-E'OGARDNER- 
 
 &b KELLOGG- &-CO NEW YoRK-D'CH

 
 FHOM 
 
 Jokes' BooK Bazar, 
 
 Los ANGB.LKS. GAL
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY 
 
 SCHOOL BUILDINGS 
 
 A COLLECTION OF PLANS AND DESIGNS 
 
 FOR 
 
 SCHOOLS OF VARIOUS SIZES 
 
 GRADED AND UNGRADED 
 
 DESCRIPTIONS OF CONSTRUCTION, OF SANITARY ARRANGEMENTS, 
 LIGHT, HEAT, AND VENTILATION 
 
 E. C. GARDNER 
 
 ARCHITECT 
 
 Author of " The House that Jill Built," "Homes and All About ThemC' 
 "Common-sense in Church-building" etc. 
 
 NEW YORK AND .CHICAGO 
 
 E, L. KELLOGG & CO 
 
 1888
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1888, 
 E. L. KELLOGG & CO. 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 DRUMMOND & NKU, 
 
 Electrotypem, 
 
 1 to 7 HaKUf Street, 
 
 New York.
 
 SRL8 
 URL 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THERE is no need of an extended argument to prove that suc- 
 cessful government by the people of this or any other country 
 is impossible unless the people are educated ; what is scarcely 
 less important, their education must be homogeneous. It may well 
 be questioned whether a certain amount, and a considerable amount, 
 of education in the common schools should not be required of all who 
 participate in government even to the extent of exercising the right 
 of suffrage. 
 
 Private, special schools of all kinds, scientific, literary, religious, 
 ethical, have their important place ; but the fundamental intellectual 
 training of the citizens of a republic must be the homogeneous train- 
 ing of the public institutions of learning. Neither is an argument 
 necessary to demonstrate that whatever we build, house, tower, or 
 nation, its permanent existence depends upon the foundation ; if that 
 is secure, the superstructure if wisely planned may grow indefinitely 
 in grandeur and might ; if it is defective, the grander the superstruc- 
 ture the more terrible will be its ruin. There is, however, this point 
 where the analogy between the foundation of the inanimate building 
 and that of the nation ceases. In the case of the building, the foun- 
 dation once laid is laid for all time ; with the nation it must be per- 
 petually changed, because with every generation we have a new re- 
 public, composed of new materials, having new duties, new prob- 
 lems, new dangers, and new conditions of existence. It is not true 
 of institutions large or small, public or private, which are composed 
 of intelligent, active men, that their foundations may be permanently 
 laid at the outset. Whenever this is attempted the result is stagna- 
 tion, mortification, and ignominious collapse.
 
 iv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Yet the important fact remains that at the present time the pub- 
 lic school is the only possible basis for popular government. Of 
 course the converse of this is true ; that it is only in republics that 
 popular education is either possible or, so far as government is 
 concerned, desirable. 
 
 This book, it hardly need be said, deals with only one phase of 
 the common-school question, and that a purely external one the 
 buildings. Not indeed the most important element in education, 
 but a highly essential one. Possibly the generation that has 
 passed away was so eager to get the wisdom of books that the visible 
 appearance of the temple was of no moment. Our fathers may have 
 been so anxious to gather the fruits of the tree of knowledge that 
 they were indifferent to close, dirty, poorly lighted, poorly warmed, 
 and non-ventilated rooms. That state of affairs no longer exists. If 
 the public school is to be popular, if it is to do the work that must 
 be done, if it is to exert the influence and gain the respect that is due 
 to the fundamental institution of the country, its external equipment 
 must be worthy of its high service. There must be the same regard 
 for sanitary considerations in the heating, lighting, and ventilation 
 that is exercised in the best private houses. There must be a 
 thoughtful and scientific study of all matters of convenience and 
 safety, and there must be in addition to this a wise provision for the 
 cultivation of the aesthetic sense which is nowhere so easily developed 
 as in children, and nowhere more imperatively needed than in their 
 training. 
 
 Wherever a well-situated, well-planned, thoroughly constructed, 
 and beautifully designed public school-house, large or small, has been 
 built, there is sure to be found a wise, healthful, and progressive sen- 
 timent in all matters relating to the general welfare. Magnificent 
 cathedrals, consecrated to the name of religion, may stand in the 
 midst of superstition, mental and moral degradation ; colossal indus- 
 trial enterprises may thrive upon the poverty and excessive toil of the 
 multitude; but a nobly equipped institution of popular education is
 
 INTRODUCTION. v 
 
 the strongest possible evidence of wise public sentiment, free thought, 
 and all the noblest possibilities of human character. 
 
 It is not expected that this book will serve as a collection of plans 
 from which any particular design can be chosen, and executed without 
 farther trouble or effort on the part of those to whom is entrusted 
 the duty of planning and building the school-house. There is no 
 royal road to knowledge of any sort, least of all to a knowledge of 
 art, and the best architectural results can never be reached without 
 special study for each building. Ready-made plans of dwelling- 
 houses especially are of little value, for the reason that every man's 
 house ought to suit his own character and circumstances. This is 
 not true to the same extent of public school buildings. What is 
 best for any one score or hundred of children of a given age will 
 probably be best in all essential points for any other score or hundred 
 with such changes only as will result from the use of different mate- 
 rials, variations in cost, and local modes of building. It will be un- 
 derstood that the floor-plans that are given do not necessarily require 
 the exterior designs that accompany them, also that the dimensions 
 of the rooms may be varied to suit varying requirements without 
 changing either the general arrangement of the interior or the char- 
 acter of the design. A second story might easily be added to some 
 of the plans that are drawn for but one, and the basement is always 
 an alternative feature -to be introduced or omitted according to 
 circumstances. 
 
 It is hoped that teachers will find this book helpful in urging the 
 rights of children, in explaining to building committees and others 
 in authority the possibilities and the duties in regard to school-build- 
 ings. For after all has been said and done that can be said and clone 
 for other good influences, the welfare of the schools throughout the 
 country is in the hands of the teachers. The future weal or woe of 
 our country depends upon this devoted band of home missionaries.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. PAGE 
 
 PREPARING THE GROUND AND OTHER ELEMENTARY WORK .... i 
 
 A description of a log building of one room adapted to pioneer wants. Floor 
 plan, two elevations, and details. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 TEMPORARY EXPEDIENTS 6 
 
 A cheap building of rough lumber, of same arangement as in Chapter I. Two 
 elevations, floor plan, and details. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A SINGLE ROOM WITH ABUNDANT CONVENIENCES u 
 
 A country school-house of one room, with vestibules, porches, and fuel room. 
 Floor plan, two elevations, and details. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A CHANGE OF GARMENTS 16 
 
 The same floor plan as in Chapter III., but with different exterior. Floor 
 plan, two elevations, and details. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ADAPTED TO A MULTITUDE OF CASES 19 
 
 A country school-house with cloak-rooms and porches. Two elevations, 
 perspective, floor plan, and details. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ROOM FOR GROWTH 24 
 
 A country or village school-house of one large room, recitation room, lobby, 
 and cloak-rooms. Floor plan and two elevations. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 A DISCUSSION OF IMPORTANT OUTSIDE MATTERS .... 28 
 
 A building containing two school-rooms, with lobby, cloak-rooms, and porches. 
 Floor plan, two elevations, perspective, and details.
 
 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. PAGE 
 
 A MODERATE GROWTH 33 
 
 A building of two rooms and recitation room, with lobbies, porches, and cloak- 
 rooms. Floor plan, two elevations, and details. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A HIGHER PLATFORM .... 37 
 
 A school-house containing only one room, but of more elaborate exterior 
 design. Floor plan and two elevations. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A DISTINCTION WITH LITTLE DIFFERENCE 40 
 
 The same floor plan as in Chapter IX., but differently clothed. Floor plan, 
 two elevations, and details. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 FOR THE BEST FAMILIES 43 
 
 A building for a country or village school that varies in size at different 
 seasons of the year. Floor and basement plans, elevations, perspective, and details. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 RELATIVE DIMENSIONS 48 
 
 A wooden building with floor school-rooms, cloak-rooms, etc., with basement. 
 Three floor plans, two elevations, perspective, and details. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SAFETY IN WOOD 54 
 
 A wooden building with basement, six school-rooms, and hall. Three floor 
 plans, perspective, and details. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 NOTHING TO GROW OLD . 59 
 
 A building suitable for a village high school, with basement, five school- 
 rooms, and hall, beside cloak-rooms, etc. Three floor plans, two elevations, and 
 details. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE VALUE OF THE BASEMENT 64 
 
 A one-story wooden building of three rooms. Two floor plans, two elevations, 
 and details.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. ix 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 AN HONORABLE COMPETITION 69 
 
 A village or country school-house, built of stone, and containing one school- 
 room, teacher's room, cloak-rooms, and high basement. Floor plan, two eleva- 
 tions, and details. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 A BODY OF STONE WITH MEMBERS OF CLAY 74 
 
 A building containing two school-rooms; the walls of stone, with terracotta 
 trimmings. Two elevations, floor plan, and perspective. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 CHIEFLY CLAY 77 
 
 The same arrangement of rooms as in Chapter XVII. The walls being of 
 brick instead of stone. Floor plan, two elevations, and details. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 SAFEGUARDS 8r 
 
 A substantial stone building with high basement. Three school-rooms, cloak- 
 rooms, etc. Two floor plans, two elevations, perspective, and details. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 DESIRABLE FORMALITY 86 
 
 A building of two stories above the basement, each floor having three school- 
 rooms. Two elevations, floor plans, and details. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 A CARDINAL VIRTUE 90 
 
 The same floor plan as in Chapter V., with a different exterior. Two eleva- 
 tions, floor plan, and details. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 MINOR CONCESSIONS 94 
 
 A brick building of two stories above the basement ; each floor containing four 
 school-rooms, cloak-rooms, etc. Two floor plans, perspective, elevation, and 
 details. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 ROOM FOR GROWTH . .... . . . . 100 
 
 A two-story brick building with basement, each floor containing two school- 
 rooms, cloak-rooms, and teacher's rooms; the whole arranged for future addition. 
 Three floor plans, perspective, and details.
 
 x TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. PAGE 
 
 9 
 
 CONCERNING ALTERATIONS 107 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 CONCERNING VENTILATION 109 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 OUT-OF-DOOR SURROUNDINGS 114. 
 
 Treating of playgrounds, front yards, entrances, gateways, fences, and other 
 useful and decorative adjuncts. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 DETACHED SUGGESTIONS
 
 INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Door-way for Log School-house . . i 
 
 Division Fence of Logs ... 2 
 
 Floor Plan, Design A . . .2 
 
 Front Elevation, " 3 
 
 Side " " . . . 4 
 
 Rough Fire Place .... 6 
 
 Front Elevation, Design B . . .7 
 
 Floor Plan, . . 8 
 
 Side Elevation, " " . . .8 
 
 Fire-place Screen .... 10 
 
 Detail of Frieze and Cornice . .n 
 
 Floor Plan, Design C . . 12 
 
 Front Elevation, " " . . 13 
 
 Side " . . 13 
 
 Detail of Window Transom . . .16 
 
 Floor Plan, Design D 17 
 
 Front Elevation, " " . . 17 
 
 Side " 18 
 
 Detail of Chimney Construction . . 19 
 
 Floor Plan, Design E . . 20 
 
 Front Elevation, " " . . .20 
 
 Perspective " 21 
 
 Side Elevation, " " . . .22 
 
 Detail of Stove Screen ... 24 
 
 Floor Plan, Design F . . -25 
 
 Front Elevation. " " . . 26 
 
 Side " . - 26 
 
 Front Elevation, Design G . . 28 
 
 Floor Plan, " " . . 30 
 
 Perspective, ' . . 31 
 
 Side Elevation, " . -3' 
 
 Detail of Porch 32 
 
 " Heating and Ventilating Flue 33 
 
 Floor Plan, Design H . . 34 
 
 Front Elevation, " " . . -35 
 
 Side Elevation, Design H 
 Details of Cornice and Cresting . 
 Floor Plan, Design I 
 
 Front Elevation, " " . 
 Side " " 
 
 Detail of Eaves and Gable . 
 Floor Plan, Design K 
 
 Front Elevation, " " . 
 Side " 
 
 Fire-place ..... 
 Front Elevation, Design L 
 Basement Plan, " " . 
 Floor Plan, " " . . 
 
 Perspective, " " . 
 
 Detail of Wardrobe .... 
 
 " " Truss .... 
 Perspective, Design M 
 
 Basement Plan, " " . 
 First Floor " " 
 
 Second " " " " . 
 Alternative Second Floor Plan, Design 
 Side Elevation, 
 Detail of Ventilating Turret 
 First Floor Plan, Design N 
 Second " " " " . 
 
 Perspective, " 
 
 Basement Plan, " " . 
 
 Detail of Floor Construction 
 Terra-cotta Detail .... 
 Front Elevation. Design O 
 Basement Plan, " " . 
 First Floor 
 
 Second " " " " . 
 
 Side Elevation, 
 Detail of Porch . 
 
 37 
 33 
 39 
 39 
 40 
 
 42 
 43 
 44 
 45 
 45 
 46 
 
 47 
 48 
 
 49 
 49 
 50 
 5 
 
 M 
 
 54 
 55 
 56 
 56 
 57 
 53 
 59 
 60 
 60 
 61 
 61 
 62 
 64
 
 Xll 
 
 INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Basement Plan, Design P 
 
 First Floor 
 
 Front Elevation 
 
 Side 
 
 Stone Detail . 
 
 Floor Plan, Design Q 
 
 Front Elevation, " 
 
 Side 
 
 Belfry .... 
 
 Floor Plan, Design R 
 
 Perspective, " 
 
 Front Elevation, " " 
 
 Terra-cotta Dormer . 
 
 Front Elevation, Design S 
 
 Floor Plan, " " 
 
 Side Elevation, " 
 
 Stone Capital 
 
 Basement Plan, Design T 
 
 First Floor " " " 
 
 Perspective, 
 
 Front Elevation, " 
 
 Side 
 
 Cresting and Finials . 
 
 First Floor Plan, Design U 
 
 Front Elevation, 
 
 End 
 
 Inside Detail 
 
 Floor Plan, Design V 
 
 I'AGE | PAGE 
 
 65 ! Front Elevation, Design V . . 92 
 
 66 Side " " " . . . 92 
 
 66 Brick Detail 94 
 
 67 Basement Plan, Design W . . -95 
 
 69 First Floor " " 96 
 
 70 Perspective, " " . . -97 
 
 71 Side Elevation, " " . . 98 
 
 72 Detail of Stairway 100 
 
 73 Perspective, Design X . . 100 
 
 74 Basement Plan, " . . 102 
 
 75 First Floor " " " . . 103 
 
 75 Second " . . 104 
 
 76 Fence for Playground . . . 114 
 
 77 Broken Sky-line for Plain Fences . 115 
 
 78 A Close Fence made of if-inch Plank 
 
 79 Sawed at Top 115 
 
 80 Wooden Fence for the Front Yard . 116 
 
 81 Iron Fence on a Stone Base . .116 
 
 82 Wrought-iron Gate with Stone Posts 116 
 
 82 A Combination of Stone, Brick, Terra- 
 
 83 cotta, Iron, and Glass . . . 117 
 
 84 Stone Curb where no Fence is" Needed 118 
 
 85 Sheltered Gateway and Seat . . 119 
 
 86 Dos-a-Dos 120 
 
 87 Sheltered Seat Resting on a Paving of 
 
 88 Asphalt with Stone Coping . .122 
 88 An Appropriate Gift from a Public- 
 go spirited Citizen to his Native District 124
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PREPARING THE GROUND AND OTHER ELEMENTARY 
 
 WORK. 
 
 YEN in frontier regions where only 
 primitive resources are at hand, it is 
 expedient in building school-houses 
 to pay due regard to matters of 
 taste, convenience, and health. 
 The rawest kinds of raw materials 
 may be put into artistic forms by 
 thoughtful arrangement. Convenience does not 
 depend upon complex machinery, and experi- 
 ence proves that the simplest precautions and 
 expedients are of vastly more importance in 
 sanitary matters than the elegant and elaborate 
 devices that have come to be considered a part 
 of modern civilization. 
 
 The single cell is the beginning of all school-houses, the germ 
 from which all others are developed. Through whatever changes of 
 complicated growth it may pass, it is the same in kind and purpose, 
 one room large enough to hold from twenty to fifty children in the 
 care of a single teacher. This building has no cellar, because it would 
 have no use for one, but the preparation of the ground on which it 
 stands is of the first importance. The sods, roots, stumps, and perish- 
 able matters of all kinds must be thoroughly removed. And after 
 this is done, the surface covered by the building or enclosed by its
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 & 
 
 foundation-walls must be several inches higher than the ground out- 
 side. In a region where there are deep snows in winter it should be 
 not less than a foot higher. The common custom of making an 
 excavation in order to secure an air-space under the floor-timbers is 
 most unwise. The air-space is all right provided it is well ventilated, 
 
 but it should be obtained by raising the 
 -o^ building, not by sinking the ground. 
 
 There is no more active 
 cause of sore throats, diph- 
 theria, and pneumonia than 
 the pools of melting snow 
 mingled with the inevitable 
 
 fc*M MMMII//]// uncleanness, if not positive filth, that will 
 accumulate during the winter around and un- 
 der a district school-house. To excavate underneath a building even 
 for the purpose of removing materials liable to decay, and then re- 
 fill the excavation with sand, would not insure either dryness or 
 cleanness, if the nature of the subsoil is such as to hold water, be- 
 cause the space between the walls is still a basin in which the sand lies 
 like a wet sponge from which hurtful emanations may arise longer, 
 perhaps, than if it had not been filled with sand. 
 
 In making provision for dryness, there are two sources of danger 
 to be taken into account : the dampness which comes from a naturally 
 
 Floor Plan of Improved Country School-house. (Design A.)
 
 PREPARING THE GROUND AND OTHER ELEMENTARY WORK. 3 
 
 wet soil, that is, a soil which is rarely if ever dry on account of 
 underground springs, or leaching from hjigher ground ; and the 
 
 Front Elevation of Design A. 
 
 temporary moisture to which all land is subject from rainfall or melt- 
 ing snow. From whichever cause it arises, there must be absolute 
 
 Side Elevation of Design A. 
 
 protection from this ground-moisture. In the former case, that 
 is, the chronic dampness, if such land must be occupied by a
 
 4 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 building, the least precaution admissible is a drain entirely 
 around the building at^ the foot of the foundation-wall, having a 
 steady fall to some outlet that will always be open. This will 
 prevent a stagnant pool of water in the earth and keep the bit of 
 land covered by the building comparatively dry. This drain may 
 be of common agricultural tiles, where they can be obtained, and 
 where they cannot, small stones thrown into a trench and covered 
 with fine brush before the earth is filled in will answer. 
 
 To prevent surface water, rains, and melting snow from accumu- 
 lating under and around a building it is necessary that the surface of 
 the ground should slope rapidly away from it in all directions. In a 
 small, if not in a large way, every school-house should be set on a hill, 
 not only that its light may shine, but that the children's feet may be dry. 
 If they must choose between clean hands and dry feet, let them have 
 the dry feet. In a level country where there are no natural hills, a 
 hill must be made. It is not a serious fault to set a building upon 
 stone or wooden posts if close economy requires it, leaving the space 
 underneath entirely open. The most obvious objections to this are 
 the ugly appearance of the building perched upon stilts, and the diffi- 
 culty of keeping warm in cold weather. It will also be necessary to 
 protect the ground underneath from the marble-pits and other 
 earth-works of the small boys, by a paving of concrete, bricks, 
 or cobble-stones. It would be more satisfactory to set a strong 
 wooden lattice between the posts, which may be rough and cheap, 
 but should be very substantial, and put together with screws in- 
 stead of nails. 
 
 I have shown this primitive cell with a solid-looking stone under- 
 pinning, assuming that it is built in a region where rocks and forests 
 both abound, and will cost nothing but the labor of getting them. 
 If it should happen that labor is the most valuable of all the elements 
 that enter into its construction, it may be objected that there is a need- 
 less outlay upon this simple building ; yet the only difference between 
 this and the baldest structure possible is in the use of one tier of 
 larger logs at the height of the top of the doors, one side of which has
 
 PREPARING THE GROUND AND OTHER ELEMENTARY WORK. 5 
 
 been gashed with an axe, and the few feet of extra length in the logs 
 that support the overhanging roof. 
 
 The details of construction for such a building I shall not attempt 
 to describe. An actual pioneer who has learned wisdom and inven- 
 tion in the best of all schools, experience, would laugh at my rules, 
 but I shall not yield an iota of my opinion that it is the truest wisdom 
 and the closest economy to give even to the primitive buildings that 
 are devoted to educational purposes, some visible evidence of thought- 
 ful study in their external appearance, some sign of honorable regard, 
 and to the preparation of the ground on which they are to stand at 
 least as much care as a wise gardener would give to an asparagus-bed.
 
 . CHAPTER II. 
 
 TEMPORARY EXPEDIENTS. 
 
 F1KE PLACE.- To BE OF - rW(,H ST^NE WJ1T1 
 
 THIS is a design for the 
 same primitive structure, 
 but in regions where the saw- 
 mill is the prompt attendant, if not 
 the precursor, of that permanent 
 settlement of the country in which 
 schools have their growth. Labor 
 is still the most precious of the 
 materials that are required, and a 
 structure that can be built as 
 
 Rome was not, in a day, is the most suitable, and perhaps the only 
 available one. This is made on the mollusk plan ; that is to say, the 
 skeleton is on the outside. In the utmost economy of raw material 
 this would not be the wisest method, for there is somewhat more 
 liability to decay in this case than when the frame is protected in the 
 ordinary way by the outer covering. But it has the advantage of fin- 
 ishing the interior neatly and at once, and of giving a more attractive- 
 looking exterior, while still leaving the building in such condition that 
 it may at any future time be completed in the most thorough and dur- 
 able manner. In both these designs the windows are grouped to form 
 the large single side-light. There is a question whether the light should 
 be admitted from both sides or from the left of the scholars only. In 
 small country buildings it generally seems more satisfactory to have 
 the windows on both sides of the room, and provide shades or shut- 
 ters for one side if there is too much light, or trouble from cross-lights. 
 Whether from one or both sides, groups of windows cost no more
 
 TEMPORARY EXPEDIENTS, 
 
 Front Elevation of Design B. 
 
 than smaller detached openings. Of course the sizes of the panes of 
 glass must be left to circumstances. Indeed the pioneer school-house 
 may be thankful if it has glass in its windows at all; nor would it be 
 such a serious deprivation if it should be thrown back upon the old 
 substitute, oiled paper. The time seems to be fast approaching, not 
 exactly when " all the land will be paper and all the seas of ink," but 
 when everything needed for the necessities of men, except food and 
 drink, will be made of that artificial material which adapts itself so 
 readily to a constantly increasing variety of purposes. 
 
 There are strong water-proof papers that are semi-transparent 
 which would make excellent temporary substitutes for glass, and 
 roofing and sheathing papers that will keep out the rain far better, 
 and I am not sure but longer, than the cheap, sawed shingles of half- 
 decayed lumber which find their way into the markets. Being light 
 in weight, the transportation of paper beyond the lines of the rail- 
 ways will not be a difficult or expensive matter. 
 
 Neither of these simple plans provides for cloak-rooms, vestibules, 
 or any other of the numerous conveniences that are expected in the 
 fully developed building. The fireplace is the only means of warm-
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 Floor Plan of One-room Country School-house (Design B). 
 
 ing, and that, with the opening of doors and windows, furnishes also 
 the crude but none the less effective ventilation. Although as regards 
 the latter, structures of this primitive kind will not lack ample 
 breathing-spaces through the cracks and crannies between the logs or 
 rough timbers of which it is composed. In the matter of fresh air our 
 forefathers, in the days of wigwams and log-cabins, builded better 
 than they knew. 
 
 Side Elevation of Design B. 
 
 Large bins at the rear corners of the room will hold the day's 
 stock of fuel, and the outer wraps of the children will hang against
 
 TEMPORARY EXPEDIENTS. 9 
 
 the wall at either side of the teacher's platform. Concerning the 
 furniture it would be useless to prescribe, for necessity will dictate 
 what it shall be : whether slab seats in long rows, home-made chairs, 
 or ready-made furniture. Only one thing must be insisted upon: the 
 seats, whatever they are, must have backs. It may be possible to 
 teach one child, or possibly half a dozen, to sit upright several hours 
 in the day by sheer force of back-bone, and those who are thus trained 
 will have a great advantage over those who depend upon a back-board 
 that is, if they survive the training; but it is scarcely possible that a 
 whole school of boys and girls of all ages and of every variety of 
 physical constitution can be kept from serious injury if compelled to 
 maintain a perpendicular position during the study hours without 
 substantial support. A single pole with the bark on, if need be, would 
 be far better than nothing. Of course the backs of the pupils sitting 
 next the big fireplace when it is in full blast, as it must be in cold 
 weather, would soon be roasted to the spine if unprotected; but this 
 difficulty, which is inseparable from the use of the fire-place, can 
 easily be overcome, and the fire made far more effective in warming 
 the room, by a very simple expedient, if the school-house is not more 
 than a thousand miles from a tinshop. Whether there is glass in the 
 windows or a latch on the doors, there must be in front of the fire, 
 place a screen, covered on the side next the fire with bright tin. This 
 should be just high enough to thoroughly screen from the heat the 
 heads of the tallest boys sitting in front of it, not high enough to hide 
 the shortest one standing behind it, and twice as long as the width of 
 the fireplace. It should not stand vertically before the fire, but 
 should tip backwards a few inches, so that the reflected heat from it 
 may be thrown upward. Then if the air in the room conducts itself 
 as air ought in such circumstances, it will rise to the ceiling, pass 
 across to the teachers' end of the room, and gradually fall to the floor, 
 giving a fairly uniform temperature to the apartment. 
 
 In regions where the winters are severe, such a building should 
 always have a south frontage. If it must be placed on a street that runs 
 north and south, it would better stand broadside to the road for the sake
 
 10 
 
 AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 of the southern outlook than to open its doors to the northeast ^storms 
 or the cold northwest winds. Beyond these suggestions the plans 
 require no explanation. They are at best but temporary expedients, 
 willing to be superseded by more complete accommodations as soon 
 as the facilities for building will justify them. The chief point is that 
 the school-house, even in its most rudimentary condition, shall be an 
 object worthy of affection and respect, and always in advance of the 
 general conditions by which it is surrounded ; since it is in fact the 
 special mission of the common school not merely to point out the 
 way of wisdom and progress, but to lead in that way. 
 
 FIRE.YT-ACE.- 
 
 - op- f3" STVFF-MVACES'Of %>'* 
 1V- VITT1'
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A SINGLE ROOM WITH ABUNDANT CONVENIENCES. 
 
 THIS plan is a degree beyond the first 
 two, though a single cell. It has por- 
 ches, one for the boys and one for the girls, 
 under which the super-punctual who 
 reach the school-house before the 
 doors are unlocked can find shelter 
 on stormy days ; and it has the 
 vestibules which remove the objec- 
 tion to opening the outer doors 
 directly into the school-room, and in which, if it is thought expedient, 
 the children can leave their outer wraps in cold weather, and their hats 
 and caps at all times. Otherwise it is substantially the same thing as its 
 predecessors. It is, however, supposed to be finished in a more 
 thorough manner, as it stands in a region where all the common 
 means and materials for building are to be had and there is no obsta- 
 cle in the way of the most complete and highly developed structures 
 except the want of money to spend for them. This, by the way, is not 
 half so common a difficulty as we are apt to be assured. It is one 
 of the unaccountable things that men who have had the advan- 
 tages of a common-school education should appear to be stupidly 
 ignorant of the simplest processes of arithmetic and common-sense 
 when the question of building a new school-house is before them. 
 Men who do not hesitate a moment when their children need a pair 
 of boots and shoes all around, or new suits of clothes, a few dollars 
 for a pleasure-trip, or for far more unnecessary purposes, will groan 
 and grumble and throw all possible obstacles in the way of erecting a
 
 12 
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 building for their own especial well-being and comfort : and all for no 
 earthly reason except that it must be owned in common and enjoyed 
 with one another. In fact, it would be a most extraordinary thing to 
 rind in this country a community in which half the money spent for 
 rum and tobacco, to mention no other useless expenditures, would not 
 in five years build a school-house that would be, in comparison with 
 all other structures in the neighborhood, a model of utility, comfort, 
 and elegance. I presume even those who hold that these debatable 
 
 YtsriiMjU 
 
 Floor Plan of One-room Country School-house. (Design C.) 
 
 and much debated luxuries are actual necessities to the male half of 
 mankind will admit that at least one half of the money spent for 
 them might well be devoted to educational purposes, at least for a 
 term of five years after which there would be no further need of 
 such self-denial during that generation, for a well-built school-house 
 ought to serve its purpose for that length of time at least. 
 
 This also gives evidence of progress in the substitution of the stove
 
 A SINGLE ROOM WITH ABUNDANT CONVENIENCES. 
 
 Front Elevation of Design C. 
 
 for the fireplace ; for though there is much to be said in favor of the 
 more primitive mode of heating, and a great many forcible objections 
 to the stove as commonly used, of the two the stove is by far the 
 more scientific mode of heating the more scientific and therefore the 
 more economical. Ignorantly or carelessly managed, a cast-iron stove 
 in a school-room is a means of torture, if not of an actual slaughter of 
 the innocents, " burning the air," scorching those who have the mis- 
 fortune to sit near it, and leaving the more remote to become slowly 
 chilled in body and mind ; a noisy, dirty, uncomfortable intruder. 
 But when intelligently treated it becomes a reasonable and faithful 
 
 Side Elevation of Design C.
 
 14 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 servant, giving larger returns in the way of heat for what it receives 
 in the way of fuel, four times over, than the more attractive and waste- 
 ful fireplaces of our fathers. 
 
 A stove to be an agreeable means of warming any large room 
 should in all essential respects adopt the principles of a hot-air fur- 
 nace of the best construction and arrangement ; that is, fresh outside 
 air must be brought to it as rapidly as it can be warmed, and quickly 
 diffused through the room. This need not be done by means of 
 long, slender tin pipes and cast-iron registers. The same results may 
 be accomplished by surrounding the stove with a non-conducting case 
 or jacket of sheet-iron which will prevent the direct radiation of all 
 the heat from the stove into the air in its immediate vicinity, and 
 then arranging for the admission of fresh air from out of doors 
 through the floor under the stoves. This will lift the air around the 
 stove, as fast as it is warmed, to the top of the room, where it will be 
 much more quickly and uniformly diffused than if the heat of the 
 stove is allowed to radiate in all directions. To insure this diffusion 
 of heat a steady circulation of air must be constantly maintained, and 
 that can only be accomplished by means of an exhaust-flue having its 
 inner opening at the floor near the stove. In this case it might start 
 from the front of the teacher's platform, and thence pass under the 
 floor to the ventilating-flue in the chimney, which, being always 
 warmed by the heat from the smoke-pipe, will have a strong draught. 
 The ordinary mode of saving heat by making a long pipe in the room 
 is a foolish waste of resources. This heat should be devoted to ven- 
 tilation. It is a common remark that the open fireplace, with all its 
 loss of heat, is good economy because it ventilates so completely; 
 but like all unscientific modes of accomplishing a desired end, it is 
 extremely wasteful. It does indeed ventilate in its immediate vicinity, 
 where perhaps ventilation is least needed, and by a great waste of 
 fuel. The same amount of heat maintained in a ventilating-flue 
 arranged to effect a change of air in a systematic way would be vastly 
 more effective. The great practical difficulty arises from the possi- 
 bility of using a stove without the saving arrangement for ventilation,
 
 A SINGLE ROOM WITH ABUNDANT CONVENIENCES. 15 
 
 and then it becomes an engine of destruction. Let it once be dis- 
 tinctly understood that the large ventilating-shaft warmed by the heat 
 from the stove-pipe, and the exhaust-flue from the floor, are as neces- 
 sary as the windows, the doors, and the roof, and we shall hear no 
 more complaints of illy ventilated country school-houses. 
 
 It would be an open question whether to have the direct doors 
 from the school-room to the porches ; they would be kept closed in 
 the winter, but in warm weather, especially for a primary school, they 
 would be desirable, all the more so as there are no separate cloak- 
 rooms or closets, and the scholars might be required to hang their 
 hats on the walls of the school-room, in which case there would be no 
 occasion for them to pass through the vestibule either in coming in 
 or going out. 
 
 The mechanical construction of this building is about as simple as 
 it could be made. A plain gabled roof, the slope of the front side 
 brought forward at the ends to cover the little porches. The frame a 
 " balloon," the outer covering common siding or " clapboards," as 
 they are called in some parts of the country, except the gable ends 
 above the lines of the tops of the windows, where shingles are used. 
 I would not advise shingles on the lower part of the walls. They 
 offer too many salient points to the national jack-knife. It is true, boys 
 must be taught to hold the visible temples of learning in profound 
 respect. It is an essential part of their education to refrain from 
 whittling the school-house and tearing their own clothes ; but up to a 
 certain point it is best to keep temptation in those directions as far off 
 as possible. There is no objection to shingling the gables for the sake 
 of variety in the external appearance. The work about the porch is 
 plain and solid. It has been suggested that the porch-rail ought to 
 be covered with sheet-iron or spikes. If boys were colts, that would 
 be necessary; being boys, it is not. Doubtless they will sit on it, and 
 jump over it, and crawl through it; but if it is well painted, or made 
 of hard wood and finished with some of the varnishes that are used 
 to preserve unpainted wood in exposed places, it will not require any 
 other protection.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 : TTVAN59M-oPE.Nb IN-, WITH SIDE. F1ECE5 F 
 ME.TAt.'10PKP/E.kT CUVAVGTTT AT 51DE 
 
 A CHANGE OF GARMENTS. 
 
 THIS is the same plan 
 in a different suit of 
 clothes. The roof is hip- 
 ped and somewhat more 
 broken in outline than the 
 other, though there would 
 be little if any difference 
 in the cost of the two 
 buildings. The school- 
 rooms are of the same 
 size and height, and are 
 precisely alike in their 
 arrangements and accom- 
 modations. In this, the ceilings of the vestibules are two or three feet 
 lower than that of the main room, on account of the slope of the roof. 
 Neither of the buildings would have a " high look;" but this is the more 
 humble of the two, and, therefore, the more suitable for the top of a 
 high hill or any other location where it is desirable to keep the building 
 as inconspicuous as possible. The top of a high hill, however, is not 
 the right place for a school-house or any other building except a cas- 
 tle, a tower, or a monument. Neither of the buildings has a cellar; 
 but there is an attic or loft, accessible only through a trap-door in the 
 ceiling. This attic is ventilated by the small windows in the gables, 
 which are opened and closed by cords from the school-room, and the 
 trap-door is constructed to serve as a hot-weather ventilator, by which 
 I mean the natural ventilation that takes place when the heated air in
 
 A CHANGE OF GARMENTS. 17 
 
 a room is allowed to rise freely through the roof This is the most 
 effective mode of changing the atmosphere of a warm room. It does 
 
 IfeM) 
 
 \VM. 
 
 fiTL 
 
 nn n 
 
 tJJlBUU 
 
 N1 
 
 Floor Plan of One-room Country School-house. (Design D.) 
 
 not produce the dangerous draughts that result from opening the 
 windows, and in warm weather the escape of the heat with the foul air 
 
 Front Elevation of Design D.
 
 i8 
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL.BUILDINGS. 
 
 is not a loss, as it is when heat costs fuel. The chimney which belongs 
 to these plans contains both the ventilating and smoke flues, the 
 former being of bricks, twenty-eight inches square, and the latter a thin 
 cast-iron pipe placed in the centre of the ventilating-flue. 
 
 Side Elevation of Design D. 
 
 A close economy in building would dispense with the transoms 
 over the group of windows, making the sashes in two parts only. 
 Aside from the better appearance, the transoms, if they are made to 
 open inwards from the top, furnish the best means of window-ventilation 
 and leave the lower sashes, which are hung by weights, of more con- 
 venient size and shape than if they extended the full height of the 
 opening.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 ADAPTED TO A MULTITUDE OF CASES. 
 
 T 
 
 1 >1ALL BMCK-'VENTlLATlNOi 
 J5&K FIVES tWAPMED- BY DV 
 $>" OR 1T-J\I\A C"TTA-3MOKE 
 - 
 
 HIS is for a small village or country 
 school where there is need of close 
 economy, but where there are ample facili- 
 ties for obtaining the best results without 
 large expenditure. Its chief vari- 
 ation from the preceding plan is 
 in the location of the vestibules, 
 which are at what is probably 
 the front of the building as regards the street or highway on 
 which it stands, but are in fact at the rear of the school-room 
 itself. The stove, too, has a place prepared for its especial ac- 
 commodation; which is a matter of much importance, but almost 
 invariably disregarded. Those who have attended a country district- 
 school in winter will remember the formality of "going to the stove," 
 during the session, and the opportunity afforded for surreptitious 
 gossip and other roguery, and the tumultuous crowding around the 
 source of warmth on zero mornings before school "begins." It is 
 evident that this part of the interior arrangement should be carefully 
 considered, not only as a matter of health and comfort, but of school 
 discipline. 
 
 Where, for economical reasons, it is impracticable to have but one 
 warm room for the use of the school, and that the room in which all 
 are assembled for study and recitation, it is not enouglT that this 
 should be uniformly warmed to a proper temperature ; there should 
 also be opportunity for those who arrive at the building cold and wet, 
 to warm their hands and feet and to dry their clothing. The chief
 
 2O 
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 SCHOOL ROOM 
 
 objection to enclosing the 
 stove, which stands in the 
 room, with a close screen or 
 jacket eight or ten feet high 
 (fresh outer air being admit- 
 ted through the floor under- 
 neath it, as described on page 
 14), is that this makes no 
 provision for the needs de- 
 scribed above. The enclosing 
 screen will not be sufficiently 
 heated to warm and dry quickly 
 the chilled hands and feet of 
 the children. To ma^e open- 
 ings in the side of it near the 
 floor, would to a great extent 
 prevent its successful working 
 in warming the atmosphere 
 of the room, besides compli- 
 cating the apparatus and increasing its liability to get out of re- 
 pair. Every heater of this kind ought therefore to have a portion 
 of its surface arranged 
 to furnish a direct ra- 
 diation near the floor. 
 This should not be 
 large enough or hot 
 enough to make the 
 adjacent seats un- 
 comfortable, but suf- 
 ficient to be very 
 sensibly ffclt by those 
 standing near it. The 
 object might be admi- 
 rably accomplished Front Elevation. Design E. 
 
 f-LPOf\ 
 
 One-room Country School-house. Design E.
 
 ADAPTED TO A MULTITUDE OF CASES. 
 
 21 
 
 by attaching hot-water circulating pipes or radiators to the stove, and by 
 placing them outside the jacket to be warmed by a "water-back" simi- 
 lar to the fixture used in kitchen ranges for heating the bath-boiler. 
 The first cost of this would be comparatively slight, and it would 
 give precisely the means of health and comfort desired. The obvious 
 objection is that it would require emptying every night on account of 
 
 ^^^,^f J&f- 
 
 3g*V J^S*^ 
 
 Perspective View. Design E. 
 
 the danger of freezing. This would not be in fact a serious trouble, 
 if it were once understood to be a matter of necessity. 
 
 In order to avoid encroaching upon the space required for t lie seats 
 and desks, an alcove is built out at the left of the teacher's" platform. 
 It would be more convenient for the scholars, especially for those who 
 come in late, if it were near the door; but the wall-space at that end 
 of the room is desirable for blackboards, and there are excellent rea-
 
 22 
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 sons why the stove and the group of children that will sometimes 
 gather around it should be near the teacher. Which situation can 
 urge the stronger claims is perhaps a question for the teachers them- 
 selves to decide. At least some of the grounds for argument would 
 rest upon the discipline of the school. By making a slight change in 
 this plan, a little space could be borrowed from the lobbies, making a 
 recess between them where the stove would have the advantage of 
 being near the door ; the unpunctual could creep quietly into the 
 room, hide behind the stove for a time, and possibly gain their seats 
 without being detected in their tardiness. 
 
 This plan might be still further modified by the omission of 
 the porches, either leaving the doors without any protection 
 or substituting for them plain hoods. The doors themselves 
 could be left where they are, or they might be brought around 
 to the front of the projection that contains the lobbies. Porches, 
 however, are an important adjunct to any school-house which 
 is not provided with an open basement or other large ante-room. 
 Far better is it that they should be as rude in construction as the sheds 
 which a prudent farmer provides for his cattle and sheep, than that 
 the children should be left without this provision for their comfort 
 and enjoyment. For the teachers, and for all the children, they 
 
 Side Elevation. Design E.
 
 ADAPTED TO A MULTITUDE OF CASES. 23 
 
 afford shelter from storms and from the hot sun ; while the less 
 robust, who are inclined to stay indoors at recess or during other 
 regular intermissions, are tempted by them into the more healthful 
 outside air. 
 
 Still another indirect reason might be urged for retaining the 
 porches, their value as an example to be followed by existing build- 
 ings. There are innumerable school-houses, new and old, that would be 
 completely changed, as regards their external appearance, by the 
 addition of ample porches; changed for the better; and the cheaper, 
 more unpretending the original structure, the less would be the cost of 
 the addition, and the greater would be the transformation.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 ROOM FOR GROWTH. 
 
 IT sometimes happens that the 
 children of a single district can 
 
 tNCLiJNQ 
 
 best be organized as a single 
 school with two teachers, rather than as 
 two separate schools, each with a room 
 and teacher of its own. In such cases, 
 there should be a recitation-room an- 
 nexed to the main room. This plan is 
 for such a school. It differs from the 
 other single cells in having one common 
 entrance and lobby for the entire school, 
 from which open the separate cloak- 
 rooms for the boys and girls, the latter 
 
 communicating directly with the school-room. Like the other plans, 
 this is warmed by stoves treated in furnace-fashion ; an exhaust-flue 
 having an area of at least five square feet, passing from the teacher's 
 platform under the floor to the brick ventilating-flue that surrounds 
 the iron smoke-pipe. Fresh air is brought into the chamber around 
 the stove by a cold-air box opening directly out-of-doors, the inner 
 opening protected and regulated by a register under the stove itself. 
 
 In this plan, too, I have shown windows on both sides of the room. 
 Although not according to the strictest theories, this has certain 
 advantages which should not be overlooked. If the eyes of the pupils 
 were at all times directed to their books lying on their desks before 
 them, a single light over their left shoulders would be all that is 
 required. Light from any other quarter would not only be unneces-
 
 ROOM FOR GROWTH. 
 
 sary but objectionable. When their attention is directed away from 
 their books, as it often is either to their teacher's desk or to the black- 
 boards that may extend entirely across both ends of the room, and 
 during all general exercises of the school, it is of little consequence 
 where the light comes from, provided there is plenty of it. The 
 advantage of having an abundance of light even for rare and special 
 occasions, far more than offsets the extra cost of blinds for the win- 
 dows that are not usually needed. In other words, it is better to put 
 in twice the number of windows that are necessary, and close one-half 
 of them during the regular study-hours. There are 
 gloomy days, dark rainy days, and short days when 
 all out doors is none too bright either for good- 
 cheer or for actual needs. 
 
 The shallow cupboards beside the group of win- 
 dows at the front 
 
 side of the main =LJ=? 
 
 room, for a small 
 school - library or 
 other apparatus, 
 form a wide recess 
 which may be filled 
 with a window-seat, 
 and the jambs afford 
 sufficient space for 
 the folding of inside 
 blinds. The boys 
 and girls are given 
 but one porch and vestibule, but separate cloak-rooms. 
 
 The fuel-room is not expected to contain anything but fuel; this 
 will be put in from the outside, and once filled, will not be accessible 
 except from the school-room, with which it communicates directly. 
 If the building stands with porch to the south, the window-seat may 
 be filled with flowers, and it would be well to leave a wider space- 
 between the seats and this side of the room than at the opposite side. 
 
 j 
 
 Two-room School-house. Design F.
 
 20 
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 Front Elevation. Design F. . 
 
 The civilizing influence of flowers in the school-room is very great. 
 They give the keenest pleasure to many children, and even those who 
 appear to be indifferent to them, or who are inclined to ridicule them, 
 are insensibly affected by their presence. There is nothing more 
 easily obtained, they ask but the slightest care, and they serve as 
 excellent indicators of the sanitary state of the atmosphere as regards 
 
 Side Elevation. Design F.
 
 ROOM FOR GROWTH. 27 
 
 dust and dryness. When the room is too dry and dusty for plants, 
 then it is unfit for children. If a sunny window-seat cannot be spared, 
 it is easy to have in any shaded corner boxes of native ferns. It 
 should go without saying that whether ferns, wild flowers, or exotics 
 are cultivated, ignorance of their names and something of their habits 
 would be as disgraceful to the members of the school as the inability 
 to give the geographical boundaries of the state in which they live, 
 or to name its principal exports.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 A DISCUSSION OF IMPORTANT OUTSIDE MATTERS. 
 
 Front Elevation. Design G. 
 
 THIS design is for a school-house of two rooms, with a single large 
 vestibule for both, and two cloak-rooms, one for the boys of 
 both rooms and one for the girls. Such a building would be suit- 
 able for a school so nearly homogeneous that it is practically one 
 school divided into two equal portions, or one in which the assistant 
 has a room precisely like that of the principal, and where the classes 
 may be transferred from one room to the other as occasion requires. 
 In its general arrangement it is precisely like the single-celled rooms ; 
 it has no cellar and is warmed by the stoves standing near the teacher's 
 platform in the corners of the rooms, surrounded by non-conduct- 
 ing guards, supplied with fresh air from outside and each room having 
 a large ventilating-flue, warmed in cold weather by the heat from the 
 smoke-pipe. The partition between the boys' and girls' cloak-rooms 
 should extend the full height of the room; but those separating the 
 cloak-rooms from the lobby and from the lavatories are simply screens 
 six or seven feet high.
 
 A DISCUSSION OF IMPORTANT OUTSIDE MATTERS. 29 
 
 This building has also a similar arrangement for the privies or 
 earth-closets that has been shown in former plans. They are directly 
 accessible from each cloak-room or lobby as well as from the play- 
 ground, and not one jot or tittle of the completeness of their arrange- 
 ments should be abated even from the simplest and cheapest of the 
 buildings. It would doubtless be better on some accounts to have 
 two detached outbuildings instead of one, as shown in Chapter III., 
 with walks quite separated; but in other respects the arrangement 
 shown on this plan is more convenient, and after taking into account 
 the cost of a substantial and perfectly impervious barrier between the 
 two, it is decidedly more economical. In case of the two separate 
 buildings and walks, the space between the two need not be accessi- 
 ble either for the boys or girls as a part of the playground, but may 
 be kept clean and free as an open ornamental lawn. 
 
 It may be thought that these privies are shown too near the main 
 school-room. This is not the case, (although they can easily be set 
 farther back), because there is no difficulty in keeping them . in such 
 condition that they shall be inoffensive; while if they are more remote 
 they are almost sure to become intolerable nuisances. Decent privies, 
 kept in decent order, are absolutely indispensable to the physical and 
 moral welfare of the children; and if they cannot be afforded by any other 
 means it would be far wiser to discontinue the schools for a whole 
 year and expend the year's appropriation in providing such accommo- 
 dations as are requisite, rather than to allow these necessary adjuncts 
 to remain in the condition in which they are often found. I am sure 
 
 J 
 
 that no apology is due for Dwelling at length upon this subject, for it 
 is certain that they are not infrequently in a barbarous condition ; as 
 a matter of fact, decidedly worse than barbarous. To sav that they 
 are beastly would be unfair to the beasts ; they are worse than beastly. 
 It is not, however, such a difficult or expensive matter to secure 
 decency and cleanliness as is usually supposed. As regards offensive 
 odors, it is only needful that the vaults should be kept perfectly dry 
 all the time, and this condition of dryness is easily maintained. Dry 
 earth is cheap everywhere, except in the Great Dismal Swamp, and
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 Tn n n[n r 
 
 We" I/I 
 
 K^TC,/ ,- 
 
 I 
 
 SCHOOLROOM r 
 
 JOBBY- 
 
 Floor Plan of Two-room School-house. Design G. 
 
 coal ashes are commonly a drug where coal is the common fuel. 
 Either of these materials is efficacious as a disinfectant. For a school 
 of forty or fifty children, the proper care of the privies would involve 
 less actual labor and expense than the care of a single domestic animal, 
 horse, cow, or .pig ; or, if his food is taken into account, the average 
 dog. Are not the children of more value than many dogs ? 
 
 To the objection that such careful provision for the comfort and 
 well-being of the children is more than many of them are accustomed 
 to at home, it may be replied that parents who. do not in this progressive 
 age desire better conditions for their children than they themselves 
 enjoyed, who do not desire that they shall be better bred, better 
 educated, better developed in all respects, have no right to dictate 
 what their training shall be ; much less the training of their neighbors' 
 children, which, in the nature of the public school, must be the same
 
 A DISCUSSION OF IMPORTANT OUTSIDE MATTERS. 
 
 Perspective View. Design G. 
 
 as that of their own. I have discussed this subject in connection with 
 this smaller building, because with such it is most likely to be neg- 
 lected; and only in reference to earth-closets, where a water system is 
 out of the question. 
 
 I am fully persuaded that habits of cleanliness, decency, and good 
 order are the most essential points in the secular education of children 
 whether at home or in school. I will not even except industry ; for 
 without these qualities industry itself is wasted, or, like idleness, enters 
 into the service of Satan. It is evident that these accessories can be 
 omitted without any essential change of the main building, but some 
 one else must take the responsibility of such omission ; it must needs 
 be that offence will come, but woe unto him by whom it cometh. 
 
 Side Elevation. Design G.
 
 32 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 If the truth were known, I think it would be found that the lack of 
 proper accommodations in this direction, and the attendant evils, moral 
 and physical, have more to do with the withdrawal of the "better class" 
 of the pupils from the public schools, of which we sometimes hear 
 complaints, than any question as to the excellence of the literary 
 instruction or the general discipline of the school-room. Of course 
 all the fittings and fixtures of these privies should be of the plainest, 
 smoothest, most durable kind. This is the first condition of decency ; 
 the second is eternal vigilance on the part of the teacher. 
 
 -AND 
 
 NOTE. The subject of school out-buildings is admirably treated by Mr. H. R. 
 Sanford, in Chap. V. of the book of designs, recently published by the Department 
 of Public Instruction of the State of New York.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 A MODERATE GROWTH. 
 
 is simply a variation of number 
 six. It keeps the common vesti- 
 bule, and has but the two 
 cloak-rooms for both schools- 
 but it has two porches and 
 
 . , , , ... 
 
 outside doors, and an addi- 
 tional room for recitations. 
 It has, moreover, a cellar, and is warmed 
 by a furnace that will stand directly under 
 the vestibule. This does not require a 
 cellar under the entire building but only 
 under the central part, that is, the 
 vestibule, recitation-room, and cloak- 
 rooms. The fuel would be put in under 
 the recitation-room from the front, and 
 the entrance to the basement would be 
 from the outside of the building at the 
 rear, the furnace being cared for by a jan- 
 itor who will have no occasion to enter the building during 
 the session of the school. There is still some difference of 
 opinion about the introduction of warm air from a furnace ; 
 but the most generally accepted theory is that the best results 
 are obtained by carrying the furnace-pipes well up the walls of the 
 rooms, at least two-thirds of the height, and then, by means of a 
 large, warmed flue, exhausting the cold air from a place near the floor 
 and nearly under the spot where it enters. By this arrangement, the 
 
 -'Wfln3&p-"" p '
 
 34 
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDIA~GS. 
 
 warm air, which is sure to rise directly to the top of the room, will pass 
 across the ceiling, descend to the lower part of the room, at the opposite 
 side and be gradually drawn back to the outlet, where, having gained the 
 impurities of dust and respiration, and parted with much of its heat, it 
 will be safely carried from the room out-of-doors. By this means, the air 
 in the room becomes more thoroughly changed and more uniformly 
 heated than if the \varm air is brought in near the floor at one side, and 
 the cold air taken out at the other; at least this is the theory, and prac- 
 tice seems to con- 
 firm it. In addition 
 to this "indirect" 
 warming of the air 
 in the room, there 
 should be in the 
 vestibule two large 
 floor - registers at 
 which the children 
 who come with 
 cold, wet feet, can 
 warm and dry 
 them before com- 
 ing into the school- 
 room. These reg- 
 isters should never 
 be used for any 
 other purpose, and 
 at all other times 
 should be kept closed. 
 
 In none of these plans is there any attempt at architectural dis- 
 play on the exterior. The form and composition conforms strictly to 
 the exact requirements of use. There is no added height given to 
 the walls, no peculiar form given to the roof in an endeavor to pro- 
 duce an " interesting" or " picturesque " effect. The details of the 
 cornice, of the external finish generally, of the porches and of the 
 
 Floor Plan of Three-room School-house. Design H.
 
 A WONDERFUL GROWTH. 
 
 35 
 
 Front Elevation. Design H. 
 
 ventilating turrets, are as plain as it is possible to make them. The 
 flat casings, applied to the ends of the building which has no windows, 
 being almost the only deviation from absolute barrenness of detail^ 
 Yet it may be observed that, although the requirements of these 
 buildings are so exceedingly similar, and it would appear at the first 
 thought that all the school-houses of a given size, if strictly utilitarian 
 in construction, would necessarily be identical in external appearance, 
 it will still happen that the slight variations arising from almost imper- 
 ceptible changes in dimensions and proportions, differences of location 
 and surroundings, and an endless variety of colors, will give to each 
 of these buildings an outward appearance and expression peculiar to 
 
 Side Elevation. Design H.
 
 36 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 itself. This will be true even of those that are built to answer in the 
 most simple and direct fashion precisely similar requirements. A few 
 inches more added to the projection of the eaves; a slight increase or 
 diminution of the width of the casings at the corners and elsewhere; a 
 little more breadth to the windows, or a little less height, but not 
 enough to affect their utility or to modify the cost of the work ; a 
 steeper or flatter pitch to the roof ; variations in the quality and style 
 of the outer boarding ; all these things and others may be indefi- 
 nitely changed without departing from the general principle of keeping 
 closely to the practical requirements of actual use.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A HIGHER PLATFORM. 
 
 again the single 
 cell, but developed 
 under more favorable circum- 
 stances. Parents have a more 
 profound respect for their 
 children, and a more earnest 
 desire for their well-being. 
 There is also a little more 
 
 money to be spent upon the building, not alone for its 
 external adorment, but for interior comforts and conveniences ; those 
 amenities which, although by no means indispensable to a well-ordered 
 and profitable school, do still add to its efficiency, and tend to elevate 
 the pleasure and increase the profit of its members. It has separate 
 porches and entrances for the boys and girls ; their cloak and toilet- 
 rooms are quite distinct, and more complete than in the preceding 
 plans. 
 
 It may be true that in the ideal school "the school of the future'' 
 all the boys will be young gentlemen in the best sense of the word, 
 and all the girls young ladies, and that it will be as well for them to 
 share their front porch and hall together as it is for the well-trained 
 children of one family to share in each other's society the family 
 sitting-room and play-ground ; but in the ordinary country or village 
 school, to say nothing of those in or near large cities, it is undoubtedly
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 ffl 
 
 \vC 
 
 Lobby 
 
 * *S 
 
 better if there is money enough and room enough, to provide separate 
 lobbies and cloak-rooms, and, in a general way, keep the play-grounds 
 separate. 
 
 This building is upon a somewhat higher plane than its predeces- 
 sors in regard to these accommodations, as well as in its more thorough 
 construction and elaborate finish. The wood frame-work of the 
 ceiling, that is, what would be the second floor if there were another 
 story, instead of being composed of joists of uniform size, the under 
 
 side covered with a 
 plane surface of laths 
 and plastering, or per- 
 haps of simple matched 
 sheathing, consists of 
 large beams reaching 
 from wall to wall, the 
 shortest way across the 
 room ; on these, which 
 are placed not more 
 than six or eight feet 
 apart, are laid light 
 joists, to which, be- 
 tween the beams, is ap- 
 plied the wood panel- 
 ling that takes the place 
 of the ordinary finish. 
 
 A rough boarding is first nailed to the joists, this is covered 
 with building paper for the sake of saving the heat that 
 would otherwise escape through the cracks, sure to be caused 
 by the shrinking of the boards ; and to prevent the entrance of dust 
 that accumulates everywhere in this world of dust and ashes. Under- 
 neath the paper, the finished panelling is applied. The beams them- 
 selves, which support the joists, and which show in the room after it is 
 all finished, will be of seasoned timber, planed and chamfered or 
 rounded as to their corners; where such timber cannot be obtained 
 
 Jjchpol 
 
 Tbrdy 
 
 "plan 
 
 Floor Plan Single-room School-house. Design J.
 
 A HIGHER PLATFORM. 
 
 39 
 
 Front Elevation. Design J. 
 
 they will be cased. The plastering on the walls, between the wood 
 cornice around the top of the room and the top of the high wainscot, 
 will be painted and made as smooth and dust proof as possible. 
 
 Side Elevation. Design J. 
 
 There is a basement under the entire building, but it is only used 
 for the furnace and the fuel, and the entrance is from the outside.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A DISTINCTION WITH LITTLE DIFFERENCE. 
 
 HERE again is the same floor- 
 plan, treated to a different 
 suit of clothes ; and it is not 
 often that a man seems to 
 be more completely 
 changed, as to his ex- 
 ternal appearance, by 
 the clothes he wears, 
 than is this building 
 by the different mate- 
 rial and cut of its overcoat. In design J, the roof is broad and low, 
 coming far out over the walls, almost like a piazza. In this, it barely 
 covers them. On strictly utilitarian grounds, perhaps the best thing 
 would be the happy medium; that is, a sufficient projection to protect 
 the upper part of the walls and the tops of the window-frames from 
 the falling rains, but not enough to darken the windows or to add 
 materially to the weight of the roof. On aesthetic grounds, and par- 
 ticularly as a matter of picturesque effect, probably either of these is 
 better than the middle course ; but either of these extremes would be 
 thought to have more " character," more "expression." 
 
 At first sight, this design would appear to represent a cheaper 
 building than the other, on account of its severe simplicity of detail. 
 In fact, if properly carried out, there would be but little difference of 
 cost between the two. Unless the details of this design are 
 thoughtfully studied, and the work faithfully executed, the whole
 
 I 
 A DISTINCTION WITH LITTLE DIFFERENCE. 
 
 TT 
 
 effect would be cheap 
 and poor. The carved 
 panels, the curving lines 
 of the shingles on the 
 upper part of the main 
 walls, the notching of 
 these that mark the 
 overhanging of the ga- 
 bles and other breaks 
 in the vertical walls, 
 the terra-cotta in the 
 chimney, and the rubble 
 of the underpinning ; 
 all these things must be 
 carefully treated, be- 
 cause there is nothing 
 
 to draw attention from 
 
 the minutest details of the work, as there is in the more complex and 
 
 showy design. 
 
 This building is shown with the outer walls shingled quite to the 
 
 "ploji- 
 
 Floor Plan Single-room School house. Design K. 
 
 Front Elevation. Design K.
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 
 Side Elevation. Design K. 
 
 base; but the base is three or four feet from the ground, and, as I have 
 said, this school is supposed to be in a community where the children 
 of all ages have been taught to take an honest pride in their public 
 institutions, and would as soon think of scratching their own faces as 
 of wilfully injuring the school-house. I am aware that this is not a 
 universal condition in this happy land of freedom and common schools, 
 but I am also aware that it ought to be.
 
 x .* i... M ,>- w ,.*. v -- v ..' ...*. 
 
 gt7- ^ILL DC or CCACKJ-JTVCCO- 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 FOR THE BEST FAMILIES. 
 
 MLTAJL "f cnnNtv me AST : TT may be that the time is 
 
 1 rapidly approaching when 
 there will be no "country;" 
 when all the people will have gath- 
 ered into cities and large villages, 
 where their children can be taught 
 by the hundred ; where the rooms 
 provided for educational purposes, 
 the number of teachers required to 
 instruct them, and the labor of each 
 one of these teachers will all be 
 reduced to the lowest terms, in the 
 same general way that manufactur- 
 ing is every year carried on with less and less of individual 
 skill, and more and more of automatic machine work. Let us 
 hope not. Let us hope that the quiet old towns that do not expect 
 or desire either to go to the cities or to have the cities come to them, 
 will maintain their dignity and best characteristics for many genera- 
 tions. 
 
 It is in such country towns and villages that a school-house, like 
 number eleven, would be at home. The children all belong to the 
 "best" families; which, by the way, are the best in the world. There 
 are no difficult social problems to be encountered, because " aristoc- 
 racy" of the genuine kind is the normal condition of them all. If 
 there is an occasional scapegrace among the boys, his character and
 
 44 
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 antecedents are so well known, and he is in such an insignificant 
 minority, that he has little influence, except as a useful example of 
 what is to be avoided. In such a community, the school-house stands 
 next to the church in the popular regard. It appeals to high moral 
 sentiments, and its neglect would be esteemed a disgrace only second 
 to the neglect of the religious sanctuary. 
 
 It is decidedly a school-house of the country, where manual labor of 
 some sort is a thing, of course, for young and old ; there may be in 
 the summer term hardly a score of children, and in the winter three 
 
 Front Elevation. Design L. 
 
 or four times as many. The high basement, built of native rubble 
 stones that doubtless grow on the premises, contains not only the 
 steam-boiler and fuel-room, but two large, light apartments, in which 
 the boys and girls may respectively gather before the opening of the 
 school-room, and which will serve for play-rooms in stormy weather 
 Lockers are arranged as in a well-planned gymnasium, where heavy 
 wraps, overshoes, and rubber-boots may be left in safety and good 
 order. On the main floor, there are more private dressing-rooms, one 
 for the boys, one for the girls, and one for the teacher. There is a
 
 FOR THE BEST FAMILIES. 
 
 45 
 
 small room for the 
 school-library, and 
 a larger one for a 
 rec i t at i o n-room. 
 When all the school- 
 children in the dis- 
 trict between the 
 ages of four and 
 twenty-one are in 
 attendance, there 
 may be three teach- 
 ers, and the library 
 wouldalso be needed 
 as a recitation-room 
 for the higherclasses 
 In the busier time 
 of year, when only 
 
 Design L. 
 
 H fc VLAN -of IWiEMtNT i 
 
 For Graded School. Design L. 
 
 the youngest can be 
 spared from field 
 and farm, the recita- 
 tion-room alone 
 would easily hold 
 the entire school. 
 As the building is 
 warmed by steam, 
 the fireplace in this 
 room would only be 
 used for purposes 
 of good cheer, or on 
 chilly mornings, 
 when it is only ne- 
 cessary to " take off 
 the chill" at the 
 beginning of the 
 day. A pleasant
 
 46 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 arrangement of this room would be to place the teacher's desk 
 in the corner of the room at the left of the fireplace, and 
 set the recitation-seats diagonally across the room in front of the 
 teacher. The pupils would then face the fire, the teacher, and the 
 blackboards on the wall at the teacher's right. 
 
 The windows at the side of the main school-room opposite to the 
 teacher's platform, would have inside shutters which would usually be 
 
 wi' lBrWr^ 
 
 ~"^s^iir " 
 
 I JiAMWt* Cti 
 
 Perspective View. Design L. 
 
 closed ; but as I have said, it is well to have the windows there, even if 
 their light is never neeeded, that they may be opened for ventilation. 
 The only serious objection to them is that careless teachers are liable 
 to leave the blinds open, when they ought to be closed; but that is not 
 a real argument against the windows. It may be possible to ventilate 
 a school-room so thoroughly, that there will be no perceptible difference 
 between the atmosphere within the building and that out of doors ; 
 but I doubt if that perfection of ventilation has ever been reached in 
 practice. As a matter of fact, the air in the occupied rooms grows 
 steadily worse and worse the longer they are occupied, in spite of all
 
 FOR THE BEST FAMILIES. 
 
 47 
 
 attempts to the contrary, at least up to a certain degree of impurity; 
 and the surest mode of changing it, is to open all the windows to 
 their fullest extent and call in outside assistance. I am not sure but it 
 would be wise to proclaim it as an infallible rule that all the windows 
 of every school-room must be thrown wide open as often as every half 
 hour while the school is in session, making no exception, unless there 
 is a driving storm of rain or snow, when the windows on the exposed 
 side might be kept closed. Iq extremely cold and windy weather it 
 would take but a fraction of a minute to change all the air in the 
 room. Artificial ventilation, however scientifically contrived, is 
 imperfect and unreliable at the best, largely at the mercy of outside 
 atmospheric conditions, the direction of the wind, the temperature, 
 moisture, and other ever-varying and always uncontrollable causes. 
 Add to these the thoughtlessness, and too often the ignorance of 
 teachers and others on whom this care depends, and it remains a stub- 
 born fact in many cases, that our children are compelled to take with 
 the education which the State furnishes, bodily disease and life-long 
 infirmity. All experience proves that an out-door life is the most 
 favorable, if not the essential, condition of health for children; it surely 
 follows, that the more nearly the atmosphere within our buildings can 
 be made to resemble that outside their walls, the better. With this 
 result, no considerations of financial economy, or supposed advantages 
 in the way of systematic routine, should be allowed to interfere. 
 
 -DETAIL OF i 
 
 I -.(/] 2 ^TK:ABVT 12" 
 
 P III I pTHc-BVWranrr^- 
 
 11 i' '/'W*! ' ^V^ASM e> CSi TTIC VTTCJS 
 
 / /! Nir -~^ 
 
 .Mi - r|
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 T{ELATiyE DIMENSIONS. 
 
 TN the building of school 
 1 houses, as in all other mun- 
 dane affairs, a certain amount of 
 compromise seems inevitable. 
 For many reasons it is desirable 
 that all our work should be 
 thorough and enduring, es- 
 pecially that which is done 
 for permanent public institu- 
 tions. But we have learned 
 
 by experience, that no sooner are our most carefully con- 
 sidered undertakings completed, than the conditions change 
 under which they were begun; and if they were to be repeated, 
 we should alter them in many respects. Hence, the common saying 
 that every man ought to build two houses for himself ; one as an 
 experiment, the other to correct the mistakes of the first. But though 
 building a house often seems equivalent to a "liberal education," it is 
 doubtful whether the last will prove any more satisfactory than the 
 first, especially if he is his own architect : the owner grows wiser, his 
 ideas and his circumstances are constantly changing in spite of him- 
 self, and he can ensure his own satisfaction only by resolving to be 
 content with what is the best thing at the time and under the circum- 
 stances. 
 
 Something of the same uncertain element, but in less degree, 
 enters into the planning and construction of school-houses. Hardly
 
 RELATIVE DIMENSIONS. 
 
 49 
 
 Perspective of Design M. 
 
 __J 
 
 Graded School. Design M, 
 
 a generation ago, the 
 best school-buildings 
 in large towns and 
 cities contained one 
 room which held all 
 the scholars above a 
 certain grade,whether 
 there were fifty or 
 two hundred. Two 
 or more recitations 
 were conducted in 
 this room at the 
 same time, and only 
 the younger children 
 ' were, separated into 
 groups or grades in
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 Graded School. Design M.- 
 
 which a limited num- 
 ber were given to 
 each teacher. Now, 
 the large room is 
 abolished, unless used 
 as a hall for general 
 exercises, the theory 
 of public education 
 having apparently 
 reached this conclu- 
 sion ; that one aver- 
 age teacher can prop- 
 erly control and 
 instruct during four, 
 five, or six hours in 
 the day, from forty 
 to fifty children ; or, 
 at least, that this proportion of instructors to pupils is the most expe- 
 dient ratio. Yet I suppose it would be difficult to explain why thirty- 
 five is not the 
 maximum limit, 
 or even twenty- 
 five; or that sixty-: 
 five or seventy 
 may not be as ad- 
 v a n t age ously 
 taught at once, as 
 fifty. However, 
 we must accept 
 the present situa- 
 tion and plan accor- 
 dingly. In large 
 graded schools, 
 
 there is no attempt Graded School. Design M. 
 
 LOBBY
 
 RELATIVE DIMENSIONS. 
 
 ;irrt 
 
 Side Elevation. Design M. 
 
 to adapt the size of the single rooms to the total requirements of the 
 ward or district, but only to accommodate the several hundreds or 
 thousands of children in the most satisfactory manner. It appears 
 
 Alternative Plan of Second Floor. Design M.
 
 52 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 that, in such schools, the rooms must be of sufficient size to hold seven 
 rows of seats and desks, with seven in a row, or as near to that magic 
 number as possible. A medium-sized, well-fed teacher must be able 
 to pass between the rows and all around them, next the walls of the 
 room. There must be space at the rear for recitation-seats, for all 
 recitations are conducted in the rooms where the studying is done, and 
 space enough in front for more or less mobilization of the school. 
 Careful measurements are made to ascertain the least possible dimen- 
 sions that will admit these arrangements and exercises, and the build- 
 ing which will contain the largest number of children, spread out and 
 cut up into the necessary shape to receive their public instruction, is 
 considered the model. Its excellence consists chiefly in the fact that 
 every extra foot added to its size adds the fraction of a mill to the 
 taxes of the parents who have to pay for it. Twenty inches between 
 the rows of desks is certainly better than sixteen, the limit sometimes 
 prescribed ; and a width of two feet is better than twenty inches. 
 Against the side walls there should never be less than two and a half 
 feet, and one or two feet more than that will do no harm, with pro- 
 portionate space around the teacher's platform and at the back end 
 of the room ; especially should there be ample space in front of all 
 blackboards, which will usually be on the wall at the teacher's left and 
 opposite the broad windows. Of course, these more liberal dimen- 
 sions mean a little more material for the building, a little more fuel 
 to keep it warm, and a little more sweeping to keep it clean. But 
 they also mean far more satisfactory results in the weightier matters 
 of health and conduct. 
 
 If the time ever comes when men reverence their children as they 
 ought, and educate them as they deserve to be educated, the first 
 question concerning those things which affect their lasting welfare will 
 not be a question of cost. 
 
 Number XII is a graded school of four divisions. The scholars 
 all enter the basement, the boys at one door, the girls at another, 
 and leave their hats, caps, cloaks, and overshoes in the lockers pro- 
 vided, one for each scholar. At the hour for opening the school, they
 
 RELATIVE DIMENSIONS. 53 
 
 pass to their respective rooms above. The stairs are not more than 
 four or four and a half feet wide ; greater width is unnecessary in a 
 small building where there is no danger of a panic, because in a well- 
 trained school there is rarely an occasion for more than two to pass 
 over them abreast. They are easy of ascent, the height of the steps 
 not exceeding six inches, and their \vidth being at least eleven and a 
 half inches. 
 
 For the convenience of the teachers and pupils there are two ante- 
 rooms for each school-room, communicating directly both with the room 
 and with the lobbies. In warm weather, when the doors of the base 
 ment are likely to be left open, and when the outer wraps of the 
 children will occupy but little space, the use of the lockers in the 
 basement may be discontinued, and the ante-rooms may be used as 
 cloak-rooms. 
 
 The ceilings of the rooms of the second story are not level the 
 entire width of the building, the side walls being but nine feet high. 
 From that point, the finish of the rooms follows the slope of the 
 rafters for a few feet, above which it is level and of the same height 
 as the rooms below. 
 
 An alternative plan of the second floor shows how this building 
 may be partially adapted to the changing spirit of the age, by finishing 
 the upper story as a hall for the use of the school on special occasions ; 
 and when an increase in the number of pupils requires four rooms 
 instead of two, converting the hall into two school-rooms. 
 
 If this second story should be permenantly used as a hall, an open 
 trussed roof might be constructed, giving it a much greater height in 
 the centre.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SAFETY 
 
 WOOD. 
 
 DETAIL ^'VENTILATING 
 
 T 
 
 HIS building for a gra- 
 ded school contains 
 six rooms of uniform size, 
 and a hall on the second 
 floor. Each room will ac- 
 commodate forty or fifty pupils, and 
 the hall will easily hold them all, 
 when they are compactly seated. 
 The pupils enter the basement, 
 which is mainly above the level of 
 the ground around the building, 
 and is divided longtitudinally into 
 two equal parts by a wall through 
 the centre. The forward end of 
 each part of the basement con- 
 tains lockers arranged around the walls, for the outer garments, as in 
 the preceding plans. In the rear, which is a play-room, are the wash- 
 bowls ; and at this end of the basement are the walks leading to the 
 water-closets in the yard. The room for boiler and fuel is in 
 the rear corner of the girls' side. 
 
 In the centre of each half are the stairs to the upper stories. 
 
 The first story contains four school-rooms, all of which receive 
 
 light from the left side of the seats, and all are entered directly from 
 
 the central hall, which should be twelve feet wide or more. It is 
 
 always safe to say " or more," for though it would be possible to make
 
 SAFETY IN WOOD. 
 
 55 
 
 these halls and ante-rooms too large for comfort or convenience, it 
 rarely happens that there is too much liberality in this direction, while 
 the opposite fault is almost invariable. This wide hall, passing 
 directly through the centre of the building, will add much to its com- 
 fort in warm weather, and aid in its ventilation at all times. The side 
 porches, which also protect the basement entrances, give direct access 
 to the first floor hall from the outside. 
 
 The warming and ventilation of these rooms is substantially like 
 
 T-N- 
 
 C)d\ool l\oom . 
 
 5< 
 
 Jc>\ool I \prr\, 
 
 :V\pol ^OOTA . 
 
 XALt 
 
 Design N. 
 
 that described in the preceding chapter, the warmed fresh air being 
 brought into the rooms through registers within a few feet of the 
 ceiling, and the foul air withdrawn through the floor by means of the 
 large ventilating shafts, which are at all times warmed by steam-pipes. 
 
 The two school-rooms of the second floor are precisely like the 
 rooms below them, the other half of this floor being occupied by the 
 hall. 
 
 It may well be questioned whether a public edifice of this size
 
 TOWN AND COUNJ^RY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 Perspective View. Design N. 
 
 Hall 
 
 m 
 
 5c%l T^oom 
 
 JcKool 
 
 3CALC 
 
 Plan of Second Floor. Design N. 
 
 and for this pur- 
 pose should ever 
 be built of wood; 
 but economical 
 prejudices will of- 
 ten prevail, and it 
 is possible to con- 
 struct a building 
 with a wooden 
 frame, that shall 
 be warm, dry, and 
 at least "slow- 
 burning." If the 
 spaces between the 
 studs of the outer 
 walls and of the 
 partitions are filled
 
 SAFETY IN WOOD. 
 
 57 
 
 with mineral wool, or, perhaps, for the sake of closer economy, 
 partly with that material and partly with soft bricks ; and if the 
 floors are made in the manner of mill floors, that is, with large 
 beams supporting planks, instead of thin joists with furrings under- 
 neath for the laths; and if, in case of two or more stories, there 
 is an extra thickness of flooring to cover the deafening, a wooden 
 building is comparatively safe. The slow-burning construction should 
 extend to the roof as well as to the walls, floors, and partitions; for 
 
 Design N. 
 
 although the roof is further removed from the ordinary sources of 
 danger, for the same reason, it -is more difficult to control if a fire is 
 
 o 
 
 once fairly started. If shingles are used, and there are many good 
 reasons for using them on a wooden building (or on any other for that 
 matter), the roof-boards should receive a coat of common lime mortar, 
 half an inch thick, before the shingles are laid. If this is partially 
 dried there will be no difficulty in laying the shingles in the usua
 
 58 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 way, the nails being a trifle longer than is necessary when no mortar 
 is used. This layer of mortar will make the roof warmer in winter, 
 cooler in summer, will preserve the shingles from decay, and very much 
 retard the spread of fire, if the roof should be ignited from the outside. 
 Fortified in this way a wooden building would doubtless be safer as 
 regards fire, than a building having brick walls with wooden furrings, 
 partitions, floors, and roofs, all put together in the usual manner. 
 
 This design shows a frame building, the outer walls of the first 
 Story covered, with clapboards, those of the second with shingles. 
 
 DETAIL op 
 
 60 O^CENTtRS; A'KLAN'tt 
 
 -. TME> LAnGf BEAMS 
 
 -or-
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 NOTHING TO GROW OLD. 
 
 or -THE TPPNT 
 
 5tcnN -op 
 
 WALL- 
 
 T 
 
 HIS building is for a school 
 having one higher grade, 
 and four of nearly uniform 
 rank and size. It would be suitable 
 for a high school in a village or small 
 city, the large room being for the use 
 of the principal, and the four smaller rooms 
 for the assistant teachers and their classes. 
 
 The plan is exceedingly simple and well 
 adapted to a mode of construction that would 
 be practically fire-proof. The outer walls of 
 the basement are of stone ashlar ; all the other 
 walls and partitions are of brick and terra-cotta. The floors are of two 
 and a half inch planks resting on large beams which are finished and ex- 
 posed, the underside of the planks between the beams being covered 
 with thin wood sheathing lined with asbestos paper, or with corrugated 
 iron. Between the upper or finished floors and the rough plank is a 
 layer of mineral wool or concrete, for purposes of deafening, and to ren- 
 der the floors more nearly fire-proof. The side walls are finished with 
 Portland cement instead of the usual lime mortar, to the height of 
 four feet and six inches, except under the blackboards, where it is but 
 two feet high. This cement takes the place of the ordinary wood 
 wainscoting, being more durable and, after painting, more easily kept 
 clean. There are no casings around the windows ; the corners of 
 the jambs the " arrises" are rounded, and the plastering on the walls
 
 6o 
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 Front Elevation of Graded School. Design O. 
 
 .is carried around to the window-frames. There can be no doubt that 
 
 the interior finish of all 
 school-rooms ought to 
 be as simple as possible, 
 both as regards quality 
 and quantity. There 
 are the same reasons for 
 preserving the utmost 
 cleanliness, and free- 
 dom from all forms of 
 details in the finishing 
 and furnishing that will 
 produce or harbor dust 
 and dirt, that exist in 
 hospitals for the sick. 
 
 T D/\5t_>\E.N'l 
 
 Design o In some respects this is 
 
 \tonw 
 
 \
 
 NOTHING TO GROW OLD. 
 
 61 
 
 SCHOOL iv*f* 
 
 more readily accomplished 
 in a building whose walls 
 are of bricks and terra- 
 cotta, to which lime mor- 
 tar, cement, or tiles can be 
 directly applied, than in a 
 wooden building, the in- 
 terior walls of which can 
 be most conveniently and 
 economically finished with 
 lath and plaster, or with 
 wood sheathing. The for- 
 mer is easily broken, be- 
 sides being absorbent of 
 dampness and moist exha- 
 lations, unless thoroughly 
 painted, and the latter 
 objectionable, on account of the cracks 
 
 LOBBY TJ 
 
 I 
 
 SCHOOL 
 
 LOBBY 
 
 $w 
 
 PL.AV or :>C.CPVD FLOOR.' 
 _ _ 
 
 Design O. 
 
 r -n^5T 
 Design O. 
 
 which are sure to ap- 
 pear after the wood has 
 become perfectly sea- 
 soned. Wood is also ab- 
 sorbent, and unless very 
 carefully protected by 
 paint or varnish becomes 
 musty with age. For this 
 reason, plastered walls are 
 preferable to common 
 plastering, except where 
 they are exposed to rough 
 usage. Still, it is a mistake 
 to lath and plaster the ceil- 
 ings of any room, if it can 
 be avoided. Even the 
 strongest mortar, applied
 
 62 
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 in what is considered the best manner, has no reliable strength of its 
 own. It is too thin and too brittle to sustain a large surface of its 
 own weight ; the shrinkage of the wooden laths, the bending of the 
 floor timbers above, the warping of the furrings, the slight shaking of 
 the whole building in high winds ; any and all these causes are liable to 
 crack the apparently unbroken sheet that clings to the under side of 
 the ceilings. When once cracked, its road to ruin is steady and unin- 
 terrupted. It never improves, but grows steadily worse. It is by no 
 means unusual for the ceilings of a " first-class" house to require re-plas- 
 tering before they are forty years old, and exceedingly common to 
 find them badly cracked before they have attained half that age. 
 Moreover, if a sound ceiling of plastering is injured by an accident, it 
 is well-nigh impossible to repair it without leaving an ugly scar. 
 
 It can hardly be necessary to say that the outer walls of buildings 
 that are to be finished by plastering applied directly to the inner sur- 
 face, that is, without furring and laths, should be hollow 7 , in order to 
 
 Side Elevation. Design O.
 
 NOTHING TO GROW OLD. 63 
 
 prevent the rapid conduction of heat and the consequent condensa- 
 tion of moisture on their inner surfaces. 
 
 The stairs in this building consist simply of the treads and risers 
 and the "carriages" that actually support them. There is no back 
 panelling, or under-finishing of any sort. Expense aside, it would be 
 better to make them wholly of iron, with wood or rubber coverings 
 for the treads. Indeed, it would be desirable to dispense with the 
 wooden beams in the floors and ceilings, substituting iron girders and 
 brick arches ; but economical prejudices, or, rather, the absence of 
 truly economical principles, renders the adoption of thorough, per- 
 manent, fire-proof modes of building exceedingly slow. 
 
 The exterior design is intended to illustrate one of the many 
 simple effects to be produced by the use of common bricks and terra- 
 cotta. The style is Italian renaissance,which adapts itself perfectly to the 
 practical requirements of the school as regards lighting, heating, en- 
 trances, and exits, and the ordinary needs of a school. There is nothing 
 about it to crumble or fall away ; nothing to go out of fashion or to 
 require the outlay of a single dollar for repairs in a hundred years.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 THE VALUE OF THE BASEMENT. 
 
 THIS is a plan for a three-roomed 
 building, of one story above the 
 basement. Without any change 
 in the arrangement of the rooms, 
 the basement as such, that is, for use as a 
 basement, may be omitted ; but this 
 would be unwise. Generally speaking, 
 the lowest floor of a school-house, even if 
 it is partly under ground, should be light, 
 open, and well ventilated : a sort of large 
 ante-room, a place for exercise on stormy 
 days, and for the assembling of the schol- 
 ars at all times before the opening of the school-rooms. It may also 
 contain the hat and cloak rooms where the size and organization of the 
 school is such as to make this expedient. On a suitable building site, 
 whether the surface is level or inclined to the front or rear, the cost of 
 a basement high enough to serve these purposes will be but little more 
 than the cost of a substantial foundation. The walls should always be 
 of sufficient depth to extend below the action of frost, which, in the 
 Northern States, not infrequently penetrates four or five feet below 
 the surface. Accordingly, if the first floor is placed as far above the 
 surrounding grade as it should be to secure thorough ventilation, dry- 
 ness, and good drainage, which will rarely be less than four feet, it is 
 evident that the walls will be of the same height, or about the same, 
 whether the space under the building is made available for common
 
 THE VALUE OF THE BASEMENT. 
 
 r1 
 
 PORXM 
 
 bCALC. 
 
 B 
 
 FCR.CM 
 
 Basement. Design P. 
 
 use, or is left as a rough excavation. The walls and ceilings of the 
 basement should be finished in the simplest manner. If the walls are 
 of bricks they should be smoothly laid, and if of stone, the inner sur- 
 face should be pointed. In either case, the inner surface should be 
 painted a light buff or gray. Washes made of lime are too easily 
 transferred to the clothing of the scholars. If the floors of the rooms 
 above are made of large beams overlaid with planks, the beams may 
 be planed, and the under side of the planks between them finished with 
 common matched sheathing. If joists are used, the sheathing would 
 be applied to the under side of the joists. These ceilings, as well as the 
 walls, should be painted light colors, because the basement is liable 
 to be imperfectly lighted, and because light-colored walls are more
 
 66 
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 Front Elevation. Design P. 
 
 Jbnca 
 
 5CALL 
 
 Raven 
 
 First Floor. Design N.
 
 THE VALUE OF THE BASEMENT. 
 
 67 
 
 likely to be kept clean. The basement should not be less than eight 
 feet high, nor more than nine. Greater height makes a longer flight 
 of stairs to climb, and has no compensating advantages. 
 
 In this plan, the dressing-rooms, of which there are two for each 
 school-room, are in such relation to the halls that the pupils can pass 
 through them in entering the school-room, or not, as may be pre- 
 ferred. 
 
 Side Elevation. Design P. 
 
 * 
 
 Externally, this building, both in form and detail, is exceedingly 
 simple. A perfectly plain gabled roof over the main building is inter- 
 sected by roofs of the same style, that cover the two equal wings, and 
 the front part of these roofs is brought down over the porches. The 
 outside walls are relieved from absolute plainness by the flat panelling, 
 which is formed by plain casings laid on in somewhat irregular man- 
 ner. The larger spaces of the first story are filled with common siding 
 or clapboards ; the smaller ones of the upper part are shingled. The 
 foundation wall above the ground is shown in the illustration as of
 
 68 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 stone ; but whether of bricks or of stone, the building will appear 
 to rest more securely upon its base, if the underpinning batters on 
 the outside. This is easily accomplished, if the wall is of stone, 
 because it will naturally be thinnest at the top. To a less ex- 
 tent, and with equally good results, a brick wall may be treated in 
 the same way.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 HONORABLE COMPETITION. 
 
 DETAIL T 5TONCWKK-. 
 
 CFING - 
 AND CAtSVLD-AS 
 
 of" f\VGN- 
 
 F the present interest in industrial 
 education ever bears fruit in tan- 
 gible shape, one of the most con- 
 spicuous results will be the improve- 
 ment of the visible structure and ornamentation 
 of public school buildings. The strong reasons 
 for exceeding simplicity in the interior finish do 
 not apply to the external structure, though sim- 
 plicity is by no means inconsistent with a high 
 degree of refinement and elegance of design. 
 As regards the exterior appearance, no consider- 
 ations except a most imperative economy should prevent every build- 
 ing of this class, no matter how small it may be or how remote from what 
 we are accustomed to call the great centres of culture, from being, in 
 its way, a permanent monument of artistic beauty, an illuminating 
 guide. This may seem a trite subject, but it is one that cannot be 
 too strongly urged. Over and over again must the truth be affirmed, 
 that our best efforts and most generous sacrifices should be devoted 
 to the training of children and the education of youth. Nothing is 
 more familiar to those who watch the growth and development of 
 mind and habits, than this ; that much of the influence which directs 
 the life and character of men and women lies in the external sur- 
 roundings of childhood The unconscious assimilation of the spirit 
 of these surroundings is an exceedingly important and thoroughly 
 " practical " part of education. Every thoughtful person of mature
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 age will freely admit that the general influences of school life, the in- 
 fluences that were perhaps scarcely recognized, much less fully appre- 
 ciated, have been far more potent in shaping the ultimate conduct of 
 life, than the information that was obtained from the daily lessons 
 from books. Doubtless the technical " book-learning " is indispensa- 
 ble ; doubtless it would be impossible to sustain a worthy part without 
 it ; but in comparison with the broader and less easily formulated in- 
 fluence of general sur 
 
 _^__^ SCALL 
 
 5CJ1POL 
 
 roundings and conditions, 
 the facts gleaned from 
 text-books are merely 
 what the tools are to the 
 intelligent spirit and well- 
 trained muscles that direct 
 their use. 
 
 This simple building 
 of one room, with porches 
 and lobbies, teacher's 
 room and cloak rooms, 
 whose stone walls give it 
 an appearance not only of 
 solidity, but of costliness 
 and elegance, is in fact but 
 a rough structure, of such 
 crude materials as may be 
 found scattered all over 
 the ground in many parts 
 
 of the country, and which the owners of the land on which they lie 
 would be glad to deliver on the school-house lot for the sake of get- 
 ting rid of them. The only addition to the cost of these walls, above 
 such as are built around many a barn-yard, is the carving on the 
 skewbacks, the coping stones of the gables, and about the porches. 
 Modelling in clay, wax, and plaster, with carving in wood and stone, 
 would be among the essentials of a course of industrial education; and 
 
 For a Single Room Stone House. Design Q.
 
 AN HONORABLE COMPETITION. ji 
 
 what more appropriate than that the students should exercise their 
 skill upon the school building, as soon as they are able to work in a 
 skilful manner. All the carving here indicated could be done better 
 after the building is completed. Indeed, there would be no difficulty 
 in doing it many years after. What better reward of merit could 
 there be than the privilege of leaving in such a place an example of 
 skill ? What better incentive to worthy competition in industrial de- 
 sign and execution ? 
 
 On a thoroughly dry piece of land, or with the drainage as de- 
 scribed in a former chapter, walls made of these rough, undressed 
 
 Front Elevation. Design Q. 
 
 stones might be smoothly faced in the basement, and pointed or plas- 
 tered on the inner surface, and they would require no other finish: 
 but above the basement, all the outer walls of the rooms should be 
 furred off with wood and lathed and plastered; otherwise the rooms 
 would often be damp, owing to the condensation of the moisture 
 within the building. It would be better still to line the interior with 
 
 o 
 
 a thin wall of bricks, separated from the stone by an air space of one 
 or two inches, and secured to it by iron ties ; but this design is intended 
 as a suggestion for an economical building, and the cost of the brick
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 Side Elevation. Design Q. 
 
 lining would be considerably greater than that of the wood studding 
 and lathing. As to the kind of stone that would be suitable for such 
 a structure, it is not of the least consequence as regards looks. A 
 variety of forms and colors would be rather an improvement than 
 otherwise, and in a few years the entire building will take on that 
 warm, rich gray tint, which nature so strongly recommends for all 
 her out-of-door work. 
 
 It is, of course, highly important that the stones used in the outer 
 walls shall be of a kind that will not disintegrate with the action of 
 the weather ; and some knowledge of practical mineralogy would be 
 necessary on this account: for it is not always safe to trust the appear- 
 ance of stones that seem to have been lying for ages in old fences, or 
 on the surface of the ground, without suffering any injury. They may 
 have been slowly crumbling in a way that would attract no attention 
 where they lie, but which would be disastrous in a permanent struc- 
 ture. The stones that are to be carved, should be of a suitable texture 
 for that purpose, and the lintels over the doors and windows of suffi- 
 cient strength to sustain themselves and the wall above them. In a 
 more expensive class of work, the corners of the building and the
 
 AN HONORABLE COMPETITION. 
 
 73 
 
 jambs of the doors and windows, as well as the caps and sills, would 
 be of dressed stone. In work of this kind, there is no valid reason 
 why they may not be built up of the same rough materials that are 
 used in the body of the wall, if the separate stones are of fairly 
 good shape and not too hard to be broken without great labor. When 
 they are hard and rough, it would be a large economy to use hard 
 bricks for the dressings in just sufficient quantities to overcome the 
 irregularity of the rough material. 
 
 TMt BULL 
 
 1TIL fV->r T Bt 
 
 M:\) -TILLS 
 TMt riVAML-' 
 OILU'-D cj^PWilA PJNt
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 ^ BODY OF STONE WITH MEMBERS OF CLAY. 
 
 THIS is a school-house of two rooms, with entrances at the opposite 
 sides. The porch, vestibule, and cloak-room at one side is for 
 the use of the girls of both school-rooms, the boys having the same 
 accommodations at the other. As the vestibules are of ample size^ 
 
 the basement i s 
 used for the heat- 
 ing apparatus and 
 fuel only. The 
 walks to the play- 
 grounds and out- 
 buildings open 
 from the cloak- 
 room and vestibule 
 in the angle next 
 the main building. 
 They might be 
 protected by roofs 
 at the sides of the 
 rear school-room, 
 forming a kind of 
 semi-enclosed cor- 
 ridors ; but this 
 roof is not shown 
 on the elevation. 
 FLPqvPLAN-- If i t should be de- 
 
 Of Two-room Stone School-house. Design R. sired tO haVC the
 
 A BODY OF SIVNE WITH MEMBERS OF CLAY. 
 
 75 
 
 Perspective View. Design R. 
 
 Front Elevation. Design R.
 
 7 6 
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 basement arranged for the use of the pupils, stairways may be built 
 in the vestibules, as in the preceding plan, and an outside entrance 
 made at each side. 
 
 This building is similar to the one just described, as regards the 
 material and construction of the main walls, except that moulded 
 bricks and terra-cotta are introduced ; than which nothing is more 
 effective for decorative purposes or more durable in construction. 
 They are becoming every year more available and less expensive. 
 
 In this building, they are employed for the cornice and copings, 
 for the finials, the crestings, and for all of the bell-tower above the 
 ornamental belt near the level of the main roof. The rest of the 
 walls are of rubble stone, rock or quarry faced ; the columns that 
 support the roof of the tower, and those at the corner of the porches, 
 are of moulded bricks. The bases and the capitals of the tower 
 columns are carved after they are built up ; those of the porches 
 are smooth, for the obvious reason that they are much exposed to 
 injury, accidental and mischievous. The latter should also be of 
 hard-burned brick, and laid in cement mortar ; they will then be 
 harder than the average building stone. 
 
 Side Elevation. Design R.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 CHIEFLY CLAY. 
 
 T 
 
 'HIS is the same plan as 
 that of the last chapter, 
 but is clothed with brick, in- 
 stead of stone, wherever bricks 
 are to be had and where are they not ? 
 Nothing can be more suitable for build- 
 ing purposes, where both economy and 
 thoroughness are desirable, of which, 
 also, we may well ask, Where are they 
 
 not? But there are bricks and bricks, masons and masons. If all the 
 practitioners of this handicraft had the skill and the honor that have 
 made the name for uncounted centuries almost synonymous with en- 
 during honor and excellence, brick buildings, the work of masons, 
 would not be held, as they often are, in doubtful esteem. Bricks that 
 are not half burned, mortar that is mixed \vith too much sand and dirt, 
 lime that never was calcined, and labor that cannot, by any stretch of 
 charity, be termed " skilled labor," have brought brick buildings into 
 disrepute ; and they are not often found, except where it is injudicious 
 to build of other materials on 'account of danger from fire. Yet noth- 
 ing is more durable, and nothing is more beautiful, than a wall of 
 well burned bricks, carefully selected with regard to color, and laid 
 by a really skillful workman. For visible work, mortar should always 
 be colored to harmonize with the color of the bricks, or else to con- 
 trast pleasantly with it. White mortar invariably and decidedly 
 detracts from the appearance of brick-work, both as regards the
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 \ m m fej 
 
 lljHMjflJK 
 
 liilv ill I "i "> ' '' >' ! fliilllp 
 
 Two-room Brick School house. Design S. 
 
 quality of the .bricks and the character of the workmanship, making 
 the joints appear larger, and exaggerating all imperfections and 
 irregularities. 
 
 For decorative purposes, moulded bricks are made in any desired 
 form as easily as those of the regular size and rectangular shape ; but 
 it is far better to err in the direction of plainness than to indulge in 
 too much decoration. Excessive ornament gives an air not only of 
 ostentation, but of cheapness. Perhaps the most satisfactory form 
 of brick decoration is that obtained by carving the surface of the 
 work after it is laid. For this purpose, bricks of a softer and more 
 uniform texture are made, which are easily carved, and are at the 
 same time thoroughly durable. 
 
 The main walls of this building, to the height of the water-table 
 that is, to the level of the main floor is shown of stone. As re- 
 gards strength, nothing can be better than a wall of perfectly burned 
 bricks, laid in cement ; and where stone cannot easily be obtained, 
 there is no serious objection to their use for the entire foundation
 
 CHIEFLY CLAY. 
 
 79 
 
 and underpinning of any building. But, bricks being more absorbent 
 of moisture, are more liable to be disintegrated slowly by the action 
 of frost near the ground-line, where there is always more or less 
 moisture. Hence, a base course of stone is desirable. For purposes 
 of utility, it need not be more than one or two feet in height. But 
 the appearance of stone for the entire basement is more satisfactory. 
 This design also shows stone sills for all the windows, stone caps for 
 those of the basement, stone plinths for the brick columns beside the 
 porches, and stone lintels for the support of the masonry of the bell 
 tower. These lintels might be of iron ; in which case they should be 
 of shape and design suitable for that material, and not an imitation 
 of stone. 
 
 FLPOfVPLAN-- 
 
 Floor Plan. Design
 
 8o 
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 The crestings, ridges, and finials are of terra-cotta, which is not 
 extravagant in cost, or unsatisfactory in use for such a building. The 
 same cannot be said of the attractive-looking roofing tiles that are 
 coming slowly into use, but which do not, as yet, promise the 
 desirable union of durability and economy. 
 
 Side Elevation. Design S.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 SAFEGUARDS. 
 
 THIS chapter shows a building 
 for three school-rooms, two 
 of equal size, and a third some- 
 what smaller, between and behind 
 them. In none of these plans is 
 the exact size of the rooms con- 
 sidered important. In this case, 
 if the two larger rooms will accommodate 
 forty-five or fifty pupils, the smaller will 
 hold thirty-five or forty. There are two 
 
 large cloak-rooms, the one at the left being for the boys in 
 the two rooms that adjoin it, the other for the girls in the 
 two adjoining rooms. Of the two small cloak-rooms, the one 
 at the right is for the girls in the room at the left, and the one 
 at the left for the boys in the room at the opposite end of the 
 building. 
 
 The basement is well above ground, and is for the common use of 
 the school ; except the room at the rear, which contains the heating 
 apparatus ; and the water-closets, which are in separate rooms under 
 the larger cloak-rooms. Each of these has two windows and a special 
 ventilating-flue, the large ventilating-shaft for the school-rooms being 
 in the centre of the main building. 
 
 The presumption is that this building will be warmed by steam or 
 hot water, in the manner recommended in previous chapters ; that is, 
 the warm, fresh air will be introduced into the rooms through pipes
 
 82 
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 liASfcMtNT FLXMS - 
 
 Design T. 
 
 Design T.
 
 SAFEGUARDS. 83 
 
 opening into the rooms near the ceiling, and the foul air withdrawn 
 through the openings near the floor, and as nearly as possible under the 
 place of its entrance. In this case, the best results would probably be 
 obtained by placing the radiators for each room directly below the plat- 
 forms, carrying the vertical heating-pipes against, or partly in the wall be- 
 hind the teacher's desk, and exhausting the foul air through openings in 
 the front of the platforms, the foul air-ducts being carried horizontally 
 under the floor, that is, overhead in the basement, to the large, warm ven- 
 tilating-flues in the center of the building. Of these three separate flues, 
 
 
 Perspective View. Design T. 
 
 one for each of the school-rooms, the central one will be sufficiently 
 warmed if the smoke-pipe from the boiler is placed within it ; the 
 others should be heated by steam or hot-water pipes, in order to ensure 
 a constant and strong draft. 
 
 It is sometimes urged that under no circumstances should the 
 water-closets of a school-house be placed in the basement, and there 
 is no doubt that, in the majority of cases, experience is against this 
 arrangement ; yet there is no sufficient reason why it may not be safely
 
 8 4 
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 adopted in cases where the expense is not an objection. Unless, 
 indeed, the common difficulty of securing faithful workmanship and 
 the thorough execution of what is attempted, is considered a sufficient 
 reason for abandoning a desirable end. If the walls of these rooms 
 are of hard bricks, smoothly plastered with cement, a thin coat of 
 asphaltum applied and painted some light color ; the ceilings first 
 
 Front Elevation. Design T. 
 
 sheathed and then lathed and plastered and also painted ; or, better 
 still, covered with flat brick arches and treated like the side walls, the 
 floors being of asphalt concrete ; the rooms will then be practically 
 air-tight. Guarded in this way, any sewer-gas that should find its 
 way into them, or other foul air contained in them, could not escape 
 into other parts of the building except through open doors. It is, 
 however, indispensable that each of these rooms should have an 
 ample ventilating-flue, the two having no connection with each other 
 or with the central ventilating-flues, and warmed at all times and all 
 seasons of the year. Thus protected, there is no danger that they will 
 contaminate the basement or other parts of the building ; in fact, if 
 they are properly constructed and kept in good order, there is no objec- 
 tion to their being placed as shown in this plan. 
 
 It will readily be seen that another story could be added to this 
 building, duplicating the school-rooms, making six in all, with accom- 
 modations for two hundred and fifty or three hundred pupils. If 
 that were done, the capacity of the water-closets should be somewhat
 
 SAFEGUARDS. 85. 
 
 increased ; but no other change would be required, the stairs to the 
 second floor being directly over those shown on this plan. 
 
 The exterior design is plain and massive, but so simple in detail 
 that it is not necessarily expensive, especially in a region where build- 
 ing-stone abounds. The small mullioned windows at the front end 
 of the two large rooms are a concession to outside appearance, not 
 strictly necessary for the lighting of the rooms. Still, they would 
 make themselves useful in very warm weather, or when it is desirable 
 
 m\ i 
 
 ., Jah0 PI _.. 
 
 Side Elevation. Design T. 
 
 to " flush " the rooms by opening all the windows and letting the 
 wind sweep through them. They would not be allowed to let their 
 light shine to the inconvenience of the scholars who face them, being 
 always covered by blinds or shades. Of course, the same interior 
 arrangements might be enclosed by brick or wooden walls above the 
 basement. That should be of bricks or stone.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 DESIRABLE FORMALITY. 
 
 AND FIMAU>- 
 WROUGHT- IU9*I ANT) 
 
 IT was suggested in the last 
 chapter that the three 
 
 * / m 
 
 rooms of that plan might be 
 doubled by lifting the roof 
 and keeping the same arrange- 
 ments in the second floor as in 
 the first. With slight changes 
 in the windows and in the 
 exterior detail, that is the evo- 
 lution of this design. By rea- 
 son of its long outside galleries 
 ______ on both first and second floors 
 
 this building would perhaps 
 
 seem somewhat more at home in Italy than in our less romantic 
 country, but as we really appear to belong to every tribe and nation 
 under the sun, it is evident that we have a right to adopt all that is 
 best in other nations and, if possible, make it at home with us. 
 
 Being the only cosmopolitan people on the globe, our national 
 architecture, if we ever have one, will necessarily be composite to the 
 last degree. Not, it is to be hopec}, in the manner that prevails to 
 such an alarming degree at present, and which consists in loading- 
 one poor building with all the tricks of architectural fancy that have 
 ever been invented ; nor yet in applying some one style, " Queen 
 Anne," Romanesque, Colonial, Moorish, Renaissance, to every sort 
 and kind of buildings, from religious temples to cotton factories,
 
 DESIRABLE FORMALITY. 87 
 
 merely because fashion happens to desire it ; but by thoughtfully 
 applying to each building the style that is best adapted to its use and 
 condition. 
 
 It is evident that the more formal, symmetrical styles are, in a 
 general way, most appropriate for school-houses that contain several 
 rooms of similar size and shape, and which require practically the 
 same accommodations in regard to space, light, warmth, seats, and 
 in all the minor working accessories of the school. There is a certain 
 
 Of Designs T and U. 
 
 manner of grouping half a hundred children in a room for purposes 
 of study and recitation, a certain way of placing their desks, of 
 supplying light and heat, of arranging the entrances and exits, which, 
 within reasonable limits, ought to be closely followed. To deviate 
 from these for the sake of external proportions, or of introducing any 
 peculiar style of architecture, is, in large buildings, to sacrifice es^en- 
 tials to non-essentials. The case is quite different in those of smaller 
 size where the form of the roof, of the porches and other purely
 
 88 
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 Front Elevation of Design U. 
 
 End Elevation of Design U.
 
 DESIRABLE FORMALITY. 89 
 
 external features, are the chief elements in the design. For such 
 a picturesque composition may be adopted without affecting the 
 interior. 
 
 This building, like many others among these designs, is repre- 
 sented as standing upon a site that admits entrances from different 
 levels ; those at the side or rear leading to the basement, the main 
 front entrance being at the level of the first floor. This arrangement 
 does not require a sloping lot originally, but on the contrary a level 
 one, the difference of altitude being produced by bringing the earth 
 removed for the foundations, and for such portions of the basement 
 as are below the surface, to the front side of the building. 
 
 Another general suggestion may be made in this chapter that is 
 equally applicable in other cases. For summer ventilation it is indis- 
 pensable that there should be ample openings at the top of the rooms, 
 preferably in the ceilings, up through the roof. For this purpose the 
 same flues that furnish the cold weather ventilation may be used, by 
 a proper arrangement of the ducts and valves ; in gabled roofs, open- 
 ings at opposite ends protected by louvres will answer, or the stock 
 patterns of metallic ventilators may be more convenient and efficient 
 than either. This plan has ventilating turrets which are supposed to 
 add somewhat to the architectural effect while serving their important 
 practical end. The one thing which is always useless and sometimes 
 worse is making a large opening through the ceiling into a close, 
 unventilated attic.
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 A CARDINAL VIRTUE. 
 
 WITHOUT 5HAP,P-^vMCLE.s- '"THIS small plan 
 
 i s introduced 
 again, being the same 
 as that of Chapter 
 \ r ., to serve as a text 
 for some observations 
 that are applicable 
 to all buildings of 
 
 every degree and kind. There is one quality which no school- 
 house of town or country need ever be without ; a quality that 
 was held in high esteem in apostolic times and has not yet 
 lost its rank. We Cannot all be great, but we can all be good ; 
 likewise it may be out of the question for us to be grand ; it 
 is certain that we can all be clean, and cleanliness is next to god- 
 liness. How true it is that the most precious, potent and valuable 
 things in the world are the most easily obtained. 
 " 'Tis heaven alone may be had for the asking." 
 There is not one of the humblest of the remote and antiquated 
 country school-houses that still stand, silent reproaches to the boasts 'of 
 modern civilization, nor a far-away structure in the log-cabin regions 
 of the pioneers, which in this, the most excellent of all the material, 
 visible virtues, may not stand proudly on a par with the highest of 
 the high schools in the richest and most lavish communities. And 
 cleanliness is a thousand times better than grandeur, for there is no 
 estimating the value of the discipline, intellectual and moral, that will
 
 A CARDINAL VIRTUE. 91 
 
 result from spending a few hours every day amid surroundings, no 
 matter how simple, and in an atmosphere of absolute cleanliness it is 
 just as impossible that a sensitive child should be subject to this 
 influence and not derive sure and positive strength from it, as it is 
 that a water-lily can refrain from opening its white and gleaming 
 petals when it has risen to the life and light of the pure, fresh air and 
 sunlight. 
 
 SCMOOL ROOM 
 
 POP-CM QPAN PO^M I CLOAK 
 
 Design V. 
 
 Cleanliness in the school-room is always possible, nay, more ; 
 the lack of it is inexcusable. There are no claims of regular recita- 
 tions, formal discipline, or even of that chief of all good habits, 
 punctuality, that should not be made to stand aside for cleanliness 
 if need be. Cleanliness should pervade every part of the premises, 
 starting with the walk at the front gate, rising through all the halls and 
 stairways, enhancing the dignity of the teacher's desk, shining upon 
 those of the pupils, looking out through the windows and permeating
 
 9 2 
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 Front Elevation. Design V. 
 
 Side Elevation. Design V.
 
 A CARDINAL VIRTUE. 93 
 
 every rod of the play ground, even to the remotest corners of the 
 outbuildings. 
 
 Is it not true that the benign influence of such a spirit of clean- 
 liness would be beyond all computation, and that it ought to be 
 obtained at any cost ? So I have thought it best to refer again to the 
 desirableness of making all interior finish smooth, simple, and of such 
 shape and quality as to be kept clean easily, and to repeat the sugges- 
 tions in connection with one of the simplest designs. Large and 
 costly buildings are expected to be taken care of as a matter of 
 course, those of humbler character are liable to be neglected ; hence 
 the greater need of making their care easy. All projecting corners 
 should be avoided, and as far as possible sharp inner-angles that will 
 hold dust and dirt. The baseboards and wainscot, instead of forming 
 right angles with the floor, should be finished with a curve ; the 
 architraves around the doors and windows should be free from deep 
 incisions, "quirks" and grooves, and any unavoidable projections 
 should be made slight and of such shape that if dust lodges on them 
 it can be readily removed. Even the window sashes should be with- 
 out fine mouldings, and the nearer the panels of the doors are to 
 forming a plane surface the better. The doors themselves should be 
 as light and as strong as possible, and to that end it is better that they 
 should consist of many small panels rather than of few large ones. 
 These things seem to be trifling matters, but taken together they go 
 to make the difference between well and thoughtfully planned work 
 and that which is the reverse. There are, indeed, matters of much 
 greater importance, but those ought to be done and these not be left 
 undone.
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 MINOR CONCESSIONS. 
 
 THIS chapter illustrates a 
 building for eight similar 
 rooms for forty-five or fifty pupils 
 each. The only deviation from 
 exact identity of size and shape 
 is made for the sake of giving a 
 slightly varied outline to the 
 ground plan of the building, which, on 
 that account, lends itself more readily to 
 a picturesque treatment of the exterior. 
 Such a license is justifiable when there is 
 no loss of convenience or of the essential requirements of actual use. 
 The principal lighting of the rooms is from the long side at the left of 
 the seats of the scholars. The rows of the seats and desks, as they face 
 the platform, are crosswise of the room, thus keeping them in the 
 most compact form and most directly in range of the teacher's over- 
 sight. The cloak-rooms are large and well lighted, each one serving 
 for the boys or girls of t\vo rooms. There are two separate stair- 
 cases ; the doors from the halls to the cloak-rooms, and between the 
 cloak- and the school-rooms, are arranged to give the greatest sim- 
 plicity to the movements of the school. The basement is arranged 
 for the use of the pupils, whose ordinary entrance and exit is through 
 that part of the building ; and there is a main front entrance for 
 teachers, visitors, and for special occasions. 
 
 This building is perhaps a reasonable illustration of what may
 
 MINOR CONCESSIONS. 
 
 95 
 
 fairly be conceded for 
 the sake of external 
 appearance, and may 
 serve to open the 
 question, which can 
 never be positively 
 answered, as to how 
 far minor points of 
 utility may be sacri- 
 ficed for the sake of 
 a fair exterior. As in 
 the preceding chapter, 
 the introduction of 
 the small windows in 
 the front of the build- 
 ing is a deviation from 
 the straight and nar- 
 row path of scientific 
 planning, which pro- 
 hibits light from 
 
 more than one side of the school-room. But, as I have said, if these 
 windows have inside shutters with rolling slats, the objection to them 
 as regards cross-lights in the room is removed ; while outside they give 
 an appearance of life to the front elevation, which nothing but actual 
 windows can ever give to an occupied building. 
 
 It is not necessary that the front rooms at the right of the hall 
 should be longer than those at the left ; but the extra two or three feet 
 do no harm, and this slight projection gives the desired irregularity 
 in the ground-plan. Other illustrations might be given of features 
 that may be called unnecessary and of doubtful utility. But it is not 
 easy to draw the line that separates necessity and utility, in their 
 narrowest sense, from the higher needs and uses of aesthetic fitness 
 
 o 
 
 and a reasonable demand for visible beauty 
 
 If we accept the average modern school-buildings as examples both of 
 
 Plan of Basement. Design W.
 
 9 6 
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS, 
 
 economy and utility, 
 it is absolutely certain 
 that beauty costs no 
 more than ugliness. 
 Yet it is not true that 
 a building which sup- 
 plies the essential 
 needs, so many cu- 
 bic feet of space for 
 each scholar, so many 
 degrees of heat, so 
 much fresh air per 
 minute, and so many 
 square feet of win- 
 dow-glass, will be as 
 beautiful if put to- 
 gether in the most 
 economical manner 
 possible, regardless of 
 its outer appearance, 
 as it may be made by 
 an added expenditure 
 
 wisely applied for the sole purpose of increasing its external 
 beauty. The lamp of sacrifice must surely be lighted before 
 the steady flame of enduring beauty can be kindled. In the 
 case of the school-house, however, it must be the sacrifice of a 
 larger appropriation both of thought and of money, and not a 
 sacrifice of anything that is needed to ensure the safety and 
 comfort of the occupants of the building. Picturesque composition 
 must not be purchased at the expense of illy-shaped rooms ; charming 
 groups of windows are not worth permanent injury to the eyes of the 
 children ; massive effects and Richardsonized Norman architecture 
 are too dearly bought, if an increase of dampness and darkness is the 
 price paid ; an interesting adjustment of gables and artistic skylines 
 
 First and Second Floor Plans. Design W.
 
 MINOR CONCESSIONS. 
 
 97 
 
 are greatly to be desired ; but smoking chimneys, damp walls, and leak- 
 ing roofs are still more earnestly to be avoided. Essentials must 
 never be sacrificed for non-essentials. But while it is true that a 
 building constructed in the simplest, most economical manner possible. 
 cannot, even by the utmost exercise of good taste and careful study, 
 be made as graceful in its proportions and in effect as beautiful as one 
 on which a part of the outlay is applied to secure satisfactory form 
 
 Perspective View. Design W. 
 
 and proportion (to say nothing of appropriate decoration ); it is equally 
 certain that without going beyond the needs of actual construction 
 and the limitations of the strictest economy, it is always possible to 
 design an exterior that shall have the merit of being inoffensive, and 
 of possessing the dignity that always appears in work that is well and 
 honestly done. 
 
 The most grievous and inexcusable fault in the way of exterior
 
 9 8 
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 design appears in those buildings upon which there is a large outlay 
 that is worse than thrown away. How or when ostentatious vulgarity 
 in the visible structure of public and private buildings ever came to be 
 considered ' architecture,' is beyond comprehension. It is not poverty 
 of resources that is responsible for the deplorable, not to say unen- 
 durable, appearance of many of our conspicuous school-buildings, but 
 
 Side Elevation. Design W. 
 
 ignorance and vanity. Much less is the lack of pecuniary means 
 the chief cause of imperfect lighting, heating, and ventilating, but 
 still ignorance ; or worse yet, because more difficult to enlighten, a 
 stupid indifference and conservatism concerning the importance of 
 these things; the feeling that what has been good enough, though in 
 fact it never was anything but bad. is good enough still. It is a com- 
 mon thing to find modern school-buildings of much approved and
 
 MINOR CONCESSIONS. 99 
 
 boasted excellence, from which many essential needs have been 
 omitted ostensibly on account of their expense, while upon the same 
 buildings, far greater sums than these same essentials would have cost 
 have been expended for outside display that is not merely useless, but 
 positively offensive.
 
 HA/SD- 
 
 RA1L-HUNO AT 
 THE. SIDE, 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 ROOM FOR GROWTH. 
 
 TT is a common experience in cit- 
 ies and villages to find the 
 number of pupils in certain districts 
 or wards increasing with a regularity 
 that can be easily estimated for any 
 given time. How far to anticipate the 
 future in the expenditure of public 
 funds is always a vexed question. 
 Ordinary business prudence, which is 
 perhaps rare enough in the administra- 
 tion of public affairs, would at least 
 dictate that there should be reasonable 
 forethought in the way of securing land 
 enough for future growth, and that when it is clear that additional 
 room will be required in the building within a few years, it is also 
 well to arrange the plans necessary for immediate use so that addi- 
 tions may be made at any time with the least possible sacrifice, either 
 of convenience or in the tearing do\vn and alteration for the purpose 
 of building larger. 
 
 There are two ways in which such provision can be made, as 
 regards the building itself ; the one by arranging a floor plan that will 
 admit of future growth horizontally, without interfering with the 
 parts already completed ; the other by constructing the main walls 
 and arranging the interior of a one-story building so that one or more 
 stories may be added at any future time without changing the first 
 story or enlarging the area covered by the original structure. Gen-
 
 ROOM FOR GROWTH. 
 
 101 
 
 J> 
 
 
 Perspective. Design X. 
 
 erally speaking, the most economical method, as regards present 
 expenditure, would be to make the building of the required height, 
 enlarging it by the addition of wings at the sides or rear. 
 
 The plan shown with this chapter is for a building two stories in 
 height above the basement, and having originally, two school-rooms 
 on each floor, with the necessary hall, stairways, wardrobes, and a 
 small room for each of the teachers. The children all enter at the 
 basement, the boys at one side, the girls at the other. There are also 
 doors at the rear of the basement, and a front entrance to the first 
 floor. 
 
 In this plan I have adopted the arrangement, sometimes preferred 
 to any other, of making small wardrobe closets in the main hall, 
 enclosed at the sides only by partitions six or seven feet in hight, 
 those at one side being for the boys, the others for the girls. These 
 wardrobes contain an aggregate length of wall space sufficient to give 
 each of the pupils a distance of one foot. The best arrangement is
 
 IO2 
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 to divide these spaces by narrow partitions forming shallow alcoves, 
 thus separating the clothing of each pupil from that adjoining ; in the 
 bottom of each alcove there should be a shelf for overshoes. 
 
 Whether this provision for the outer wraps is better than detached 
 cloak rooms, as I have shown on many of these plans, is an open 
 question, depending on various circumstances. There are good rea- 
 sons for and against both plans. It may be that usage would be a 
 sufficient reason for adopting one or the other ; the age of the pupils, 
 their general character and conduct, the liability to trespass from out-
 
 ROOM FOR GROWTH. 
 
 103 
 
 side should all be taken into account, as well as the cost ; for, other 
 things being equal, the arrangement shown on this plan would involve 
 less expense than that of providing separate cloak rooms. 
 
 As the matter is an important one and liable to be misunderstood, 
 it may be well to repeat what has already been said in other chapters, 
 that in the main school-rooms all windows except those at the left of 
 the scholars' desks are for occasional use only or for assistance in 
 summer ventilation. It is imperative that the broad light should be
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 
 
 
 \\fCJ 
 
 _L 
 
 
 WELL 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 | 
 
 
 U 3> '. 1 
 
 Iu "'- M 
 
 
 
 
 
 as far as possible in a single mass, that is, unbroken by wide piers, 
 and that it should be ample without the aid of light from any other 
 side of the room. The ventilation and warming would be similar to 
 that described in former chapters, where steam or hot water is used. 
 It is proposed to enlarge this plan by duplicating the main build- 
 ing behind the extension that contains the stairways. The stairs that 
 are shown would thus serve for the whole, and the only change 
 requisite when the afldition is made would be the conversion of the 
 windows at the end of the staircase hall in the different stories into 
 doors or wide openings. If provision is made for this when the first
 
 ROOM FOR GROWTH. 105 
 
 structure is built, this change would be of trifling moment. The 
 basement doors to the play grounds would be at the rear of the addi- 
 tion, and the teacher's rooms, if desired, might be at the back end of 
 the central hall. 
 
 It is evident that this building could be extended indefinitely, 
 because the same floor plan, and the same style of the exterior treat- 
 ment, would suit a building of three stories above the basement, that 
 is, a three-story building of three rooms. 
 
 Still another variation might be accomplished by adding a third 
 section of the same general character, making twelve rooms in a two_ 
 story building ; this would require another staircase between the 
 second and third sections. The propriety of assembling so many 
 children in one building I will not now consider. 
 
 This plan is intended to suggest one solution of the problem that 
 is constantly occurring in towns and cities in which there is a steady 
 growth, not only of the total population by the extension of the 
 borders, but what is in most cases to be deplored, an increase in the 
 density of population. The present tendency of cities to increase at 
 the expense of the country must be accepted as one of the uncontrol- 
 able social phenomena of the age. It is apparently useless to try to 
 stay it even if it is, in fact, what to many it appears to be, a serious 
 evil ; but perhaps something can be done to diminish the obvious 
 dangers that accompany it. Beyond doubt the children are the 
 greatest sufferers. Healthful, happy child-life is instinctively asso- 
 ciated with the freedom that is only possible in the country. The 
 few weeks, and for the great majority the few days, of real country 
 life that they are permitted to enjoy during the year are of little value 
 except as a bit of happy memory or of joyful anticipation. All the 
 more reason is there that the grounds around the city and suburban 
 school-house should be made as ample as possible. The interest in 
 public parks that seems to be gaining strength in all modern cities is 
 most encouraging ; it would be a still more hopeful sign of progress 
 if cities that are growing in size, and towns that expect to become
 
 io6 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 cities would, before appropriating space for extensive parks for 
 general and ornamental purposes, secure large tracts for the public 
 schools, so that every school-house might be itself the center of an 
 ornamental park. There would then be no danger but the parks 
 would be frequented by those who need them most, that is, the 
 children, no danger but the school-house would be an attractive 
 place.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 CONCERNING ALTERATIONS. 
 
 WHEN we consider the hundreds of thousands of school build- 
 ings all over the country, in the older parts as well as in the 
 newer, of which, if the opinions of the school-boards and others who 
 are supposed to be competent judges are correct, not one is what 
 it ought to be, and only a small percentage even of those most 
 recently and most expensively built are without serious faults, the 
 first impulse is to set these existing buildings right before we build 
 new ones. Many of the smaller, cheaper buildings, by simple changes 
 and additions, can be converted into well planned structures, having 
 all the essential features that belong to the most carefully studied 
 plans ; that is, good light, fresh air, suitable provisions for warming, 
 and decent privy accommodations. Easy that is, it is easy where 
 there is sufficient general intelligence in the community to perceive 
 the need of these things. There is rarely a cheap building either of 
 wood or of brick, in which windows cannot be opened at a trifling 
 expense, at one side of the school-rooms, which will afford proper 
 light ; there are school heaters, in effect small portable furnaces, that 
 only ask a place to stand, and they will not merely warm the air in 
 the room, but will give it the necessary circulation for thorough ven- 
 tilation ; if there is no suitable ventilating-chimney, one can always 
 be built on the outside of the main walls when a convenient place 
 inside cannot be found ; there is always room in the floor for open- 
 ings for the escape of foul air and for ventilating-ducts underneath 
 it ; and the raising of a building one or two feet will perhaps change 
 it from a damp and unhealthy condition to a dry and healthful one.
 
 loS TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 Such amendments of harmful conditions will rarely injure the 
 external conditions of a building, and even if that should follow, 
 it would be of slight consequence when the welfare of the children is 
 at stake. It often happens that the " making over " of a dwelling- 
 house is accomplished at great pecuniary disadvantage, even to the ex- 
 tent of costing more than an entire rebuilding. But the modifications 
 above suggested for a school-house of one or two rooms would be 
 slight, in comparison with the radical change of an ordinary dwelling. 
 If the ceiling is of suitable height for the size of the room and its 
 adequate lighting ; if the frame is sound and the roof in good con- 
 dition ; the site dry and otherwise desirable ; a very small proportion 
 of the cost of a new building will often make the old as good as 
 new, in all that is really essential. If anything can be afforded for 
 outward appearance, the addition of vestibules and porches can easily 
 be made to serve the double purpose of adding to the comfort of the 
 building as well as to its outward beauty In the case of large build- 
 ings of many rooms and more complex arrangements, there is, of 
 course, a far greater proportion of loss in any attempt at reconstruc- 
 tion.
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 CONCERNING VENTILATION. 
 
 THERE is no doubt that the importance of the thorough venti- 
 lation of school-rooms is well understood by intelligent people, 
 especially where public schools have been maintained for several 
 generations, and attendance has been compulsory, either by statute 
 law or by the still more inexorable ruling of public opinion. From 
 the early days of box stoves, in small, crowded rooms, when some 
 sanitary enthusiast would occasionally try to frighten the school com- 
 mittee of his town or district by citing the black hole in Calcutta 
 and other fatal examples ; to the latest scientific declaration that the 
 air in the majority of large school-buildings is far more unfit for 
 respiration than that of the average sewer ; there has been a grow- 
 ing conviction of the necessity for checking this modern slaughter of 
 the innocents by means of slow poison, administered in the form of 
 disease germs, and other atmospheric impurities. There is no lack of 
 popular demand for fresh air ; but the popular notions as to the best 
 method of securing it are extremely vague and various. The subject 
 has been so much involved with abstruse scientific discussions of the 
 chemical properties of the fluid we inhale, and nice adjustments of 
 physical laws and their operations, which none but experts can be 
 expected to understand ; and, withal, so much obstructed by attempts 
 to control this one free element by patent appliances, which, by the 
 very fact of their being patented, provoke distrust ; that the chances 
 of strangulation seem to be about as immanent as they ever were. 
 Yet the whole matter is as simple as the running of water : at least as 
 much of it as needs to be understood by those to whom its practical
 
 no TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 application is entrusted. He who can understand the mechanical 
 operation of a common pump and the weighing of a pound of nails 
 in a balance has the essential elementary knowledge requisite for 
 comprehending the science of ventilation and the art of applying it. 
 It is not necessary to know precisely what makes the air in a close 
 room full of people unfit for respiration. Once imagine the occu- 
 pants submerged in a large tank of water which each one is constantly 
 imbibing and ejecting ; the clothing which they wear being more or 
 less unclean ; the cutaneous exhalations going on all the time, some 
 of the number being perhaps in the incipient stage of disease ; in 
 brief, imagine the air to be water instead of air, a visible instead of 
 an invisible fluid ; and the desirableness of constant change before it 
 has been used over many times will be conceded by the most con- 
 servative objectors to fresh air. It is not necessary to know why air 
 expands with heat, nor what becomes of the carbonic acid gas, and 
 why it is swallowed with satisfaction and impunity in soda-water, and 
 yet kills in the famous Grotto del Cano. These things are interesting 
 and important in their proper place, and there have been, at a moderate 
 estimate, several thousand octavo volumes written about them. But 
 their inadequacy as regards practical application is fairly demonstrated 
 by the fact that, in spite of them and their valuable information, the 
 "air in the average city school-house is to-day far worse for purposes 
 of respiration than that of the ordinary sewer." Of course, scientific 
 facts are the basis on which all wise practice must be built, in venti- 
 lating school-houses, as in everything else; but it is no more necessary 
 that they should be minutely set forth in a practical description of 
 ventilation than that the morphology of plants should be explained 
 to one who wishes to practice carpentry, or the chemistry of water to 
 a student of navigation. 
 
 Certain essential facts are sufficiently well established to be taken 
 as the basis of practical work. For instance in order to ventilate a 
 school-room properly, from twenty-five to thirty cubic feet of fresh 
 air should be furnished to each individual every minute. That is to 
 say, there should be from twelve to fifteen hundred cubic feet of air
 
 CONCERNING VENTILATION. in 
 
 withdrawn from a room that is occupied by fifty people, and an equal 
 amount of fresh air introduced every sixty seconds, in order to pre- 
 serve a reasonable degree of atmospheric purity. That is the one 
 essential physiological fact. Add to this the equally simple mechanical 
 fact that common air expands about one five-hundredth part of its 
 bulk, diminishing in weight in the same proportion for every added 
 degree (Fah.) of heat, and the whole theory is expounded, concern- 
 ing which tens of thousands of pages have been written, unnumbered 
 patents have been filed, and endless controversies have been held. 
 Experiments based upon the mechanical fact appear to show that 
 when the air inside a smooth, vertical flue not less than twenty feet 
 long and two feet square is thirty degrees warmer than that outside, 
 the difference in weight will be sufficient to cause the air in the flue 
 to rise at the rate of about three feet per second. A simple applica- 
 tion of the multiplication table will demonstrate that such a provision 
 would supply less than fifteen cubic feet per minute to each one of 
 forty-eight pupils. There should be thirty feet ; and yet it is a rare 
 thing to find a school-room for fifty pupils, in which a well arranged 
 and constantly operating ventilating-flue two feet square is provided. 
 But one of twice that size is necessary for thorough ventilation. Any- 
 thing less means ill-health and discomfort for teachers and pupils. 
 It is obvious that an exhaust-flue alone will be unavailing. One 
 might as well try to lift the upper valve of a suction-pump when the 
 lower is frozen down, as endeavor to ventilate a room by ample 
 outlet for foul air, without providing for the admission of an equal 
 amount of pure air. In cold weather, the latter must be warmed 
 before it is admitted, and both inlets and outlets so contrived that 
 there shall be no perceptible draughts from either. It hardly need be 
 suggested that this constant movement and change of the air in the 
 room must be effected as economically as possible. The exact, or 
 even the approximate amount of fuel required to cause the necessary 
 movement of the atmosphere, for the movement cannot be produced 
 without heat of some sort, natural or artificial, and to warm the 
 incoming air to a proper temperature, can only be ascertained by
 
 ii2 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 experience, circumstances vary so widely. The above dimensions of 
 ventilating-flues are given rather to indicate the usual inadequacy of 
 ordinary means, than as an invariable rule to be followed. Still, if 
 this point is kept in view, that in order to maintain a tolerable degree 
 of purity in the atmosphere of a school-room for forty-eight pupils, 
 .in which there is an allowance of from two hundred to two hundred 
 and fifty cubic feet of space for each one, there should be provision 
 for the entrance and exit of from twelve to fifteen hundred feet of 
 air every minute, and that this will require a ventilating-duct having 
 an area of at least five square feet ; this may be taken as a basis for 
 general estimates for rooms larger or smaller. 
 
 The aggregate size of the flues for the admission of warm air, 
 whether from steam-radiators, hot-air furnaces, or jacketed stoves, 
 may be somewhat smaller than the outlet, because the incoming air 
 is likely to be heated considerably above the temperature of the air 
 in the room and will, therefore, move more rapidly than the outgoing 
 current. Care should be taken, however, that the incoming air is 
 not excessively heated. The furnace, or whatever the source of the 
 heat may be, should never be allowed to furnish " hot " air. Other 
 things being equal, the best heating apparatus is that which supplies 
 a large amount of air, moderately warmed, and moving slowly. 
 
 It would be a great advantage if the temperature of school-rooms, 
 and, for that matter, of all other occupied apartments, could be auto- 
 matically regulated. We adapt ourselves with almost fatal readiness 
 to the constantly occurring natural changes, and that often without 
 the consciousness that a change has taken place. Moreover, we are 
 so liable to imagine an increase of heat or cold in the atmosphere 
 around us when the only change is in ourselves, that the sensations of 
 the occupants of a room are practically worthless as a test of the 
 degree of heat that ought to be maintained. Such automatic regula- 
 tion seems impracticable, and the only safeguard against dangerous 
 extremes is frequent reference to the thermometer, an instrument 
 that is absolutely indispensable in every school-room. Indeed, there 
 ought to be two or more placed in different parts of the room ;
 
 CONCERNING VENTILAJ^ION. 113 
 
 because, however carefully devised the methods of heating and ven- 
 tilating may be, they should riot be left without constant watching. 
 
 Still more difficult is it to determine by actual experiment the 
 purity of the air. We are not more powerless to see ourselves as 
 others see us, than we are to detect by the unaided senses of taste 
 and smell the gradual vitiation of the atmosphere in a close room. 
 The only safety lies in providing a ventilating apparatus that will 
 never sleep, and that can never, through carelessness or ignorance, be 
 rendered inoperative. To this end, two things must be borne in mind; 
 neither the flues that carry out the foul air at the bottom of the room, 
 nor those that admit the fresh air, should ever be closed. When the 
 incoming air is artificially warmed and it happens to be necessary to 
 diminish the amount of heat, this should be done by arranging the 
 ducts so that cold, fresh air may be mixed with the warm to lower 
 its temperature ; not by closing the registers, which would diminish 
 the supply of fresh air. 
 
 In warm weather, when the transoms of the windows and the 
 ceiling-ventilators can be freely opened, there is no excuse for foul 
 air. It will naturally rise and pass out through these outlets, both of 
 which must be furnished with tightly closing valves, which should 
 never be opened when the room is artificially warmed. If they are, 
 the upward current will counteract the downward draught of foul air, 
 actually checking the ventilation and at the same time wasting the 
 heat.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 OUT-OF-DOOR SURROUNDINGS. 
 
 THE one thing to which every 
 public school-house is entitled, 
 whether it stands in the geographical 
 centre of a large country district, re- 
 mote even from the homes of the 
 children, or upon costly territory in 
 the heart of the city, is plenty of 
 room around it. Whatever theories 
 we may entertain as to the righteous 
 ownership of the soil, there is one 
 claim that cannot be ignored without the immediate and direct 
 retribution that is visited soon or late upon all unrighteousness. 
 Children have a divine and inalienable right to enough of the 
 earth's surface to ensure their healthful, happy growth. In many 
 cities it is probably out of the question to provide anything like ade- 
 quate room for proper out-of-door exercise around the large school- 
 houses that are already built. Ample playground for several hundred 
 children must be measured by the acre, not by the foot. It must be 
 assumed, therefore, in discussing the treatment of the grounds around 
 school buildings that there are grounds to be discussed. 
 
 The difficulty at the outset, in most cases, arises from the necessity 
 of providing a place for the boys to exercise and pursue their boyish 
 games, and still preserve a neat and ornamental appearance around 
 the building. As a matter of simple common-sense, girls should 
 be expected to require the same opportunities for exercise as
 
 OUT-OF-DOOR SURROUNDINGS. 115 
 
 boys. Unfortunately, they are too often satisfied with an amount of 
 bodily activity winch, though it might disturb the thistle down, would 
 not seriously impair the beauty and good order of the landscape. But 
 a troop of boys let loose in a field however large, leave unmis- 
 takable traces of their presence. If they are sent into the same field 
 day after day for a whole summer, nothing destructible will escape. 
 
 It is therefore an entire waste of time and labor to attempt to 
 maintain ornamental turf, flowers, shrubs, or even shade trees in the 
 
 SKY LIA4E,- 
 
 PLNCE.S 
 
 A CLOSE. Fk/SCE, - 
 
 op 19&JNCH-PL&K 
 
 
 midst of the ground distinctly devoted to marbles, ball, shinncy, hop- 
 scotch, tag, and the countless games of school-boys. 
 
 It simply compels them to a sort of vandalism, which is as damag- 
 ing to their proper training as it is to the objects of their destruction. 
 If it is a question of choosing between his bodily exercise and the pres- 
 ervation of ornamental shrubbery and smooth, clear walks, the 
 physical instincts of his nature, which are at present the strongest in- 
 centives to conduct, will inevitably prompt him to sacrifice the orna- 
 ments. The choice ought not to be prematurely forced upon him. 
 Still there is no doubt that all village and country school-houses, and 
 those of the city as well, if possible, should have the civilizing influ- 
 ence of beautiful natural surroundings. This means at once two en- 
 tirely separate departments of the exterior ; one to be given over ut-
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 terly to purposes of out-of-door exercise, and which has no features 
 or contents of any sort that are incompatible with these purposes ; 
 the other to be kept in the perfect order that landscape beauty requires- 
 
 a 
 
 & 4, 
 
 , U T" 7fc L T*~ 
 
 JLNek^' v J - 
 
 Naturally, the latter will be in the front of the building and the play 
 ground in the rear, where it will be as much out of common obser- 
 vation as possible. Not that it should by any means be unclean or 
 in a dilapidated and unsightly condition ; on the contrary, it requires 
 constant care. It should be open to the sun and air, secure against 
 unpleasant, and of course against unhealthful, surroundings, and always 
 
 ""5% 
 
 WPMJOHT-'IClP/sf GATE, WITH STO/sJk ' 
 
 within easy oversight of the teacher. It should be visibly clean 
 also, free from all kinds of loose rubbish and everything that could be 
 offensive to health or good taste. In a word, it should be an out-of- 
 door gymnasium. It would be entirely practicable to provide gym- 
 nastic apparatus of the simple kinds which may properly be exposed
 
 OUT-OF-DOOR SURROUNDINGS. 
 
 117 
 
 to the weather, although this is of doubtful expediency, especially 
 where the children of all ages take their exercise in the same yard. 
 But absolute cleanliness should be insisted upon in all the surroundings 
 of the school-house as well as within it. If the boys, can be made to 
 feel that it is a disgraceful thing to injure or disfigure the common 
 play ground or anything belonging to it, they have learned the first 
 lesson in future good citizenship. 
 
 TE.HUA-CPTTA- IRPyN- AM)- GLASS 
 
 Of course the limits of the play grounds should be well defined, 
 and it should be understood that within those limits the ground itself 
 has no nights that may not be properly sacrificed for the purposes of 
 legitimate play. Outside of those limits it should be equally well 
 understood that turf, trees, flowers, walks, and fences have the first 
 claims. If play cannot be carried on without injury to those things 
 the play must stop. 
 
 And this brings me to the second department of the exterior, 
 which will be composed of all the land belonging to the school-house 
 which is not occupied by the building and the play grounds. Here 
 the tables are turned ; play has no rights ; carelessness is not to be 
 tolerated The children, as well as the teachers, must understand that
 
 ii8 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 everything which will add to the beauty and charm of the place is to 
 be carefully preserved. The turf must be respected ; the walks must 
 not be torn up ; the trees must not be tormented ; the flowers, whether 
 wild or cultivated, must not be stolen. They may be gathered 
 under proper restrictions and should be used daily, if possible, to 
 adorn the school-rooms. Many kinds of flowers are all the more lavish 
 of their bloom if they are constantly gathered, and these should 
 be cultivated as well as those whose beauty is most lasting on the 
 lawn. It is not the purpose of this chapter to give minute instruction 
 
 $u & , % 
 
 .*> A * .-.,-*/ 
 
 - 4 
 
 . CURB WUEJXE. 
 PE.ATCE. JS 
 
 for these things, with catalogues of trees, shrubs, and flowers that are 
 suitable, with directions for planting them, but simply to urge their 
 importance. 
 
 There is nothing that yields such liberal return for what it asks as 
 the decoration of the grounds around a building of any kind. Fine 
 architecture, costly construction, expensive materials are to a great 
 extent thrown away if the landscape surroundings and accessories are 
 mean and unsightly. I use the word landscape in a broad sense, 
 meaning everything on the premises except the building itself, whethei 
 these premises consist of a meagre spot of ground, less in area than 
 that which is covered by the buildings, or a broad tract in which real 
 landscape effects are possible. There is no district so poor, no land 
 so sterile, that the labor and care which are necessary to arrange and 
 execute a successful game of base ball would not, if expended once a 
 year, make the grounds around the school-house a place of beauty, a 
 source of honorable pride. The value of such an object lesson in
 
 OUT-OF-DOOR SURROUNDINGS. 
 
 119 
 
 any community cannot be over-estimated ; its influence grows stronger 
 and deeper the longer it lasts. 
 
 Generally speaking, I should say that the successful treatment of 
 this department depends upon two things : First, the separation of 
 the play grounds from the portion that is to be carefully kept in an 
 ornamental condition as has been indicated ; and secondly, the aiming 
 at simple results by the use of such simple means as are always with- 
 in easy reach, rather than attempting to produce rare or striking 
 effects. Everywhere can be had for the asking and the digging, all 
 
 the ornamental trees, shrubs, flowering plants, and climbing vines that 
 could be used in embellishing the school grounds and buildings. 
 Doubtless the nurseries can furnish more elaborate, and from a certain 
 point of view, more elegant decorations of foreign ancestry than the 
 adjacent forests and meadows will supply. But the difference in 
 quality is slight at the best, and the greater facility with which native, 
 indigenous trees and plants of suitable kinds can be reared, especially 
 if they have had a few years' growth in a nursery, and their greater powers
 
 I2O 
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 of endurance will more than compensate for their inferior beauty, if 
 they can be said to be less beautiful. Furthermore, it is a great mistake 
 to force trees to assume unnatural shapes. It seems to have been a fixed 
 habit of our heroic ancestors to postpone indefinitely the reward for well 
 doing, to accept without complaint whatever hardship or privation fell 
 to their lot, in fact, rather to court present discomfort as a wholesome 
 discipline. It may have been something of this spirit that prompted 
 them to have apparently more regard for the next generation than 
 for their own immediate advantage, even in their tree-planting. 
 
 Whatever the cause, it is obvious that their most conspicuous achieve- 
 ments in this direction consisted in placing single trees in regular 
 rows, the trees being of such size, shape, and nature, that anything 
 like natural grace and beauty was impossible for them, until those who 
 had taken the pains to plant them were no longer able to look upon 
 the results of their labor. It might be well for us to cultivate this 
 self-sacrificing habit of theirs in some directions, but not in this. At 
 the best, a row of maples or elms, disposed in the usual formal fashion, 
 add neither beauty nor comfort to the landscape until many years 
 after they are set ; while if trees of different ages and kinds are planted 
 in groups gracefully disposed, they will assume a picturesque appear- 
 ance before the first season is fairly over, and long before the discon-
 
 OUT-OF-DOOR SURROUNDINGS. 121 
 
 solate ranks of maples and elms show anything more than small tufts 
 of foliage perched on the top of a ten-foot pole, clumsily supported, 
 perhaps, by wooden frames, they will seem as much at home as the 
 noble avenues that our great grandfathers set a century ago. Of 
 course it is the part of wisdom to look out for the future while adding 
 to the value of the present, and each group of trees and shrubs that 
 is intended to be an ornament to the lawn before it has passed its 
 third season of transplanting, should contain a long-lived sturdy tree, 
 that will sometime in the future prove itself able to take the place 
 that was at first filled by the more rapidly growing, but shorter lived 
 group of which it was the centre. 
 
 There are certain trees that, like certain people, do not seem to 
 be rightly constituted for growing old. As children they are all that 
 is graceful and charming, but age renders them gloomy and depress- 
 ing. As commonly used for ornamental purposes, evergreens appear 
 to belong to this class. Others do not attain their greatest excellence 
 until they have put on the formal dignity that comes with years. It 
 is unnecessarily tiresome to wait for the latter to become attractive, 
 and for the former, all that need be said is that the axe will quickly 
 remove them, and their places are easily filled. 
 
 There is a strange sort of superstition among those who profess a 
 fondness for natural beauty, to the effect that there is something 
 sacred about a tree that should lead us to preserve it even when it 
 really cumbers the ground and has become a nuisance. The same 
 sentiment logically carried out would leave the weeds to grow undis- 
 turbed among the flowers. Trees out of place are simply weeds of 
 larger growth, and when they interfere with the welfare of other, 
 more valuable lives, they should be removed as promptly as we remove 
 weeds from the cornfield. The popular protest against the wanton 
 and wasteful destruction of large forests is to be encouraged ; but 
 this loss can no more be met by the planting of trees in villages 
 and suburbs, either by improvement societies or by individuals, than 
 climates can be changed by bonfires and steam heaters. The man who 
 plants a shade tree is almost as liable to become a nuisance to his fel-
 
 122 
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 low-men as a benefactor. Two blades of grass are worth more than 
 one after they are made into hay, and a fruit tree well cared for in- 
 creases the supply of necessary food in the world ; but a tree that 
 brings forth nothing but leaves, that is to say, nothing but shade, may 
 be a blessing and it may be a curse. If shelter from bleak winds and 
 the direct rays of the sun are desired in its neighborhood, it will be 
 welcome to the ground it occupies ; if dryness and warmth and sun- 
 shine, then it is only fit to be hewn down and cast into the fire. 
 
 Fences are doubtless a necessity about the department of the play 
 grounds, and in most cases a visible boundary should enclose the entire 
 
 5UE.LTE.U&D 
 
 lot. The public property of a town or city ought to be respected as 
 thoroughly as that of private individuals, but as a matter of fact it is 
 not, and while the practice of omitting the fences between neighbors 
 on village streets is most satisfactory both in its visible effect and as 
 an evidence of neighborly harmony, this would not often be admissible 
 in regard to the school-house grounds. In a well civilized community 
 the fences need not, however, be in the nature of impassible barriers, 
 but simply courteous reminders that the public are desired to keep off
 
 OUT-OF-DOOR SURROUNDINGS, 123 
 
 the premises. These visible boundaries may be of an ornamental pat- 
 tern where the circumstances admit an outlay for that purpose, but 
 the first consideration should be to secure the utmost durability. 
 However wise it may be for individuals to temporize in their expen- 
 ditures on the ground that it may be easier to spend more freely at 
 some future time, public expenditures as a rule should be made on 
 the principle that the best is the cheapest. If wooden fences are built 
 they should have stone or iron supports in the ground, or where this 
 is impracticable none but the most durable woods, as chestnut, cedar, 
 and locust, should be used. If there is a front gateway which is not 
 a common thoroughfare for the scholars, this may properly be some- 
 what ornamental, but the entrances that are in constant, and often 
 hurried and crowded use, should be entirely simple, and unless they 
 are also exceedingly strong they might as well be omitted altogether. 
 These gates should be securely fastened open during the school hours, 
 and no opportunity given for the indulgence of that propensity to 
 " swing on the gate," which appears to be one of the ever present 
 instincts of childhood. Iron fences and gateways can be obtained at 
 moderate outlay, and are often the most economical. 
 
 For enclosing the play ground of village and suburban sites, there 
 seem to be no alternatives beyond a close board fence or a solid brick 
 or stone wall. The height of this will depend upon the amount of 
 protection that is required, not for the yard itself, but for the adjacent 
 property. Where dwellings are near the school grounds a barrier that 
 is practically impassible is to be desired. Even with that the school- 
 house is not likely to be considered a desirable neighbor. This objec- 
 tion can be obviated to a great degree by keeping the buildings and 
 the ground in front of it in such a condition of attractive neatness 
 that the pleasure of being near it will compensate for the disadvan- 
 
 tages. 
 
 The designs for fences, copings, and gateways that are introduced 
 in this chapter are intended as suggestions for varying conditions, 
 some of them being exceedingly simple, others more elaborate and 
 expensive. It is hardly necessary to suggest that it is far better to
 
 124 
 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 adopt a simple style and construct it thoroughly, than to attempt a 
 more costly design and execute it in a cheap and insecure manner. 
 
 A country school, where a part of the pupils come from a consid- 
 erable distance and remain at the school-house during the hour be- 
 tween the morning and afternoon sessions, should have a sheltered 
 
 APPFiPPUI^TTE. OIPT- 
 Rtt*V A; PUBLIC . 5P1RITE.D C1T1Z.E.7S- 
 T HI3 /NATIVE - DISTtUCT- 
 
 porch, either attached to the building or standing near it on the 
 pleasantest part of the grounds, but riot in the play ground. Even a 
 platform of rough boards, slightly raised, that will be free from the 
 dampness of the earth, is of great service, and if it can have nothing 
 better let it have such a coarse roof as would be provided for cattle 
 or sheep in a pasture that affords no natural shelter for the stock.
 
 OUT-OF-DOOR SURROUNDINGS, 125 
 
 This useful appendage lends itself very readily to ornamental pur- 
 poses, and with slight additional cost and a careful study of the design 
 it may be made to add greatly to the beauty of the grounds as well 
 as to the comfort and enjoyment of the children, who will not insist 
 upon catching cold by sitting on the damp ground, if they can have 
 something else out of doors to sit upon. Of course these things should 
 also be substantially built, and as impervious to injury or defacement 
 as possible. Rustic work is picturesque, but is too easily defaced to 
 be desirable. 
 
 These things are not useless expenditures. Whatever makes the 
 school and all that belongs to it attractive to the children may be 
 counted as a direct aid to education. There are always those who, 
 in common phrase, are not fond of school, and these are likely to be 
 the very ones who most need its refining, elevating influences; more- 
 over, it must be admitted that in such cases the trouble is not always 
 with the scholars. 
 
 There is another practical side to a liberal outlay for appearance's 
 sake ; the best teachers will naturally be most willing to accept the 
 charge of schools where there is visible evidence of the active sym- 
 pathy and co-operation of parents. There can be no stronger testi- 
 mony on that point than care and attention freely bestowed upon the 
 school house and its surroundings.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 DETACHED SUGGESTIONS. 
 
 AT the present time a cesspool to receive the waste from the 
 water-closets of a school-house is inexcusable. It is in outrageous 
 opposition to sanitary science and common-sense. 
 
 No school grounds are complete without a sheltering porch or 
 pavilion, under which the scholars can sit when the sun or rain prevents 
 their being actually out from under cover and on the ground. Porches 
 attached to the main building serve something the same purpose, but 
 cannot always be had without obstructing the light of the school-rooms 
 or causing other inconvenience. 
 
 THE walls of school-rooms should neither be white nor glossy. If 
 plastered they should have three or four coats of oil paint in light, 
 neutral tints, the walls and ceilings very nearly alike. The wood- 
 work, the doors, and standing finish, should be treated in the same way 
 unless the natural color of the wood is preserved, in which case the 
 wood should be thoroughly filled with a hard, water-proof filler and 
 rubbed perfectly smooth, but still without gloss. Light woods are 
 preferable to dark. 
 
 SHADE-TREES should stand at a respectful distance from the school- 
 house, at least twice their own height when fully grown.
 
 DETACHED SUGGESTIONS, 127 
 
 THE summer comfort of school-rooms in buildings of one story 
 and of the rooms in the top story of higher buildings will be greatly 
 increased if the space between the ceiling and the roof is well venti- 
 lated. This is easily accomplished by making outlets through the 
 roof near the ridge and corresponding openings through the under 
 surface of the cornice, the planceer, between the rafters. 
 
 STAINED glass has no place in the regular windows of a school- 
 room. If it is introduced for ornamental purposes, its light should 
 not be allowed to shine inside except on purely ornamental occasions. 
 
 GENERALLY speaking, north and south lighting is better than east 
 or west. Of the last two, when the school is not opened before nine 
 in the morning or closed before half after four or five, the east is 
 preferable. 
 
 BLACKBOARDS should not be placed on the wall of the room be- 
 tween or beside the principal windows; and if it is thought necessary 
 to have a large amount of blackboards, they should be furnished with 
 curtains or screens to cover them when they are not in use. 
 
 To discuss the best methods of providing fire-escapes for large 
 school-houses, several stories in height, is folly, as regards new build- 
 ings, for it is a capital crime, and should be punished as such, to build 
 large school-houses that are not fire-proof. 
 
 IF windows require partial covering on account of too strong 
 light at any time, the lower part should be covered rather than the 
 top.
 
 128 TOWN AND COUNTRY SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 THE well that supplies drinking-water for a school-house should 
 be remote from the privies and any other possible source of contami- 
 nation. Other things being favorable, the best place for it is in the 
 front yard, where a neat well-house, and a pump that empties itself in 
 cold weather, will make it both useful and ornamental. It sometimes 
 happens that the location of the well cannot be changed, while that 
 of the school-house may be. In such cases the well should determine 
 the location of the building. 
 
 THE chief danger in case of fire in a school-house or other 
 crowded building is from panic, and this is liable to occur when there 
 is no fire, even in a fire-proof structure. For that reason the principal 
 doors of exit should open outwards, and when the building is occupied 
 should be left unfastened. 
 
 IT is of the utmost importance that the cloak-rooms should be 
 thoroughly ventilated, liable as they are to be filled with hats, coats, 
 boots and shoes, that are damp and dirty. It is also desirable that 
 they should be warm, but far more important that they should be 
 abundantly supplied with fresh air. 
 
 THE best floor for a school-house basement is asphalt pavement of 
 the most substantial kind. It is comparatively expensive, but in many 
 cases will be found the cheapest in the end. If boards are used, they 
 should be of hard wood, nailed to small sleepers bedded in concrete. 
 A brick pavement is dusty and easily disturbed.
 
 INDEX TO SUBJECTS. 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ALTERATIONS . 
 
 100, 107 
 
 HEATING. 
 
 . . 8 3 
 
 BRICKS 
 
 77 
 
 PORCHES 
 
 22-126 
 
 BLACKBOARD . 
 
 126 
 
 PRIVIES . 
 
 2 9 
 
 CEILINGS 
 
 38, 61 
 
 
 
 
 
 SITES, PREPARATION- 
 
 OF .1 
 
 CLEANLINESS . 
 
 90 
 
 
 
 
 *s 
 
 STOVES . 
 
 13, 19, 24, 99 
 
 COLOR . 
 
 . 126 
 
 
 
 
 
 SHINGLES . 
 
 '5. 57 
 
 CLOAK-ROOMS . 
 
 127 
 
 STONE WALLS . 
 
 70 
 
 DAMPNESS, SOURCES OF 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 DOORS . 
 
 93, 127 
 
 TRANSOMS . 
 
 . 1 8 
 
 DRAINAGE . 
 
 . 4, 126 
 
 TREES . 
 
 121, 126 
 
 
 
 VENTILATION 15, 46 
 
 , 83, 89. 109, 
 
 FIREPLACES . 
 
 9 
 
 
 126, 127 
 
 FURNACES . 
 
 33 
 
 
 
 T^OTIXn ATTOVs 
 
 6/L 
 
 W-VTER CLOSETS 
 
 . 83 
 
 A \-f \J JL*t LJ \ 1 JA_7.s . i . 
 
 ^H- 
 
 
 
 FIRE-PROOF BUILDING 
 
 59- 1 2 7 
 
 \YARDROHES . 
 
 101 
 
 FENCES . 
 
 I 22 
 
 WINDOWS .. 
 
 6, 24. 95, 99, 103 
 
 FLOORS 
 
 . 127 
 
 WELLS . 
 
 127
 
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