGICAL AND MORAL MAN-
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CHRONIC DISEASES : ESPECIALLY THE NERVOUS DISEASES OF
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HEREDITARY DESCENT: ITS, LAWS AND FACTS APPLIED TO
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NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN., SHOWING HIS THREE ASPECTS QF
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REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS. THEIR DISEASES, CAUSES, AND GORE
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SEXUAL DISEASES; THEIR CAUSES, PREVENTION AND CURE, ON
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