The New York Apartment Houses




Bricks and Brownstone


Modern Dwellings, Part I, continued


Design No. 1. -- Small Cottage, or Lodge

Design No. 1. — Small Cottage, or Lodge.


should be the advantage of fine scenery. Our country abounds in beautiful ocean, river, and mountain scenery, equal to, if not surpassing, that of Europe. Yet how seldom is this considered in locating our homes! It is too often the case that an unattractive, barren spot is selected -- inland, apart from views, devoid of trees or other natural beauties. If a pretty pond or brook should enliven the scene, the former is likely to be filled up, or, at least, stoned around like a dock, and the brook as likely as not to be turned into a sewer. Of course there are reasons why these beautiful sites can not always be chosen. One is, that they are apt to be lonely. Society is a consideration, and society, strange to say, will not bear you out in the love for the picturesque; so that your family must either possess superior resources within themselves, or have the means of entertaining largely, in order to find contentment in "the Happy Valley."

There is a method adopted in England, however, by which fine scenery and agreeable company may not be incompatible. It is by a number of families clubbing together and procuring an attractive spot, filled with shady nooks or pleasant streams, which can, by mutual agreements, and with some slight restrictions, be laid out in a picturesque manner for building.

This park system has been attempted in this country, but hitherto has in most cases signally failed, for the reason that it has been started by men without the knowledge necessary to select the locations, to say nothing of laying them out, or conducting the parks when complete. Instead of employing an educated landscape gardener, who would take advantage of its topography, and with care and judgment would accommodate its roads to the natural curves and best positions for building, they are satisfied if only an outline survey be made, the roads laid out on the checker-board pattern, and the lots numbered in the auctioneer's office. The proprietors then cause the place to be extensively advertised, and the lots sold to the highest bidder. The result is that the ground is seldom improved, because one does not know who his next door neighbor may be or what he may do; or, if one has the temerity to build and settle, he finds the roads are left to grow up with weeds, and there are no funds to keep them in order; moreover, he discovers that none of the owners intend building, as each has bought only on speculation, and will not sell unless for extravagant prices, and, like the dog in the manger, these speculative owners neither improve nor allow any one else to do so.

Now as these parks on the speculative system have proved a failure, could not the community plan be adopted, combining real business and real taste, making judicious laws and restrictions simply with the view of facilitating improvements and keeping up the enterprise? Of course the value of this would not be solely of a social character;




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