File:American homes and gardens (1912) (17536028543).jpg

Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesgar91912newy (find matches)
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic; Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Munn and Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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34Q AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS October, 1912 has been very quickly settled and built up—villages have rapidly grown into cities—and brick has been seized upon and used chiefly because it is the least expensive material, the use of which will comply with the municipal building laws. The result is that it has been so extensively used for constructing factories and other unsightly buildings, that the very mention of a brick house brings to mind some hideous structure with which one may be familiar. Still another reason is, that until very recently our architects have given very little attention to the study of brick build- ings. Too often it has been regarded as a cheap substi- tute for stone and thus forced into a use for which it is not adapted, for we seem to have forgotten that brick has had a long and honorable history and possesses an entire school of traditions of its own. We may think of the beautifully mellow and time-stained brickwork of Italy, France and England, and sigh because such effects belong to other coun- tries and bygone ages, forgetting that much of the grace and beauty of such building may be ours if we will but use the materials at hand with which to create it. Many of us think that wood is the cheapest of building material, but, after all, is it? The initial cost is the least, but a frame building begins almost at once to demand re- pairs, and these repairs become more and more costly as the age of the house increases. It must be painted every year or two to keep it in presentable order, and any failure to make these repairs promptly results in a rapid deprecia- tion in value. A frame house is difficult to heat and to heat it at all involves a heavy outlay for fuel, while in Summer it is much warmer than a house of brick and con- sequently much less comfortable. A frame building is of course highly inflammable and insurance companies have learned to their cost, that a frame house once on fire is al- most invariably a complete wreck and therefore a loss, and their rates for insurance are naturally higher. In a few years the added cost of these items may amount to much more than the difference between what the house cost and what it would have cost had it been built of brick or even of stone. Then, too, the frame house is subject to constant depre- ciation in value. K wooden house ten years' old generally looks its age, and if it were for sale would not bring any- thing like its cost. A brick house, on the contrary, becomes more beautiful with the passing years, and therefore in- creases in value. One can hardly find a frame house one hundred years old, but brick buildings one thousand years' old are numerous, and apparently as strong and serviceable as ever. It might be suggested that we are building our homes for ourselves, and not for our descendants of one hundred or one thousand years hence; but why not build the best for ourselves, particularly when the best costs only a very little more than something not so good? Next to frame, the cheapest material of which to build is stucco in some one of its various forms. Stucco, of course, is not a new building material, but its adaptation to modern country and suburban building is quite recent. The use of stucco which just now finds wide acceptance requires that it be applied directly to tile or terra cotta blocks or else ap- plied to wire lath or metal netting which is stretched upon a framework of wood. This method of building is so new that there has not yet been time to fully test its efficacy, but it may be said that so far the stucco has shown a tendency
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Here we see a careful arrangement of material, combining artistically proportioned woodwork and brick construction

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